Montreal Salon Son et Image

[wawaron]

Hi Suave and all. Suave did you attend the 25th Salon Son et Image in Montreal?

I attended Friday and was to put it mildly disappointed. It was after all the 25th anniversary of the Salon. I've attended about 15 out of the 25 years.

Serious questions have to be asked about this Montreal Salon. It isn't growing, its floundering to find an identity. There was no excitment at all about this show. I expected something special for a 25th year of existence but no such luck. It was a dud.

No effort seems to be made to get a younger deomgraphic involved. Too many old guard, nothing new, turntables and tubes everywhere New technology was very hard to find.

The Image part of the Salon was close to invisilble, no OLED, no Home Theater except a room with Klipsch and Epson, no tablets.

One good thing I finally got to listen to Atlantic Technologies H Pass speakers and they sounding awesome, low bass with small 5 1/2" drivers, flat down to 29 HZ. Very relaxing natural non aggressive sound all this for 3000$ Cdn.

The show has to change or face disappearing.

I will be making an effort to attend the TAVES show in TO this year and maybe this will renew my faith in the Salon Son et Image.

[shel243]

Hi wawaron and all.

I was at the show on Saturday and since it's actually the first show I've ever attended, I don't have a reference on how SSI compares to previous years, or other shows.

We got there just after 10am and it was quite crowded going through the rooms and we had to skip some altogether - i imagine to some degree, there's always going to be a clump of people as the doors open, and no doubt it's worse on Saturday - maybe we should have turned left instead. When I go to TAVES, I think I'll plan it for the Friday.

At any rate, I had a great time seeing gear that I have only read about before, but the hotel room environment probably isn't ideal if one should hope to be evaluating performance...

I really liked the KEF Blades, the Wilson Sofias and the big Quads that were set up in the salon with gadgets and records for sale - the Waterfall speakers also sounded excellent and looked incredible with the glass.

I wanted to like the Rehthm set-up, the Maagra speakers driven by the amp/pre-amp combo with the equally oddly name, but the effect of getting up from a chair and feeling like I was suddenly looking down on the soundstage was weird - either the room was totally wrong or there's a pretty small listening sweet spot.

I was also disappointed in the sound from the mbl set-up, given that it was probably worth more than my house - the room was quite crowded but what I heard wasn't very good; fairly large room (not one of the hotel rooms) but I wouldn't have thought that alone would be the reason for a flat and boring presentation....almost like the speakers were out of phase?!

The other thing I found about virtually all the presentations is that it's hard not to focus on the sound/speakers and ignore the source equipment - I'm sure some gear was matched better for the environment than other stuff, and while it would be impossible to do anything to swap out equipment from one system to the other, it would be very cool to have a chance to listen to different combinations.

The surprise of the show for me - the sound of the ASW Cantius 404s! I can't remember what was being played (another bonus of the show, finding out what was playing and jotting a few names down for future reference....at least when I remembered to) but it was being played so well, really neutral and full with surprisingly good bass from a couple of 4" drivers, that I was really shocked that the price is apparently around $2,000/pair! Decent wife acceptance factor with a deep but narrow footprint and I think there's a choice of 6-8 different finishes.

I was somewhat surprised by the number of digital sources being used for demos - still lots of turntables, but lots of demos running from various MacBooks and controlled by lots of iPads...and ample evidence that lots of manufacturers ensuring they appeal to the more digitally inclined.

Again, as this was my first show, I'm not sure how it compares, but I to thought it was strange that there didn't seem to be much in the way of celebration given the anniversary...if you didn't have a program, you might not have known about it at all.

All said, I really enjoyed myself and would definitely go again, particularly if I can tweak my arrival time and/or my route to avoid the worst of the crowds.

Cheers, Sheldon

[Suave]

Hi guys,

It's great to hear your comments about the Montreal show as feedback like this can help us shape the future of the Toronto Audio Video Entertinment Show. I would really appreciate it if both of you provided us with some suggestions for the 2012 TAVES in this thread that I started recently: http://canadahifi.com/forum/showthre...=4953#post4953

I agree with many of the comments that you've made about SSI wawaron but I also understand why some of these things are happening. I've attended the Montreal show for the last 7 or 8 years in a row. The first couple of shows I went to were very impressive - at its height this show actually used to take place in two hotels (across the street from each other) - there were that many exhibitors. And there were thousands of visitors as well. However since, year by year both the number of exhibitors and attendees have declined. A part of this has to do with what's been happening in the audio - the introduction of big box stores and the disappearance of many independent retailers. Another part is the economy going down the drain. I've heard many people say in the last few years that the show has become somewhat stale, attracting the same worn-out audiophile audience every year - a group that already owns high-end audio gear and aren't even looking to buy anything new. This is an unfortunately reality for events that run for many years - hence organizers need to find new way to attract new visitors to the show.

It should be noted that the Montreal show has always been an audio show. The organizers have attempted to bring video elements to the show in the recent years but haven't really been successful with this. Ditto for drawing a younger audience. The credit should be given to the organizers for this and we should realize that we don't see video elements at shows like these because there is a huge divide between the audio and video sides of the industry. The video manufacturers/distributors really don't care to promote their products to consumers or demonstrate what makes them better from other products in the market on a personal level. I read a quote from someone in the industry recently that said something along the lines of - at some point in time we stopped selling TVs and began selling boxes. This statement is unfortunately very true. The TV business has become very cut-throat and one of the biggest battle grounds are perhaps big box store flyers - TV manufacturers pay millions of dollars a year to have their sale products featured in these flyers. None of these companies seem to care to educate consumers about their products anymore or show their latest technology. Why wasn't OLED tech shown at the Montreal show? I can't think of a better place to show off this kind of tech rather than an audio video show. Simon and I are doing everything we can in the attempt to make the video side of the industry recognize the many benefits that participating in a show like this can help generate new interest in video products. But at the end of the day, the video companies themselves need to decide whether they'd like to work with us to revitalize this industry.

That being said, the last couple of editions of SSI have began to draw some more visitors and new faces in my opinion (especially this year's edition). Why? My guess would be that this is thanks to the fact that the economy is sort of on the way to recovery and last year's TAVES helped to re-ignite some interest in this industry again. There were actually quiet a few new products that I found pretty interesting at the show.

Yesterday I posted my first part of the SSI coverage (more to come in the next several days):
http://canadahifi.com/index.php/salo...rt-1-unedited/

[Suave]

Hi Sheldon - thank you for joining our forum and sharing your comments about SSI!

Saturdays at shows like can be quite busy so if you'd like to have a little more breathing room, Friday might be the better day for you to attend TAVES - although I think a lot of people realized this last year at TAVES

At any rate, I had a great time seeing gear that I have only read about before, but the hotel room environment probably isn't ideal if one should hope to be evaluating performance...

You're perfectly right. Shows like this provide an opportunity for visitors to discover new brands, products and tech (hundreds, if not thousands of products all under one roof!) but because of the environment and noise level of the show itself are not the greatest place to properly audition audio products. The idea is that you come to the show to find something that interests you and then visit a local retailer where you can do an extended audition if you so desire.

Audio is a very personal preference - so I can understand that you enjoyed the sound in some rooms, while others didn't sound good to your ears. That's just how it works! It does sound like you found something you really liked - the ASW Cantius 404 speakers. I've listened to ASW speakers on a couple of occasions myself and agree that they offer very good performance and represent fantastic value.