Pacific Audio Fest 2023: Part III - Final show musings... On sponsorships, seminars, unique listening opportunities (DSD256 vinyl sounds great ;-), and suggestions.

Collected promo materials, PAF2023.

Having published on the products seen at PAF2023 in Parts I and II, I thought it would be interesting to take some time to chat about other experiences from this show and parting observations.

These observations might apply at other audiophile shows as well.

I. On show sponsorships

First, let's talk about sponsorships. It's really good to see companies like Qobuz and Acoustic Sciences Corporation be notable sponsors throughout the show.

The ASC TubeTraps for example were in many of the rooms and experienced audiophiles know that one of the most important "components" in our audio systems is the room itself. I would say that the speaker+room combination is the most important part of a sound system and the most difficult to get right.

While it's always exciting to check out the new hardware, we do need reminders that room treatments are not afterthoughts. Among the photos I've posted up, you'll see these tube traps used in many rooms and I think overall, this presence has improved the sound quality at PAF. Well done!

Qobuz likewise was in almost every digital streaming room. This makes it easy for attendees to request songs from a convenient library which I did a few times across the rooms. Furthermore, if you're streaming the same lossless track off Qobuz, you can compare the sound in different rooms using the exact same mastering; at least one variable can be controlled.

Qobuz did not partake in the silliness with MQA over the years and has stayed true to high-resolution FLAC. Good to see the recent news that TIDAL is transitioning back to FLAC. Finally, they've seen the light.

Notice in the picture above, PAF2024 has already been scheduled for September 6-8, 2024 for those interested in coming next year. This would be the weekend after Labor Day and a departure from the late-June/late-July of these first 2 years.

II. Audio Accessories

When walking through the rooms, as with other audio shows, you'll see signage of product types that I think "more objective" audiophiles would likely not find of huge benefit for sound quality. I'm talking of course about all the thousands and thousands of dollars "worth" of "high end" cabling, power products, and tweaks.

I don't think it's any secret that expensive audiophile cables can be manufactured with excellent profit margins. While in my show reports I don't talk about the cables much, they are mentioned during product demonstrations and displayed on room component listings.

For example, here's the Audio Note summary sheet:

For fun, notice I highlighted the cable products and made a quick conservative calculation of the price if we used 2m speaker wires, 2m mains cables (for turntable + DAC + CD transport + amp), and 1m interconnects (DAC to amp, TT to amp). Based on the price of those wires on the sheet, we'd be spending over $13k MSRP to wire with the fancy stuff and that's not including say a coaxial S/PDIF cable for transport-to-DAC (hope it's included for that $9k CDT Two/II drive). In the big picture, this might not be a huge amount compared to the cost of everything else. I've seen other rooms where the asking price for the cables would be much larger. However, I find it mind boggling that wires should ever cost more than the price of the pair of speakers in the system! (Discussion of my take on component price allocation here.)

In this example, AN makes their own cables but in most other high-end rooms, you'll find signage for the likes of Cardas, AudioQuest, WireWorld, Analysis Plus, AntiCables, MasterBuilt, etc. on display.

In a way, I am of two minds about these kinds of products at the shows. On the one hand, I honestly don't think we have a need for fancy cables other than as luxury window dressing for the system - in the past classified as Class C "audio jewelry" snake oil IMO. As discussed over the years, I have found no evidence that expensive brands "sound" different/better. But hey, if people are buying them, and the companies don't mind contributing back towards promoting audio shows for hobbyists, then that's at least better than nothing I suppose.

III. On Seminars

There were various talks this year including this panel discussing historical anecdotes as well as the future of audio shows:

David Solomon (far right, Qobuz) was moderating the panelists including from left to right David & Carol Clark (Positive Feedback & LA Audiophile Society), Marjorie Baumert (in red, RMAF until it ended after 2019, among others), Gary Gill (Capital Audiofest), Lou Hinkley (PAF, Daedalus Audio), and Mark Freed (AXPONA).

Some humorous stories were shared along with the trials and tribulations of putting shows together. I can certainly appreciate the amount of work needed to herd audiophiles and the audiophile companies together. By the way, there will be a new S.W. Audio Fest coming to Dallas, TX on March 15-17, 2024.

Not sure if I got a clear picture of what the future might hold especially with the costs of everything increasing these days including transportation. Also, it would be useful to get a sense of the size of audio shows these days and financial viability... I'm guessing that trends in attendance numbers and financial stats might not be stuff they want to discuss publicly.

There was an interesting talk by Arthur Noxon of ASC/TubeTraps about room acoustics. He delved into some good topical reviews and offered general ideas around speaker placements, use of bass traps in room corners, etc. I'm not sure about some of the lateral resonances perpendicular to the speaker axis he seemed to emphasize however. I have not noticed such issues.

These days, it would be really nice for a presentation like this to just prepare some slides with PowerPoint instead of drawing on the white board!

He handed out "MATT Test" (Musical Articulation Test Tones) CDs which you can access online here. He also had hardcopies of the AudioXPress article by Richard Honeycutt "Assessing Audio Quality Using the MATT Test" (2017), contents can be found here.

This was probably the most "objective" of seminars given and the information can be studied and used to evaluate one's own system back home.

Here's Kevin Hayes of VAC talking about "Tubes and Amplifier Design":

Hmmm, dunno man. I didn't stay through the whole session. Just found much of it to be handwaving small talk about vacuum tubes and various "amazing" properties they might or might not have. Not much actual facts presented or data about reproduction quality we should be impressed by. If anyone stayed to the end, I'd be curious if there were any important nuggets of information in the latter half of the talk.

On the whole, I've found seminars at audiophile shows a bit of a mixed bag. Because these are often company representatives giving the talks, there no doubt will be biases. I've been at a few where factual errors were presented, and others would repeat what I consider as merely "culturally acceptable" statements made by audiophiles like the importance of using expensive cables, the common mantra that very significant and audible differences are unmeasurable, etc. which are myths that do not reflect reality.

In other words, be careful not to take the contents in many of these audiophile seminars too seriously! ;-)

IV. On Entertainment

Indeed, what is an audio show without some live music? I missed the big band concert on Friday night but managed to catch the first few songs from the R&B / pop / funk performance from Baby Cakes pictured above. Nothing like some live music to remind us of what "real" voices, instruments, and dynamic range sounds like even though the gig is amplified. Initially, I was sitting up at the front 3rd row and that trumpet was loud and harsh. Real instruments can sound harsh folks! For an audiophile to say that a system is always "smooth", or "never fatiguing" is simply not reasonable nor realistic. If a system actually never sounded harsh with good source components and natural-sounding content, it likely means the system is deeply colored, overly mellow, and likely not "high-fidelity"! ("Euphonophilia" is a fine pursuit so long as we're insightful about it.)

Thanks to the Snake River Audio cable company from Idaho for the party! As I noted above, even if I don't believe in fancy cables, I appreciate that they showed audiophiles a good time. ;-)

Oh yeah, there was also some alcohol tasting on Saturday night. The Sagamore Spirit whiskey and their canned cocktails were quite tasty after a day of arduous hi-fi listening.

V. On unique listening opportunities

Here's a listening tip when you visit an audio show:

"X" marks the sweetspot!

The "sweetspot" for listening in small hotel room set-ups is often not "front and center" of the system. Companies try to optimize the number of people they can fit in the listening room so the front seats tend to be a bit too close to the sound system. In fact, it's often optimal sitting in the mid 2nd or 3rd rows as in this example where the room host (Elite AV) conveniently, and not particularly subtly, marked the seat. Realize of course if there are bodies in front of you blocking the sound, that would not be good. But if it's a quiet time of the day without too many people sitting in front, then by all means try out those seats in the 2nd and 3rd rows.

Another tip is that Saturdays tend to be the busiest days so don't expect quiet listening sessions without people chatting or going in and out. Things will settle down by Sunday, especially early afternoons before staff contemplate taking down the gear. Sunday afternoons are when you can walk into a room and request music that might be a bit atypical, shall we say. It was a Sunday afternoon at RMAF2019 that I got to listen to some Metallica on the Göbel speakers for example.

This year, Sunday afternoon provided a nice opportunity to hang out at the Genesis room and listen to some interesting records Gary Koh brought along...

Gary Koh demo'ing some vinyl in front of the Genesis Prime. Right: Holding lacquer - DSD256 intermediate vs. all-analogue comparison.

First, he gave the attendees a quick A/B "blind test" using LP lacquers of two songs he received from Bernie Grundman: "Stormy Monday" by Roy Gaines, and "Light My Fire" by Jacintha.

On each disc, there was a "Track A" and "Track B" randomly assigned as coming from either an all-analogue mastering chain or one with a DSD256 intermediate stage. As you may recall, we discussed last year the "MoFi-Gate" issue which is reflected in this difference; the controversy being that MoFi did not disclose the DSD step used and gave consumers the impression that their product was directly analogue.

So, among the 10-15 attendees that afternoon listening, was there a preference to all-analogue vs. using DSD256 in the vinyl production process?

For Song 1: "Stormy Monday", the number of votes were about a 50:50 split of those who liked the analogue compared to DSD256.

For Song 2: "Light My Fire", I saw a predominance of maybe 2:1 raising their hands with preference for the DSD256 version sounding "better". (Side note, I heard quite a bit of boominess with the playback in this room on that track - could have used more room treatments.)

For both tracks, I voted for what seemed like the cleaner sound of the DSD256 version. The gestalt seemed to be better noise level, more contrast in the sonic signal, and to me, just more "real" than the all-analogue chain. Maybe the die-hard "must be all-analog" LP lovers should give a test like this a try! Again, this demo I attended was played off rare lacquers which would be of higher resolution than pressed LPs we buy. After all the LP production steps including making the electroplated "father" (from lacquer), the "mother" stampers, then actual vinyl discs for consumer playback, imagine the qualitative losses and how even less likely one would hear a difference between an all-analogue vs. DSD256 process!

The "MoFi-Gate", "One Step" issue has always been a silly reflection of the neuroticism of audiophiles if they believe the DSD256 step somehow degraded sound quality. As I've said before, I think the DSD256 step produced a better sounding product. Apparently there's a $25M settlement; here's the last I've heard of this.

I think that's the VPI Avenger turntable (~$12.5k), cartridge is the Hyper Sonic X4 ($18k!?). Dollars per gram, I think high-priced phono cartridges must be some of the most "precious" substances on Earth!

Notice that transparent LP on the turntable above? That's what "pure vinyl" looks like before additives like plasticizers (reduce brittleness), colorants, fillers, lubricants, heat stabilizers, etc. are added to the material.

The other A/B listening test Gary Koh ran was to various vinyl formulations starting with that clear 100% vinyl, then 2 different versions (they look like the usual black discs) with similar characteristics like thickness, same pressing equipment, etc. The same song was played - Anne Bisson's "Midnight Sun (Live)". Indeed there were audible differences.

The 3rd formulation (which I believe is the one he uses if he were to press LPs) sounded the best with a quieter noise floor, appearing to be more "full" and dynamic compared to the relatively "thin" and "brittle" sounding original 100% clear vinyl. I guess vinyl formulation is just another one of those things vinylphiles have to keep in mind when collecting those "previous" discs.

These were cool demos and rare A/B listening opportunities. Big thanks to Gary Koh for putting it together for visitors to the room that afternoon!

VI. Final thoughts & Suggestions...

As we end off, I must say that I had fun at the show this year. I got to see and hear an interesting variety of products. Everything from expensive but more "vintage" systems like Audio Note to modern "state of the art" solid state, digital "high fidelity" playback of the Børresen/Aavik system.

For those who have not heard "price no object" turntables or reel-to-reel tape players, well, here you go. Depending on your ears and interests, you might find analogue playback such as these an elating experience, or reminder of the sonic limitations of anachronistic formats in the 21st Century (this latter description has been my experience).

Along the way you'll meet interesting audiophiles with varieties of ideas and tastes. You'll hear seminars from folks in the industry. Unfortunately, Andrew Jones was not able to attend so I think some were disappointed as they wanted to meet/listen to his presentation on loudspeaker design.

While I believe sound system fidelity has reached a "more than good enough" plateau for human enjoyment, much of which capped by the inherent limitations of human auditory ability, we can see examples of where the future is going - small systems like the Cabasse and Dutch & Dutch I think are good examples providing compact, high quality solutions.

Something to keep in mind while visiting a show is to look out for good bargains. On a Sunday afternoon, as you can see in the image above, the halls can be quiet and as the show comes to a close, the guys running the demo rooms are also looking to clear out demo gear. "Crazy Lenny" is ready to give you at least 30% off the demo gear in his rooms as per the note to the right. ;-)

Brush up your bargaining skills with these nice guys and score some "barely used"/broken in MoFi SourcePoint 10 speakers, Mission 770's, maybe an Audiolab amp, Yamaha receiver or their nice-looking HiFi Rose streamers (shown last time). I suspect they would be happy to make a reasonable deal so they don't have to drag the gear back to the store.

Pretty cool packs of cards to show off the Campfire Audio line of IEMs for visitors.

I don't recall being asked to provide anonymous information on demographics or feedback/suggestions. If I were doing a show like this, I would certainly be curious when selling tickets what the demographics are for those attending. Age? Gender? Whether there is a preference for speakers or headphones? What source formats are the attendees most interested in (eg. digital, LPs, etc.)? It would be interesting plotting out the trends over the years.

A few suggestions from my perspective:

1. I know it's difficult and expensive, but how about even just one or two multichannel demo rooms so attendees can compare the difference in the sound presentation? Atmos height channels might not be practical at all so that's a bonus if they can do it. A "bed" 5.1 or 7.1 system would be interesting I think for those who have not heard such playback with good speakers. Even 4.0 with full-range speakers will provide a nice contrast from 2.0.

With all the multichannel/Atmos content available these days streaming (eg. Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon), a room, instead of something like the "Flashback Lounge", would have been an interesting space for a small multichannel system for example.

Over time, hobbies must progress. Music must evolve also as an expression of creative exploration. Multichannel is the natural direction forward whether some like it or not.

2. Do something about those seminars! A screen, more professional looking PowerPoint, some facts and figures would be nice. This would have added much more to the room acoustics presentation. The VAC tube presentation could have shown a few of the concepts discussed with research. The audio show panel could have displayed a timeline from the decline of "high end" audio at CES a decade or two ago to the various shows these days...

Heck, maybe have the balls to invite an objective-leaning presenter to talk on measurements and hardware comparisons. I bet that would have drawn more attendees than any of these I saw this year! Dare I say that the "objective-leaning" contingent in audiophilia is growing. Nothing wrong with some controversy so long as folks remain mature and civility is maintained.

3. As discussed previously, unless they're only selling turntables, reel-to-reel players, or phono/R2R preamps, make sure every room has a digital playback option to truly demonstrate the hi-fi quality of the amplification and speakers.

4. While most rooms had it, make sure there is posted prominently somewhere or handed out the "one sheet" description of each item in the system and price. This makes it much easier for attendees to read and remember the name of so many products they're exposed to.

5. Continue to expand the music genres in the demos. Don't be afraid of playing pop, or country, or rock, or electronica. Heck, the occasional hard rock or non-offensive metal would be good. While the Boomer generation still has a fair representation at the show, and I did hear a couple of grumbles when the music wasn't acoustic jazz, or blues, or classical, these old guys are not the people that need to be catered to because they are unlikely the ones who will be carrying the Industry forward.

The vast majority of music lovers (and audiophiles I believe) do not solely listen to classical, or jazz. Demos using really old-skool music like Enoch Light (yuck!) or boring jazz pieces did not keep attendees seated. You want to grow the younger consumer base from Gen-X down. Make sure to keep going with the portable electronics and headphone segment.

With that, audiophiles, I hope you enjoyed the show coverage trilogy here on the blog.

As mentioned above, next year Pacific Audio Fest is scheduled for September 6-8, 2024; should be a good time weather-wise to visit the Pacific Northwest before the rains come. Have a nice summer for those in the northern hemisphere... :-)

Sunday afternoon... Packing up...