People complain, hell I’ve complained, about show tunes—the music exhibitors play at shows.
Maybe I’m mellowing (not likely) but I think it’s fair to point out that choosing music to play at hifi shows is difficult because of Us—you and me and everyone who complains about show music. We are, in fact, as much a part of the problem as poor Stevie Ray Vaughan (let that rust sleep), Chris Jones (give it a respite already), Nils Lofgren (let Keith go), or female vocals, jazz, and large-scale classical.
We all want to hear systems at their best and if an exhibitor decides to play some obscure, way cool, shit-sounding music, odds are we will blame the shit sound on the gear. What’s more, and I’ve seen it happen innumerable times, if we’re ‘shopping’ for speakers, we’ll blame the speakers and if we’re shopping for a DAC, we’ll blame the DAC. And the same holds in reverse—”Great sounding phonostage!”
Being greeted with great sounding music that we love in a great sounding room featuring gear we find interesting that’s priced just right is the ideal but let’s get real–this year’s Axpona is expecting 9000+ attendees and if you think that all 9000 or even a large percentage of ‘em will agree on a) what is great music, b) what is a great sounding room, c) what is interesting gear, and d) what is the right price, you are delusional beyond hope. And being greeted with great sounding music that we love in a great sounding room featuring gear we find interesting that’s priced just right is, ideally, a place called home.
The real beauty of a hifi show is…difference.
Which gets me back to show tunes. Playing “Tin Pan Alley”, “No Sanctuary Here”, or “Keith Don’t Go” are lazy choices and they can drive some people from a room faster than poor personal hygiene. I can think of at least 9000 great sounding tracks off the top of my exaggeration that are not offensive and fit easily into comfy, cosy genres. There are most certainly thousands too many to name from the hundreds of millions of tracks available in lossless quality from streaming services.
“But some people want to hear these familiar tracks from room to room so they can compare systems.” Sure, but the fact of the matter is these kind of people are most likely lousy customers and my best guess is they don’t attend a hifi show looking for things to audition, they’re there to pass judgement so they can leave feeling safe and secure in the belief that their stuff is better. Why do I say this? Because I’ve heard these kinds of comments at shows more than any other—”My interconnects are better and cost less.”
But I’m more than likely delusional too because I have this belief, more like hope, that anyone working in hifi does so because they love music. I know I feel supremely fortunate, supremely fortunate, that my work largely involves listening to music because I have a voracious appetite for all kinds—old, new, borrowed, and blue—and there’s nothing in this wonderful hifi hobby that brings me more joy than discovering and sharing music. All kinds.
Here I sit waiting to try and catch a glimpse of the solar eclipse, wearing protective eye wear, with show butterflies beginning to flutter with excitement over the new things I’ll hear and the old and new friends I’ll get to see. And my plan is to smile and enjoy even if poor Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chris Jones, or Nils Lofgren are marched out yet again to pretend that music is just a tool for judging hifi.
