The Hi-Fi Journal

View from the sofa

This section is dedicated to hifi or music related articles and features that are not specifically related to individual products.
Some will be in depth technical features, others will offer a light hearted approach to a topic (after all we are all into music and hi-fi for enjoyment), all we hope you will find a good read.

The Heathrow High Fidelity Show

2011-06-28 07:56

“Ah, the good old days... I remember when... it’s not what it used to be...” I have heard such comments so many times on my travels around shows over the last few years that I have lost count of the number of complaints, moans, and criticisms I have heard. But what are we doing about the malaise that brings about such negative remarks?

Time has been hard on the hi-fi show. Not too long ago audiophiles were fortunate enough to have a whole raft of good shows from which to choose, but one by one they have been sidelined and the last examples of the breed are hanging on by their fingernails. Are there no longer audiophiles in the UK? Have manufacturers shut up shop and deserted us? Or is it just that the current show format is tired and well past its sell-by date?

I spent last weekend trawling round the Heathrow hi-fi show. It was billed as the London high fidelity show and so Britain’s answer to the Munich show (May6 –9, 2010). Hmmm... Looking at the Chester group web site it at least seemed promising with a few high profile names in attendance but the reality was less so: one corridor in a hotel does not make a show. (Paul, we appear to differ about high profile names. To me these are the multi-national likes of B&W, Sony and Pioneer; established ‘historical’ outfits like Quad and Wharfedale; or Arcam, Linn, Meridian and Naim if we include UK specialist concerns. I did not see one of those manufacturers at the show among the one-man-band valve amplifier brands and horn loudspeaker builders... Ed.)( I though the full absolute sounds US stable was going to be there in force and at the previous show Macintosh had also put on an impressive display with a full system at a stratospheric price level. The organizers site is also misleading as the main tab for brands is not who are at the show but who has been in the past!) Not so long ago the whole floor would have been full of enthusiastic manufacturers keen to show you their wares and the throng of the excited audiophiles moving from room to room extolling the virtues of the systems they had just seen meant there was a real buzz at the event. This was something that was definitely missing from this show, the small number of brands that were exhibiting had some really interesting products and still showed their passion and love for what they are doing but where were all the British brands?? Not one so called major brand was in attendance. (You cannot count a dealer punting their wares as true representation for the manufacturers.) Should we not be trying to promote our products and be proud to show them to the world? It seems that the UK is fast becoming the forgotten country and for most UK manufacturers it seems that a trip to Munich, Frankfurt or Las Vegas, is infinitely more appealing than a wet weekend in London, and this general malaise is reflected in the lack of public attendance.

Put on a good show and they will come. It seems that the consensus was that this was not going to be so they didn’t. Speaking to the small number that did attend the feedback was that it was still an enjoyable show with some interesting products but there was not enough to see. With the largest show in the UK, Bristol, now swamped with AV, the Chester group shows seem to be the last bastions of Audiophilia left. If this show is anything by which to judge, then I feel the death knell is drawing ever closer at an alarming rate. So, come on England. Show us what you are made of! What has happened to the British spirit? As an industry we should be supporting the shows in this country and not neglecting the loyal customers we have here. If the feeling is that this format of show has had its day then fine, let’s put it out to pasture, but then let’s do something about it and put on a new type of show to inform people about what we can do and impress the heck out of them. If we do not I feel many manufacturers may well go the way of the shows and slowly slip into oblivion.

Let’s look at events like the Munich show and get Britain back on the map because if we don’t, nostalgia will be all we have left. he British hi-fi show? If Germany can do shows in such spectacular fashion – the International FunkAustellung in Berlin, and the High End in Munich –, why can’t we?