Heathrow show this coming weekend - who's going?

Snoopdog said:
After visiting the Park Inn show last Saturday I am appalled with what the industry considers that it can pass off to the public in the UK these days.

I remember years ago going to the annual Heathrow penta shows and running out of time to fight my way through the crowded corridors to see every exhibitors rooms spread over three floors!
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Hi,

I too remember the old days of the Penta show. Bigger crowds, fighting your way through them to get round. Loads of companies, big and small, new and old on display.


Snoopdog said:
The foyer and ground floor was always packed with accessories stalls from Hi-Fi News, Audiophile Candy, Ringmat and the like, flogging all manner of goodies. The real treat was sifting through the shelves of CD's and LP's for those audiophile recordings to spend on.
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This is something that has reduced alot over recent years. This is a shame.


Snoopdog said:
The atmosphere would be upbeat with lovely scantily-clad ladies accosting you at intervals and thrusting a promotional catalogue and carrier bag into your hand.
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There has been a big lack of this in recent times. One of the best ones I remember were the ladies in rubber/pvc advertising Avid turntables.

Snoopdog said:
Today, we pay £12 (plus £6 parking) to see a handful of rooms and virtually non existant display of accessories and recordings.
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Too much money for not enough event.


Snoopdog said:
I don't think I will bother going to another show in the UK. Next years visit to the USA will be timed to include a visit to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver for me and my mate, while our ladies shop themselves silly back in Boston!
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There will be many other following your lead if things don't change. The shows overseas seem to do it better.

SCIDB
 
So we should do our own shows.

Seriously, what's stopping us finding a nice country pub or small hotel with say 8-20 rooms and putting on smaller local events?

I'm sure if all exhibitors chipped in it would work out a lot cheaper than the official shows. Less to look at but far more time to listen, chat, network and of course ... drink ;)

Could even do it under the forum banner - ZeroGain Show, PFM Show etc.
 
It sounds like a good idea, but do you think it would attract enough visitors if it was a small event? It seems most people want a much bigger event than even the last Heathrow.

A PFM and ZG 'trade show' would be quite interesting though.
 
The thing to do is to make it "music" and "hifi" as it nice to be able to browse and buy recordings on CD ( or vinyll or memory stick or whatever) esp if you are happy with your hifi and just want to hang out, listen to music, checkout the latest gear etc
 
Tenson said:
It sounds like a good idea, but do you think it would attract enough visitors if it was a small event? It seems most people want a much bigger event than even the last Heathrow.

A PFM and ZG 'trade show' would be quite interesting though.
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kmac said:
The thing to do is to make it "music" and "hifi" as it nice to be able to browse and buy recordings on CD ( or vinyll or memory stick or whatever) esp if you are happy with your hifi and just want to hang out, listen to music, checkout the latest gear etc
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I guess this means a big bake off rather than a HiFi show.
 
Tenson said:
It sounds like a good idea, but do you think it would attract enough visitors if it was a small event? It seems most people want a much bigger event than even the last Heathrow.

A PFM and ZG 'trade show' would be quite interesting though.
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The World Designs folk used to arrange such an event but it was themed to tube/vintage/diy kit. They seemed to get plenty attending though we are back to attracting audiophiles again.

I think say 10 small manufacturers getting together to fund such an event could prove very useful. Probably talking a couple of hundred quid max as opposed to the £2k+ for the big shows.

Do it as a joint forum effort, perhaps ZG, PFM and WW and the combined publicity should ensure a decent turnout.

The alternative would be for the specialist audio manufacturers to attack the larger gadget & AV events but those tend to be held in vast open arena type venues making demos difficult.
 
Well if it seems to have a good turn out I would be up for it. You live in London Rob, do you know of a suitable venue? Thats where the South east DIYAudio.com event stalled - but they didn't have any funds really.

If it was a pretty large combined forum event then I suspect a few magazines would give it a mention in the news sections. It would be good to get more than just forum people along.

Great if Tony bought some music to sell ;)
 
Hi guys

To put these shows in perspective to other countries, here are pictures from the High-end Audio show held beginning of September in South Africa. One or two of the larger players were not present, but what was stunning, was the quality of the south African companies...

http://www.svexpo.co.za/showreport.htm
 
Cheers :)

You have some brilliant kit displayed (some of which we can only drool over here in SA) and discussions running on this forum.
 
Tenson said:
Well if it seems to have a good turn out I would be up for it. You live in London Rob, do you know of a suitable venue? Thats where the South east DIYAudio.com event stalled - but they didn't have any funds really.
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I guess that if you want to have individual rooms for equipment demos a hotel would be cheaper than a specialist conference venue (e.g. Wembley Conference Centre) where you would also have to hire/build indiviudal "booths"?

There are loads of venues in London for this sort of thing but this could be narrowed down by defining the requirements a bit more....I know this is jumping the gun a bit but it would be useful to know what your requirements would be for the ideal venue e.g

1) Cheap/free parking for circa x cars
2) proximityt o motorway or mainline station
3) How many indiviudal rroms and what size open area for "music sales"
etc...
 
In Spain we don't have no hi-fi shows, just things orgainised by dealers in very nice Restaurants, entrance is free, but you can put your name down for a meal. At 2 o'clock everything stops and those who have paid for a meal all eat together where a prize raffle takes place, then at 5o'clock it all starts again.

I would think if hiring rooms was reasonable, and entrance is free you'd get a lot of smaller manufactures interested in attending, but for 2K and that type of turnout it is a waste of effort.
 
adam said:
In Spain we don't have no hi-fi shows, just things orgainised by dealers in very nice Restaurants, entrance is free, but you can put your name down for a meal. At 2 o'clock everything stops and those who have paid for a meal all eat together where a prize raffle takes place, then at 5o'clock it all starts again.
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Now that's very civilised!! You need three hours for a proper lunch. This is why I make sure I go to Spain every year - good food, good wine, generally good weather, the list goes on...
 
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I took a few shots at heathrow - limited by the 50mm lens on the camera.
Long hard road for the hifi show goer


Karan Amp

Zanden CDP

Zanden Amp

Emille Amp

Chord rack

Ear Yoshino

Mcintosh, Klipsch and Tannoy

Shun Mook

Gamut S5

Focal Utopia

Dartzeel

Some amp...

Martin Logan

Sonus Faber


more sonus faber

MBL

MBL

MBL

Amp from ABC Audio
 
Wow, those are some beautiful shots - a bit off the topic, but what specs are the camera. What setup did you use?

Does anyone know perhaps what stand the Dartzeel equipment was on?

Thanks...
 

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