Now that I think of it, here a lot of Hi-Fi stuff (Focal floorstanders, for example) is sold through general multimedia and household appliance stores, as opposed to Hi-Fi only stores. Is it not the same in the US?
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RMAF 2021 - No JBL or Focal? Smaller this Year?
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In the US you have maybe a couple of computer speakers at Walmart, another store called BestBuy with low end Klipsch towers, and some Best Buys have Magnolia sections with KEF, B&W, and some electrostats (Martin Logan I think.)
Other than that, it's rare to find speakers at stores that sell furniture and appliances, not to mention finding good ones.
There is also that Florida Audio show, but AFAIK it's not a very big show either.
mhardy6647
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No, not really (at least in terms of the folks and things that I am interested in).
I don't know if it's "on"for this fall or not, though.
Things are weird out there.
They're not very prominent outside of large US cities. I have to drive 2 hours to get to a store that sells hi-fi gear (Mcintosh, B&W, Wilson, etc). That's just one store. To find a second store, I have to drive 3 hours in the opposite direction from me. Everything else is low-end electronics sold at general retailers.
mhardy6647
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Not sure I saw the 'official' announcement for RMAF's demise in this thread, so I thought I'd share it FWIW.
This is a 'reprint', I think, of the email sent to registrants for this year's (cancelled) event:
https://www.audioshark.org/rmaf-136/rmaf-cancelled-forever-so-sad-20229.html
This is a 'reprint', I think, of the email sent to registrants for this year's (cancelled) event:
https://www.audioshark.org/rmaf-136/rmaf-cancelled-forever-so-sad-20229.html
Erin, I sent you an unrelated message several days ago. Have you seen it?
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It's grown to be a fairly large affair. Questionable standards though. I hear Philharmonic Audio is going to be there.
Sugarbubble
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I went to 2019 show. About 40 listening rooms were active. Don’t know about the 2021 show. I really enjoyed the 2019 event.
What do you consider very small? I attended a year before Covid, and there were a lot of rooms and many manufacturers present. Von Schweikert had a huge room, MBL had a big room. There was a large area for headphones, streamers, used equipment and recorded media. And a few dozen hotel rooms and conference rooms with many manufacturers represented. Granted we are not talking about a Las Vegas convention center-sized show, but there is more than enough to try and cover in one day.
This should give you an idea of the show size: https://www.capitalaudiofest.com/venue-info. Covid is a wild card, but at least at this point it looks like everything is a go.
If people are going to trek here for the show maybe we can organize a meet up at the hotel bar or a nearby restaurant on one of the days.
When it has more dealers showing stuff than manufacturers. It takes me about 20 hours to listen in every room at AXPONA and RMAF. Nearly 3 days if nonstop listening. Have a few companies show up with a bunch local dealers is just not it. It certainly doesn't pay to fly there to see it.
There are only a handful of local dealers in the DC region, so in my experience it was more manufacturers than dealers. Although some manufacturers use dealers from other part of the country to run their rooms. It's probably 1-1/2 days of listening if you hit every room.
Let's all be honest and admit that it is no great loss.
Some years back I was on the dreaded New York-to-Berlin direct flight operated by United. (Dreaded because it's United and because they used a 757 for a nine-hour flight. On the Berlin-New York leg, the 757 almost always has to make an unscheduled fuel stop in Gander.) The man across the aisle from me was representative of an audio company on his way back to Germany from RMAF. My brief conversation with him was a potent reminder of why I assiduously avoid audio shows.
Depends on what you consider big. I went to the 2019 Florida Audio Expo as an exhibitor. I would say it was decent. I seem to recall 6-7 floors of audio, so probably around 50-60 rooms, including ballrooms with large multi-buck setups.
I'm signed up for 2022 as well. Hopefully there'll still be some Floridians left by then.
I'd say that shows present a good opportunity for networking and getting my name out there. But I don't expect to sell anything at shows. It's also handy for the potential customers to be able to test drive the gear and meet the man behind the name.
Tom
Losing RMAF is a serious bummer, though. It was probably the last affordable show. Also, I can drive to Denver. Driving to Tampa is not a serious option.
I was hoping to go to RMAF this year and visit a friend in Denver. Sadly, the US government decided to keep the border closed, so that killed that idea. Then RMAF died.
Tom
I was hoping to go to RMAF this year and visit a friend in Denver. Sadly, the US government decided to keep the border closed, so that killed that idea. Then RMAF died.
Tom
There's also the Pacific Audio Fest. It was cancelled this year, but is supposed to launch next year. It's in "Seattle" (actually in Seatac about 20-25 minutes south of town).
https://www.pacificaudiofest.com
Tom
https://www.pacificaudiofest.com
Tom
My son got married at Rocky Mountain National Park September 2019 so we went early and hit the show Friday.
We did some sightseeing and hit the Red Rocks Amphitheater with Mark Knopfler concert later in the next week.
It was a fun trip. Was looking forward to doing it again as my birthday was the weekend of the delayed “2021” RMAF
Guess I’ll have to find another one to get to.
Chris
We did some sightseeing and hit the Red Rocks Amphitheater with Mark Knopfler concert later in the next week.
It was a fun trip. Was looking forward to doing it again as my birthday was the weekend of the delayed “2021” RMAF
Guess I’ll have to find another one to get to.
Chris
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