The New York Show 2016: The Wrap

Shopping. Shopping for luxury goods is aspirational and one aspect of that aspiration is better. When shopping in the Park Lane Hotel neighborhood on Central Park South, OK window shopping in my case, you peer into luxurious rooms filled with equally luxurious stuff. Lighting, decor, temperature, smell, and more are all carefully considered and well polished as are the polite but not friendly sales staff. Think experience.

When people walk into a hi-fi show on Central Park South, I wonder if they know that this shopping experience will, for the most part, be devoid of nearly all of those considerations. I say mostly because there are some people in the hi-fi business who notice things like a smelly room and deal with it, who also know that overloading an already overcrowded small room with more gear than you'll ever use just makes things look...desperate? and hot, and that hi-fi is a part of people's lives, "part of" being the operative words.

I consider the NY Audio Show 2016 a success when gauged within the realm of the hi-fi show; small yes, but a decent amount of rooms, a decent amount of gear in all price ranges, and a very good crowd all things considered. But...if we place the Show within the larger context of life, I'd say we have once again managed to make shopping for a hi-fi feel like a trip to a world devoid of everything else, everything else people enjoy every day.