I consider myself fairly young, under 40, for the hi-fi group. One thing as a younger person that I've noticed is that a lot of the music played, at least at LSAF, is either some sort of classical, jazz, or "world" music. I own a lot of this myself, but I can tell you that I am in the minority for my age when listening to it. Granted it makes the system show it's stuff, but most of the younger crowd isn't going to be listening to it. Whenever I've brought in Texas blues or some sort of rock, I always feel like the system owners are "put out" by having to put this "junk" on their system. Maybe because the recording isn't up to snuff. Well folks, if the music I bring can't sound at least decent on your system, why would I buy any of it. And I'm not going to limit my buying selections to just perfectly recorded music either. Maybe there's lots more rooms that play this kind of music at RMAF, I don't know as I've never been there.

And of course there are the other issues such as the astronomical prices of some of the equipment. Not so much at LSAF, but even there much of it is out of my expense acct.'s range. But I understand why some of the equipment costs what it does there, and most of it is not out of line for the product you would get. But I don't know many people, not any of my friends or family, that could afford to go drop $4-5K or more on a system. That's a pretty good chunk of money to drop, or even save for myself. I mean if I had the money a pair of Duke's Dreammakers would be sitting in my living room right now

I'm sure there are other things I can't think of right now, but thanks for letting me ramble.

and ramble well you did.

My thoughts of possibly why many systems that use less than demanding music as you would like to listen to at audio shows do.

One reason may be due to a usual display room at such audio shows being a hotel room with physical defficiencies for music reproduction.
I know in the case at RMAF, the walls are typical sheet rock where low frequencies easily pass through to other rooms interfering with their demonstration.

Also, audio shows are not always the best place to hear the ability of a system to play as intended, optimum conditions.
RMAF has grown beyond their electrical system to be able to handle so many systems being displayed where Voltage sag can cause poor transients and dynamics, as a case in point.

Some other reasons may be due to prefered musical types based on the age group of the typical attendee at such shows, middle age like me.

And the one reason that I feel is more prominant than most, is that there system could show to many of its short comings playing extremely challenging music types, like rock and heavy classical with some extreme dynamic swings.

I am sure that you know from your experience that there is no speaker that does it all.

Hard core audio fans usually have more than one system in order to play all of their prefered music well.
Maybe a panal dipolar type speaker like a Quad 57 would sound great with vocals and easy listening music.
A more conventional cone speaker might play a little more types of music well, like pop and middle of the road.
And then, you have high efficiency horn speakers for the clasical and rock clashes and heavy transients, wham bam thank you maam.

I like the sound of Duke's Dream Maker speakers too, a little of both worlds, dipolar and high efficiency with dynamaics rolled into one.
I feel the Dream Maker bipolar speakers are one of the most balanced sounding across the full frequency spectrum as most that I have heard in my experience.

But that is my opinion based on my taste. Music taste is subjective and personal.

YMMV

Have fun!

Norris

Hmmmm. Sounds familiar. I've got horn speakers, array's, monitors, and the Pi's. AND I'm looking at a single driver as well. What I need is a listening room I can put everything into

IMO, the age of the people at the shows has a a lot to do with it, as you mentioned. I would have never listened to Lizz Wright or Diana Krall 10 years ago, and only the occasional classical like Vivaldi or something (Although I loved to go hear the symphony since I was in my late teens). At LSAF, the only one I've felt comfortable throwing some metal on was in Wayne's room. Probably because I'm at least an aquaintance and I know he likes some of the harder stuff that I do as well. I know others are willing too, but I feel are somewhat hesistant that either a: the music isn't recorded as well and might make their system sound lousy (even though it is really showing the limitation of the recording most times) and b: the group of people that are coming in and out of the room are older and don't want to listen to rock or Texas blues (thus driving off potential customers).

I understand about the limits of the rooms and such, but I've never asked someone to crank up the tunes for me, and in fact most rooms listen to the music WAY louder than I do at this point, unless I just happen to be feeling froggy that day. So the volume levels shouldn't be a factor in my case. I like to be able to talk to the person beside me without raising my voice too much or to read without being distracted. And if I sit right in front of a speaker and the music coming out of that individual speaker sounds lousy, it is lousy FOR ME.

I spent 6 years practicing with a 5 piece rock band in a little 15'x15' room 3 nights a week for 3-4hours a night, playing at insanely high levels--you could see the drywall move at times :). At the time I loved "feeling" the music, but now it just doesn't interest me unless I feel the piece of music deserves it or I'm playing with other musicians. For instance: the kick drum on the opening of Metallica's "One" can make you empty your bladder if played at live volumes.

I must admit, I have NOT lost bladder control due to the impact of a musical note being played at extreme sound levels.

But, I agree a hard thwak on a big kettle drum, or long sustaining low note being played on an electric bass guitar can have an impact large enough to move sheet rock in an out on a wall.

I have been to several rock concerts over the years. One being Grand Funk Railroad, claimed to be loudest band in the world.
Unfortunately, I was silly enough to sit right in front of the PA system for more than three hours. It took me four days to get my hearing back after that concert.

Listening to loud music for long periods of time can certainly have its dangers.
But, it can be fun too, where you can be exhilarated by the speed, dynamics, and emotion of the music.

I like to listen to music that way some times myself. But am a little more concerned these days about keeping the hearing ability that I have left. I limit my loud music time to minutes, rather than hours in my earlier concert going days.

Live and you learn?

Norris

To me, the main thing gained at audio shows is an ability to see and hear different stuff, not so much for an in depth evaluation but more of an introduction. I don't think it's possible to get much more than that from an audio show. But as an introduction, I would prefer it be a warm one, not a cold shoulder. If the people in the room aren't approachable, eager to talk with guests and willing to let you play your favorite music selection, it's not even an introduction. It's little more than a static display, which I think is no fun at all.

On the other hand, you can't really expect to do much real listening. I've heard comments from people that thought it was rude for people to talk in the rooms, that it disrupted their listening experience. They forget these things are public shows, not personal auditions. They're like car shows. You can look, but you can't drive. Even if you could drive, you can't race and you can't tour. It takes some time to get aquainted with a piece of equipment to know if you'll really like it or not.

So anyway, the whole point of audio shows, to me at least, is for introductions between people and manufacturers and their products. It's for things you could not see elsewhere, like products offered directly from the manufacturers, specialty products often made in small shops with no dealer network. If the shows are filled with stuff you can see at retailers and from dealers, it's a waste of time and money to go, in my opinion. That's why I've not bothered to go to RMAF. Without more kits and DIY there, I'm not really interested.

I hope I did not come across as sounding like a whiner. I don't expect to be doing any serious listening at the shows, but I do know that some of the owners of these products know what sounds good on their systems and will tend to shy away from music that may make them sound bad or show their limitations. If a system soesn't strike me right off, even in a motel room, then more than likely it's not going to do it for me anyway. OTOH, if it does catch my attention, I feel fairly confident that the setup could more than likely work in my particular situation and be refined even more.

OTOH for example, Bob Brines let me play my blues on his single driver speakers, I think knowing that it wasn't really right for his system, and he spent the majority of at least one song adjusting his FooBar EQ to try and make it work as best he could. I really appreciated that from him...and he did get them sounding much better than I thought they would with the less than stellar recording and type of music.

Jim at Jumping Cactus was the same way. Quite accomodating to try and make the recording sound it's best.

I think those examples and others like them are what makes me want to keep coming back. It's about the people.