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Bristol Show 2019 Feb 22-24.

As an ex-exhibitor, my top 5 things to look out for will be:-

1. Idiot reps talking loudly over their own demos;
2. Idiot attendees standing in the bedroom corridor refusing to go further into the room and then complaining of poor sound;
3. Home cinema systems playing loudly next door to traditional audio rooms attempting not to deafen their customers;
4. Catering more expensive than an "audio grade" ethernet cable;
5. Manufacturers who should know better attempting to demo speakers with a bass output capable of filling a stadium in a small hotel bedroom and wondering why people are underwhelmed.

And for a Brucey bonus, some arse will play Hell Freezes Over....
 
pocketkitchen said:
As an ex-exhibitor, my top 5 things to look out for will be:-

2. Idiot attendees standing in the bedroom corridor refusing to go further into the room and then complaining of poor sound;
Click to expand...
The bedroom corridor is usually where you find the sweets, brochures, pens, freebies and competition forms though.
You know life is getting boring when it only seems like a couple of months since the last Bristol show.
 
pocketkitchen said:
As an ex-exhibitor, my top 5 things to look out for will be:-

1. Idiot reps talking loudly over their own demos;
2. Idiot attendees standing in the bedroom corridor refusing to go further into the room and then complaining of poor sound;
3. Home cinema systems playing loudly next door to traditional audio rooms attempting not to deafen their customers;
4. Catering more expensive than an "audio grade" ethernet cable;
5. Manufacturers who should know better attempting to demo speakers with a bass output capable of filling a stadium in a small hotel bedroom and wondering why people are underwhelmed.

And for a Brucey bonus, some arse will play Hell Freezes Over....
Click to expand...

Yep, all absolutely true.
 
This show gets far to busy.
I last went 2 years ago with my son we only sat in 2 or 3 demos.
I don't know if it's just me and my boy have very sensitive nostrils..... But it seemed that most of the rooms that we walked into we were greeted by the smell of a guy who doesn't like to wash or at least use deodorant. So I didn't get to listen too much :( shame really as it's just down the road.
Perhaps I should travel with a can of deodorant and be a Good Samaritan.
 
Jimbobbyron said:
This show gets far to busy.
I last went 2 years ago with my son we only sat in 2 or 3 demos.
I don't know if it's just me and my boy have very sensitive nostrils..... But it seemed that most of the rooms that we walked into we were greeted by the smell of a guy who doesn't like to wash or at least use deodorant. So I didn't get to listen too much :( shame really as it's just down the road.
Perhaps I should travel with a can of deodorant and be a Good Samaritan.
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Don't you like paying for the full sensory audiophile experience?
 
I long ago stopped expecting to hear good sounds at shows. For me, Bristol is a day out.. starting before 6:00 a.m. and changing at Birmingham...

I usually seek out brands or dealers I know or use.. try to have a natter.. (probably over a demo..) Buy a couple of records.. that sort of thing. I have little desire to make radical changes to my system, so unless something 'leaps out' at me, I am rarely impressed by sounds. It's a social occasion.

Behaviour at shows varies, and you can adopt any number of approaches, depending on your mood, or the effect you want to produce.. You can stand about in a corridor talking loudly and animatedly in 'hi-fi speak', in the hope of impressing someone. Or you can sit in every room, front and centre, tugging your beard and uttering "hmmmm"..

Your whole approach to dem rooms will define you. Do you walk boldly in and push yourself to front/centre? Do you hover by the door? Do you just stick an ear round the door and exclaim loudly 'God No!!' All are valid approaches..

OTOH.. using your free carrier bag to try to collect more leaflets than anyone else, is frowned upon. It is very silly. That said.. the Harbeth pen I snaffled a couple of years ago is a nicely balanced and well finished freebie.. which still works.

The real challenge however, is after the show Finding somewhere half decent for a few scoops and a half decent bite to eat,in competition with half of Bressol's student population in the cultural desert surrounding Bristol Temple Meads, before catching the train home. That.. and avoiding hypothermia..
 
Since it's on my doorstep, here is my abiding impression of the last Bristol show I didn't quite attend:

DSCF0217_800px.jpg


2010, and a few friends and familiars here - @Robert, @Tenson, @stevied., my brother @Mark Packer amongst others - we'd met up variously in the year or two or three previous and inevitably, after 2-3 hours, binned it for coffee/conversation elsewhere.

In 2010 on the day of the show we simply met for Brunch in Bristol and invested the entrance fee and spurious-show-bargains fund into simply drinking, and posted our general impressions from a couple of miles away in the safety of the Severnshed. We all agreed that made it the best hifi show ever. Also the last one attended.

Might need to revisit this strategy...
 
I am trying to work out the last Bristol show I went to, hmm, more than a decade anyway, was thinking of going with a mate this year ... you lot are putting me off, is it really that bad?

hifinutt said:
Last year there was also a tannoy room with some lovely kit in a nearby hotel which I managed to miss
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This (if it were this year!) is more like it, how about a few tips on the things that are worth fighting through the masses to listen to?
 
nobeone said:
I am trying to work out the last Bristol show I went to, hmm, more than a decade anyway, was thinking of going with a mate this year ... you lot are putting me off, is it really that bad?



This (if it were this year!) is more like it, how about a few tips on the things that are worth fighting through the masses to listen to?
Click to expand...

no , its a totally superb show and you will see so much , in fact you won`t get round it all . all the new kit and sometimes there are bargains to be had
 
The oddest thing about the Bristol Show: It has been in the same town, the same hotel all these years. When I attended last year and spoke with a number of exhibitors, a few of them remarked:

1 'we've been coming/exhibiting since day one, year one and pretty much have had the same room/stall all these years.
2 'we see the same folks year upon year, mind you, they grow shorter, plumper and grayer
3 'we've tried and still do exhibit at other shows in the UK, but nothing compares to Bristol'

A few exhibitors actually exclaimed that the show has become such a staple on their personal calendars that their respective family and friends know to plan around the show. :)
 
I did see that Rogers will be showing their new LS3/5a Classic at Bristol.
The Classic follows on from the recent Limited Edition Rogers 70th Anniversary LS3/5a.
 
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