TAVES Toronto consumer electronics show cancelled

Unfortunately the TAVES Toronto Consumer Electronics show has been cancelled indefinitely

WHome

 

On the other hand, there will be a new show, Toronto Audio Fest, which should be more oriented
towards audio than TAVES was:

Home - Toronto Audio Fest

 

Free admission - nice.

 

Bit of a shame but truthfully based on the reviews, by audio fans, of the show once it left it's downtown location(s) I am not surprised. The first show at the King Eddy was the best. The second was pretty good too. When they moved to the Sheraton (IIRC) it was awful mostly because of the location. Then they moved out of town and I stopped going. The fact they were pushing the non hi-fi side of things more and more didn't help to entice me to make the trip either!

I can't make the new show (scheduling and transport reasons) but it looks promising. It's the same people who do the Montreal Audio show. I'll wait till the reviews come in and consider a future schlep out to the show.

 

Anybody from here attend on Friday or Saturday. I have never been to one but was planning on spending the day there tomorrow. Any reviews?

 

I went on Friday.
I can't remember the last time I attended an audio show if ever so I can't really compare it with others.
A lot of nice systems, to be sure, and a lot of hefty price tags. There was a pair of speakers that was affordable, some Monitor Audio bookshelf models with the 2 4" woofers - about $1700 CAN that sounded pretty sweet.
It was interesting that most of the sources were vinyl and most of the rest streaming. Very little CDs.
I went to the Yamaha display as I recently purchased a Yamaha amp. Walk On The Wild Side was playing (on vinyl) and unfortunately it didn't sound very good to my ears maybe after hearing all of the audiophile recordings, mostly jazz. A couple of rooms had classical and the obligatory Dark Side Of The Moon was in the Classe (with an accent aigu on the e) room.
4 floors.
If you're driving, it may pay to buy a parking pass at the Starbucks in the lobby as it is $15 and the regular rate is $5 per half hour.
I'm glad I went - I wanted to hear some high end stuff and most of it sounded very good indeed.
Having said that, I fired up one of my (edit: very modest) systems when I got home and was not disappointed with the sound. It was good to get a frame of reference though.

 

So I checked it out today and had a very similar experience and am certainly glad I went. You’re right a lot of stupid expensive gear (who knew there was a power cord that costs $6,000???) but after walking around all day it became very indiscernible to hear if anybody’s system truly was better than the others. As well like you said it was all jazz or classical and I don’t have the faintest idea of what it is supposed to sound like or what I’m used to it sounding like, so it was hard for me to judge.

Learned a couple of things from wandering and implemented them as soon as I got home. I immediately moved my speakers about 17 inches further from the wall then I had them and that made a huge impact. Also put spotlights on my speakers like most of them had set up and it looks very chic and cool. Like you as well I immediately had to play my stereo and you’re right it felt good, because I knew I was good and that I don’t need to chase anymore (at least not for awhile)

 

Yes, I've found that speakers sound better away from a wall with more depth to the soundstage.
I listen to classical and jazz music but the source material at the show was mostly well-recorded (not a bad thing, obviously) so it would probably sound good on a lot of systems but it was also stuff I was unfamiliar with so it was hard to get a sense of comparison. The Lou Reed track I mentioned in my previous post sounded bad in comparison but it was probably not as well recorded although I am happy enough with the recording when I listen to it at home.
Other music I was familiar with was Al Green in a room with Klipsch Heresy sspeakers.They sounded fine at a low to moderate volume but not so great with overbearing highs at higher volumes.
Edit: One thing I wanted to experience was the sound of tube equipment. What I heard sounded nice but I wasn't blown away or anything. Of course, again it was difficult to compare with an SS system in another room with different speakers playing different music.