2015 California Audio Show, Part 1

Morning hours at the CAS6 Registrar

This was the sixth California Audio Show and during that time the world of Audio Shows has changed. To begin with, there are a lot more of them, and the California Audio Show have become more of a local manufacturers and dealers show. I know that attendees would like more rooms of equipment, and vendors would like more attendee, but there is something special about the smaller shows. They are more intimate, and you get a better chance to hear equipment and visit with the representatives.

At this year’s CAS, you had opportunities to visit with speaker designer Andrew Jones who is now with Elac, and in the same room Peter Madnick of the revived Audio Alchemy. Almost everyone from Pass Labs was there including Nelson Pass in a 1-hour Saturday afternoon seminar. From the recording end of things, there was the always delightful and informational Cookie Marenco of Blue Coast Records; then again on Saturday there was the legendary Prof. Keith Johnson. Julian Margules, designer and owner of Margules Audio was there as well as Paul Stubblebine and Michael Romanowski of The Tape Project.

Nelson Pass in a rare appearance.

Prof. Keith Johnson Seminar

Another change in audio show over the last few years have been the number of Seminars. At this year’s California Audio Show, the seminars began on Friday morning at eleven, and there was almost one every hour the show was open until Sunday afternoon. These covered many topics from amp design, recording engineering, cables, digital and the old ask-the-editor panel. These were exceptionally well attended. There was also some very enjoyable concerts at the show.

So, this year’s show was a lot of fun, and I want to cover it just a little differently. In Part 2, I’m going to write about the sounds I heard in what I’m going to call the huge rooms, then Part 3 will be about the small rooms and Part 4 about the sound of the medium-sized rooms. So stay tuned and I’ll get these up asap.