[uoods]

I decided since I'm in New Jersey, down from from Boston, that I might as well take a trip up to New York City and stop by AES. I don't have a digital camera, so I have nothing to show for it at the moment.

There were too many companies in attendance to list, but some of the ones there that pertained to headphones were: AKG, Sennheiser, Shure, Ultrasone, Analog Devices, Bang and Olufsen , Audio Technica, Manley, and M-Audio. Sugarfried claimed he saw Beyerdynamic, but I didn't spot them, though their headphones were all over the place for various demos.

I stopped by all of those booths but was mostly disappointed. Sennheiser didn't even have HD600's out for demo, so it's needless to say that the 650's weren't there. Audio-Technica disappointed me the most, they had none of their wood line out. Even though it was the U.S. division, I'm sure they could have brought over some of the good stuff from Japan. AKG won an award for the 271's, which was sitting on top of the amplifier driving their demos. There were no K1000's, though. Ultrasone headphones were all over the place, I'm guessing they were a supplier for demos or something.

Stopping by Shure's booth made up for all this though. Sugarfried, also known as Matt, was a great guy to talk to. It was nice to connect a face to a name from Head-Fi. Anyway, I got a chance to demo the E5's as well as a top-secret new model which will be coming out sometime in the hazy future. He also broke out a pair of his friend’s Prophonics 2xs’s. Even though I couldn’t listen to them they were surely a wonder to look at and hold in my hands. I’m tempted once again to spend way too much money.

So the lesson here is: Go to AES the next time it's in your neighborhood, it's good fun.

 

[Sugarfried]

It was great to meet you too. I was surprised that there weren't more Head-fi'ers there (as this is the largest of the professional audio shows on the east coast). Perhaps more will come to the Home Entertainment show next year in May.

I was surprised that there were no HD650's too. I spoke with Karl Winkler, Sennheiser's US managing director. He said that the official launch will be at CES in January. He said they would ship before the end of the year, but the main push won't begin until later.

Beyer wasn't there, I was wrong. I thought I had seen a logo somewhere, but I must have been daydreaming. Four days on my feet at a show tend to wear me out.

 

[erikzen]

I wasn't aware of this show. Forgive my ignorance but what does AES stand for? Was this open to the public? Is there a resource for finding out about audio shows?

 

[uoods]

AES stands for Audio Engineering Society, they hold bi-annual (I think?) conventions for audio... stuff. Check out http://www.aes.org for a brief event calendar and information. It's open to the public, but there's an entrance fee (It's the usual $30-40 convention entrance sort of fee.) I really don't know anything about other shows, but I get the impression AES holds the largest ones.

The next convention is in Berlin. Any German head-fiers around for that?

 

[Sugarfried]

AES occurs twice a year - once in the United States, and once in Europe. If I remember correctly, the U.S. rotates between L.A. and New York, and in Europe it's between Berlin and Amsterdam.

The Home Entertainment Show is also a big one, probably better suited for Head-Fi'ers than AES. I met Daniel422 at that one back in May in San Francisco. It'll be in New York City in May of 2004. (It also rotates between East and West Coasts.)

 

[erikzen]

Wow! thanks for the information. Maybe I'll get a chance to check out HES next May.

 

[Nisbeth]

Quote:

Originally posted by uoods There were too many companies in attendance to list, but some of the ones there that pertained to headphones were: AKG, Sennheiser, Shure, Ultrasone, Analog Devices, Bang and Olufsen , Audio Technica, Manley, and M-Audio. Sugarfried claimed he saw Beyerdynamic, but I didn't spot them, though their headphones were all over the place for various demos.

The Bang&Olufsen booth was technically not pertinent to headphones since it was B&O ICEpower (the amplifier company) you saw...If you missed that, I think I have to talk to our marketing director about changing the banner layout for next year's show

/U.