Hi 'austinpop'
Glad to read the question of noise is now beginning to be talked about !!
You post the comment "Maybe it's cultural, maybe it's just me, but I'm not going to apologize for at least hoping for some improvement in this area.
Let me state,I for one,totally support your view !! Not only that,I know many others do to. BUT it seems many are reluctant to post this view.I believe this may be due to the fact that the comment may be seen as negative and a direct insult to those who organise the event.
I realize this, which is why I subsequently posted this:
Yeah - I realize I made my comment without any overall context - and which, upon reflection, does sound churlish. This was not my intention.
I still really enjoyed the event, and have nothing but the highest praise and gratitude for all who either volunteered their time to setup and run the event, or the manufacturers who showed up with their amazing gear.
The key point I was trying to make was that even small steps by organizers and exhibitors to reduce, not eliminate, noise would be really helpful. I think we all understand eliminating the noise is impossible.
I should also add that it wasn't uniformly noisy. Some rooms seemed to have established an atmosphere more conducive to listening. These were mostly on the 3rd floor: the Stax room, the Woo room, and the Questyle/Westone/Enigmacoustics room, which were all quieter at least the handful of times I stopped by them.
For a largish room with only 2 manufacturers, the Cavalli/MrSpeakers room was one of the noisiest.
Most of the other rooms were too densely packed with exhibits, and very noisy.
However, as the Liquid Tungsten room demonstrated, even the best laid plans can be undone by noisy individuals, whom neither the organizers nor exhibitors control.