I used to go to the annual audio show in Washington, the DC Audio Fest. It was fun at first, but over the years, it quickly gets repetitive.
The audiophile myth-mongering gets quite deep. I often felt like the kid in the story, The Emperor Wore No Clothes. Most people who go to these shows buy into the worst myths. It comes with the territory. I learned to bite my tongue and nod politely, while looking for the exit.
I especially liked tagging along with Dennis Murphy as he took in the competition. He would quietly point out all the flaws in most other speakers, as well as the BS spewed by some presenters. It was on those rounds that I developed a sense of how little I liked most speakers with horn tweeters. Dennis understood what acoustic limitations exist in the small hotel rooms for these shows, and he could point out how the presenters go about solving or avoiding these problems. Usually careful speaker location could only go so far, and the problems were avoided by careful music selections that don't reveal the room's problems.
I distinctly remember once Dennis laughingly pointed out an intense Asian man who lugged along his expensive silver speaker cables, as he visited various speaker displays. He refused to listen to any speakers unless they installed his heavy and awkward cables with their difficult-to-use oversized spade lugs. Dennis humored they guy (he did not order any speakers) but apparently others told him to get lost.
