January 5th, 2011

Yesterday was a very nice day. At every corner we met friends and colleagues from the industry. It is like a big family meeting. Mood is extremely positive.

In the morning the rows were still crowded with cartons, crates and boxes. It was quite difficult to get through sometimes.

Everyone is really busy to do his best to have a nice sounding room.

Some of us are really showing off, Cy tried to tell Dominique that he is always ironing at home… Well good try Cy, but next time do not forget to plug into the electricity wall socket!

Around noon, our showrooms were really started to get ready and it was time to switch the music on and position the speakers at their right spots. Of course you get all kind of delays; for example everytime you need to move a piece of furniture you have to get in touch with the CES organization. They first come to check what you want, they decide what they are going to charge you for and they make an appointment with the movers. We had to move a little table (1 mtr x 1 mtr), they charged 100 USD and we had to wait for three hours to get the mover in. If you do it by yourself, you get a fine of 1.500 USD… Another example of how hifi-people like to be tortured?

The room with Vienna Acoustics was ready and Kevin Wolf from Vienna Acoustics was the first one to show up with a colleague to set up the Kiss to the right spot.

They stayed about one hour checking all details. The Kiss are set up with the Mystere PA-21 and CA-21, it sounds great and the room started to fill in with colleagues/competitors to listen to the system.

Jill arrived in the afternoon. She still looks great, but we are not supposed to take a picture… “if you want to see her, you have to come to the show”… do not worry we will get a shot while she does not even know. She is very funny and so efficient. The team is now complete.

We still had to wait for the movers, nevertheless we do not waste our time, we meet known faces: Robert Harley who just drove more than 5 hours to attend the show, DHlabs guys always so friendly… and so on. Business is in fact already starting.

At 3.30 pm finally the movers came in and the table was put on the side within 5 mm… of course, we had to give them a tip!!!

Now the guys from Sumiko (US Sonus Faber distributor) could finally come in to set up The Sonus Faber Elipsa in our room. It went very smoothly and within 1 hours both rooms were rocking loud and clear.

The final touch: vacuum cleaning, plants, brochures… and we were ready about 5.30. Ready for a Bon Appetit!