To Doug Schneider,
As a regular reader of your site, I was disappointed that someone from your group failed to cover [TAVES]. I find your focus has strayed from your humble Canadian origins.
Granted, Tokyo is an amazing place with so many fabulous stereo corporations centered close by, yet to fail to cover TAVES is a disservice.
Rob Wilton
I actually take your note as a compliment, since it shows that our show reports are important to people such as yourself, which I’ve long suspected. That’s why we invest so heavily in our show reports -- to better serve our readers.
So, why didn’t we invest in TAVES this year? While it’s true that our head office is in Canada, our writing staff is now international and so is our readership. In fact, our latest numbers lead us to believe that we’re now the largest group of audio-review-based publications in the world. As a result, although we certainly service our home market (we’ve been the strongest supporter of the annual Salon Son & Image show in Montreal for about 15 years), we also have to consider our worldwide readership in order to serve them too. We also have to consider our budget because, unlike typical show coverage that many publications do, we pride ourselves on a very high standard, which means being at the shows for every day to do on-the-spot coverage, heavy investment in photographic and computer equipment for the best images, etc. In a nutshell, each show costs a lot to do, so we can’t do every one.
With that in mind, we had to choose between TAVES in Toronto or TIAS in Tokyo, since they both happened on the same weekend this year -- we simply couldn’t do both. When we looked at the exhibitor list and the number of new products anticipated to be released, we knew our readership would be better served by our covering TIAS instead of TAVES, which is what we just wrapped up on SoundStage! Global. Now that it’s completed, and being the person who actually led the coverage, I am confident that we made the right choice.
If TAVES improves for 2014 (I personally found 2012 very disappointing and a big step back after their strong first show in 2011, which weighed heavily with this year's decision), we might cover it again. We’ll see. I hope that explains. . . . Doug Schneider