We Won the Show

In 1999 we exhibited our FF3 SRE ribbon speaker at the CES show to great acclaim. Three magazines (The Absolute Sound, Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, and Bound for Sound) said in print that ours was the best sounding booth at the Show. 

In 2000 and 2001 there was similar reaction from the audio press for our exhibits of the FF1 SRE and an updated version of the FF3 SRE with our new handbuilt spiral ribbon tweeters. enjoythemusic.com and other online boards praised our sound as the Best, based on the opinions of their reviewers.

Things were different at 2002 CES. We showed our new Ribbon Monitor 40, with Neodymium push-pull mids, woven carbon fiber Megawoofers, and our improved spiral ribbon tweeters, and while reviewers from the buff books were highly complementary, we were surprised on Day 2 to find cameras outside our demo room, telling us we were finalists in the TechTV “Best of CES” competition in the High End Audio category (there were 12 categories in all, covering all 15,000 products at CES such as computers, auto/marine audio, security and home automation). I didn’t know who or what TechTV was and assumed we were dealing with a local cable access channel who would hand me some low-rent scroll and then hit me up for ad space.

It turns out that TechTV is a huge cable network with a fulltime staff of 500 who broadcast 24 hours a day worldwide. They are the media arm of the Electronics Industry Association who host the CES. The E.I.A. is one of the largest trade organizations in the world, and the “Best of CES” was their idea: honor the best products in each category with a trophy, banquet, live TV coverage, and appearance of the winning products on their TechTV “Fresh Gear” program and, somewhat strangely, the Regis Philbin Show out of NYC. 

The camera crew which filmed in our booth on Day 2 of CES was the first in a succession of interviews and press conferences where our people and product had to appear on camera. Apparently a team of 26 judges had narrowed down 261 High End exhibitors to 35 nominees for Best Product, and then to 3 finalists which included a $35,000 Russian built power amp and a $4,000 preamp/surround processor from Arcam plus us.

It became clear that not only were we the only speaker left in the competition (and the other nominees included flagship speakers from the biggest names in the business), but that we had to beat every other High End product at the Show in order to get an award.

I was told to be at the LV convention Center for the awards ceremony on Thursday Jan 10, 6:30 pm.

When the VMPS entourage arrived (OK, 8 people total) I found that the presenters were in the middle of a E.I.A. Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where industry veterans were joining the likes of James B Lansing and David Sarnoff in a roster of distinguished achievement. The inductees were quite elderly and very choked up about their enshrinement.

The Hall of Fame gave way to the Best of CES award ceremony, where Oscar-like, nominees sweated out a recitation of the products and companies nominated in each category, and then the envelope was opened. My reaction when the RM 40 won as Best Product in High End Audio for 2002 was confused, but I was most happy to shake the hand of the TechTV President and accept a huge, heavy trophy. Later at a press conference I thanked the companies who had supplied equipment to our booth and helped make our sound the Best of Show: John Curl/CTC Builders for the Blowtorch preamp, James Bongiorno for the Ampzilla 2000 power amps, and Mark Maerkel of Analysis Plus for their silver speaker wire and interconnects. I wasn’t asked high quality questions on camera. Example: “Now that you’ve won, how does that make you feel?” I merely pointed to the crew from Moxie who make a wireless home automation remote controller, who were shouting wildly, forming a five-high human pyramid, and making tumbling runs across the floor in sheer ecstasy. “That’s how I feel”, I told the lady interviewer. “All I lack is their vertical jump.”

I am told the award is worth millions in sales to the winners. I don’t know if that applies to High End Audio, but it will probably be easier to explain to audiophiles that our technology is better, and that our sound is better for that reason, and that our prices are very low compared to the competition. The criteria for the judging were: Advancement of the Art, sound quality, utility for the consumer, and value. 

Go to TechTV’s website and click on the “Best of CES” and then on “VMPS RM 40 Ribbon Speaker” for their explanation of why we won. I asked a judge how the voting on the 3 finalists in our category went. He told me the vote was unanimous for VMPS.

On Monday Jan 21, 2002 ABC News out of San Francisco (KGO ch. 7) ran a two-minute feature on our Show win during the primetime 6pm broadcast. While their story took a human-interest/David-vs.Goliath point of view (somewhat along the lines of “Guy in San Pablo warehouse beats the world!!”) we were most pleased our small company was worthy of such attention. It sure made the phones ring.