Florida International Audio Expo 2023 Video Coverage Part 1

From the top 14th floor down to the 7th floor

Last week's Florida International Audio Expo in Tampa truly was an "international" event. Before the show, the "international" characterization seemed somewhat over the top. After all, this is a recent, relatively small regional show organized by non-professionals.

But show organizers knew something most attendees didn't: it truly was an international show! Japanese speaker manufacturer TAD took a big room and even company president "Shine Tarutani flew in for the event. TAD wasn't the only company and Tarutani-san wasn't the only overseas visitor.

More about that in one of the next few videos because we started our coverage on the topmost 14th floor and worked our way down. This video covers the 14th through 7th floors of the Embassy Suites by Hilton hotel, which for some reason, has among the best sounding hotel rooms anywhere.

Show attendance was strong every day. The corridors were packed and the rooms mostly full. Many of the "big" brands were absent, as is often the case with regional shows, but there were some. Perhaps of greater interest were the upstarts and lesser known brands, some of which are covered in Dave McNair's and Ken Redmond's previously published show reports.

Those brands will appear in future upcoming videos. Overall this was an excellent show: well-run, well attended with very good sound in both the large and small rooms and among journalists a very collegial atmosphere.

Congratulations to Bart Andeer, show co-founder and operations manager who put in the hours and did the outreach. Andeer set up and manned booths at both the regional boat and home shows. He told me that he recognized many audio show attendees who visited the booths asking what the Audio Expo was all about. They attended and found out!