I recently went to the Croydon Craft Beer festival, and part of the critique I sent to the organisers afterwards read: -

"The sound system was potentially magnificent, a good quality Yamaha desk and ElectroVoice front of house, but at least to start with the sound quality was abysmal, very scratchy, far too much presence in the high-mid. Sibilants were "essey" and splashy, and voice not followable.

This certainly did not help the solo singer on first after we arrived (a man with a funny haircut and I think it was a perfectly decent Takamine guitar). He appeared to do some original songs - but because of the sound setup words were all but inaudible and the vocals unmelodic although I think he would probably have been a perfectly OK singer with a little help. Then he went on to ageing pop covers, where he was adequate vocally but his guitar work was exactly as I have seen widely criticised on some music sites I frequent - basic strumming. He hit every chord, and the chord changes were fine, but there was no light and shade and no infill, and again his guitar work was done no favours whatsoever by the splashy sound. I know how well most Takamines plug in and surely it need not have sounded like that."