Pay no attention to the first two deadhearts... It's normal for healthy humans to desire the company of others with similar intrests. G13 is right about it being a lot of work. I belong to the Chicago Audiophile Society and it's almost out of the question for anyone to bring in an entire system. Usually, a club officer will provide speakers or a front-end to complete whatever the guest-of-the-month has brought. We have had the "Heavy Hitters" of the industry bring their toys for our enjoyment. We also have flea-market sales which are very popular. If you decide to become the president (i.e., do most of the work), you benefit from being able to attend industry-only functions (CES, etc.) and manufacturers actually lend you $$$ equipment for evaluation! SWEET! Anyway, the hobby, excuse me, "fever" needs go-getters like you to keep things rolling! Roll on!
anyone with a 'system' near me?
Maybe this has already been though of, but a recent ad of someone selling their equipment in my geographic area has inspired this idea: I think it would be great if we could locate fellow audiophiles living nearby so we would be able get together and listen to each others' systems. I think it would be great fun and very educational. For myself, I sometimes feel like I'm the only person around with the passion, but I'm sure there are others living close by who feel the same. This concept could grow into organized clubs, where groups can get together, and even organize events and visits to other groups in nearby (or distant) locals. Heck, there are Harley clubs; why not Audiophile clubs? There could even be alliances like the Audio Researcher's and the Kreller's, and we could do shoot-outs of one group's best system vs other's. We could arrange conventions where we set systems up and have blind listening test contests...The possibilities are limitless! I'd be willing to bet that merchants would love to attend events like this and possibly offer discount prices on their products for those attending such conventions. I don't have any formal plan yet to get the ball rolling, but a brainstorming session would be a great way to start. Hopefully, this thread will get things started, and then this could be moved into a new thread category, specifically for the purpose of bringing fellow individual audiophiles and groups/clubs together? What do you think?