Hey, contary to popular wishes I am still alive. I can host the next meeting at my house (NW Baltimore). The first Sunday in February is looking open for me. I am busily getting a few things of interest up and running. First a computer RTA for testing purposes and also a system for converting LP to digital, both HD storage and convertion to CD. This will be fun to compare the original to the copies.
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Baltimore Area Audio Heads : Do we/you want to create a breathing , living Audio Club or just a informal get together ? A Audio Club , formed as a 501(3c) , Limited Liabilty Corperation is able (from a "legal-speegal" point of view) to develop legally approved partnerships with Audio Companies & Dealers for loaners , guest speakers etc.. I have experience with non-profits , I'm a life-long audio person and live in Baltimore County ( Cub Hill ). Are we/you ready to discuss taking the game to the next level ? Why be second to NYC or Boston ? The Baltimore Audiophile Club , LLC ? |
I was also thinking it's time to get together again. Paul, Bob, Mike's, RU ready?!? I could host (Carroll County.) I would be interested in comments on the sound/set up of my system. My next upgrade should be room set up/acoustics, but I would also like to "audition" different inerconnects and speaker cables (biwire.) Waddya say guys? MikeB |
I am ready! The only problem is we have the holidays comming up. I can offer my calibrated mic and real time analyizer software on my laptop to do some room measurments when we do meet. Also,I am in the process of building a new preamp based on Transendent Sound's grounded grid and phono preamp. I am putting both in one chassie and both power supplies in an other chassie plus some other mods. I had a catatropic failure in my Melos preamp and it unrepairable so I am gutting it for parts for my new preamp. I am listening to my system (no turntable)through a 50 cent pot for now. so it goes........ |
Pretty much any Sunday not adjacent to a holiday weekend works for me. Comparing interconnects and speaker cables would be tough because it takes a while to change them and you'll have most likely forgot what the last cable sounded like. BTW, what terminal type does your amplifier and speaker take? Another idea might be to compare CD players especially if we can get multiple copies of a certain CD. I'd be happy to bring my TRL modified Sony DVP-NS900V. Does your preamp take balanced, single ended inputs, or both? Paul S. |
Well unless I made a mistake, and will have to check with my other half, I should be able to go to a Jan 13th meeting. I am up near Aberdeen (about half way between Baltimore and Deleware) so Columbia is a bit of a drive, but still not so far I wouldn't try and make it. Depending on who all wanted to show, guess someone can host it in house, or we could talk to one of the high-end A/V places in the area to see if we can use a meeting area. I think someone here wasn't a big fan of Gramaphone for buying gear, but know they have nice conf and theater rooms down in Columbia, and I would be open to any other vendors that would host as well, I just know where they are.. |
I could probably make it to Annap, but would sure love something closer to Baltimore if possible. I say that as for me personally takes about an 1:15 min to get near Annap on highway, so by the time I got to ones home, I have about a 3hr round trip, lotta driving for sure. Maybe I am the odd-ball out, and it's only far from me, if so I say do it, but might be nice to see where everyone is and find a middle spot if possible, as gas prices sure are a bite in the ass now days.. :) |
I'm in. I don't know that meeting at a "shop" will go over well with the owner, however I'm basing this on a conversation I had with the local Von Schweikert dealer (Stansbury in Millersville.) He knows we may be just kicking the tires before buying used on A'gon! Besides, it'a always cool to see how PEOPLE have assembled their systems. Since we have several hosting volunteers, we can met on Jan. 13th, then maybe again in February. I'm looking at a speaker upgrade, so my place (Carroll County) may be one for February. MikeB. |
Not to throw a wet blanket on everything, but shouldn't there be some kind of agenda for the meeting? It's great that we want to gather and share our passion for the hobby, but I also think it would be great if we could learn a thing or two while we experience each other's systems and gather knowledge that may help to improve our respective systems. BTW, what is everyone's system? That would have a big impact on whose home I'd like to visit. My system is as follows: Magnepan Tympani IV (w/ modified crossovers and Mye Stands), Joule OTL VZN 160 monoblocks (for mid-tweet), IceAudioH2O Digital Amp (for bass panels), Audio Horizons TP. 2.1 preamp and 8.0 phono stage (with all NOS Siemens E88CC tubes), Michell Orbe SE, SME V, Denon 103R, G&D Transforms CD Player, Behringer DCX 2496, Bag End Infra 18 subwoofer, Fusion Audio Impulse PC, Harmonic Tech PC's, Signal PC's, various homebrew IC's, Paul Speltz Zero Autoformers, Tara Lab speaker cables, homebrew speaker cables, Shakti Stones. I also have a Loricraft PRC record cleaning machine. My room is pretty big 25 x 25 x 17. I need to push a lot of air, which this system does pretty well. My newest component is the Audio Horizons preamp, which is fantastic. My potential upgrades are cartridge, Gert Pedersen mod's to the Michell Orbe and, of course, cables and IC's. I'm not far from having my dream system, but need some help getting there as I love to tweak and mod or have tweaks and mods done to my equipment. I also like to bargain shop as we all do. I'd love to serve as a venue for shootouts involving MC cartridges, CD players, speaker cables or IC's. I mostly listen to audiophile vinyl and CD's. I have some SACD and DVD audios, but do not consider my digital front end to be SOTA. Jan. 13th is good for me as well. I'd prefer the afternoon. I can serve as the venue on that day if need be. My television is also on the wall behind my speakers so we can even catch the game (without sound, of course). Sorry about the long post. Hopefully everyone else will add their 2 cents. Thanks. Sang |
Sang, your idea for an agenda is good. The first meeting last year over Michaels house in Baltimore was just me. We had a nice talk over wine and cheese and we listened to Michael's system. I brought a few of my favorite CD's and LP's and just listened. We talked about the differences in our systems and our tastes and 4 hours went by very quickly. The meeting at my house a couple of months later was basically the same thing. We had a total of five people. We talked a bit upstairs with food and libation then we went downstairs to my music room. We listened to some of my stuff and some of what others brought. What I am finding important is to hear other systems and understand others tastes. I have built my system for a certain sound for me, but I like knowing where I am at in relation to the world. This hobby is actually a lonely one. My wife listens occasionally but just nods her head approvingly to anything I say. She does enjoy live concerts and recitals but prefers to listen to talk radio. I feel that trying to make this hobby more social is a good move. I can easily convince myself that this widget over that widget makes my system sound better. I can offer to bring laptop based RTA that will measure room response. Equipment shootouts I find more of a ego thing which will result in "my widget sounds better than your widget" I will always agree to widgets sounding different but "better" is another bowel of spaghetti. |
Sailor, Much agreed. I have a horrible room, which I've tried to address with the help of a SPL meter. But I'd be shocked if I'm anywhere close to flat. I'd love the opportunity to get with your laptop and conduct some good measurements. I think that's a terrific first "agenda" item. I also have a Behringer crossover unit that has some equalization capability (yeah, yeah, I know. Let the flames start) so that would be very beneficial for me. I appreciate any offers for contributions for refreshments. Actually, I'm happy to have some items. My flavor, however, may not be everyone's, so please feel free to BYOB if you'd like. Let's try for early afternoon? Noonish? Bring your reference music (CD and vinyl). Please e-mail for my address as I'm a little hesitant to post that on a public site. It's [email protected]. And, again, please feel free to post your systems when you get the chance. Thanks, all. Sang |
Sang, Joe, Paul and Bob, etc. this is shaping up nicely. For my 2 cents, I'm currently going through speaker cable selection hell ;) and would want to do some swapping to get a feel for the personalities of what we can compare. Obviously the rest of the system will have a great impact, but we should be able to come up relative merits of each. Ones I have (or will have by the 13th) are Audioquest Bedrock (12' biwire) Speltz anti-cable (8' single wire), home made Home Depot 10 gauge solid copper shotgun (biwire) and coming soon, Wireworld Equinox 5 (biwire 3 meter.) I also have some acoustic measurement software on a laptop. I know Paul has TrueRTA. I did splurge on RplusD (sequel to ETF by Acoustisoft.) I can also bring vinyl, CDs and beverages. Thanks Sang! |
I'm another interested in room acoustics/ room treatments, for this get together for my meager contribution I could bring my Liquid Resolution CD clean enhancer. Cleans the manufacturing grunge off your cd's for a smoother presentation. Along with other liquid treatments for our thirsts. And music. I've been using the gold/silver contact paste recently and don't want to disconnect anything cause you have to clean/reapply/re-breakin everything, one of the disadvantages of using the silver bearing contact enhancers. |
"I've been using the gold/silver contact paste recently and don't want to disconnect anything cause you have to clean/reapply/re-breakin everything, one of the disadvantages of using the silver bearing contact enhancers." Oh come on, can't you just lick the ends of the cables and stick 'em back in?!? Works with tubes (hee hee) |
I have been cleared by the wife so I am a definite for the 13th. I will bring my realRTA system to make comparisons with kartracers system. Just need time and place my e-mail is [email protected] |
I'm coming and per Sang's and other's requests will bring a bunch of speaker cables and most likely my room measurement HW and SW, although I haven't used it much and not in a while. I'd rather not spend too much time on engineering but more on some cable/equipment "difference appreciations" (more commonly known as evaluation), meeting some fellow audiofools and hearing new music/systems. Mike |
I am a definite and I am bringing my room measurement set up an nice hardy red and an interesting cheese. See you around noon. Sang, all rooms look a lot worse on the computer screen than they sound!! I can save the graphs as jpegs and you can load them on your computer to print. I have 12ft interconnects to use between computer and your preamp plus a 12ft mic cable so I can set the mic at the sweet spot plus move it around to get reading in different parts of the room. Just need and open pair of high level inputs and some AC for the rig. |
Sang, OK, I'll bring the room measurement gear. Like Paul said, if you think it sounds funny, you won't want to "see" how it looks! But we can play around with finding listening sweet spots and possibly adjusting speaker positioning. The solution just may be for you to buy my Von Schweikert VR-4JRs! (Now Bob is gonna wonder what I'm listening to...) Mike |
