might i suggest you form "the cheesehead audio society." bet you'd get some initial interest in green bay, at least. BTW, i grew up next to your beautiful state, spending much time visiting the home of the badgers. - kelly
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There's a lot of interest in music and audio in Wisconsin, I guess it depends where you live. Madison has lots of interested hobbyists and a few high-end shops. Milwaukee less so, or so it seems. There is a great dealer out in Appleton, Bruce Jacobs at SoundWorld. He can point you to some of the best sound in the state and is well respected throughout the industry. That'd be a good place to start. No, I'm not aware of a club though. Probably too many Wisconsin fella's worried about that secret handshake,'ncludin me! :o) Happy listening! |
Spud, I'm surprised at your post since I've found Wisconsin --especially Mad City -- to be a pretty stimulating place. If you start the "Cheesehead Audio Society" maybe you can include some honorary out of state memberships. Are the "#%&! Em Bucky" t-shirts with Bucky Badger giving the one finger salute still around? Had one years ago and would love to get my hands on another. |
I've been wondering the same thing! Who wants to assume the responsibility to establish something like a CAS? I love this game and I know there's lots of others around who would like to sit down and argue the merits of their system over yours, maybe by accident someone could learn something worth knowing. Is this all talk or is there real interest? Who wants to meet in (?) Madison, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Appleton? What would we do? Who would we lie to? When will we do it? Lets get serious!!! Respond on this site and we can get something set up, or email me with your thoughts and we'll see what happens |
DEFINITELY, Actually, I started this whole idea about a year ago, but I've been neglectful in following through. I'm in Brookfield. I would really like to get the ball rolling again on a loosely knit community network of fellow hobbiests. There can be many advantages and opportunities for sharing, learning, and getting/offering help to one another. Maybe we can try to stimulate new interest again just by keeping this audiogon thread alive. C'mon, any other Cheeseheads out there? |
I am trying to setup a database of people who would like to see an audio cub for Wisconsin. If pleople who live in Wisconsin and would like to join such a club, please email me your contact info. With info, those who respond, can see how many people are from what city and then choise what city to house the first meeting or maybe have several smaller clubs, each located in the larger cities. |
Greeting to all... Currently, this is what I have: FirstName LastName City EmailAddress Nate Kern Green Bay [email protected] John Barlow Milwaukee [email protected] Jerry Slavata Brookfield [email protected] Noel Anderson Madison [email protected] Bruce Wentler Portage [email protected] Nate and John stated that there are several others in their areas that would like to start one up but when I requested their contact info to add to the database, I have not received any. I can understand this for how would they know me from a hole in a wall? I'm not doing realy anything this weekend if anyone would like to meet? |
I would enjoy participating and get-togethers, but I am not in a position to get involved in any type of formal organization. I strongly encourage others to check out a new site called audiocircle.com. There is lots of lively interactive discussion taking place there, and a lot of get-togethers are initiated from there. In fact, another particpant in that forum from Port Wash. is coming over tomorrow evening to listen to some 801's that I just got and to let me audition his new Shanling. Others would be welcome. |
Audiojerry and others, I don't think this needs to be or probably should be all that formal. In fact, I think informality should be a desired trait. I got started in this hobby almost in the cradle (actually in grade school) in mid-1960's. My next door neighbor was a high school english teacher (female no less)that had an 20-ft tower above her house strickly dedicated to FM. She had all tube Marantz and Mac equipment, Thorens tables, SME etc. In the 1970s she bought a ReVox A700 (~$3k in 1975 dollars), ReVox B77 II, among other major outlays. She still has the A700 to this day. 3 doors down from her was a electrical engineer who built his son a radio station equiped with Logan Turntables with a variety of tone arms. The dad had all Mac tube gear. What I remember from those days was that all these people just enjoyed the music. No one knew what the heck they had but they sure did enjoy the music over wine, cheese and conversation. It makes sick to see people think this hobby is about my views are more valid than your views. Music is a sensory connection to the soul. How that is defined is unique to every person. What elements of the musical presentation makes that happen is no less person specific than their individual tastes in what makes the right about of ground pepper on their salad. You would no more say "You are crazy if you like that salad. I say it does not taste good. There believe me because I said it forceably or repeated with others I intimidated into agreeing with me?". There are plenty of minor hurdles in getting an audio club together including privacy concerns, dealing with egos, etc. So maybe we could start this as an embryo project. A few people meeting with each other over a beer or coffee in a convenient place nearby their homes. This way we can judge if we want the other person roaming around in our houses and if we have a person with an agenda. This could be a very rewarding thing to get started in more ways than one. People that like music appreciate the creative side of the mind and likely have other diverse and interesting perspectives. This could build life long friendships as well as being able to hear a variety of components in a variety of contexts. Anyway that is my 2 cents. |
I've been following this thread off and on for a while. No body seem to know how a club would function. Do we meet in small groups in peoples houses to listen to guys set ups and talk about them. I don't know how long that would last. It's hard dealing with egos and all. Although I'm open to people coming to my house and listening and discusing audio.I've been to a Chicago Audio Society meeting. They rent space in a building a once a month get together. They get alot of people in the audio industry to come and demo their goods. That is alot of work for someone. I don't see that any thing will ever happen in WI untill someone or two say there is a meeting at such and such location. Anyone interested should come and lets figure out what we want. I don't what to put the time and effort into such an under taking but I would sure like to attend meetings set up by someone. |
I think the ego thing is the single biggest reason NOT to have a audio club. That said, as my thread above points out, it does not have to be. I think you can tell if a person is begging for approval if you have lived long enough. I think, at least, one way to get to this off on a good footing is to meet at a nuetral place. I am in Madison and those that live here know the large number of places we could meet over a beer or coffee. We could all meet and see if there is the right chemistry. I think the equipment should at first take on secondary value until we weed out the children (in mind). Most of the people I have met on Audiogon are a great bunch of mature people with their feet on the ground and a strong love of music. I am sure this thing will work if we start as friends and not as competitors. Life is too short to deal with idiots or to miss out on hearing great music with fun people in a variety of contexts. I am as much interested in meeting interesting people with a diverse set of interests as I am in hearing interesting equipment. Anyone near Madison feel free to drop me an e-mail. I am usually busy as heck but can make some time for getting this experiment started! |
Nanderson,I agree with everything you say. Lets come up with a place to meet and put it out there and see who shows up. I personaly think Madison is a good location for the whole state as it is fairly centraly located. I live in Milw. and would be glad to drive to Madison. We just need to set a time and place to get together instead of just posting here. I hope others interested are following this and get involved. Lets get this off the ground. |
Since this first meeting is very informal and probably not worth people traveling 100-miles for without a list of things to discuss. Even then it might be better to share the results of the initial meetings in our respective cities. I just checked the Memorial Union Events Calendar (http://www.union.wisc.edu/events/) and nothing looks too big happening at the union to make it hard to get a parking place in the parking garage (2-hr metered parking) across the street from the Union for the early afternoon on Saturday Feb. 8. Yet I wonder if the thing to do is do a Zip code search for members with our local areas and send them an e-mail and set something up when we have a more viable and diverse audience (say at least 6 would be nice). With only 3 of us or so each in a different city it would seem a little disjoint to do with this without some planning. I, can do a search of zip codes, in my area in Audiogon. Of course, this will only find those members that are selling something but it is probably better than 3 people in State as large as Wisconsin. It might also be good to look at the threads they participated in and see if they are the "ones up-man-ship" or "I know best type" before sending them an invitation. Absent any threads, we could see what there Feedback is as an indication of their character. I opt to hold off for a few weeks till we can get the snowball at least rolling down the hill a bit. Also, feel free to e-mail me. I am working on a list of things to think about for a "Mission Statement" for such a club. Your thoughts are appreciated. I just got a great pair of updated, Talon Peregrine Xs with those massive claw stands in yesterday. Man, oh man, could I have used some help just moving them around and getting them setup. They are incredible speakers but have a finish that has a texture like a mirror (essentially no friction at all on the surface and big and heavy for a monitor). You can imagine how fun that was getting them out of their double boxes and carrying them across a ceramic floor. Not many in the midwest have heard the Talons and this could be a place to showcase the lesser known pieces. I am really struck by their many incredible sonic virtues. I am running them in my 2-channel system with a ARC-LS22 with Infinicap upgrade and YBA 2-alpha HCDT. From what I have read it will take several hundred hours of break in time to do them justice but already I am impressed. |
Hi Nanderson, That was a very well thought out post. I hope something can materialize. Are you located near Madison? I know of several audiogon traders, who also happen to own some great equipment living in the area. Do you know Grant Samuelson or Giulio Tononi? Grant has written reviews for Soundstage, and Giulio is a researcher (I believe) at UW. Both live in the Madison area and I've visited both. Each had a great system and are very knowlegeable about equipment and music. There is also the University Audio dealership. It might be beneficial to have a dealer participating in the group, even though there is a chance that his agenda may differ from other participants. Regarding a mission statement, I'd personally like to use a club's influence to attract industry professionals to perhaps demo their products or hold discussions about trends in the high-end. I'd also like to use the club as a means of learning from other members in terms of what works for them in terms of system synergy and music. As a club, we might also be able to get opportunities to audition new products or take advantage of some group purchase discounts. Just some thoughts... Listening to your system, for example, would be a learning experience by having a chance to listen to the Perregrins in a room with marble floors? I briefly owned the Khorus and sold them to a friend in Brookfield, another potential club member. I had a phone conversation with the designer/builder, and he said he believes break in of the Talons is more in the neighborhood of 1000+ hours. |
Everyone please drop me your e-mails and let me know where you are at (e.g., city) ( I can plot people's city on a jpeg map (I have a GIS practice) and send it out to members), and 2 or 3 saturdays (early afternoons for 1 - 2 hrs meeting) when you can come to Madison for an informal meeting during the months of March and April (this will give us more time to plan and for Winter to get over of this ice and snow thing). I can put together a summary memo and get it out to all. |
[email protected] I'm in Green Bay along with several friends who are also interested. |
[email protected] Bayside(Milw). 53217 |
[email protected] green bay, Wi 54301 Nrchy and I would probaly ride down together |
Here is another step. Member Locations: I thought a web site would be easier for me to update and allow members to decide if they want to download or print images. When you get to the web site below click on "thumbnail" image to explode the image. Then select from various options in the dialog box to Print "photo" and to see it at various image sizes. Go to: http://www.fototime.com/inv/5F60B09F3573615 I will try to some more on this later this week. I am thinking it would be better to get some of this ice off the roads before having our first meeting. Say late March or Early April? Others thoughts? |
Nrchy and others. I have a national zip code GIS data layer. So we can add several other separate perspectives (places zip code located)to the Wisconsin map including favorite CD/LP/SACD/DVD stores, hi-end audio shops, repair centers, music venues etc. For hi-end audio stores we can create a data base with such things as top two preamp/amp, speaker, digital, and cable lines; phone number with address (for using in web based mapping sites). I just need some time to put this together. Before I begin e-mail me your ideas regarding types of places you would like mapped. By the way, for those traveling some distance to visit a hi-end store, for example, it would be great to have some suggestions (identified by place name, zip code, address, phone number) near by for food and/or beverage. |
There was not a meeting last Saturday in Madison. I doubt other state's audio societies have generated the interconnected information. At least not in a mapped format. But to me it seems obvious how much stronger and coherent our proposed society will be if we make the mapped connections between the various parts of the electronically reproduced and live music. In addition, I would love to go to other parts of Wisconsin and enjoy that area's richness in other ways, beyond audio equipment, as well. For example, I came across a number of home spun books discussing Wisconsin's many local treasures (from various shows on Wisconsin Public Radio): Wisconsin's Hometown Flavors at http://www.trailsbooks.com/books/bookdes/WIhomeFlav.html Classic Wisconsin Weekends at http://www.trailsbooks.com/books/bookdes/ClasWI.html Great Wisconsin Restaurants at http://www.trailsbooks.com/books/bookdes/GWIRest.html Great Wisconsin Taverns at http://www.trailsbooks.com/books/bookdes/GWITAV.html etc etc I am convinced that we can make these meetings a really rich and rewarding introduction to people, places, and music in various areas across Wisconsin. If somebody up in Bayfield, for example, has Avantgard Trios and he is the only audiophile up there (which I truly doubt but for the sake of argument) I would make the trip to listen to the horns, take in Lake Superior and some local recommended attractions (parks, trails, restaurants, funky old world shops, taverns). On the shorter trips, like to Madison for example, a couple hours of listening to music interrupted briefly with testing the affects of swapping power cords or interconnects (just mentioned these components because we can easily bring these with us) on the music ebb and flow can be combined with beer on Lake Mendota (had to get this in). I think we all know how geeky we can become if all we do it stress out over affects of one tube over another and that is all the meeting is about. Music becomes richer as we do. The more diverse and fun/thoughtful our lifes' experiences the more there is of us to connect to our music. We may not be able to hear a 20 Khz tone at age 75 but we can see in our minds eye the setting of the sun on a Lake Michigan august afternoon as we listen to (you put in the musical artist(s))(the movie "The Big Chill" had a bit of this music/life connection, albeit a bit corny at times). In this way, our enjoyment of audio (aka reproduced music) and how it connects us will continue to grow and give much more to us than the cash (within financial reason of course) we invested in it. You know what I am talking about (I am sure)! |
Just to throw out a tentative date to meet. How does March 29th, Saturday at 1pm sound? We can work on exact meeting location. I can only meet every other weekend and having a meeting on April 12th might be difficult for those last minute tax preparers. So the next Saturday would be April 26th which should really bring the warmer weather with it. Which Saturday works best for the rest of you? |
My personal thanks for all the effort you are putting into this, Nanderson. I agree with your thoughts of using our audio interest as a means of leading to other rewarding experiences. Visiting someone who has AvantGarde's in Bayfield or Pipedreams in Door County would be a great excuse to turn it into a weekend vacation. As far as regular meetings, I personally would not be able to attend on a regular basis. Were you thinking of be-weekly? My own feeling is that quarterly might be more than enough, and perhaps even on an 'as needed' basis, but whatever materializes, I will try to support the effort. A March 29th meeting would work for me. |