Don;t feel to bad for my wife Julie, she went out for dinner, ice cream cones, and a symphony concert at Koka Booth amphitheater playing the 4 Bs Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Berlioz. Bratty kids precluded staying for the Berlioz, but thye all had a blast while I was stuck at home running wires, cooking and owrking on the car. Oh, and a few other things...
I agree with Steve about the need to listen to your creations in the presence of others. I can feel other peoples' impressions so their presence is a great way for me to judge my system, or compositions, or whatever.
Audiophiles that I infrequently gathered with at the beginning of my participation in the hobby were not as available mentally or physically to meet and share the love of the hobby. They don't read forums, so I'm not embarrassed to say it here. They have other priorities and audio is more casual to them than it is for me. So I am grateful now to know a handful of people who share the same interest and dedication to it (obsession?) as me. Last night with the JPS installed, a little pile of BSC PC and Grovers was sitting on the floor, and I remarked teasingly about the pile of wires and how no other crowd would understand that little pile cost 2kilobucks. The joke wasn't funny, partly because I am a terrible joke teller, but also because everyone understands and accepts that good wire costs a lot of money, we are in the same frame of mind, making sharing the hobby much more fun.
We also had a rank newbie named Jason at the G2G, he has a nice mid-fi setup at home and listens to a lot of music. He was especially fun because he was very passionate and vocal about his preferences which were for the zing, brightness, hyped highs, etc. He hated the Altmann, thinking it was too dull and boring compared to the other DACs which were much more exciting to him. We engaged him in discussion to suggest he listen deeper into the sound and consider the advantages of the NOS approach and listen for the more subtle aspects. That was a lot of fun for me. He is very dedicated to the sport and will hopefully come to future meets.
If it means getting together more often, I don't mind hosting until the other audio dungeons come online, that just means less driving for me. Next year, I won't have to host at all! hehe
Rich