AudioNervosa
Group Therapy => Audio Syndrome NY => Topic started by: James Edward on June 21, 2014, 06:02:22 AM
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Thank you Mel for hosting a crowd. Excellent spread of culinary delights as always. I thought I smelled Sue's chicken cooking a few doors down- lucky for me I was right. Delicious!
New speakers are gorgeous- good luck with them.
I'm studying some old 'Get Smart' episodes in hopes of designing a giant cone of silence for our meetings. Or maybe we should pool our club dues for a Taser.
Audio Circle has a Bryston section where your CD/ no sub conundrum could probably be answered quickly enough.
Thanks again Sue and Mel.
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+1 Jim. As usual, a great meeting at Mel's. Good luck with the new speakers Mel, they're are beautiful.
FWIW, I agree with Jim on the difficulty of hearing anybody's system with all of the background talk and kibitzing. It happened at my May meeting too. Unfortunately, I can't think of a solution to it, but it somehow needs to be addressed.
At the same time, this thread is NOT the place to discuss this. Maybe we need to start up a private discussion via club e-mail?
My 2¢
SN
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If this thread isn't the place, then the board members or president should start an email chain to address this issue. I think it's ok; we're not outing a serial killer or anything...
Every single meeting has this issue; unless you are willing to stay until 11 pm on a Friday night, after most have left, there is no way to hear a club member's system.
For starters, maybe a Saturday afternoon meeting, where it could go an hour or two longer, and separate into those who want to socialize, and those who would like to actually listen to a club member's system. Early for the social crowd, later for the audio enthusiasts. I just don't see many club members having to skip Saturdays for a tee-ball game; we're a pretty (ahem), mature bunch.
I think part of the problem is that everyone feels they have the right approach to sonic nirvana, and listening to the host's system will simply verify that notion. Therefore, why bother listening.
End of ramble.
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It was so bad last Friday that I left about 10 minutes into the meeting and went home. Granted, I had to leave by 8:30 because we had something going on that I needed to be home for, but I was hoping to hear the BG's for at least one song before I left.
When I arrived it was already crowded and noisy. When the meeting started it was enormously crowded and a wee bit noisy, but there was no way to get anywhere near a spot to hear anything. Frustration got the better of me so I left.
I'm sure if I called Steve he would be glad to have me come over and hear the speakers at his place (he only lives 2 minutes away from me, so that is easy). If they sound anything like the prototypes did in his place last year then these are truly awesome speakers.
Mel's house is large, but it is very open. There really is no place to go if you want to talk that isn't within hearing of his listening room. The talkers have to go outside, which is fine in better weather.
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Hey Tom, what does the clubs $$$ treasury stand at? Maybe we can buy one of these storage PODS, add wheels to it and a trailer hitch. Then we can drive it to meeting each month, park it out front and herd all of the socializing (vs. listening) guests into it. They can "chat" to their hearts content and not interfere with hearing the hosts system! :rofl:
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Portable
Outdoor
Discourse
Shack
Perfect idea Bill!
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(http://www.wouldyoubelieve.com/graphics/cone_title.gif)
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Portable
Outdoor
Discourse
Shack
Perfect idea Bill!
Thanks, Jim! Perfect name too! :lol:
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I'm in for listening sessions to a club members system and would be up for it on a Saturday night. When I have listened to some people's systems here it was a real treat for me.
Maybe it is up to club host for that meeting to settle the people down so others can do some listening to their system. That or move them to another area. That PODS idea was really funny. It is difficult though to tell people to be quiet.
The urge to not want to talk about stuff with members is hard as well. I've met some of you and could talk about audio gear/music for hours. Multiply that times how many members and it could get noisy.
Another thing is how about you set something up for the listening session by having members bring in pre-cleared music selections or specific tracks that they can play on the host's system. That could entice people to want to listen as it would be their music playing. I'd really love to hear some of my favorite tracks on another system to hear if I pick up any differences.
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Dean the problem is not really with the people, but more with the venues. As we have grown as a club the number of people at the meeting has gotten larger and larger. Since we are meeting in peoples homes this presents two separate, but compounding problems. First off there are very few if any of us that have a listen room that can accommodate a crowd of 30 - 40 people at one time. (and even if it could, have that many people in the room at once almost always drastically alters the SQ of the system and rarely if ever for the better. That said we are pretty much relegated to listening in shifts. Which leads us to problem 2. Very few homes have a listen room that is physically separate and acoustically isolate from the gathering/eating area where the non-listening group must wait their turn to hear the system. It is kind of a Catch-22. You don't want to turn people away,you can't expect people to stand around in silence for a half hour or more while waiting for their turn to hear the system, but you don't want the conversations of the non-listeners to intrude into the listening areas.
People invite us into their homes and those homes were not designed and/or optimized for hosting large groups of audio crazies, so we have to take what we can get.
Other clubs have addressed this problem in different ways (and with varying degrees of success.) . For many years the Audiophile Society held pretty much every meeting in the same place. They had a member with a large home who offered to let them use it as a permanent meeting place. while this gave them a good venue they also lost the benefit of seeing other members systems and setup. They also capped there membership and at one time there was a significant t waiting list to get in.
Over the past few years the NYAR seemed to start hosting an increasing number of "mini-Raves" which addressed this problem, but at the same time the number of full sized general membership Raves seemed to drastically decrease. (This is just observational from what I read hear on AN. I am not a member of that groups so I cannot say whether or not there was a causational relationship between those two trends.)
The bottom line is this is an issue that the Syndrome, and other clubs have been dealing with for a number of years now and there seems to be no easy solution.
Any thoughts from some of the groups in other parts of the country?
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If you have a lot of people attending your meetings and lots of people are enjoying themselves...then you are obviously doing something right.
Serious listening is a private thing and should really take place in ones own home to truly understand a piece of gear. That being said I still believe you can get an idea of what something sounds like in a crowded venue. God knows the audio shows are not ideal venues and people come out of the woodwork to attend, and they usually have less than stellar sound.
So Catch 22 is correct, there is no perfect world...just be happy people are coming and enjoying themselves, and if people would like to have a mini meeting or if someone is really serious about hearing something that is featured at a meeting then try to arrange a private listen. You were invited once en masse, I am sure the host would entertain you privately if it is not too inconvenient.
If it were me I would ask people nicely in the beginning of the meeting to chat outside if the weather is nice. I am sure this is a custom that could be quickly adopted, people just need to be conscious of it and they will follow suit. If everyone is drinking beer and eating and chatting and laughing....well that is part of the fun too!
I once thought of joining a local group and after one meeting I never went back. Not my cup of tea, no fun, too serious, we are a group of people who like stereos, and we like to talk about stereos, its for fun!
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"System consists of............ and a really cheap cd player."
Oh no Mike!!!!! Say it isn't so!!!! :shock:
Are you really going back to the dark side????? :rofl:
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Mike, I agree with your point. For me these meetngs are at least 50% if not more a social event. So people having a good time is not a bad thing. But at the same time we want to at least try to set up an envirnment whee at least some serious listen can be done by those who wish to do so. Will it ever be as good as a more private listen session with only 3 or 4 bodies in the room, not a chance.. But at least we should try to have a somewhat credilble listening experience so some part of the meeting. That is the balance that I think everybody is trying to strike.
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Perhaps an awareness of this issue will make people more sensitive in the future about this point.
Maybe send an email to everyone in the club to try to restrict chatting to outside the listening room.
I think eventually it will catch on....people try to mimic others behavior....sometimes.
Keep the beers cold!
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While i am not a member of this group, I have often thought of ways to conduct a gatherings. There are several ways to the k about this but my thoughts are as follows.
A gathering of any sort is going to be about a lot of socializing. Just like at the shows, I too like to chat a lot.
My thoughts have always been about scheduling. For the first hour or so while people are showing up, that's the time for people to "catch up" so to speak. There always seems to be a lot of food at these events so maybe this could be the cocktail hour
. Then it a pre determined amount of time for listening. You can always take.breaks after a few tracks, turn it down a bit and discuss comments or question about the system and/or music. Some may want to get into more serious discussions. These discussions can be taken outside or to another room as not to disturb the listening session.
The problem is that there are always two groups of people that attend any type of gathering 1) Those who are there for the task at hand 2) Those who just want to hang out and socialize....... okay maybe #3....those.there for the free food :D
It is up to the host to take a little control over the event and up to the guest to respect the wishes of the host and the true reason behind the event.
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Bill all of your ideas are great expect where the problem comes in is when there is other room for the discussions to take place in. With all of the homes now using open typ floorplans it is becomig harder and harder to find a place with walls and doors that separate the listenimg area from the gathering area. If the Chatters go to the other side of the house and there is nothig but a hallway between the two areas the chatting noise travels into the listening area thuis causing the conflict. In most cases it is not that the people aren't leaving the listening room to chat , but rather thatg the area set aside for them toio chat in is not acoustically isolated from the listening area. And since we are limited by the phyical layout of the hosts home I am not sure what we can do about it. (Chatting outside may not be a bad thing in May or June, but it sucks in Jan and Feb, especially up your way :D)
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I understand home.layouts cannot always accommodate all the needs of a large gathering. Just trying to through some ideas out there. Maybe those who plan to host should just buy a home with a dedicated, soundproof listening room :thumb:
I think this emphasizes my last comments about guest respecting those who are opening their homes to a gathering. Give and take goes both ways.
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Maybe send an email to everyone in the club to try to restrict chatting to outside the listening room.
I think eventually it will catch on....people try to mimic others behavior....sometimes.
Ha .. fat chance with these old biddies. We can't even get 75% of them to come to this forum and post. Technically Challenged is a term for those who find things difficult, but still try them. These guys don't even want to try, for the most part.
You are right though. We are in a transitional growing pains kind of situation. When the group was smaller there seemed to be a common goal, and listening was an integral part of the meeting agenda. With large groups it turns into a "rave" and we all know how much fun those are, but how little listening actually happens.
Perhaps we just need to let go when the crowd is large. I personally like to attend a large gathering, but I only host smaller groups at my home so listening can take place, and because my wife would freak if 50 guys showed up. Mucho payback for moi!
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Outside in Jan or Feb would suck to have a conversation but I am sure Charlies Limoncello would help keep you warm :thumb:
it certainly would keep the conversation interesting :duh
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Thanks Sue and Mel for hosting. We all had a great social evening however did not offer much respect for the presenting rep for BG Radia. Maybe because Steve is our club member he did not get the respect deserved. Mel our host the Scientist of the crowd did not have a handle on the Berhinger EQ device. It was down about 7DB which IMO created a presence lacking sound. The BG Radia speakers are known for their presence and clarity. It appeared top heavy as the Carver Subs were not on with CD playback.
It is totally understandable that when a system is not up to snuff the crowd gets restless. Just needed more adjustments or eliminating the Berhinger from the main speakers and just use for sub EQ.
It took me awhile to get everyones attention to open the meeting. Now two clubs were there. The culprit BOTH.
All in all we had a good time though as the Audio BS was shooting left and right.
See yall in Sept.
charles
Granted it is a good time however we owe it to the presenter to keep the chatter down and listen.