G2Gs and Raves: How Do You Run a Successful First Audio Meet At Your House?

[mac5u]

Before I get to my question, I'd just like to say straight away that I could have just as easily posted this in the NY Audio Rave forum and only posted here, well, just because. So, no slight meant to the other forum.  Frankly, I don't know what the difference is between the two anyway.

So, I am relatively new to the Charlotte metro area and I have yet to meet anyone from NC or SC personally to check out respective audio systems.  I have never been to a G2G.  I'd like to get things going this year in NC and would be willing to host a G2G, but never having been to one, I am not sure where to start.  In the post below, richidoo says "...g2g's it's just like any party but with audiophiles. You can make it as complicated or not as you desire. You make the rules for your party, and it can be however you like". 

Sounds simple enough, but then there is this comment:  "People haven't stepped up because hosting a party at your house is work".   OK, I get that too, and that part doesn't bother me, it's just never having done it before.  But rather than go on about my questions, I'll just let richidoo speak on my behalf in an NC Triangulation thread.  He wrote it better than I could anyway.

As for g2g's it's just like any party but with audiophiles. You can make it as complicated or not as you desire. You make the rules for your party, and it can be however you like.

People haven't stepped up because hosting a party at your house is work. Cleaning it, feeding them, and often the wife has to at least help, often they will do much of the background work, so it is a family sacrifice that not everybody can commit too in advance.  Maybe the shyness factor, or wondering if their system is good enough, or big enough space affects deciding to host that first time. 

Can some of the other AN members chime in here about g2gs and Raves in small houses or without magazine cover type systems? How to run a successful first audio meet at your house?  That would a cool thread in itself. Feel free to start one...

I especially love how the NY groups have regular monthly meets. They are in NY where there are thousands of audiophiles, and their houses are relatively close. But people still need to show up and their individual commitments to their clubs are inspiring. They have volunteers to organize it, they carpool, loan equipment to each other, and they have a blast - every month. I'd move there just to get in on that action.  (Emphasis added)

So there you have it:  How do you run a successful first audio meet without a marquee system to draw in the crowd?  For me, it isn't the work but maybe it is about some of the other factors he mentions.

Thanks, guys.

[richidoo]

I am grateful that we do have all of that here in the Triangle too. Our core group of a dozen or so guys is still growing but has added so much enjoyment to this hobby for me.

Just remember the meetings are about being with friends, making new friends, sharing knowledge and stories with friends. If you make your g2g about friends then it will be a success, no matter what happens. Friends can laugh about ruined food or broken gear and come back again next time to try again. My last G2G was a bomb technically, but we found a way to have fun anyway. I like to think they will still come again next time. And I learned some good lessons too. The successful audio clubs like NY, St Louis, Denver, Triangle stay together and grow over many years only because of the friendships, not because of the quality of members' gear.  

It's part gear, part friends. You need both, but the friendships are the most important. A club based on friendship will grow if you make the G2Gs open and friendly for all comers.

[shadowlight]

1) Make sure that you let everyone know what is acceptable to you and your partner.  My wife is ok with us hosting provided 3 simple rules are communicated and acceptable to everyone.  We are vegetarians (no meat/poultry/fish, etc), do not drink alcohol and take shoes off when we walk in the house / house slippers are ok wear.

2) Provide plenty of food and drinks.  

3) Be willing to have folks swap equipment around.  Either you swap it in and out or designate someone to do it for you or anyone can swap.  I fall in the anyone can swap stuff in and out category, everyone treats it like a baby  

4) Expect your system to be driven hard.

5) Ensure that everyone gets sometime in the sweet spot.

6) Make sure that there is space for folks to mingle without interrupting the audio listening enjoyment.  If you are in a apartment say what your limit is on the number of folks.

Above all else have fun.  I treat hosting RAVE's as a learning experience.  My system is one of the low end one but with the help of the RAVE group, I have started tweaking it to get the best sound possible within my budget.  The other benefit to hosting RAVE is you get to listen to different equipment in your environment which helps the learning process.  The first RAVE that I hosted with the RAVE group my system consisted of LS6 speakers, Acurus A250 amp, Denon 2807 as pre, Sony DVD player and Squeezebox SB3.  The NY RAVE group members were kind enough to lend me equipment which allowed me to learn and tweak as needed without the need to go out drop a pretty penny.  Now my system consists of LS6 speakers, Digital Amp Company Cherry Jr Amp, Response Audio Bella Tube Pre and for transport I use Squeezebox Touch.

[lonewolfny42]

Well put shadowlight/Deepak....I'll add....finding new music to the mix...everyone has different tastes...so your bound to hear something new to you....and that's cool !

The reason we have all this fine equipment.......because of the music....

Enjoy.....

[woofersus]

I've been to gtg's that were just a handful of guys sitting around enjoying some music and snacks together and I've been to a gtg that had 90 attendees, 3 HT setups each in a separate room, a 2ch room for monitors, a 2ch room for floorstanders, multiple company sponsorships, door prizes, and a catered meal.  Anywhere in between those is fine.

Of course the point is just to have fun, and what that entails will depend on the group of people.  Sometimes it's a bunch of people who already know each other and the point is just to have everybody bring their favorite music and listen over drinks and snacks.  Sometimes the gtg revolves around some gear everybody is interested in checking out.  Sometimes everybody brings gear and it's a real showcase.  Plan whatever you want.

[tmazz]

Well put shadowlight/Deepak....I'll add....finding new music to the mix...everyone has different tastes...so your bound to hear something new to you....and that's cool !

The reason we have all this fine equipment.......because of the music....

Enjoy.....

I agree with Chris about the music and because of this one of the things I have tried to do at any of the AudioSyndrome meeting I have hosted over the years is to limit my playlist to things that can currently be obtained at a reasonable price. To me there is nothing  more frustrating than to have somebody play a great piece of music for uas and then say"I'm glad you like it. The album has been out of print for over 30 years and if you could find one it would set you back over $500."  There is enough good stuff out there that I can put together a selection of music for the evening that anyone could go out the next day and easily find. (Perhaps in a different format, but they could get there hands on it.

[tmazz]

1) Make sure that you let everyone know what is acceptable to you and your partner.  My wife is ok with us hosting provided 3 simple rules are communicated and acceptable to everyone.  We are vegetarians (no meat/poultry/fish, etc), do not drink alcohol and take shoes off when we walk in the house / house slippers are ok wear.

2) Provide plenty of food and drinks.  

3) Be willing to have folks swap equipment around.  Either you swap it in and out or designate someone to do it for you or anyone can swap.  I fall in the anyone can swap stuff in and out category, everyone treats it like a baby  

4) Expect your system to be driven hard.

5) Ensure that everyone gets sometime in the sweet spot.

6) Make sure that there is space for folks to mingle without interrupting the audio listening enjoyment.  If you are in a apartment say what your limit is on the number of folks.

Above all else have fun.  I treat hosting RAVE's as a learning experience.  My system is one of the low end one but with the help of the RAVE group, I have started tweaking it to get the best sound possible within my budget.  The other benefit to hosting RAVE is you get to listen to different equipment in your environment which helps the learning process.  The first RAVE that I hosted with the RAVE group my system consisted of LS6 speakers, Acurus A250 amp, Denon 2807 as pre, Sony DVD player and Squeezebox SB3.  The NY RAVE group members were kind enough to lend me equipment which allowed me to learn and tweak as needed without the need to go out drop a pretty penny.  Now my system consists of LS6 speakers, Digital Amp Company Cherry Jr Amp, Response Audio Bella Tube Pre and for transport I use Squeezebox Touch.

Most of these things apply to Raves. From what I have been told  Raves are all day things that often last well into the night and are a much more free form event than most of the AudioSyndrome meetings. (I will get to one someday, but I usually work Sat nights and would only be able to stop in for part of the afternoon. I seems that every time there is a rave that is close enough to my house to make a short stay practical I end up with some kind of work or family obligation that prevents me from attending. One of these days.......)

I have been an AudioSyndrome member since the late 80s and in all that time we have me primarily on Friday nights. Not sure why, but like Tevye said in Fiddler on the Roof - it's a tradition. (Guess what I was listening to today?) But that said meeting on Friday nights limits out meetings to about 3 hours. Given this restriction AS meeting tend to be a bit more structured than Raves. We usually have some kind of agenda for the night, auditioning a new piece of gear or tweak, a guest speaker followed by some pen ended listening. This is not to say that we never swap out gear but it is usually done in conjunction with the theme for the night. AS we get more and more cross pollination between the Syndrome and the Rave groups I am seeing more swapping at Syndrome meetings that we had in the past. Neither way is right or wrong,  just different (kind of like Chocolate and Vanilla  ice cream - whatever floats your boat

I think you bring up some great G2G tips, and the only thing I will take exception to is #3. Some folks have spent a lot of time getting things just so and are not comfortable swapping things around  and especially letting other people swap things around. All I would say is that this should fall under respecting the house rules. If the host is not comfortable with swapping we should all respect the hands off rule.

But most of all just enjoy the night (or day). If you have a good group of guys it will be an enjoyable time regardless of what less happens . Some of our best meetings ended up being nights when the formal part of the meeting bombed for technical or any other reason and everybody just spent most of the night BSing.

[topround]

Be prepared!....
Something I never was.....often coming to my raves after some of the guests arrived!

Raves can turn out large groups, especially in nice weather and if there has not been a rave for a while.

Setup the food and drinks early,this frees up a lot of time.
Have garbage bags and cans available.
Try to have a space for people to mingle and shmooze
Try to have a second system for others to play with
Expect gear swapping, even if you have your gear dialed in perfect, there is always something out there that will suprise you.

Big raves are a lot of work, and the host spends a lot of time running around trying to fill everyones needs,although Phil always made it seem easy ,

Raves don't really have rules, we make them up as we go along, it is free form, but since we are all adults, there never is a problem.

My audio history has been with raves, once I attended a NJ audio society meeting, it was so structured that I did not enjoy it at all, this is supposed to be fun!

So get everything as ready as you can the night before and you will enjoy your rave as much as the guests!

Mike

[Bill O'Connell]

Chris,
 from your new avatar it looks like you lost some weight.

[shadowlight]

I think you bring up some great G2G tips, and the only thing I will take exception to is #3. Some folks have spent a lot of time getting things just so and are not comfortable swapping things around  and especially letting other people swap things around. All I would say is that this should fall under respecting the house rules. If the host is not comfortable with swapping we should all respect the hands off rule.

Agree on point 3.  It could fall under point 1.  If you are not comfortable let it be known.

[shadowlight]

Well put shadowlight/Deepak....I'll add....finding new music to the mix...everyone has different tastes...so your bound to hear something new to you....and that's cool !

The reason we have all this fine equipment.......because of the music....

Enjoy.....

How could I forget about listening to new music ?

[tmazz]

Well put shadowlight/Deepak....I'll add....finding new music to the mix...everyone has different tastes...so your bound to hear something new to you....and that's cool !

The reason we have all this fine equipment.......because of the music....

Enjoy.....

How could I forget about listening to new music ?

Personally I find that that exploring new music (as in my knowledge of it, not the category of music) is the most important productive part of any meeting (and for me the most important forum on AN.) I look at it this way. I do not have the disposable income, nor quite frankly the time to change out any of my system hardware any more than once or maybe twice a year (maybe if I hit the lottery and retire, but certainly not now  ), but I can always come up with enough spare change to pick up a record or CD (or a pile of records and CDs if I am shopping at the Crack House  ) or I can even  stop down at one of the local libraries and explore a new avenue of music for no charge at all. I always try to bring a pen and a small memo pad to every G2G to jot down the details of any enjoyable music I am hearing for the first time. Because I have got to tell you that while I have heard many pieces of equipment that I liked at a meeting it is rare that I walk out of a meeting searching for my credit card so I can by one tomorrow (I won't say tat it has never happened  but it is not a common event. (a good part of that is because of synergy issues a new amplifier or pair of speakers is rarely an impulse buy.) However, I almost never leave a meeting without a few new albums to track down.

This is not to say that playing with gear isn't fun, we just need to keep things in perspective. I think every once in a while we all (myself included) need to remind ourselves that the hardware is the means to an end and not the end game itself.

BTW - I loved the idea that Carl had last fall (I think) to have a G2G that was solely centered around music.  I hope we can put something together like that up here in the near future.

[rollo]

    The NY Rave and the AudioSyndrome are two separate groups. We do come to each others venues and enjoy each others company.
    The AS differs in that we pay dues[ $25] have a President and Board of Directors elected each year. Most of the times we have a planned  event with a manf. or loaned component as well as the Rave group.   We try to limit the conversations to other areas than the listening room. Giving a chance to hear YOUR disc on the gear. We do not have the abundance of food and drink as do the Raves. My Rave in August was a trip. Feeding 30+ for lunch and dinner can be costly but worth every minute.  
    The bottom line its all about having fun both socially and musically. The Raves are fun and the group priceless. This May the AS will have a Rave style event at Triode Petes and Lissner's. Hopefuly Angel City tour will attend. I need to confirm this with Hugh this week. I owe him a call.
   We hope to have as many Ravers as AS attendees. See ya all there.
having a first time get together is what you want it to be. Set some house rules have food and enjoy.
 



charles
    

[evan1]

food makes a successful rave

[etcarroll]

Agree with Chris, hearing new music is a plus at GTGs. This morning I was listening to Eastern flavored music that D brought to my tubed pre GTG, through D's speakers.

Oh, and did I mention, D - you're not getting your speakers back!

Charles has a good point the Ravers, or anyone holding a GTG, need to take to heart, keeping the conversation out of the listening room, at the DAC shootout at Mike's I could have gone postal with all the yack-yack-yacking directly behind me.

But I like the free-form nature of the Rave vs. an agenda driven meeting. Music is organic, and the equipment carrying it needs to allow it to flow unfettered, as you may be surprised where it will take you, possibly someplace brand spanking new you never expected. I can see value in an agenda driven meet if you have a manufacturer present, or folks who spent money to be present with an expectation to experience some specific setup/music presentation. Otherwise, let it rip, and swap the gear!