West Coast Roundup

[Hank Murrow]

Well in my experience you will be very happy with such a lineup. John Tucker's system at the second VSAC persuaded me that something very special was happening in the BH sphere, and Dan & Co. have certainly delivered us from the mega-buck marketers that became prominent as 'The High End' in recent years. An amazing transformation from kitchen table experiments to a Forum that invites creative solutions from all its customer/builders. PB is a good example____ from building a SEX amp @ 15, to product development and BH Customs @ 30. Nice trajectory!

BTW, Dan and BH may not need VSAC anymore, but we the Community sure do, to share our rigs and put our ears to the ongoing experimenting. I wonder how this could be organized?

Cheers, Hank

[Hank Murrow]

BTW, Dan and BH may not need VSAC anymore, but we the Community sure do, to share our rigs and put our ears to the ongoing experimenting. I wonder how this could be organized?
Cheers, Hank

Would anyone else love to see an occasion created where many Forum members might set up their systems for comparative listening??? I live and listen in Eugene, OR, but would travel up or down I-5 with my system to share the Bottlehead/Blumentsein love.

Cheers, Hank

[Skip Pack]

I have always felt that the Lone Star Audio Fest (and the earlier Great Plains AF) did this right. A small organizing group makes an arrangement with a Hotel (Always Embassy Suites in these cases) for an appropriate rate, with a modest discount, and folks come. You do with your room as you wish within the hotels tolerance. In the LSAF case, you would remove or relocate some stuff like tables and desks in the sitting room, and set up your system, while using the bedroom and bathroom as your lodging. There needn't be any or much organized program, and individuals and commercial folks have rooms. You wander around, learn and enjoy. I have always felt this worked better for me than program or serial demo situations. I might well come up with a system (from 80 miles south of SF) for such an event. You get a couple of days of sharing to balance out the grief of tearing down and setting up twice, and the opportunities for comparison are ample.

Skip

[Skip Pack]

Doc,

This almost certainly should be a new thread. Could you cut and paste?

thanks,

Skip

[Paul Birkeland]

I split the topic for you guys, feel free to keep tossing ideas around, and I'd imagine Doc B. will pop in and make some valuable contributions shortly

-PB

[Doc B.]

My initial thought is that to make this worthwhile in the present climate you need to make it big enough. In the days when we did VSAC ourselves, there were no other "audiofests" to speak of except NY Noise. Everything else was a commercial show. Nowdays you have so many events competing for everyone's attention that it will be more difficult to reach a critical mass of contributors. Witness the Craftsman's room at VSAC 2008. Dismal. 

So I would say you either go for it with a heavily promoted event and ample lead time, or just coerce some guy with a big livingroom into letting you all hang out for a weekend. We would certainly be happy to host a small event for a weekend day or two here at BHQ. We only have two isolated rooms so there would need to be an organized swapping in and out of gear. There's a good sized hotel/casino about 15 minutes down the road people could stay in. Just to be clear, I am an old guy now and do not have the excess energy nor the drinking habit necessary to wrangle such an event. I will however volunteer to carry a Homey the Clown sock and clown anyone who starts acting like an audiophool knob.