Anyone game for a enthusiast audio show

Yelamanchili manohar

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Hi all :)

This idea springs from a UK show, where members of a certain UK forum, congregate every year, in a hotel with their own domestic systems over a weekend of fun. This event takes place in a hotel, and is open to public.Though tickets to public are sold, to recover the expenses incurred by the forum managers, who take the risk of booking the hotel etc...

So the basic idea is that, a hotel is booked with removable beds and furniture , with rooms big enough to house a full fledged music system and enough electrical sockets and WiFi coverage to house a streaming system. Some trade manufacturers like audio Note also setup their systems, albeit at additional costs.

And the number of rooms is declared in advance of 8 months . Larger rooms cost more than smaller rooms. And the admins have to pay the hotel 6 months in advance. Since the details of the hotel and room sizes is declared 8 months in advance. Forum members have 2 months in hand to confirm their attendance, and pay for their rooms. The admins accordingly book, just the requisite number of rooms.

Once done, folks start arriving from all corners of England on Saturday morning, lugging their kit in their respective cars and trucks. Some directly book a room and arrive on friday itself. It is supposed to be a moment of camaraderie, when everyone helps everyone to unload their kit and shift them to their respective rooms. Then the day is spent setting up their systems in a unfamiliar room as best as they can. The whole time, there is lot of idle banter and fun. Once the systems are setup, beer flows. And everyone visits every other person's rooms to hear their system.

Come Sunday morning, the show is open to public from 10 AM till 5 PM. Though I admit that there are not enough foot falls to be honest. So these chaps keep listening to each others systems, followed by a curry night on Sunday for those who are staying back and leaving on Monday morning.

At the ground floor of the hotel, are stalls from vinyl and CD sellers, which apparently do great business. And forum members also bring along kit they want to sell.

So all in all, it seems to be fun. And I know some forum members in the UK who are in their 70's now, and find it difficult to carry their kit, but still make this annual priligrimage every year. Looks like they live and look forward to this show, year after year, to have some fun. And most importantly, meet their far away located friends from the forum.

I was wondering if it's possible to have a similar hifi Vision enthusiast show in india, a HFES if you want to call it. My kits not easy to transport, mostly very sensitive tubes and extremely heavy speakers at 120 kgs +. Hell even my CD player weighs 38 kgs, and that's still way lighter than my TT setup. But iam still game to risk lugging all this, if I can meet forum members I've known for years, only by their forum handles. And we mad hobbyists can spend 2 days listening to each others setups.

One risk is that, once the first show becomes a hit....we might be addicted for life :D
 
Hi all :)

This idea springs from a UK show, where members of a certain UK forum, congregate every year, in a hotel with their own domestic systems over a weekend of fun. This event takes place in a hotel, and is open to public.Though tickets to public are sold, to recover the expenses incurred by the forum managers, who take the risk of booking the hotel etc...

So the basic idea is that, a hotel is booked with removable beds and furniture , with rooms big enough to house a full fledged music system and enough electrical sockets and WiFi coverage to house a streaming system. Some trade manufacturers like audio Note also setup their systems, albeit at additional costs.

And the number of rooms is declared in advance of 8 months . Larger rooms cost more than smaller rooms. And the admins have to pay the hotel 6 months in advance. Since the details of the hotel and room sizes is declared 8 months in advance. Forum members have 2 months in hand to confirm their attendance, and pay for their rooms. The admins accordingly book, just the requisite number of rooms.

Once done, folks start arriving from all corners of England on Saturday morning, lugging their kit in their respective cars and trucks. Some directly book a room and arrive on friday itself. It is supposed to be a moment of camaraderie, when everyone helps everyone to unload their kit and shift them to their respective rooms. Then the day is spent setting up their systems in a unfamiliar room as best as they can. The whole time, there is lot of idle banter and fun. Once the systems are setup, beer flows. And everyone visits every other person's rooms to hear their system.

Come Sunday morning, the show is open to public from 10 AM till 5 PM. Though I admit that there are not enough foot falls to be honest. So these chaps keep listening to each others systems, followed by a curry night on Sunday for those who are staying back and leaving on Monday morning.

At the ground floor of the hotel, are stalls from vinyl and CD sellers, which apparently do great business. And forum members also bring along kit they want to sell.

So all in all, it seems to be fun. And I know some forum members in the UK who are in their 70's now, and find it difficult to carry their kit, but still make this annual priligrimage every year. Looks like they live and look forward to this show, year after year, to have some fun. And most importantly, meet their far away located friends from the forum.

I was wondering if it's possible to have a similar hifi Vision enthusiast show in india, a HFES if you want to call it. My kits not easy to transport, mostly very sensitive tubes and extremely heavy speakers at 120 kgs +. Hell even my CD player weighs 38 kgs, and that's still way lighter than my TT setup. But iam still game to risk lugging all this, if I can meet forum members I've known for years, only by their forum handles. And we mad hobbyists can spend 2 days listening to each others setups.

One risk is that, once the first show becomes a hit....we might be addicted for life :D
We had a couple of much smaller scale meets for Hyd. enthusiasts maybe 7-8 years ago - though they were only for half a day at most. They were fun never-the less. I think other FMs in other cities also have these type of meets. However I don't think a large scale show of this nature has been attempted.
I have been to many swap meets, and shows when I was in the US, we had an active Audio Karma chapter where I lived, so I got to hear and trade a lot of vintage equipment. It was from these swaps I developed a deep affection to Sansui/Accuphase tuners, and vintage Marantz receivers.
Cheers,
Sid
 
What is possibly more probable is to form groups in individual cities and their suburbs and visit each others house on weekends spread over a period (possibly cover more than one on the designated weekends) to listen and enjoy to different systems.
 
We had a couple of much smaller scale meets for Hyd. enthusiasts maybe 7-8 years ago - though they were only for half a day at most. They were fun never-the less. I think other FMs in other cities also have these type of meets. However I don't think a large scale show of this nature has been attempted.
I have been to many swap meets, and shows when I was in the US, we had an active Audio Karma chapter where I lived, so I got to hear and trade a lot of vintage equipment. It was from these swaps I developed a deep affection to Sansui/Accuphase tuners, and vintage Marantz receivers.
Cheers,
Sid
Exactly sid :)

We had a meet at my place, probably in 2017 or something. There were close to 15 members from hyderabad, who had brought in their kit for others to listen, and also to try their kit, at the end of other people's systems. It was really fun :D

I had sent my wife to my in-laws for the weekend, expecting to have a bash :D. But it sadly ended up being a dry day as it was gandhi jayanti that day :D

But we still had fun all the same. So iam keen on a show on the lines of that UK forum now. So keeping my fingers crossed.
What is possibly more probable is to form groups in individual cities and their suburbs and visit each others house on weekends spread over a period (possibly cover more than one on the designated weekends) to listen and enjoy to different systems.
We've already done that kannan :D, and hifi Vision hyderabad chapter is probably the most active at visiting and exchanging each others kit :)
 
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How about , if I put it this way :)

How about if I do the running around, and I manage to find a venue for something similar to the UK show. And I do all the arrangements with the help of our hyderabad gang.

How many enthusiasts from around India are willing to come. If there are enough folks showing interest, then we might, just get this started :D

Atleast forum members from chennai, Mumbai, pune , bangalore, indore, bhopal and bhubaneswar are within driving distance.Not to mention andhra chaps, who can actually come walking :D
 
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@Yelamanchili manohar , you talking about the WAM ? They are planning it this year too. A city based forum meetup might be a good idea to start with. Easier to do considering our transportation and distance constraints. From what I hear, dealers also participate adding to the excitement.
 
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@Yelamanchili manohar , you talking about the WAM ? They are planning it this year too. A city based forum meetup might be a good idea to start with. Easier to do considering our transportation and distance constraints. From what I hear, dealers also participate adding to the excitement.
Hi :)

Exactly...it was the Wam show that got me thinking. Are you attending the show this year by any chance. Its definitely on my list of to-do things in the future :)
 
Suggestions well taken :)

I live in one of those big apartment complexes. We have a massive function hall in the compound. Shouldn't be too expensive to rent. We also have 6 or 8 guest rooms attached, to accommodate any out station guests or even FM's from distant locations in hyderabad. I think the rooms are also reasonable at 1.5k per night.

But that hall doesn't have any acoustic treatment, so will be a acoustic nightmare. I've been there only once, but didn't check out how many electric outlets they had. Besides, it is usually engaged on Sundays. So will visit that venue once iam back home. And will continue this thread once the rates are confirmed. To be continued......... :D
 
déjà vu

 
Very Good Idea, you were a great host in 2017 meet up.

Unless we upscale it to the Level of What's hifi shows attracting the traffic will be a tough job. Charging the visitors may not be a good idea initially (later once we're popular maybe) IMHO. Unless the industry guys sponsor and we audiophiles piggyback on their contribution it'll be difficult.

Alternatively, how about a Virtual Meet to start with and keep the ball rolling?

All of us will record the same song on the iphone 10/+ , in our respective setups, with uniform recording parameters and Post it on YouTube, Mentioning the Equipments used? Though not a replacement for in person attendance but gives you a fairly good idea and you can gauge the waters /willingness..
 
déjà vu
Thanks for sharing the above sir :)

Read it in entirety. Was a tremendous lot of work on the organisation and co-ordination part to be honest. But unless I've missed something, I think it was 3 dealers demoing 3 of their systems each, in 3 rooms. But don't think, FM's were playing their systems in any of the above rooms, or in dedicated hotel rooms. Please correct me if iam wrong :)

My idea of the enthusiasts show is to play our own systems, very much on the grounds of the wigwam UK show. I guess this year's rates for participants is 65 GBP ( 45 GBP per room for 2 nights + 20 GBP lunch for 2 days ). So rough cost is 6500 INR per participant. I think UK is very reasonably priced, and doing something similar in any metro in India, will be almost double the cost.

Very Good Idea, you were a great host in 2017 meet up.

Unless we upscale it to the Level of What's hifi shows attracting the traffic will be a tough job. Charging the visitors may not be a good idea initially (later once we're popular maybe) IMHO. Unless the industry guys sponsor and we audiophiles piggyback on their contribution it'll be difficult.

Alternatively, how about a Virtual Meet to start with and keep the ball rolling?

All of us will record the same song on the iphone 10/+ , in our respective setups, with uniform recording parameters and Post it on YouTube, Mentioning the Equipments used? Though not a replacement for in person attendance but gives you a fairly good idea and you can gauge the waters /willingness..
Hi krithik :)

I've tried recording my sound a few times, and it always sucked :D

Unless we all use the same recording microphone and software, it won't be a base line atleast.

How about my idea of lugging all our systems to our building function hall. It is massive, so can easily accommodate 40+ systems. Though I have to physically verify how many power outlets they have once iam back. Besides, their is lift leading from the visitors parking to this hall, to easily haul up our gear.
 
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But unless I've missed something, I think it was 3 dealers demoing 3 of their systems each, in 3 rooms. But don't think, FM's were playing their systems in any of the above rooms, or in dedicated hotel rooms. Please correct me if iam wrong :)
If you see how, it started, it was this very idea but when we went on to book multiple rooms, we've realised that it would turn out to be quite expensive; despite my clout I had in the hospitality industry at Chennai, back then.

We then lobbied and got commercial members also involved who part-sponsored the meet.

So the show was showcasing a mix of dealers and members who then had to pay just nominal amount for the event, which included buffet lunch in Hotel Savera, a four star hotel. IIFC, I had my system, FM @mohamednaseer had his BBC monitors etc. Don't remember systems of other members.
 
If you see how, it started, it was this very idea but when we went on to book multiple rooms, we've realised that it would turn out to be quite expensive; despite my clout I had in the hospitality industry at Chennai, back then.

We then lobbied and got commercial members also involved who part-sponsored the meet.

So the show was showcasing a mix of dealers and members who then had to pay just nominal amount for the event, which included buffet lunch in Hotel Savera, a four star hotel. IIFC, I had my system, FM @mohamednaseer had his BBC monitors etc. Don't remember systems of other members.
Thanks for sharing the above sir :)

Yeah it will definitely be expensive having individual rooms in a city hotel. Will have to head to a destination outside the city, and during off-peak season, so thar the pricing can be reasonable.

Any ideas anyone :)
 
Thanks for sharing the above sir :)

Yeah it will definitely be expensive having individual rooms in a city hotel. Will have to head to a destination outside the city, and during off-peak season, so thar the pricing can be reasonable.

Any ideas anyone :)
I think it’s a very nice idea. I appreciate @Yelamanchili manohar for taking the initiative and look forward to participating when it happens.
A resort outside the city would be nice (less noisy) and more cost efficient. But I am happy to go along with the consensus and practicality/convenience of the main organisers in Hyderabad.

One request for your consideration: not in the hot season in Hyderabad
 
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