After reading the initial postings in this thread, I must confess that I went to Bangalore with a bit of trepidation in my heart.
I reached Bangalore at the unearthly hour of 0510. Santhosh got up even earlier to come and receive me at the station. Santhosh drove me to his house in his souped up Esteem. We kind of rested for a couple of minutes, and Santhosh was eager to show me his HT System. Beautifully built with all walls sound proofed and a Optoma 120 inch screen. Santhosh played a Blu-Ray copy of Transformers on his PS3 and projected through a Optoma HD20. This is the first time I am seeing a FullHD projection on a reasonably priced projector. The HD20 deserves all the praises it receives. The images were pristine and the motion were very smooth. Of course, as you go up the price ladder, one can say you will get better picture, but the price difference, I am sure, will be enormous for a marginal improvement. Santhosh's HT room has been well done. Even at very low volumes, I could hear and
understand the dialogues very clearly, and for me that is a critical deciding factor. Santhosh is using a entry level Sony AVR, and he is fondly looking at processor/amplifier combination. With that in place, I am sure Santhosh will have a system to be envied.
Santhos's wife, Vandana, was the epitome of a hostess and made some lovely breakfast for us all. Since I knew lunch was going to be a question mark, I stuffed myself with some lovely idlis. Their lovely boy child, Tejas, and I got on famously till he started smiling a lot at his nurse, and that made me jealous.
Santhosh and I drove down to George's place with Suri following us on his brand new Honda Jazz that he had driven all the way from Cannanore. We eventually reached there even after Santhosh gamely getting lost and trying to show us half of Bangalore.
George has a brand new house built with three levels. He has used the staircase landing of each level as a computer base. Using a wireless 802.11N router, George has switched over to a completely digital music storage and distribution system. He uses a ReadyNAS Duo from Netgear as both central storage and server using wireless networking. Using a PC on one of his landing he rips all his CDs into FLAC files, though he has other formats files as well. The Squeezebox software is used to periodically scan the music files added and be up-to-date on the music available on the NAS.
On the ground floor, George has set up a stereo system using a tube amp and DIY speakers. The Squeezebox is connected to this system. George demonstrated how he can, using a simple remote, choose the artist/song/genre that he wants and play the music some 200 feet away from the source. I strongly feel this is the way to go. I wish I had carried some of my FLAC files that I could have used for a quick audition - but then I don't think I could done it as we were all more interested in talking away and the noise level was quite high. Even when George was demonstrating his system, HFViers were standing in groups and discussing away to glory.
George also has a Sony multi disc CD player connected to some Onkyo equipment and a second tube amp. I also saw some three or four pairs of DIY speakers around the house. George is setting up a HT in his basement and he has already purchased a Popcorn Hour NMT. He plans to include this in the network.
George and his wife Susan were both the perfect hosts allowing us to roam about their house and stuffing all hungry souls with samosas and other goodies.
At roughly 1430 or so, we all started dispersing to assemble again at ARN's place. Unfortunately since I had to catch a train, I headed out to the station. Suri insisted on driving me to the station and I am extremely obliged to him for the courtesy.
All in all a very pleasant get together of people with similar interests and passion. I am sure as we move forward, these meetings will become more focussed. HFV meetings are ones I am not going to miss.
Cheers
