Bangalore HFV Meet?

[santhosh]

Yesterday's HFV Meet was a fantastic experience. I would like to thank all HFV members for making this such a memorable meet.

To quickly summarise the day....
Members started pouring into George's place between 10:15 AM. We started introducing ourselves while listening to George's full range DIY speakers in his living room.

We then moved to his basement and around 11 AM, Venkat started his presentation about "Digital Storage and Delivery". He took us through the entire lifecycle of how music is played, recorded, stored (CD, tape, Vinyl etc) and finally the internal process of what happens within a CD player and then output via Amplifier to the Speaker. He then explained to us how we should now start moving to storage and retrieval of music on digital devices like PCs, hard-disks, flash drives etc. As always, it was a well researched and well presented session. Thanks Venkat for your time and efforts you have put in to share this knowledge with us.

Around 12PM, George started his session(very informally) about his journey and then on how and why he has implemented his Logitech Squeezebox. The beauty of it was that, it felt like George took over from where Venkat had left. It felt like a logical extension of Venkat's topic and this clarified all our doubts on how we can achieve what Venkat presented.

At around 1PM, some delicious snacks were served. Calling it snacks would be an understatement. Infact for most of us it was our lunch for the day. Susan (Mrs.George) had barbequed some mushrooms, zuchini, chicken and had also ordered Samosas, Puff, cakes, coke etc. We gladly gobbled(even gobble was present) the delicious food.

After the break, Kaushik presented to us how we could easily make DIY Silver Interconnect cables. He illustrated with pictures and also giving us sources to buy the materials. While his presentation gave us confidence to venture out doing something like that, most of here heads were spiralling about how to wind two silver wires in parallel around a cloth hose without shorting them...lol. I thought I was the only one who thought we could not do it, but most of us had the same doubts.

After this, George showed us the numerous computers, NAS, N Routers etc and we moved on the terrace for some group photos.

Anthony, our cameravision enthusiast was happily clicking away. He took multiple photos as it was difficult to capture all of us in one picture without jumping to the neighbouring house. We will have to wait two days for the photos.

We wound up the morning session, said our goodbyes and parted ways. Only some of us regrouped at ARN Systems for the afternoon session.

To be Continued....

 

[thevortex]

Great work by the Bangalore chapter! Next in line is our financial capital Mumbai!

 

[stevieboy]

Great work by the Bangalore chapter! Next in line is our financial capital Mumbai!

financial capital... hmmm... maybe mumbai can finance our next meet!

all the best vortex. why dont you get the ball rolling and make a post?

 

[thevortex]

financial capital... hmmm... maybe mumbai can finance our next meet!

all the best vortex. why dont you get the ball rolling and make a post?

Make a post about what, Steve? I am in Chennai.

 

[GeorgeO]

Well summarized Venkat, Steve and Santhosh

Great work by the Bangalore chapter! Next in line is our financial capital Mumbai!

I agree. I think that such interactions serve multiple purposes, and should be encouraged in all venues where there is a critical mass.

IMHO, they

1. Promote social interactions among enthusiasts in a friendly atmosphere, which is conducive and encouraging to to people/newbies then asking questions, clarifying doubts and avoiding costly mistakes which they may make with incomplete knowledge.

2. Presentations like Venkat's giving food for thought for people who may have a hazy idea about future trends. In this case it was good that I was able to supplement some of what he said, and people could see some things up close so they could easily comprehend some of the concepts that he talked about.

3. As a hardcore diy person, show people that diy was not an impossible dream, that it may made good sense and that the results were worth the effort, should they want to go down that path

4. This being the first effort here in Bangalore, ensure that the first meeting set the tone for future meetings-in terms of cordiality, take aways, and a feeling by all who came that coming for such meetings in future would be well worth the time and effort.

Santhosh was able to make the necessary connections/inputs and devote enough time to get things off to a good start. As an experienced bandicoot, I was more than happy to share some of my experiences with some of the younger enthusiasts. I think that auditions should be something that we should consider next time, trying to do it this time was unrealistic, since people were connecting up for the first time in many cases. I feel the suggestion that someone made, which we didnt follow up on, for everyone to introduce themselves, was a good idea.As the host everyone knew who I was, but not the other way around!

I will probably plan a presentation encapsulating some of my diy efforts for the net meeting.

Cheers

George

PS Stevie: Before you go off to parts unknown, the ribbon tweeter was the Raven R1, and the Focal mids were 5 inch in the MTM speaker system-it's the AriaR speakers. The tweeters ARE very special, considered by some to be among the very best available, price no bar.

 

[nizarp]

It was a great meet....

My thanks to George for being wonderful host and also for the informations he has given, my special thanks to Mrs. George for the delicious food:signthankspin:.

A very big thanks to Venkat for coming all the way to bangalore and taking a wonderful session. Also thanks to Kaushik for the interconnects session. It was really informative.

Also I would like to thank Sridar for the great demos and the tea and snacks.

:signthankspin:

 

[santhosh]

We eventually reached there even after Santhosh gamely getting lost and trying to show us half of Bangalore.

That was nothing Venkat compared to the route in which I took Suri back to his club. When we reached MG Road, Suri said "Santhosh, I think you like taking narrow roads"..lol.

Actually, I am not very familiar with that area as I don't frequent those parts of Bangalore very often. So, I took you guys in the route that I knew very well but there is some repair work going on Kamaraj and we had to take a detour through narrow roads. Even I was worried about getting my car scratched. Also FYI, most of Bangalore roads are like this now thanks to the Metro Construction.

a great meet! took away a lot and also ended the day with a splitting headache that caused me to retire to bed early. too much riding in the sun and cold drinks mixing.

was also really lovely to finally meet suri who also came over the next morning for a short listen. hope you've reached safe suri!

Nice meeting you buddy. Did you meet up with Suri at all last evening? He was still waiting for your call when I spoke to him around 9. Even I seem to have misplaced your number, kindly PM me your number. Suri started early morning today and is expected to reach his home only in the evening.

it was great meeting venkat from chennai. although we have agreed to disagree on his presentation that digital is better than analog

Stevie, don't think Venkat ever said Digital is better than analogue. He recommended storing your music on computer's etc in FLAC format and playing it via a PC->DAC->Amp->Speakers setup. The advantages were definitely seen in terms of cost-effectiveness, storage space, backups and most importantly convenience. He was recommending this for CDs mainly, for Vinyl-lovers like yourself, you have a longer process. Before that, you have to agree(which is a challenge) that a rip is of same quality as the original vinyl, played on a PC. As discussed, I shall visit your home sometime soon to share and experience your joy of Vinyl.

 

[kaushik]

First let me thank Mr & Mrs George for providing such a nice venue... and the BBQ specialties as well!
Also Santosh and others who have made it possible...

I must apologize for reaching late ... for my initial mistake of noting down the address... finally George guided me over phone.

It was really great to interact the hifiv people in person. Energetic Venkat sirs presentation on the digital devices for audio ,video ...interesting people .

One time I was moving towads the living room thought someone is playing acoustic guitar, then i realized it was actually George's DIY speaker set playing the music.

Got some rich info from Suri on speakers .. Buswal, suri,Venkat,Abhishek also many others gave precious time on a tight schedule .

Finally got the chance to meet shreedhar ,ARN systems demo was really wonderful.

I would love to freely help any one on the diy interconnect , as a common effort ...

 

[stevieboy]

santosh,

lol suri was mentioning your 'love' for narrow roads hehe couldn't help grinning away. we couldnt meet that evening cos he was busy on another call when i had called round 8.10 and by the time he called back was too late. early next morning we had small but good session. the gods were smiling on him cos normally power goes off round 9 but when he was there it went off obligingly a half hour later. i'll let him post his own impressions of the system.

re the better part methinks one of his slides had it as a title 'digital better than analog' anyways am headed that way myself as i've mentioned its convenient when you've got a lot of music and are doing something else that prevents you from changing cds or lps.

pming you my number. nice meeting you too!

regards

 

[stevieboy]

Make a post about what, Steve? I am in Chennai.

whoopsie! now why did i forget that?

 

[soulforged]

'digital better than analog' anyways am headed that way myself as i've mentioned

bro...in that case your records are mine hyeah:hyeah:hyeah:

 

[stevieboy]

bro...in that case your records are mine hyeah:hyeah:hyeah:

nice try soul, nice try!

 

[santhosh]

....continued

After we left George's place, we reached ARN Systems. I will not dwell in too much details about reviewing the speakers/amps that we auditioned there. I shall request the others to do this simply because I find it difficult to explain and differentiate using words. I learnt a lot of jargon\adjectives\words_otherwise_used_in_poems from Sridhar and the others present there.

Majority of us reached ARN Systems at around 3PM. Suri, Gobble and Hifipal4all reached here around 4PM as they dropped Venkat to the Railway Station.

There must have been introductions, not sure as I was late as I got lost (again:lol and George and Subbiah Sir (buswal) had to guide me to ARN.

When I entered, Sridhar was playing Usher S-520 monitors speakers. These were pretty good bookshelves but no match to the Usher BE-718's that we auditioned immediately after. The 718(a.k.a tiny dancer) looked beautiful in its finish and looked very well made. We played the same songs that we played on the S-520s. We found the tiny dancers to have better imaging, warmer sound and also quite fast.

Sridhar then hooked up the Emerald Physics CS 3 speakers. The CS3 is an open baffle speaker and a beauty by just by the looks of it. Although we could only see one large 15" driver, Sridhar then explained to us how a compressed high frequency driver was fitted through the magnet of the large driver. Idea is that the small tweeter would transmit the sound through the dust cap of the large driver. The dust cap was acoustically transparent and the cone of the larger driver acted as a horn. We were fulll of awe for that fantastic speaker design, the sound stage, the mids and highs. BTW, the CS3 is sold with a equalizer by Behringer. The Behringer makes corrections taking into account room dimensions, distance from wall(s) etc.

So far, we were listening on the Usher amplifier and an Ayon CD player (also acting as pre).

Next, Sridhar hooked up the older sibing form the Emeral Physics family - the CS 2.3. This is the same as the CS3 except it has two more massive 15" drivers for Low frequencies. This speaker requires Bi-amping and Sridhar powered the highs and mids(top most driver) using an Ayon tube-amp while the Operatta powered the two low frequency drivers. A different equalizer from Behringer was hooked on to this.

Between the two EP speakers, the majority of us liked the EP CS3 better. Sridhar did mention however that the Behringer equialiser for CS2.3 is yet to be updated with the latest software updates.

Thanks Sridhar for your hospitality. The snacks and tea were much required. We really enjoyed the demos. Gave us an insight on high end brands and the sound signatures of various equipment. After this, it will be a challenge to go back to our homes and like what we listen. Ramesh and I joking decided to listen to some music(noise??) in an auto rickshaw or a tea stall before going back home to listen to our systems. But I doubt if I will be able to forget the sound signature of the EP CS3 played on the Ayon tubes in Triode mode.

 

[santhosh]

lol suri was mentioning your 'love' for narrow roads hehe

Lol, I am glad I did not try to drop Venkat to the Railway Station. Without a doubt, he would have missed the train and with a little bit of luck we may have made it back to ARN in time to audition the Emerald Physics Speakers.

pming you my number. nice meeting you too!

regards

Thanks mate, received your PM.

 

[square_wave]

Oh Boy ! I completely missed this one
I had ran into this thread last week and wanted to follow up by the weekend. One of my folks had a minor accident the weekend and got into one loop of events and it just missed my mind.

I missed meeting some wonderful folks. Hope all of you had a wonderful time at George's place. Knowing him, I am sure you must have some lovely grubs and drinks

 

[santhosh]

At some point in the meet, I was able to count 26 of us. I shall try and post names of Members who made it to the meet. I will require help of others who have attended to add the names that I missed. Ok, here goes (ofcourse, in no particular order)

1) GeorgeO
2) Venkatcr
3) Suri
4) Buswal (Subbiah)
5) Prakasee (Prakash)
6) gbanavar (Ganesh)
7) t.anthony (Anthony)
8) Hifipal4all (Ramesh)
9) cmsajith (Sajith)
9) cary_audio_design (Abhishek)
10) Philip (george's friend)
11) Philip's colleague (?)
12) Subhash
13) Subhash's friend
14) Kaushik
15) Sudhir
16) Senthil
17) Soulforged
18) Nizarp (Nizar)
19) Gobble (Rahul)
20) Guns
21) sgmane
22) Aneelr (Aneel)
23) Santhosh (myself)
24)
25)
26)

 

[mahiruha]

....continued

CS3 is sold with a equalizer by Behringer. The Behringer makes corrections taking into account room dimensions, distance from wall(s) etc.

So far, we were listening on the Usher amplifier and an Ayon CD player (also acting as pre).

Hi Santosh,
thanks for providing us some idea about the events. I can clearly imagine the amount of fun you guys had.
Thnaks.
@Sridhar: This behringer concept is something very interesting specially it can correct problems taking into account room dimensions, distance from wall(s) etc. Is it a EP only product or product like this are available that can be coupled with normal speakers.
Thanks.

 

[venkatcr]

re the better part methinks one of his slides had it as a title 'digital better than analog' anyways am headed that way myself as i've mentioned its convenient when you've got a lot of music and are doing something else that prevents you from changing cds or lps.

I carefully went through the slides again, and I don't seem to have mentioned that anywhere. In slide no 6 (heading 'What is Digital?'), I mentioned the following points:

• Just another way to store and carry audio information
• Digital carries the same pitfalls as analogue
• Digital falls short of ideal by a lesser distance
• Digital is less expensive for same performance level

Slide number 16 was titled 'Advantages of Digital Systems' and had the following points:

• The quality of digital transmission is independent of the medium
• Wow, flutter, particulate noise, print-through, dropouts, modulation noise, HF squashing, azimuth error, and interchannel phase errors all gone
• Once audio is in digital domain it becomes just another data and is indistinguishable from computer data
• Multiple copies of data are identical any bit error can be corrected by error correction
• Storage is less expensive
• Advantages of progress in computer industry can be used in audio also manufacturing, technical progress, mediums for storing and transmission, user interface..

Anyhow, like George and you I am also switching over to a completely digital system. All my money is now going to spent on networking, PCs, Laptops, and DACs.

Cheers

 

[venkatcr]

Hey guys, where are the photos for which all of use sweated, walked up and down and posed like Madonnas?

Cheers

 

[nizarp]

Hi Venkat,

It will be of much help if you can post the PPT you have made for the session some where in the forum or just send it to my email - [email protected]