An Idea To Bring New-b's Into The Fold More

MrGee

Stereotomus Lobotomus
Last night, I had a vision.
(No, Halle Barre was not involved)

How about a room or two at the next fest.

These rooms would be for the "team audio competition."

Each team of four would have 200.00 or so, (of their own money) to buy used stuff from ebay or flea markets or diy.
They would put together a system as a team, set it up and play it for the visitors.

At the end of day one, the exhibitors would all go through and listen to all the team systems, picking the winner by their votes.
There would also be a vote box for the regular visitors to the fest.
Each of the four would have certain times to babysit the system they are involved in.

What do you think?

I think it would be a way to get people involved together before meeting and be pretty damn fun.

Also, it would be a way to show people what they can do for 200.00 on fleabay or 500.00 ???? It would have to be CHEAP, so that there was only 50 or so coming out of each persons pocket.

The winners would have to win something...like they could each win a pretty nice door prize from the exhibitors at the show.

What do you think??
 
Audio, and everyone's enjoyment of audio is such a subjective thing that it's really hard to judge. You can be standing next to someone listening to the same system, and they might love it and you hate it. I kind of like the existing format where you can go and listen to a wide variety of systems and subjectively find out what YOU really like to listen to. That's the big attraction of the fest for me.

Mark
 
Some random thoughts

Interesting idea but I don't think that a competitive element is a good direction to go in. JMHO. Along this same vein though would be as some car shows do their judging and that is with ballots handed out at the time of registration. Then every attendee would be able to vote for any number of possible divisions or classes of sets ups. Some possible examples might be Best of show Manufacturer, Diy'er, Best looking, Most novel, Cheepest, most expensive, best club or group entry you know just about anything. Still in all fairness Ak has a very good format for these events with DIY'ers and Manufaturers both presenting avenues for obtaining great audio. With the easy going non competitive nature that we all can learn from. Todays DIY may be tomorrows off the shelf and vis-versa!
 
Last edited:
hey-Hey!!!,
Seems that you'd want to present a means of capturing the attention of somebody who already has taken the step to going to the fest in the first place. What is required to accomplish that? There would be more than a single way to address that I think. demo-ing cheap audio is one thing, but a look into something like the McIntosh room should be enugh to prove it isn't a small price tag that is attractive. Let's try and avoid attempts to legislate common sense and maintain focus on the audio.
cheers,
Douglas
 
Better - let the merchants judge and the the members judge. It is always interesting to hear from both sides.
Thats what I meant to say, but it did not come out right. Definitely! Exhibitors choice and public choice!:banana:
 
hey-Hey!!!,
Seems that you'd want to present a means of capturing the attention of somebody who already has taken the step to going to the fest in the first place. What is required to accomplish that? There would be more than a single way to address that I think. demo-ing cheap audio is one thing, but a look into something like the McIntosh room should be enugh to prove it isn't a small price tag that is attractive. Let's try and avoid attempts to legislate common sense and maintain focus on the audio.
cheers,
Douglas

Would you please elaborate on your post? I don't quite get what you mean.


The competition would not be a fight. It would be more of a demonstration of what can be done on a shoestring budget, but more than that, what could be done together from different locations and schools of thought.
I just thought it would be a way to get people involved in a common goal. Ya know? Not all old timers together, but break teams up to include both new and old for a good mix.
Sometimes a little coordinated voluntary teamwork goes a long way to break the ice.
(And I think a display of some decent sounding gear with a little contest would be one of the best ways to get people talking to each other and show a clear entry into the hobby without "Mcintosh money" being needed.)

My guess is, the teams would have some of the vendors sneaking in 300.00 IC's when the systems were getting set up...but that is just me.

I thought it would be fun.
 
I kinda like the idea MrGee. All competitions aren't competetive in a bad way. You can have fun with it. The fun is getting there, not who wins.

I liked the idea of best in show, etc. even more. I've seen that done at antique radio meets and it brings out some cool stuff. For example, you could have a theme each year - a brand, or some particular type of gear - tube preamps for example. Judged on overall quality, sound quality, looks, craftsmanship, etc. Not that you want to turn everything into a competition, but it could be fun I think.
 
Great idea. As long as the teams represent different "philosophies" about creating great sounding systems, the results could be fantastic, especially for a newb who has little breadth of experience.
 
Back
Top Bottom