Southern CanFEST 2009 - Page 7

MOT?

It is a great meeting, with those vendors being there, I get chance to try so many headphones and amps. Many thanks to Danny for organizing this. For such a multi states meeting, I think it is ok to invite as many vendors as possible.

However the room is too small, too crowed and noisy. It did looks like a trade show. Sometimes I just cannot concentrate on what I am listening. I wish we could have bigger room or two rooms so that we can have more tables for our head-Fiers instead of let the vendors dominate the meeting. (even that means we have to pay for attending the meeting!!!).

We (headphone lovers) are very rare in the population, I guess it is even less than one in a thousand? community building is very very important. Since this is my first experience to such meeting, I don't have any reference. But maybe a smaller meeting for local head-Fiers will serve this better? because those are the people in the area that you can meet more often.

Major props go out to DannyB for planning this and i'm happy to have been a part of it. I did enjoy being there, but majorly sympathize more with the comments that I feel many others are being very diplomatic about.

To explain my own feelings, I believe that the vendors were only doing what they were invited to do and expected to do, they deserve absolutely no flak. I was happy to be able to listen to a lot of their gear and would love to hear it again if space allowed. They were not a nuisance at all by coming, it just cut out what I feel was the important stuff which is community gathering and culture. It was not a head-fi meet to me at all personally.

I had a hard time separating the actually head-fiers out of the large crowd that attended. Many CAS members showed up to meet Joe Grado and also to raise money for their organization as far as I know. They seemed to take credit along with DannyB for arranging it almost completely as a favor to head-fi to me.

This meet was advertised on at least two other audio forums including speaker forums. The event was confusingly labeled CAS CanFest on the event listings, with no mention of head-fi.

The expected attendance read 100-150 people in the forums before I left and I arrived to find a room that was surprisingly about as big as the middle school classroom I teach in (I have a larger room for Technology). Moon Audio and Cary Audio took up about 60% the length of one of the two lengthier walls, the rest was for sale items with one lonely head-fier with his (may I say great) gear stuffed in the middle of those.

The other wall across was 80% vendors. Including packgrog, alwayswantmore was the only other non-vendor on that wall who was there also representing ALO and red wine audio in my eyes.

The middle row was dedicated to head-fiers and some more for sale items. Fitz and Ingwe got stuffed into a space in the middle roughly twice the space that was taken up by a scout turntable being sold for $2000 across from them. Though I believe everyone that brought gear got space, which is a plus, Head-fiers did not truly have enough space for chairs to sit at such as the vendors did, so some ended up standing in the aisles rather then have the people in the aisle brush past or trip over them. Its a miracle to me that no one ruined any gear tripping over a cord at times when you couldn't see the floor around the people. It was loud, conversations were not easy to do when it was a task to stand in one spot and you couldn't stand in the main room almost without blocking access to gear.

To say this was not expected could be considered negligent from the facts, the layout was posted this way at about a quarter to nine pm the evening before this way. Head-fiers couldn't judge by this because dimensions weren't there, but those involved in planning should have been able to. When this was brought up at the meet, I believe I was told that there was nothing they could do once the room was booked because no others were available.

I can't hold the lack of the audiologist, HD800 (it wasn't even out yet), or Ultrasone ED8 against the planning party, but I will say that the event was overbooked completely to the point of annoyance and dismay for the head-fiers excited about gathering in a listening environment. For the future, I truly believe that some of these major problems could have been improved had expectations for everyone including vendors been made clearer.

Thank you

Your points are appreciated and well taken. We, in part, were a victim of our own success in that the event was perhaps over promoted. When the hotel was first booked, several months ago, the space appeared adequate to meet our expectations. Unfortunately, there were no other rooms available to give us the option of a larger space. Had it been I would have grabbed it. If there is a next time, two perhaps three large rooms will be used to allow for a MOT area separate from a head-fier area allowing for each group to meet their own specific and unique needs.

Thank you for your comments. This helps us.

Agreed, manaox2. And again, thanks to DannyB and the vendors. I just want to be absolutely clear that I'm glad so many vendors were able to make it, and that the event was possible at all. I think Danny is correct that he/they were a victim of his/their own success. I was and am disappointed and frustrated, but I think that was beyond anyone's control.

I think the one real complaint I do have that WAS under the organizers' control, however, was the noise level. It really was too damn loud. Everyone was guilty of this, possibly even me (though I tried to keep my voice down as much as possible). This is surprising to me given that the majority of cans on display were open. We all should have known better, but we forget, and it cascades through the crowd. I was stunned at how much a difference it made when the first raffle announcement was made and everyone finally quieted down. That level of quiet should have been enforced more strictly.

Thanks again, and hopefully I'm not coming across too much as a whiny jerk. Heh.

Oh absolutely, the vendors have no fault in this at all. The issue we're taking up isn't the vendor presence, it's that the reality of what the event was going to be was rather misrepresented in order to get us to come. The vendors themselves were certainly a lot more sociable than a lot of the CAS members present, and then there's Ray.



Heh, I actually calculated it and the vendors + Danny's stuff for sale took up over 80% of the table space in the room. The remainder was half for additional things for sale (more of Danny's stuff?) + CAS newsletters, and half for member rigs. I'm equally amazed that nothing was damaged. Since Head-Fiers were only allowed use of the 18" wide tables instead of the normal 36" wide ones, I had to have the SS amp hanging off the edge of the table to give a few inches of space in front of it to set headphones (only 2 of 3 would fit there, so I had to carefully balance the 3rd on other equipment or set it on the floor). Even then I was constantly worried about my K1000 falling off or getting knocked off the table, so I spent most of the time hovering near my setup.

Still I did manage to get to show you, and possibly others, what the sextett is supposed to sound like.

Your not, I am.

I really did get a whole new impression of the K240. Just awesome.

Crap. Didn't even know you were there, Fitz. Would have been nice to actually meet you. :/

what a disappointment.

if i went to a "head-fi" meet and it was like this, it would probably be the last one i attended.

We might've talked at some point and not realized it? I was the skinny white dude with a buzzcut, green shirt saying "If my music is too loud, then you're too old." At the beginning and end of the event I had on a leather jacket that I think might've covered up the name tag.

Yea. Fitz was there.

Fitz stayed up **very** late a few nights last week to finish his amp in time for the show. So far, not one photo posted of his beautiful work. Obviously not as cool as Joe Grado or huge amps with pretty tubes. Many attendees missed an opportunity.

Oh, speaking of Mr. Grado, I have the highest respect for his professional contributions. But, the pedestal some of y'all have put him on--ad nauseam--is just too much kool-aid to swallow.

I'm tired of the Victim of Success spin. How does that apply to displaying that Turntable-for-sale being more important than providing hobbyists appropriate space.

I'm also tired of the "vendors rah rah rah" spin, when no one blamed the vendors. Straw-man crap.

I was asked several times if I was selling something, if I was a vendor. After my, "nope, I'm a hobbyist" response, more times than not the questioner was rather incredulous as to why I was participating. I found this rather amusing--and sad.

Eventually Atlanta will get its act together and show y'all how it's done.

Help us to do better

The purpose of CanFEST was to bring people together. Headphones, and related equipment, were the excuse. It may not have been done in a way that met everyone's approval. And I now better understand and appreciate the position of a "Meet" being more personal and, for the most part, without manufacturers/MOT.

Another goal I had in doing this was that I was trying to help pass the torch and bring young people into this hobby because if we don't it soon dies when we do. And guess what, mission accomplished. Several young people attended who were in their teens and early twenties. It was a thrill seeing a teenager talk with Joe Grado. What better representation could there be of passing the torch than that? One day, this youngster will hopefully know much more about Joe and what he contributed to this hobby. At least he had the opportunity to meet and talk with Joe. Few, if any "meets" accomplish this concept since they have such a narrow focus, which is fine for the hard core participants, but will not likely attract new people to help perpetuate the hobby.

The best case scenario, IMHO, is to have our cake and eat it too; have at least two large rooms, one to accommodate head-fiers who wish to bring their own systems and share them with others in a more quiet environment, and another separate room for members of the trade to allow attendees to see what the latest and greatest is to experience. This gives diversity which is a good thing. I do not think the two groups are mutually exclusive but rather can exist synergistically. In retrospect, perhaps due to my inexperience, I tried to blend the two in a way that didn't work well. I think there are ways this can be done, as noted above, to help meet and accommodate the wishes of all attendees. Believe me, I agonized over not having enough space, without the ability to make a change, for the last couple of weeks when I realized this may be bigger than I had originally intended. It was not deliberate, it just happened. And let's face it, we had about 10,000 hits on the original thread. Did that not give people the idea that this was not going to be a small meet?

As it turned out, the room was too small but we had no idea how many would attend. This can be easily remedied in the future with preregistration. Additionally, for those who commented about not knowing what to expect I direct you to the original CanFEST thread which clearly kept people updated about what members of the trade were coming and what equipment they were generally planning to bring. Clearly, it would have been better to have had more space for head-fiers to show their fine set ups but it was obvious a large segment of the event included members of the trade. In response to fitz, I think he may need a new calculator. I had one table and about 3 feet in the Buy Sell Trade area. Had anyone approached me and asked if I would mind moving the two items on the Buy Sell Trade area I would have gladly done so to make room for others. Also, fitz left out what equipment I had on my table. Suffice it to say it was a reasonable representation of several different amps and headphones; a collection that allowed many attendees experience a diverse group of equipment; the reason for which most attended, to serve the purpose of exploration and experimentation.

Regarding the proceeds, the purpose of this was if there was any left over, part was to be donated to Head-Fi, which I noted on the original CanFEST thread and this will be done. Other monies are to help our local audio society continue to exist and to promote our hobby of audio. I personally took the financial risk to make this event happen and did not know if we would be in the red or black. As it turned out we did OK and a little money was raised after expenses were met. This was not a project to simply raise money for the non profit Carolina Audio Society as someone suggested. I clearly took risk, personal risk to help the local audio society. What was amazing was one of the manufacturers offered to cover all costs of the event not met by money raised. This was before the event occurred and he really had no idea what it could come to. I told him it was covered but what a generous and kind deed. Clearly his heart is in the right place. While his business may benefit somewhat so would his competitors. That's unselfish generosity in my opinion. These are the people who give the hobby a good name.

So, I really don't get all the negative comments. Sure, we're not perfect but the intent is to perpetuate the hobby for everyone. Clearly we can do better and seeing constructive comments helps us towards this goal. But I hope everyone understands that our heart is in the right place; to further a wonderful hobby, to give us a diversion and perhaps escape from everyday life when we feel the need. Why does this point seem to be missed by some people? Are some of us missing the forest?

Ideas to help improve are welcome. Criticism is fine. Negative comments don't really accomplish much and only discourage people who are giving of their time and energy. Is there not a better way to help improve something? I think so and I appreciate the people who understand this. These are the ones who accomplish great things in life, whether small or large. Thank goodness these people move forward and don't get derailed by the negative comments and attitudes of others. Thank goodness.

Finally, there are those of you who will likely pick apart the above words. But again, you then still miss the point. Do something to help our/your hobby progress. Consider contributing to perpetuate the hobby of audio or whatever you feel passionate about. Anyone can complain; that’s easy and a cop out. Make some real contributions of substance that are helpful and at the end of the day you will have been a part of making something better.
It’s really that simple. Help us, yourself, or anyone, to do better. That gives you purpose.

Nah it's cool. There were a few members and one DIYer who I got to talk to at length about the amp, and I'm used to working 'til dawn like that on occasion so it's not like it wasn't worth it.



Well that's fairly obvious, somebody really wanted to sell his turntable more than he wanted the hobbyists to have adequate space.



The low-key meets we've had in Loganville are the sort of thing I think we should try to continue and build up from, rather than jumping to any kind of big wide-area event. The venue is absolutely perfect too, as long as Blaise continues letting us use it.

*shrug* I was the long-haired bearded guy who did the walk of shame out of the door around 11:30 or noon. I don't remember the last time I was that embarrassed. Ah well.

I do think I know how to use a calculator at least for basic functions. I would've gotten nowhere making amps if I couldn't do that much.

The tables along the perimeter were 8x3, and going by memory and your own layout numbered five each side with one in the back, totalling eleven. That's 264 square feet of table space reserved for vendors and you. The tables in the middle were 8x1.5, and numbered four, coming out to 48 square feet of "flexible" space we were granted a small part of to use. Leaving the sign-in table out of this, that's a total of 312 square feet of space, and 264 of 312 is 84.6%.

If you can show me where I'm wrong and your own figures come out differently, please do (in other words, don't tell an electronics geek he doesn't know how to do basic arithmetic if you don't have anything to back it up ).

Also, if you could please point out for me where on your posted layout it shows any area designated for member rigs to be setup. The area we had to use was originally marked "buy/sell/trade" and "raffle."