"ChiUniFi 4" the Official and Annual Chicago Headphone Get-together November 13th 2010

Four Years Later...

Post 1: The event of ChiUniFi 

Post 2:  raffle, gear, members

Post 3:          Updates          

The concept then:

On September 17th 2007 there was a crazy concept posted to the Head-Fi community that was a result of ideas from tiny mini-meets to gigantic international meets. it was an idea of an event that was never held down by anyone, any size, any where, and the most important idea is it would be carried on free of money worries! basically the idea was to pay for next years event by having a raffle and next years budget and size was set up by the raffle income. Mot's/vendors, companies, DIY'ers and even members donate anything to the raffle and the attendees buy a raffle ticket in hopes to win a prize (usually with great chances). after that the attendees are asked if they think there should be a next years event and if so what date should be set. year to year the event could be carried on by anyone who wanted to host it, and anyone who wanted to help. a self sufficient event the is carried on equally by members and companies was pretty crazy in 2007. still the question remained would it work? would the event go on? 

November 17th 2007 was the day the first ChiUniFi was held at the Holiday Inn in Skokie IL. a week prior to the event and even past the event was held Head-Fi went completely down, offline, and yet the event had a great attendance and a awesome budget for the next year. I remember everyone scrambling around the Internet from Face Book to other forums to get in touch with the details and location of the event. head-fi members not only showed great support but they wanted another ChiUniFi..

November 8th 2008 was the date of the second ChiUniFi and this time with a slight twist, it was co hosted by Recstar and proved the idea of being carried out and hosted could work. it not only worked great but remained to its original idea and focus.

November 7th 2009 was chosen for the third ChiUniFi event by the attendees the year before. this event was held at the Hyatt O'Hare and was lead hosted by Recstar and Aura. this was the year when most of the raffle donations came from area members themselves. people where willing to give up there own gear just to keep this concept alive...

the concept today:

Looking back at the past events and what is going on today (current head-fi meet trends) i want to introduce a slightly different setting for a event this size yet a setting that has worked in much smaller scale mini meets. lots of decent sized meets today are usually held in banquet halls and meeting rooms in hotels. there are Lot's of positives to these locations but to every positive there is also a negative. these locations are usually very bland in decor and formal in setting, a great place to have a wedding reception but a headphone get-together with old and new friends? I don't know about you but i don't say to my friends "lets hang out at the Windsor meeting room tonight...it's going to be awesome!" I want to introduce the idea of a location YOU and your friends would hang out at, i want to introduce an idea of location that has Panache and is relaxed. another negative i have found over the years is the rules these hotels have, i do respect them and understand why but to a headphone get-together some of these rules just don't fit. for example the best one is the food/drink rule, in fact i challenge you to find a clean hotel in Cook County that will let you bring in any food you want or any drink you want. what if we want pizza or what if a member brings some soda for everyone? to the hotels they want to "fine" you for it..again i understand and respect why but i want to try a place that really is open to the idea of us deciding there and then what we want to drink and what we want to eat and most importantly from where. i also want to have a place a bit larger in size to fit more people if there is a need yet feel perfectly comfortable is less people show up. 

i feel you all may like this place so much you may want the very same location for another event, maybe another event next November or maybe another event you want to host within the upcoming year. with all this in mind from Sept 17th 2007, all the way up to now let me say..

Four Years Later..

!!!!!! ChiUniFi 4 November 13th 2010 !!!!!!

Day/Time:

Saturday November 13th 2010, from 10am-5pm

usually meets start at 11am but then everyone wants to come early to setup, so this year let's just say the event is from 10-5. doors will be open to us at 10am and the room will be ready to start setting up the gear. usually at past events everyone breaks their stuff down around 4:30 and is out by 5. i actually booked the building till 6pm just in case we need it abut it will open to the public at 6pm and be open till 2am for anyone who wants to party it out all night..

Who can come and what the admission price is:

The same exact rules apply that were posted in the ChiUniFi thread from 2007 . we can fit in about 30-35 people this year, if the list and demand is greater i will go back to the location and see how many more this event can hold. anyone who is attending will need to be on the list so i know how much space, food, panache, etc will be needed. there never is any admission price as there was not in 2007, but again remember this event is paid for by the raffle and so will any future events. anyone who wants to donate to the raffle then pm me or Audio Addict! any company or member of trade who wants to show up pm me or Audio Addict. 

Location:

Cafe Two07

5842 S Archer Ave
Chicago, IL 60638

Description of the Location: 

Like i said before this place is really a great location to have a get together. The decor is contemporary with plenty of room to setup our gear and plenty of couches to relax and talk to friends new and old. there is a circle shaped bar that can be hold any headphone rig if we want. parking is close and there is three options we have. first option is behind and on the side of the building, its secure and rite next to the entrance door. second option is directly in front of the building along Archer Ave and the third option is in the parking lot across Archer Ave. i suggest go threw the alley and see if there is space open on the side or in back first as this is the easiest to carry gear from the car to the building and in front of the building on Archer is also the great parking. here are some pictures of the place, mind you the place is not setup for a headphone meet in the pics, the Cafe has there lights dimmed in the pics but they will be turned up for the event...seriously don't even think about the lighting..i mean come on that's what i do for a living! 

Anyone who has questions and wants to help (esp with my grammar) pleaseeeeee feel free to pm me anytime!!!!!!!!!!!!

This will be updated as time goes on (aiming for every Tuesday mourning)

Friends that are Helping us..

($7.000+ in the raffle sofar!)

Audio Addict:

Ultimate Ears:

U.E as they are best known on the forums don't really need an introduction here, but i will tell you something you may not know of them yet, which is their Dedication to these forums and to this hobby! Vincent from Ultimate Ears has agreed to send us not one, not two, not even four, but five pairs of 

Super Fi 5 Pro earphones! thats is $1250.00 worth of gear for the Raffle! holy snap!!!

random updates put in on the the following days..

August 31st: original thread and post made!

Sept 6th: 6 more friends added

Sept 9th: ALO and JH Audio added!

Sept 15th: Tooth pulled and UE added!

Sept 27th: Klipsch added!

Oct 14th: Westone, Beyer, and Morrow added

Oct: 19th: 25 confirm pm's sent to everyone who replied in this thread up till this day.

November 6th: added the attendence list and gear list. updated our friends list with two new friends..Micca store and Cardas!

November 8th: updated the attendence list and added one more gift to the event!

November 9th: Updated the attendence list, we now have 38+ in!!!

November 13th: it is 1AM the event is happening in 9 hours away! this reply is closed until i update with a impressions link. we broke a record for ChiUniFi with replies and views and Friends donations this year. seriously only something this good could come from the HEAD-FI people!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keithpgdrb 

wow, thanks Billy!  I dont know those well, so whichever one you like best.  I assume all the inputs are either digital, optical, or both.  I believe my player would be digital, but I'll double check that.

I just bought the Meridian and am really liking it, but i always liked the Meridian sound. the BenchMark Dac-1 is good also, it has a USB port so you can use a laptop with it. both do have optical input!
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadFi Fanatic 

7 hours? That's so short lol. I want to bring a friend, and because of that I won't make it there till noon. That leaves like 4.5 hours of listening time for me. Could use another hour; anyone willing to stay till 6? I would!

 

Have you contacted the Chicago Audio Society? I'll head on over to DIY Audio forums for an interest check if that's ok with you. My rig is in my sig.

 

Btw, about the food and drinks, you guys better not be eating nor drinking near the equipment! And always wash your hands thoroughly before touching them.

I have not contacted the C.A.S. yet because i want to keep the spots open for Head-fi'ers first, if any spots are open closer to the day of the event i will contact them then. member list and Friends list will be updated any Tuesday mourning if needed, so this upcoming Tuesday mourning will have some more friends and raffle prizes along with all confirmed attendees. in the mean time i will PM people that were on the IC thread letting them know the thread is up, over the next few days these will go out. it funny you say that 4.5 hours ain't enough, i been to shows that the days were 8-9 hours long and plently of gear to listen to..boy those were fun but after the second day you felt the need to step outside..haha  there will be plenty of room to enjoy your food and drink while being far enough away from the gear also.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Todd R 

Hey Billy,

Thanks for the kind words.

 

Member attending: Todd R

 

Headphones: Sennheiser HD-650 w/ Cardas cable, Hippo Shroom EB, Hippo VB, JH Audio 16 Pro (but I don't know why since you can't borrow them)

 

Amps: Bottlehead Crack w/ Speedball update, RSA Protector, Peachtree Nova (DAC/Headphone amp)

 

Source's: Since all my music is on the big computer, I probably won't be bringing any source other than an iPod, but feel free to hook into my Nova. It has a USB, 2 Coax, & 2 Toslink digital connections (and 3 analog)

 

Cables: I'll have the new Cardas Clear Light cable, the Golden Reference, and Soundstring cables.

Thank you for everything you done Todd! those words are nothing compared what you have done for headfiers over the years man!

i/c 4 thread people been pm'd

Quote:

Originally Posted by francisdemarte 

Awesome! This place is 10 minutes away from me and I never knew it existed.

 

Since I've never attended a meet before, how does it work? Do I just bring my equipment in for anyone to try?

how close are you? just wandering how close the closest headfier is to me..

if this is your first event then you'll love it and might even get addicted to the meet thing, you will learn some much at the event just by talking with others about gear that it would take you forever on the forums. and thats the best part (imo), is talking to the people in life about gear and other stuff. its really a blast..even for your first time. every meet is different as there really is no one way of doing it, most you just go to and if you want you can bring your gear for others to try..more gear makes the meets even better. you dont HAVE to bring gear but it does make it better for others. bring some music (cd's i guess) so you can listen to other peoples stuff with music you know and love. say you wanted to hear what a set of Grados that were getting alot of talk on headfi but you never had the chance or the money to try them, you go to a meet and someone else brings their set of grados..if you bring your gear you can ask that person if its ok to try the headphones out in your rig and usually they say yes (i never heard of someone saying no) and next thing you know you are listening to a set of headphones on your gear with your music that you would never of had the chance to before..and this is just one part of what happens at a meet. i been to meets where my Meridian go8 was being passed around to everyones rig so they could listen to it for the first time and see if they like it, just another example. also at meets you will learn so much and see so much stuff you never knew existed, like an amp or a set of headphones that you never seen..now you can talk about them with the owner and try the gear. at ChiUniFI we have the raffle (and an amazing one this year) where you buy a raffle ticket and you could win something donated by one of our friends (look in post 2 of this thread for more info) and in turn the event keeps going on,,so its just a super fun time with alittle walkout bonus for everyone! look in meet impression threads on how the meets usually look and also remember you are going to be putting on someone else's gear on your head so loads of hair gel is not cool..nor is blasting the piss out of the gear..in other words just respect it as you would your own.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab 

I plan to be there, and plan to bring my Dad, and my Son.  Exact time and gear TBD.

your Dad?..lol awesome! i want you to track your mpg on your way..my friend and i always talk about your car so expect to get asked at the event..haha