[Arzeboj]

Not sure if this is the right place to put it, but I had a curious question that I thought might be interesting to some (at least for college students). As you could probably already guess, I am a college student. I remember when school first started, I looked for clubs that might be interesting to me. I looked to see if there was an audio, audiophile, or music club and it turns out my school had none. They didn't even have an AV club to my surprise. Then I thought about how cool it would be if head-fi expanded their organization to include clubs on college campuses. I know this sounds like a far-fetched idea, and deservedly so. Being an audiophile at a young age is probably not that common. Still, I thought that if there were audiophiles, they would at least be more attracted to a club if the club was organized by head-fi itself. And of course, I also feel that sponsors would get their money's worth if they sponsored these "branches."

But if head-fi thought this would be a good idea, I'm guessing that they would already have done it. There are some problems to this idea, of course. Here are some that I could think of...

-Well, lets just say that most schools aren't near Head-fi HQ.
-Too many schools to reach out to
-Difficult to manage
-College students probably won't spend that much on headphones
-Audiophile is still a niche hobby

I would definitely appreciate it if some of you have any other ideas to add to this conversation. And like I said, I know something like this isn't probable, but it is something that I would be really excited about. (Head-fi meets every week right next door and head-fi sponsors it? OMGWHATTHISWOULDBEADREAMCOMETRUEJUDEPLEASEMAKETHISHAPPENAHHHH). I will also leave a poll because everyone likes polls.

 

[wink]

(snip

OMGWHATTHISWOULDBEADREAMCOMETRUEJUDEPLEASEDON'TMAKETHISHAPPENAHHHH). I will also leave a poll because everyone likes polls.

FTFY
 
Don't you have enough problems on college campuses without this sort of thing adding to the noise?    

 
 

 

 

 

[TwinQY]

The difficulty with starting up a club for a niche hobby, in or out of college, is that it takes a lot of initiative, planning and work (and sometimes, just luck) to gain members and to sustain engagement. It's not as simple as meeting up with your circle of pals to talk about audio every week. In your case, you would have to get a group of (initially) strangers to meet up every week to talk about a topic that has relatively little depth beyond purchasing XYZ while listening to ABC. I've found that it is a lot easier to write about this topic than to talk about it in person - I've not seen a conversation between anybody about headphones, either at a meet or in private, that wasn't better articulated through an online venue.
 
And after you inevitably run out of topics, what would you do as a group? This isn't a meet. There has to be some sort of structured activity/topic that occurs on a regular basis, something with an interactive element to keep people interested in continuing to meet, in order for this venture to be sustainable. DIY projects? Most of the people on this forum don't even participate in DIY. The overlap between people "interested in headphones" and people with the actual skills to work on headphone-related ventures (modification, amplifier design), is small enough on this forum as it is. And there are all sorts of people coming in on this forum. It would be optimistic to imagine that things would be any better given a random distribution of college students. I guess you could organize a monthly listening/DBX test. But I'm getting sleepy just talking about it. And the logistics behind setting that up is not something to sneeze at either.
​
Apart from that, there's just not that much you can do in this hobby outside of buying things and talking about them, which means that the hobby is probably not a good fit for a club. Even something even more niche, like RC, has a better chance of sustaining membership because there is the possibility of group projects and competitions. I could probably start a competitive belly-flopping club faster than I could a headphone club. Anything with a creative/interactive element.
​
And the idea of it being Head-Fi specific/sponsored by Head-Fi does not make much sense. Head-Fi is the big player within the headphone community, but I sincerely doubt they have the resources (or more importantly, interest) to sustain this. They are just an Internet forum. Starting a chain of college clubs is a massive venture compared to setting up the occasional headphone meet.
​
If you want to meet up for friendly headphone talk at your school, you should try asking around on the school Facebook group, or similar. I'm sure that you will eventually find a group of school friends to talk about headphones. Better yet, look outside of your college.

 

[crazychile]

Apart from that, there's just not that much you can do in this hobby outside of buying things and talking about them, which means that the hobby is probably not a good fit for a club.

This. OP should focus on school. Maybe get a girlfriend. Don't geek out on her about audio if he want's to keep girlfriend.

 

[Spareribs]

In theory, I think it’s a good idea. You could have a display of vinyl records, tube amps, reel to reel tape and even have discussions of op amps and different types of transitors with sound tests. Basically an audio gear club but with headphones as the center.

It would probably attract the engineers and science crowd students and professors who like music.