It’s taken me a while to get around to wrapping this up, I wish I had a better excuse but the truth is that I was just tired of being on the road and really didn’t even want to think about it. To give you an idea, in the 98 days between May 16 and Aug 18th I only spent 37 nights at home, and I drove a total of 15,498 miles plus 2500 in the air. But, I’ve worn off some of the road dirt, got reaquainted with my wife, and rolled around on the floor with the kids, and I’m ready to write it up.
First, I want to thank all the guys who hosted the meets and made myself and all the attendees feel so welcome. It can be an intimidating thing to dive into hosting a meet, and I applaud your valiant efforts. Putting yourself out there is difficult, but it is only through that willingness that this community is extended from the virtual world into the real world where people have faces and feeling. A worthy work indeed.
I’d also like to thank all of you who signed my table at the meets, including Ray and Mikhail (who saw that table six times this summer)---I treasure it beyond words. As I mentioned at the meets, it is my intention to display this table in the lobby of our offices. I want people to know when they walk in the door that HeadRoom only exists in the context of a larger community of enthusiastic headphone listeners.
I’m going to spend quite a bit of time over the next few months organizing and expanding on some of these thoughts as we plan to produce a newsletter to be sent to our database the describes the value of the headphone hobby as it has formed here at Head-Fi, and to encourage people to check it out and see if they find it attractive. Early next year we will also be producing a Stereophile ad with the same theme, and sometime in between we will put up a description and advocacy page on our web site. So, some of the following . . . rant . . . will eventually turn into a series of better considered and edited publications. Along those lines, I would love your help understanding the values you find fulfilled by the meet activity and the particularly satisfying details. You can certainly use this thread to comment, or feel free to send me your thoughts at
tyll@headphone.com.
Observations and Impressions:
One of the funny phenomena I noticed in the small meets---the ones where groups and friendships were just beginning to form---was that folks seemed to be a little shy at first. At the beginning of the meet I might see everyone just kind of sitting there listening to their own gear. The cause of this might be two fold: that Head-Fiers are generally a bit introverted, and that the off-line culture of the group hasn’t been well established, so people don’t know what to do exactly. Contrasting that, for example, would be a NY meet where the beginning of the meet is a rush to set up gear and get on with the business of chatting, playing with each others hardware, setting up swap and for sale tables, and raffles. My comment to folks in areas without a group is to just dive in and give it a go. It seems to me that the difficulties of getting things started is not as bad as it might at first appear, and are over pretty quick; and the meet activity itself follows pretty naturally from on-line interaction.
Clarifying my “introverted” comment from above: It seems to me that social butterflies are rare among Head-Fiers, though there are some. It seems to me that the average member is a smart, independent thinker, perfectly willing to do things others might consider odd. Members also seem to be well adjusted to their solitary eccentricities; one can easily imagine most members willing to say, “I know I’m a little unusual, but I’m perfectly happy with myself. If you’d like, I’d be happy to share my fun with you, but I’m not really interested in changing to meet your needs or listening to your criticisms.” I love this attitude! I find this uncompromising desire to be ones self highly attractive in the members . . . probably because I share it. While I sometimes see people a little critical of others points of view on-line, I don’t see that hardly at meets at all, and I find the folks here surprisingly tolerant and open with each other. All-in-all, I wouldn’t have imagined gatherings of such strong and disparate individuals getting along as well as they actually do. This observation causes me to believe that this hobby has enough depth and true value that it can be broadly inclusive.
About that . . . I mention many times in the course of my travels that, while I may be able to claim some credit for being part of the beginning of headphone hardware as market category, I had no idea that a legitimate hobby would be born from the benefits of headphone listening. I remain truly amazed at the variety and high level of performance members here squeeze out of headphone that I would have written off as crap. For example, Mikey01’s Eddie Current amp and heavily modified Beyer DT990 were a complete surprise. Prior to listening I would have said the combination would be miserable; my experience was that it was a fun and very pleasurable listen. That experience happened over and over, and caused me to REALLY believe that there is no simple and universal good-better-best relationship between equipment, but rather a broad spectrum of pleasures available to suit a broad variety of tastes. Sure, I’m convinced that HeadRoom products and product evaluations strike a balance right down the middle. But I now recognize that that the middle is not a narrow peak in, but rather just another place on the spectrum of satisfactory listening that exists to serve a variety of listeners. This being the case, there is ample range for folks to explore the various tastes and flavors of audio reproduction. This banquet of delights provides the opportunity for the connoisseurship that makes a hobby possible where the eyes only see piles of gear. I applaud you guys for the significant creativity and proactivity it takes to move from the possibility offered by the gear to the reality of a full on hobbyist activity.
Problems and Suggestions:
Badges. I’m not very good remembering names. Sure, I have the disadvantage of attending a dozen meets and not living in the area to learn names over time, but it’s bothersome none the less. At meets where the organizers pushed nametags, not only was it easier to refresh my memory during the meet, but I could sometimes read the names in the photos afterwards so that I could be a bit more personal in my meet impression posts. I heard a significant number of others comment similarly. I think we should consider badges very important in improving our relationship building at meets, and I suggest strongly that meet organizers include nametags on their to-do lists. I’m very interested in helping along these lines and I plan to purchase some sort of laminated name tag making equipment and develop a Head-Fi branded badge graphic for the April National Meet that immtbiker is organizing. I would like to subsequently donate this equipment to a Head-Fi member who is willing to undertake an effort to make cool permanent badges for members attending meets.
Sweat: Hi. My name is Tyll and I’m a sweathog. After the flurry of activity at the beginning of a meet I find I’ve worked up a significant sweat, and it’s hard to cool off and dry my head well enough to feel good about putting on someone else’s headphones. I’ve noticed that a moderate minority of others are likewise burdened with this problem. My suggestion is that we try to have an ample supply of paper towels readily available at meets---especially in the South! (How do you guys stand it!)
Gear Care: Following on with the above topic, please be sensitive to the fact that many of the headphones at meets are VERY expensive! I remember well seeing someone hand another person a pair of Sony R-10 headphones on a folded towel, indicating to me that the owner wished them to be very well cared for, the receiver simply picked the cans off the towel and set them in with the pile of gear at the table as he readied his listening trial. I could see the cringe in the owner’s eyes. Now, I’m a beast with my gear and treat it like a tire iron, but that’s with my gear; I try to be very sensitive of others cherished equipment. While at a meet I think it is very important to try to respect and replicate the level of care the gears owner employs. Please wash your hair before the meets; do your best to clean out your ears if you plan to try to audition someone else’s in-ear-monitors (I think we all realize this measure will only be marginally effective, but still…try, ehh.) Please be sensitive not to scratch and ding during set up and break down; much of the equipment runs into the thousands and some into the tens of thousands of dollars. And from the other end, if your equipment and its cosmetic condition is very important to you, just don’t bring it. Atrophy is an immutable law; meets will increase the risks of degrading the cosmetic condition of your gear. Maybe a mini-meet in your home with a limited number of attendees is the appropriate way to share.
Gear Labels: Not so important with the big gear, but I know of numerous times that cables and adapters inadvertently wound up going home in the wrong box. This is mostly an issue of helping keep honest people honest; it’s just so much easier to identify whose cable is whose when they are somehow labeled. I’d also suggest that folks may want to burn test discs and leave their originals at home; CDs seem to be the most common stowaway item inside anothers player. (BTW, I haven’t forgotten that many of you have asked for track names on my test CD and I will be catching up with my back PMs soon.) I’ll add here that there were a VERY few things that went missing that oughtn’t have. Labels may have made a difference here. ‘Nuf said.
Power: The most common technical problem at a meet is not having enough power outlets. I suggest that when you go to a meet you should remember to bring at least enough plug strip for yourself and a 20’ extension cord just in case you get stranded on a table in the middle of a room.
Time management: How many times have we read the post, “Damn, I wish I had taken the time to listen to XXXXX.” A couple of times I did see people who had prepared a little list of things they wanted to be sure to hear prior to the meet; this seemed to work very well for them. But remember, half of what we’re doing here is getting to know each other and forming a sense of community. I suggest we all take the attitude going into these things that we’re not going to hear everything . . . and we don’t have to if we are simply ready to organize another meet.
Meet Post: Some meet organizers do a really great job keeping their first meet post in the meet thread up to date with lots of great info. I found it particularly helpful when a maps.google.com direction click was available, but there are lots of other things that are very useful to have on the first post: Start time, stop time, contact phone number that will work just prior to and during the beginning of meet, map, directions, gear list, attendee list, ride requests, food plans, money obligations, other planned activities (swap/for sale table, charitable donation opportunity, silent auction). I suggest that those of you organizing your first meet have a good hard look at the first posts of guys who are old hands, you’ll find some great tips and ideas to run a successful meet.
Remembering Jude: I think it’s critically important to remember we are all the beneficiaries of Jude’s generosity here at Head-Fi. This activity rests fully on his willingness to continue to provide the servers and bandwidth, and on his faith that we will figure out how to come up with enough money to cover his costs. One of the prime opportunities we have to share the burden is at the meets. Donating part of the take at the door; holding a silent auction; or just plain passing the hat are just a few ways to raise an itty-bit of dough for the mega-bytes of traffic he provides. And if you are not a contributing member, become one.
My plans: I’ve had so much fun attending these meets that I’ve decided that I am going to make it a hobby of mine as well. Sure, I’ll always show up with HeadRoom gear, but I have found myself hatching plans to participate with some DIY amps of my own making. It’ll take me a bit of time to work them up, but I do have some . . . wild and whacky ideas that would never sell, but would be a hell of a lot of fun to play around with and show off. I’ll keep my mouth shut for now, but as time goes on I hope to have my own little spot at a table that you’ll come to visit for purely personal reasons.
That’s about all I’ve got. I had a great time traveling to meet you all this summer. So good, in fact, that I’m already slated to be at the SW Michigan meet Oct 1 and the Philly meet Oct 8. I will also be attending (along with a significant contingent of HeadRoom employees) the National Meet immtbiker is organizing slated for NY April 22, 23. And I’ll show up at a few more in between no doubt. I look forward to seeing you then.
Cheers!
Tyll
