Wisconsin - Anyone interested?

I'm sorry to have to miss this first meeting, but I hope everyone has a great time. I will be watching for the next!!!

Updates:

1.) I contacted the Rathskeller. The assistant I talked to said they will have someone there by 1pm for our meeting to open up the tap beer bar.
2.) If the UW-Madison, Mens basketball team can manage to knock off #1 Kentucky today (thursday, 3/27) there might be ton of people crowding into the Rathskeller about 3:00p (according the semi-final schedule of 3:30p CST tipoff I saw on www.cnn.com) to watch the game on the big screen TVs. If that happens we'll play it by ear but presumably our meeting will be done by then and some of us can just watch the game.
3.) Weather for Saturday, so far, looks like cloudy with high of 38 low of 17. But there looks like snow and/or rain on Friday. So please plan accordingly.
4.) Come to the meeting having given thought to a Mission Statement of the Audiophile Society. Among things I would like to see are some measures, over time, to get the word out to our younger people about the joys of music heard through hi-end audio. I hope our hobby and dedicated manufacturers of hi-end equipment do not die when we do. Other things to consider is the role of manufacturers and dealers in our society, the nature and protocol for home visits to hear music through our equipment etc.
5.) If you want to make a listing of your equipment or the key components and bring that with you I can compile the information and e-mail it back to the rest of the group. This can serve many purposes including opening dialog among members about their equipment synergy, maybe a power cord or interconnect (for example) could be brought along for insertion in another person's system during a listening session, etc.
6.) Bring your relaxed attitudes and lets have fun with this ! Bring some quarters (think it takes quarters) for the Juke Box. I will be wearing a red T-shirt or red sweatshirt. I am avg ht/weight on the firmer side of average :-), brown hair/blue eyes. Maybe others can wear red if they have it. Assuming others wear red you can look for a much of older guys (like me)and some younger wearing red. I will try to pick up some name tags as well. So look for: name tags, red tops, and faces on the Autumn side of graduate school.

See you at the Rathskeller at 1pm Saturday March 29th !!!

I wasn't able to make last weeks meeting. Can someone tell me what happened? Thanks.

I will try get some minutes up on Sunday about last Saturday's meeting. It was a fun time and I would have got some notes up earlier except I got the flu bug the next day and was wiped out till mid-week.

Successful Launch:

The first ever Wisconsin Audiophile Society (Society) met at the Rathskeller in the Memorial Union,. UW - Madison on Saturday, March 29, 2003. The first meeting lasted about two hours and brought together 8 participants with all but one (Green Bay) coming from Dane County. The group first shared their interests outside of audio equipment to help introduce each other at a personal level. People shared their wide ranging interests that included volunteer community work, dogs, family, and 60s and 70s cars.

Several expressed a desire to get to know the equipment that each had so that feelings about equipment synergy could be discussed at future meetings. Included in this discussion were thoughts about effective tweaks including tuning Dots, vibration dampening devices, sources of tubes, tube rolling experiences, power conditioning, dedicated power lines, and power cords. Many of my earlier thoughts, expressed in the Audiogon Wisconsin Club Thread, on the construction of the society around the idea of friendship, community support of local dealers and repair personal, and sharing of audio perspectives came out. Also the desire of catering to local restaurants/bars, farmers markets, local music scenes, and other local attractions during our meetings in other parts of Wisconsin seemed to ring true for all members. This later point came from the desire not only to help out our fellow Wisconsinites but also to explore the Audiophile lifestyle or for us to learn what exactly that means in its many colors. Whatever that means I am sure it has something to do with connection with the soul.

The Society members spent a good deal of time swapping stories in how all they came to this point in their audiophile lives. Names from the seventies like Dynaco, McIntosh, Advent appeared more than once in members stories of their early years. Of course, I had to break the mold in waxing about my early years in the mid-1960s with thoughts on old Marantx and Mac tube gear driving AR and KLH speakers.

Future Plens: We are tentatively planning on meeting every 2 months and seeing how that works out with everyone’s schedule. Maybe less often during the winter months when we might spend more time visiting local members homes for local listening sessions. Among the other plans is to have company representatives put on their dog and pony shows for others and us at local dealers. Probably the most ambitious of all the general goals of the society is to spread the word about hi-end audio to our younger people.

Does anyone want to host the next meeting which will occur near the end of May or beginning of June 2003? If so, pass on your thoughts to me and I will get them out to others.

In the meantime, members please continue to send me your current equipment make up, Audiogon Ids, and other thoughts for improving the society. Send to my direct e-mail and not through the Audiogon.com post (here).

Cheers!