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PostPosted: May 11th, 2018, 1:14 am 
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chris1973 wrote:
I tend to think the talk about CAF is irrelevant. CAF is for people who already identify as audiophiles.
If you want kids, you need to get them where they are. Go to the high schools and Junior highs.
My suggestion is find out where the science fairs are and put a booth there.
Those are the kids you really want anyway!
You also might want to get some music students, so you would show up at regional band festivals for that!

(Edit)I found DCAudioDIY through CAF, so It's not irrelevant. You need adult audiophiles, but if you want kids, you have to do what I suggested.


Public school is a lost cause. The forces in charge are more worried about pushing agendas then education; and, their type of arts will not include the audiophile hobby unless they some how can force rainbow colored amps and speakers on everybody. Plus, you don't want to go looking for kids at school like some kind of cult.

I focused on C.A.F. because the person asking about it runs an audio show so that's where my general focus was. I have more ideas as well.

How about having C.A.F. supported seminar(s) as an introduction to the audiophile hobby? You could have a mini meets at the hotel (only get one or two meeting rooms at the hotel, include local vendors).

Focus on the adults. They are the ones with jobs and money.

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PostPosted: May 11th, 2018, 9:20 am 
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Schools are not totally a lost cause, only a difficult one to crack. They have their hands full with daily stuff and and it takes a large well organized program like STEM to make inroads into the schools. I have a friend who is instrumental in that program locally and I will see if we might get a presentation next year on audio. It would have to have a technical side but there could be lots of music as examples. In my recent presentation the most important factors were lots of photos and case stories. We certainly have lots of people with interesting stories.


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PostPosted: May 11th, 2018, 9:25 am 
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I was not trying to be devious here. I do not run CAF, Gary Gill is owner and operator, I am just a volunteer that helps out.
But I think the discussion is helpful. I presented the thread to take the temperature of members feelings and it there were good suggestions out of the conversation all the better


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PostPosted: May 11th, 2018, 11:19 am 
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tomp wrote:
Schools are not totally a lost cause, only a difficult one to crack. They have their hands full with daily stuff and and it takes a large well organized program like STEM to make inroads into the schools. I have a friend who is instrumental in that program locally and I will see if we might get a presentation next year on audio. It would have to have a technical side but there could be lots of music as examples. In my recent presentation the most important factors were lots of photos and case stories. We certainly have lots of people with interesting stories.


Young kids aren't generally interested in audio. It is the older man crowd (and a few women). Just look at the average age of the person who shows up to C.A.F. Focus on the adults. They are the ones who will settle down and collect audio gear.

There also needs to be some community/social awareness. We need to show that we are a family. When is the last time any of you guys held a meet? Right now, it is "Roscoe-n-friends". That would be a great opportunity for "a friend of a friend" to get introduced to audio.

I took over the C.A.F. Saturday dinner and kept it at the last venue. I try to get everybody together for one night. I plan ahead but all I get is excuses. I see many of ya'll only once a year and you can't make time for this extension of our hobby? Another great opportunity for "a friend of a friend". Don't complain about lack of interest when most all of ya'll have lack of interest!

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PostPosted: May 11th, 2018, 2:48 pm 
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I think you need to focus on one specific arena. Trying to raise interest in "our club/hobby/CAF?" is a tall order.

Narrow it down to just CAF or just hobby for example? They each might require very different approaches.


Pelliott321 wrote:
I was not trying to be devious here. I do not run CAF, Gary Gill is owner and operator, I am just a volunteer that helps out.
But I think the discussion is helpful. I presented the thread to take the temperature of members feelings and it there were good suggestions out of the conversation all the better


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PostPosted: May 11th, 2018, 8:57 pm 
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Joined: October 21st, 2013, 6:53 pm
Posts: 270
It's a tall order, but I think my example of the guys down the street is one of the better examples.
People need a place that is nearby, that they can go almost at random, and get access to resources.
Short of an actual location the website is the closest thing I can think to that.
I'm not sure how you get our threads to show up on search results, like I find a lot of threads from some of the other audio sites, but I have a couple observations about our threads, from as long as I have been monitoring our threads. Most notably, a lot of the threads are very specific, and highly technical. Thanks to the engineers we have a lot of threads that get very technical and detailed, which is great for the people who are already deeply entrenched in the hobby, but it doesn't encourage newcomers (except for really experienced ones).
I think a lot more people on the forum should share more of their everyday trials. If you change your speaker wires, you should post it. If you move your speakers to a different corner in the room, you should post it. You don't need a finished project before you start posting photos, and theories about what you are trying to accomplish. Even if you have a random idea that's not very developed, and you are not sure it will get a positive response, you should post it anyway! Don't get wrapped up in whether the engineers will tell you it's achievable, or fantasy, and get more comfortable talking about theoretical possibilities. I know it's a technical site, but we should be entertaining more ideas. You can always distill things down to technical details after the fact, but nothing replaces a robust volume of regular ideas coursing through the website.


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PostPosted: May 11th, 2018, 11:58 pm 
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TubeDriver wrote:
I think you need to focus on one specific arena. Trying to raise interest in "our club/hobby/CAF?" is a tall order.

Narrow it down to just CAF or just hobby for example? They each might require very different approaches.


Pelliott321 wrote:
I was not trying to be devious here. I do not run CAF, Gary Gill is owner and operator, I am just a volunteer that helps out.
But I think the discussion is helpful. I presented the thread to take the temperature of members feelings and it there were good suggestions out of the conversation all the better


Yes. Let's focus on the C.A.F. because it is something that "we" can control. We can't control millions of kids when they generally don't give a rats ass about quality audio gear, quality audio media, nor any quality audio users.

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PostPosted: May 12th, 2018, 12:16 pm 
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For CAF, I don't remember exactly how the room worked when I was last there, but for anybody that provides a piece of equipment for the demo system, they should also provide documentation that can be freely given to the visitors. If it's a speaker for example, you should have CAD drawings that will provide a visitor a direct path to reproducing the actual piece in the room that they just experienced. You offer these, and give them away free to anyone that seems a little bit interested, and on the plans you just already conveniently have a DCDIY business card attached. If its an amplifier or something else, you probably just need a schematic (I'm stumped on turntables though).


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PostPosted: May 12th, 2018, 12:43 pm 
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How about the "Maker Club" concept. A maker club for acoustic projects which would combine woodworking, electronic, and mechanical projects (speakers, amplifiers, turntables, etc.) that can require math and physics for design, analysis, and measurement purposes (build a speaker and measure your creation with REW). To get more ideas go to a "Maker Faire" near you.

Also here is a resource that might be of interest for those interested in 3d printing for projects -

http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/EDU/De ... x?id=68423

Also an "Acoustic Maker Club" might be of interest at vocational high schools such as Edison Tech in Montgomery County. I say vocational since they would have the equipment needed to build projects and a type of student more interested in building things. My high school in NJ had an electronic class I took back in the early 60's. I still remember building an astable multivibrator oscillator with a 6SN7 tube.


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PostPosted: May 12th, 2018, 12:46 pm 
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What we talking about is bigger that DC Audio DIY or DC Hi-Fi group.

There needs to be continued seminars. C.A.F. needs to be known as the place for "audio 101/audiophiles for dummies/idiots guide to audio". It has be unbiased to where you would even show the cons of DIY. It has to also show the "unwritten" rules of audio.

It has the show that rooms like VAC is the ultimate goal (regardless of what one thinks of that room). That it is ok to start out with a U-Turn or Pro-Ject Debut turntable with a basic Pro-Ject phono stage, a basic integrated amplifier, and some decent bookshelf speakers to build from that (just as long as they get away form the A.V. Receiver, the home-theater-in-a-box, and the Bose radio.

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