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PostPosted: May 9th, 2018, 9:26 am 
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Joined: January 15th, 2015, 7:19 am
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Location: Baltimore MD
Something I been thinking about lately within the realm of how to generate more interest in our club/hobby/CAF?


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PostPosted: May 9th, 2018, 10:11 am 
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I prefer audioholic. It sounds less snobby.


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PostPosted: May 9th, 2018, 10:53 am 
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Last Friday I did a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering , Math) presentation on Criminalistics to six classes at a local High School. Believe me high school students are a tough crowd. The way to get younger people interested is to understand the audience. When I mentioned to a friend that I had done a Powerpoint presentation with lots of photos he said all that video stuff doesn't get to the root of things. Well, if you deal with younger people you realize if it is not on a screen it doesn't exist. They are definitely led by visual stimulation. If you can get their attention on their smart phones you can then lead into the auditory portion of being an audiophile.

Worrying about the image of the word audiophile is a waste of time because in most cases there is no awareness of high end audio at all. I have an 18 year old niece that is tops in her class and helps bring me to reality. She had no concept of anything except a home receiver with marginal speakers and sound from her iphone and ear buds. Her dad wanted to upgrade the system so I found a good pair of bookshelf speakers he could use and then built a corner sub for him using two 12" woofers I had lying around. Before he knew it he had groups of her friends over listening to music on the system. They were so into it they actually destroyed one of the drivers in the main speakers and so I built a protection circuit for them. Point is it changed their outlook. So if you can get some connection through social media to a specific group and then get them to hear good reproduction they will get interested. The same emotions that got us into the hobby still exist but the doorway is now visual.


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PostPosted: May 9th, 2018, 11:05 am 
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Tom that is the point
How to get a younger crowd in to hear the difference


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PostPosted: May 9th, 2018, 3:05 pm 
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Joined: March 5th, 2013, 9:35 am
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Location: Highland, MD
I think we get young people to see the difference the same way we did: do A/B comparisons and say, "Holey Smokes, why is that so different?"

With some youths, the practicality as they see it may stand in the way. This is an age of portability: ear buds and cell-phone audio linked into car stereos. It may be hard to get them to sit in one place and listen (maybe while they do something else.) The club has demonstrated in past shows that many listeners like to try out our systems with varieties of rock as well as classical music: when they hear that even Rock is better with better (not just more expensive) equipment, then they get excited.

The audioholic may be a better phrase to use. An audiophile may be popularized by a level of high monetary investment and yes, snobbery because my system costs more than yours.

That may be where our clubs comes in: I'm also in a car club that welcomes all makes and flavors, and we'll still jest about Your car but it's only friendly joking. We recognize that everyone likes their car some their reasons, and that's fine as long as we permit others to continue liking their stuff and they let us like our stuff.

Maybe we can try giving small demos in schools to try to get younger people interested in good sound that they can build themselves. I love to make stuff with my hands, be it stereo, cars, garages, cabinets, etc. It might be interesting to instill an old-fashioned sense of pride in accomplishing a task and enjoying the results.

Just saying',

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PostPosted: May 9th, 2018, 3:20 pm 
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I think "audiophile" encompasses many different types of people. I don't like the term in part because I am not really fond of a fair number of the people who call themselves audiophiles. Look at the audio forums out there, lots of ego, ignorance, pissing contests etc etc. The stereotype of an audiophile is in many ways not a flattering profile and is all too common IMHO. That said, we also have some great folks in our midst. People who are music lovers and who are discerning and passionate about audio/music reproduction.

The idea of sitting and really listening to music (or reading a book, or going to an art museum) is foreign to so many people. I think the public school system should include music appreciation in it's curriculum from an early age.


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PostPosted: May 9th, 2018, 3:52 pm 
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Location: Baltimore MD
I think schools (Colleges) are the answer
getting into them seems to be a problem
we tried to get to college websites, newspaper, etc but had problems


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PostPosted: May 9th, 2018, 4:23 pm 
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Location: Parkville, Maryland
I definitely feel that exposure gets the audio juices flowing. I took a music class in high school just to get "cheap" credits. I ended up in the Music Chair's lecture hall.

He had his own system for playback. AR-3s on the wall -- Marantz tube equipment -- and a Thorens TT with an unknown cartridge. Hearing that system for the first time had me with the first bar.

To ad insult to injury -- I worked part-time for a TV repair company that served high-end Baltimore neighborhoods. One customer had a pair of KLH model 9 electrostatic speakers driven by Marantz goodies -- and at that time he had FM radio playing through the legendary Marantz 10B tuner -- OMG!!

I never heard anything like that before.

So -- with meager savings from part-time work and doing odd jobs I started getting into the hobby. The Baltimore area had plenty of audio shops to visit and there were opportunities to buy nice used equipment.

The hobby path took me away from strictly purchasing upgrades to learning how I can improve on what I already bought. Of course the Washington Hi-Fi Show was a major draw and that's where the addiction set in with many a "gee-wheez" moment auditioning the best of the best.

If the CAF advertising went after schools it could start something special -- an entire new generation in the hobby. High schools and Universities have their own newspapers and will accept advertising. Failing that -- just simply posting flyers on corridor bulletin boards (with the principal's permission of course) can at least get the kids exposed to the possibility of hearing some cool stuff.

Let's not forget radio station advertising either.

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PostPosted: May 9th, 2018, 4:30 pm 
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Location: Baltimore MD
I think we know what to do. Its the how is the problem


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PostPosted: May 9th, 2018, 4:41 pm 
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I think radio is a lost cause with kids. I don't know any that listen to radio. All their connections are through their smart phones. They do stream lots of music, but not from broadcast media.


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