Audiophile clubs, any in your area, anybody belong to one?

I live in Chico, CA.

We have an audiophile club with 15-18 members, and typically have a dozen, or so, come to any given meeting.

We meet once a month and members rotate hosting.

Our group ranges from a person who has a vintage 70s set up...in storage, but likes to hang out, all the way to a few people whose power cords cost more than my speakers. With all points in between. (Some people build gear, some are Craigslist warriors, some only digital, some vinyl lovers, etc...)

We try to have a theme each time: comparing pressings of an LP (most recently was Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," comparing interconnects/cables, listening to different VTA settings, stand mount speaker shoot outs, comparing tubes, or, just hearing a new addition or new room.

There is usually some beer or wine (and soda, water, etc.) and snacks, and lots of conversation.

Yesterday, we met at a member's house whose previous home was lost in the November fires here and he is getting his new room and system dialed in.

All this made me curious:

1) Do y'all belong to any local clubs? If so, how do yours work?

2) It would be cool to have a way to see if there were fellow members in a given area to invite them to audiophile activities. (I get the privacy concerns, I don't know how it would safely be done, but would be cool.)

If anybody is near Chico, California?

 

Pittsburgh anyone?

 

Kansas City?

 

Sounds like a great excuse to get together and drink. After a few frosty ones I’m sure that those $4,000 interconnect cables sound reeeeal good.

 

Or my $10 ones would sound real good.

 

There used to be an audiophile club here in Las Vegas that had been started by a (now sadly departed) member of this forum. As far as I know nothing has taken its place.

 

Yup.
San Diego Music and Audio Guild
sdmag.org

Several get togethers, audio store auditions, private meet ups for a drink and some tunes.

Great group.

 

Wow, serendipity!

I have been trying to find Jan Hofman!

We used to hang out at shows but I lost his info.

If you know him, would you tell him Anton from NFS Audio would love to reconnect?

I'm hoping he is going to the CAS in Oakland next month!

 

i think SLC had one for a time but may have fizzled out. its a great idea and i will look into starting one here in SLC or at least looking at the current status. Lots of long-time audiophiles in the utah area ...

 

Did you know Mike Alazard in that club?

I think he would still like to have a group re-form!

 

Guess not....

 

San Antonio, Texas has the River City Audio Society. A very active group with it's own clubhouse. They meet once a month. Check them out on Facebook.

 

We have one in Seattle. It's been around for 40 years and it's called the Pacific Northwest Audio Society. And we meet on the first Saturdays of the month on Mercer Island most months. And for those who think that this is a drinking club: its not. Drinking is against the rules at the facility where we host our meetings.

 

Here we have the Boston Audio Society. Wouldn't be my cup of tea.

 

Washington DC area? If so, anyone here involved?

 

No. I didn't belong to the club here. I just knew of it and checked out the website from time to time.

 

The one where I live requires a 400k+ income, so that's out of the question for me.

 

Central Coast Audio Club. Very similar to the one described in the OP.

 

The Twin Cities has a good club that meets monthly from mid-fall to mid spring. It is held at a local broadcast museum in a western suburb of Mpls.
Their house gear is good stuff mostly from local manufacturers. I can't make it to enough meetings to make it worthwhile to sign up but have been known to crash some events with another forum member.
Spoke briefly to a couple members. One was a fellow hi-fi nut. Another was the owner of a local recording studio.

Crashed a couple of notable meetings over the years.
A night with Atma-Sphere where @Ralph Karsten brought some gear, spoke about the gear and Atma-Sphere's history, the industry, and spun some records for the group. I really enjoyed that one.
A Bel Canto demo of an un-named at the time new line. The gear was assembled in a collection of nondescript unfinished aluminum boxes that ended up being the Black line.
Crashed a tour of Audio Research. The following year they limited the tour to members only.

 

i heard they are great places to pick up hot chicks.

 

Indianapolis? I've met plenty of fellow audio folks here over the years; listened to a few systems at peoples houses and had a quite a few come over and listen to mine.

I'd like to see one here.

 

Triad area, NC

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The Atlanta Audio Club has been for introducing us to lots of different gear.

 

The Portland (Oregon) Audio Club meets monthly, with an extra meeting here and there. We have about 50 paying members, with 12 to 20 attending any particular meeting. Meetings have included unthemed social evenings; music sharing (playing a track or two from any member who brings one); manufacturer presentations (so far, Auralic); members giving talks about various topics; and occasional live-music nights with young musicians playing and talking about their instruments. Another member talked about acoustics; I've given two talks on computer audio, and next month a talk about Joseph Haydn.

Our members include those with inexpensive systems, vintage-equipment lovers, and a some with quite elaborate systems. Some are real tweakers; others not so much. Meetings are a great place to get acquainted with those with similar audio interests & arrange smaller get-togethers.

All are welcome.

 

Proud member of the New Jersey Audio Society since 2009. Meetings held monthly off of nearly every exit! A very friendly, unpretentious club with about 70 members. For details, visit www.njaudiosociety.com