1st Annual Basspig Audiophile Society Meetup (Connecticut)

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

March 31st 2012 marks the very first meeting of the Basspig Audiophile Society.

Venue: Theater with 12' AT screen and legendary 16,500 watt sound system

Laboratory: The 'mad scientist's' lab, where I tweak, redesign, and sometimes repair audio gear. Equipped with a vast array of Tektronix and H/P test equipment, analyzers, scopes, signal generators, etc., where I'll be demonstrating some interesting circuits and audio component phenomena.


I'm hoping to have things start up around 2:30-3:00PM and go on til whenever.

I'll have lots of orchestra recordings that I made using my proprietary multimike system, lots of the sharpest video you've ever seen projected on a large screen, and a variety of imported music and movies, if anyone is interested. Also featuring my Ultimate Fireworks Blu-ray demonstration, the last word in pyrotechnics recordings!

There's an array of Kurzweil samplers and synths, keyboard and multitrack recording system in the studio, coupled to my two video editing suites where I create concert videos, 3D animations and do all the production of DVD and Blu-ray discs. In short, a lot of interesting things to see and do!

Please RSVP for address/directions.

So far, we have three confirmed attendees, some from as far away as PA!

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

Just an update...

The Basspig Audiophile Society Social (B.A.S.S.) is all set for this coming Saturday, with a starting time 2:30-3:00PM.

Based on suggestions from attendees, we're planning to serve dinner at the start of the meet. I'm thinking of making my (now famous) lasagna dish, despite the high cost of the various cheeses that go into it, because it really is extraordinary. We'll have snacks/dips and drinks available all throughout the day/evening, too.

Here's the info you need to know:


Roster of Events (not necessarily in this order):

Ultimate Fireworks Demonstration on Blu-ray --recorded by me
Symphony Orchestra Videos with Surround Sound --recorded by me
Reference quality HD digital film demonstration
Laboratory demos--vacuum tube amplifiers; filament voltage effects on distortion - capacitors types & how they affect distortion - using the Spectrum Analyzer to evaluate amplifier performance (feel free to bring an amplifier that I can run a full set of specifications on for demonstration purposes.)
MIDI Demonstration
3D Graphics examples
(Later, if everyone can agree on a movie, we may even show a complete movie from my growing collection of Blu-ray titles.)

Feel free to suggest activities. We may think of additional stuff between now and Saturday.
I look forward to meeting everyone at the event! See you Saturday!

R.S.V.P. for directions/address.
--Mark

 

[amirm]

Looking good Mark. Hope it is enjoyable time for all.

 

[cjfrbw]

There will be a lot of flapping pant legs.

 

[treitz3]

Mark, I would love to make it. Unfortunately I'll have to take a rain check on this one. I'd appreciate listening to your recording of the fireworks display on your DS rig. Have fun!

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

Thanks guys.. would love to have had you all here. Oh, if only they'd invent a Star Trek Transporter Room!
3 confirmed guests so far, coming from as far as PA. With gas pushing $5 here, I guess that's a miracle.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I will visit in the afternoon. Remind me of the address. See you.

Kal

 

[treitz3]

Mark, with gas the way it is and my big ol' truck? It would be cheaper for me to fly and rent a car. I'll plan on making the 2nd annual shindig.

 

[Bruce B]

What kind of "MIDI" demonstration will there be?

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

I will visit in the afternoon. Remind me of the address. See you.

Kal

PM Send with address.

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

What kind of "MIDI" demonstration will there be?

Some orchestral, pipe organ and a mixed variety of music formats on my Kurzweil K series sampers and synths, along with soft synths and other (Yamaha) hardware synths.

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

Mark, with gas the way it is and my big ol' truck? It would be cheaper for me to fly and rent a car. I'll plan on making the 2nd annual shindig.

NC is a bit of a drive. I think it took me 16 hours (with a rest stop in Maryland) to make Raleigh NC from CT. I have two guests coming up from PA, about 130-150 miles.

Going to be a lot of variety and some 'science lab' stuff with vacuum tubes on a spectrum analyzer and curve tracer, showing various performance parameters and how they're affected by filament voltage, bias, etc.

We're serving a buffet of homemade lasagna, plus the usual chips and dip variety of stuff, so there'll be some real food for the hungry, tired long-distance travelers.

 

[LL21]

Well, sorry cannot be there (few thousand miles is a little long to go)...let us know how it goes..starting in a few minutes!

 

[mep]

Hopefully Basspig gets all of the crazy stuff out of the way before people eat his lasagna. You know, the part where he plays low bass at incredibly high levels that causes people to become physically sick and run out of his house screaming into the night. If not, there may be more than ceiling dust all over the floor.

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

LOL... we had a great time, and much of it was spent in the laboratory, observing changes in measured distortion and orders of distortion on cascading op-amp circuits typically found in preamplifiers. I demonstrated a Curve Tracer and how to interpret vacuum tube performance on this instrument. Also had a SET triode amp I wired up, bare bones, for a demo on types of harmonics produced by certain tubes.
Then we moved to the studio, where I showed reference quality video footage I took downtown (part of it was in the movie "Mr. Deeds" with Adam Sandler), 20 minutes of a Saint-saëns Cello Concerto that I recorded in Boston for a client, then moved on to the Rachmaninoff with a larger symphony orchestra, then finally to the Ultimate Fireworks Blu-ray that I produced. The neat thing was that all of the material I demo'd this evening was also produced and recorded by me.
A bit after the fireworks demo, some neighbor down the street lit off some M-80 fire crackers. Must have been his reply to hearing my fireworks.

We had lasagna later on. Some of the guests brought wine, beer and fresh coffee beans and a rum cake that was out of this world. We had some prominent guests, too. All told, 7 audiophiles, not including myself. It was pretty much unanimously suggested that we do this again next year and make it a regular event.

Some guests were notably impressed with the transient response of the sound system. One fellow had to hold on to his baseball cap to keep it from being blown off his head, he told me later. I think the fireworks demo was just *slightly* louder than the real event and whenever a launcher and an explosion event happened simultaneously to reinforce eachother, there was quite a blast of low frequency energy. The work I had done to de-noise my audio chain paid off--no one complained about any hum or hiss, despite the high dynamic range of the recording (>86dB).

I'm sure that Kal and Ethan will want to add their comments.
I thank everyone who attended and hope that ya'll had a great time and a memorable one as well!

 

[Ethan Winer]

It was great Mark. Count me in for next year.

--Ethan

 

[NorthStar]

Kalman (Rubinson) was also there!? :b

And Ethan did drop by?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

And a good time was had by all. The demos ranged from very good to impressive and Mark entertained us all from the electronics workbench. Unfortunately, he didn't grab a tripod, so he was not included in the group picture.

 

[treitz3]

It's always the small things.....

 

[NorthStar]

And a good time was had by all. The demos ranged from very good to impressive and Mark entertained us all from the electronics workbench. Unfortunately, he didn't grab a tripod, so he was not included in the group picture.

That is weird; Mark is an accomplished photographer.