[John Casler]

Hi All,

Below is the info on the August meeting.  Upscale Audio is known for "tubes" so I will be in attendance.  Plus the raffle for the CARY CDP isn't bad either.

==================================

Dear Members,

There are TWO fantastic reasons not to miss our August
22nd Audio Society Event and Barbecue at Upscale Audio!

Dennis Had, President, Chief Designer, and world
renowned audiophile at Cary Audio Design, will make a
rare west coast appearance at our August Event.  This
is a quite a coup for our highly regarded Society and
will be a fantastic opportunity to enjoy great audio
conversation with one of America's legends.

With great thanks to the wonderful generosity of Dennis
Had and his extraordinary company, Cary is giving the
Society a Cary 308 CD Player with 24/96 Switchable
Upsampling, HDCD, and Remote [$1500 list] to raffle at
the Event!
http://www.caryaudio.com/products/audio/cd308cd.shtml  
This is one of the most valuable gifts ever given to an
Audio Society in my long experience.  What a fantasic
and gracious gesture of good will to our Society and
its members from Cary!

The August 22 Event at Upscale Audio is for Members and
Lifetime Members, paid and honorary, and a guest [no
children please.]  If you have not become a member as
yet, just send $10 to the address on the Society
website to cover the balance of the year's dues.

So mark your calendar for Sunday, August 22nd,
1-4:30pm, for the Annual Barbecue and Audio Event "par
excellence" at Upscale Audio with most gracious host
Kevin Deal and special guest appearance by Cary's
Dennis Had.  PLUS a brand new Cary 308 CD Player to be
raffled to a lucky audiophile!!

Remember the special UPSCALE time: 1-4:30pm!

AND Mark Your Calendar for the "Society Silent Auction
and Swap Meet" sponsered by Soundstrings Cable on
Sunday, September 26, at the Holiday Inn in Brea.  Make
money for yourself and the Society with easy silent
auction of your used gear!! We will have plenty of
tables to show off the gear and will promote the event
in the local papers. So hold on to that unwanted
equipment for our first big fall event, open to the
public for purchases!

See you all at the barbecue and Cary raffle on August
22 as the LA&OC Audio Society continues to celebrate a
musical summer in Southern California!!!

Warmest regards and wonderful listening to all,
Bob Levi
President
Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society
America's Premier Audio Society
laocaudiosociety.com for directions

[Mad DOg]

This meeting is for MEMBERS + 1 GUEST ONLY so if you haven't paid your dues, now is the time to do so!

[jswallac]

Can we sign up and pay the dues at the Upscale Audio meeting if we have not joined yet?

[John Casler]

Can we sign up and pay the dues at the Upscale Audio meeting if we have not joined yet?

Yessssireeee BOB! (errrr.... jswallac)

This one should be fun, the tension during the raffle will be something else

With the ante being upped to a "tubed" player, I might have to buy 15 or 20 tickets, myself.

[KeithR]

I'll be there....

[John Casler]

I'll be there....

Me too!!

And I will be bringing a new member.

Anyone who is into tubes or considering getting into tubes should make this one.  

Kevin from Upscale is the "Tube Guru plus".

Also for new joinees, it is only $10 for the rest of the year (shoot it is worth $10 just for the barbeque!)

Also Kevin is trying to get a head count, so if you are planning on attending, email him at kdeal1@earthlink.net

[shokunin]

Did any of the AC members win the CD player??

[Mad DOg]

Did any of the AC members win the CD player??

No.

[jswallac]

While I did not win the Cary CDP, I want to thank all those involved with putting on this get together.  Sure it would have been nice to turn my $3 ticket into a $2,500 player...  

This was the first Audio Society Event that I have attended, but it will not be my last.  I truly felt like the proverbial kid in the candy store.  If you love tubes, you must visit Upscale Audio.  Kevin was an extremely gracious host, opening up his home to all of us.  What a shrine to tube gear!  He even took small groups back to his treasure trove of vintage tubes.  That, in itself, would easily make my huge investment of $10 for dues and another $3 for a raffle ticket seem well spent.  But there was far more.  In addition to a great lunch, we had the pleasure to hear directly from Dennis Had about the history of Cary Audio and the near future as well.  Dennis had brought (sorry, could not resist the wording) several prototypes of future products.  Some really exciting stuff in the pipeline.

So yes, I sure wish I could have won the CD player, but it was still a great day.  Thanks to Kevin, Dennis, Bob Levi, and eveyone else involved.  You did a great job.

By the way. the music was not too bad either!  An all Cary setup including his new loudspeakers.

Jim

[Jon L]

This was the first meet where I bought more than one raffle ticket (bought 20!), but I still didn't win the CDP

I tried to hit up Kevin Deal for some "secret tubes" he might have, but I guess I really have too many tubes already b/c apparently I have'em all...

And Jim, this meeting was more of a social event/BBQ than hard-core audio audition, so you will get more serious listening in later meetings.  

Having said that, I did get a chance to listen to all my reference CD's before things got busy on the Cary setup:  
306/200 CDP->Nordost Valhalla->SLP 98 pre->Quattro Fil->Rocket 88 in triode->Kimber speaker cable->New Cary speakers, all via Hydra power conditioning.  

I believe Dennis Had said this new floorstanding speaker will sell for around $3K, which I believe is a great price for what I heard.   I never heard the SLP 98 pre or the push-pull Cary amp before, and I must say they sounded like they deserve the praise given for great performance-to-price ratio.  

Wish Kevin could have set up the big Sonus Fabers, but maybe next time.

Oh, yeah.  Dennis Had surely is one of the most down-to-earth industry person I've met.  No wonder he lives in North Carolina.  We L.A. types sometimes forget people like this exist...

[Mad DOg]

First of all, I'd like to thank Bob Levi, Dennis Had of Cary Audio and Kevin Deal of Upscale Audio for making this meeting possible. Kevin, THANK YOU for your gracious hospitality! Thank you for inviting us to your beautiful home and feeding nearly 50 hungry audio enthusiasts!!! Dennis, thank you for sharing your wonderfully entertaining stories with us!

This was definitely one of the best LAOC Audio Society mtgs I've attended so far! Since I was stuck behind the sign in table handling the administrative stuff along w/ John Casler (I wouldn't be able to do it all without John's help so thank you, buddy!), I didn't have a chance to listen to the wonderful setup that JonL described as much as I would've liked. But to see all the nice gear (and i do mean nice!) was a treat! As if that wasn't enough, then I had the opportunity to meet Dennis Had and Kevin Deal. These guys are PASSIONATE about audio. But even better is the fact that they are so down to earth it's not even funny. Man, what a blast!

I think I'll need to make it a point to swing on by Upscale Audio on a separate occasion to do some serious listening at a later date...

Anyhow, to the rest of the AudioCircle members in So Cal, you should definitely try to make it for future meetings! Membership is only $10 thru the remainder of the year!

Until next month...Happy listening...

[John Casler]

Yes, I second that.

It was the best meeting yet.

I even came home with some new tubes to roll

Really great to see how the Society is growing and "blending" it to So Cal Audio Rage on AC is one great way to enjoy our hobby.

I wanted to meet everyone, Jim (jswallac) who were you?

Next meeting should also be quite fun.  Sort of a "swapmeet" auction type of thing.

[jswallac]

John,

I was the big spender that bought a single ticket but almost forgot to put the part that is drawn back in the box.  Not that it mattered.  I was also the one in the blue cap that was drooling over all of Kevin's equipment.  I have actually been to Kevin's place before to buy some Meadowlark Kestrels, but did not get a chance to wonder around and gawk.