[Obie]

Friends,

I have a pretty special opportunity to offer a week long, experience-based project at the boarding school where I teach music.  I’ll have about 12 interested, motivated students 24 hours a day for five days.  I’m planning on building speaker kits (we have a pretty excellent wood-shop and the help of two cabinet builders).

My question to you:  what do you wish you knew about audio in high school?  We have a recording studio where we’ll spend some time.  I also hope to go to our local brick and mortar shop for an afternoon of gear hearing. I’d love to get a few local audiophiles involved too.  All ideas greatly appreciated.

I’d also be very interested in hearing your ideas about speaker plans for this project.  Unfortunately, we do have a budget to contend with.  I’ll likely be able to average $150 per pair of speakers.  I’m leaning towards two-way monitors fairly easily driven by mass-market amps.  

Thanks for thinking this over.  I'm way jazzed to hear your thoughts.

Kris

[Carlman]

When I was younger, a friend took me to a hifi shop and had me listen to a pair of Klipsch Cornwall's?... He made me close my eyes and he spun me around a few times and asked me to point to the speakers... I pointed to the center of the room and a sidewall, about 90* off from where they were.  That experience stuck with me a long time.  What it taught me was that sound can be manipulated to do all sorts of cool tricks.  

My main suggestion/point is that if you don't try to go into too much detail and focus on simple things, the children will likely come away with more interest instead of answers.

Oh, and make sure you get lots of bass out of those speakers.  The younger you are the more you like the bass.

Also, check your PM.

-C

[ohenry]

what do you wish you knew about audio in high school?

That girls *really* don't care about good audio.

But really. . . I wish someone would have told me that impressive measurements and expense don't guarantee audio quality and that audio quality is very subjective.  And that system/room synergy is paramount (maybe a demonstration of incompatability would be fun for you to conduct).

[Digi-G]

How about a "bigger isn't always better" primer.  At that age (at least for me) the more watts and the more drivers seemed to be the most important thing.  A demonstration with small monitors and maybe a subwoofer might leave an impression.  

Also, maybe showing how (relatively) inexpensive this hobby can be - a lot of enjoyment came from my cheapo systems in the past.

[Obie]

Great ideas all!  

O'henry, there has been surprisingly large interest from our female population.  Maybe we can work to change the stereotype!

Digi-G, you make a great point about expense and value.  My home system is hardly top dollar, but I hope to impress where to spend every "stretched" dollar.

Carl, I will take your suggestion that simple lessons will have the most impact.  The spirit of the school is highly geared towards alternate learning styles and experiential education.  Your demonstration idea is great!

Thanks for the input!

kj

(I'm currently proctoring my music history exam.  The only thing I'm hearing at the moment is the whisper sound of exam sweat.)