[Burke Strickland]

• If you say “SWEEEEET!” when you see and hear the gear at our first meet for 2004 it might be because we’ll be in Sugar Land. It might also be because the equipment is high value gear with high performance and you’re impressed with the way it looks and sounds. Richard Behling has kindly agreed to let us check out his HT Saturday, January 31, 2004, starting at 10 AM. After we put his new Sony 12HT projector and Pioneer DV-563A universal DVD player through their paces, we’ll caravan to near-by Panda Garden restaurant for a Dutch-treat lunch to continue our discussion about HT topics of interest.

While we are not setting a limit on number of attendees for the first meet, we are requesting that you either email or PM your RSVP to me with the number of folks you are bringing. HT hobbyists from outside the greater Houston area are welcome, too – you’ll just need to let us know you’re coming so we can give you directions. (I’ll be sending directions to Richard’s place only to those who RSVP; we will not be posting them here).

• The second meet is scheduled for Saturday, February 14, 2004 starting at 10 AM. Greg Panagos will be our host for an opportunity to experience a high end “dream system” with Theta electronics, the Linn Unidisk 1.1 CD/DVD Player, Vandersteen speakers all around (including Vandie 5s up front) and a Runco projector. Due to limited space, this one will only be for the first ten people who RSVP. (I’ll be sending directions to Greg’s place only to those who RSVP; we will not be posting them here).We are trying to decide whether to have pizza in to allow more time to play with the system, or go to a nearby restaurant for our lunch. More details will be forthcoming later.

[Burke Strickland]

The February 14th event is fully booked. (You can still sign up "stand by" in case someone drops out.)

We're going to have a good group attending January 31 as well, but there is still plenty of room for more people to join us. Simply send me a private message or email with the number planning to attend. A few days from now, I'll send you the directions to our meeting location.

I've already heard some of the discs our host plans to use next Saturday as demo material and they sound sensational. Of course, all who attend are welcome to bring their own favorite demo discs as well. Since the system includes a "universal player" it will be interesting to see how wide a range of disc types it can really handle.