Meet Report... 1st Canadian GTA HTF meet (long) (1 Viewer)

[Miles_W]

Good Morning all... First off let me start by saying thank you all for coming it was a blast.
The participants:
Ryan (play it louder damn it) Peddle
Erik (I don't want no stinking little TV) Strong
Elliot (shopaholic) Willschick
Brent (Abba never sounded so good) L.
Craig (Why did I bring the damn heavy amp?) A.
Larry (Taller than my speakers) Skelly
Lou (the Phantom Menace) Sytsma
Walter (the Man in Black) Feddern
Massimo ( 2 pairs of 12 gauge to one banana plug) Nigro
Norm ( the Shy type) Lalonde
Wayne (No onions) Murphy
Blaine ( Qui Quon Gin) Horrocks
and myself
Miles ( Disco lover) Wan
We had agreed to meet at 10:30am at Whitby Audio, some of us were there a little early and other among us must have stayed from the night before ( Larry!) others got delayed by an army of Snow ploughs, and others among us think that Whitby can support more than one NO Frills supermarket

... After we all eventually got to the store we were pretty much allowed to go about our devices, they have a couple of nice sound rooms, on containing a beautiful Elite 710, and about a 100 different receivers, we primarily listened to a Marantz sr 8000 (nice receiver) on Paradigm ref 80's, a studio cc, I think they were ref 20's for surrounds and a pw 2200. The sound was clear and sufficiently loud to fill the room. Initially the soundtrack was bright and lacking in bass... Ryan fixed the bass problem by hooking up the sub properly, and either some one adjusted the re-Re-Eq or my ears got used to the brightness. Unfortunately we were unable to listen to the downstairs sound room where a selco dlp and Bryston SP1 were on display ( something about paying customers???)
Next was lunch (thanks Erik ) boy Larry I sure thought the wings were hot even if you didn't. At this point the group mostly headed off to the Pickering Fleas market to go check out DVD's ( Larry and I headed back to my place since he had to leave at 4:00pm for a family function) Larry has been looking for a while for a benchmark so he can judge speakers from a known reference point. I am flattered to say he (at this point in time. We all know how things can change in audio/HT!!) has picked Martin Logans as his benchmark... Thanks Larry. We went though a selection of 2 channel, and had just switched to Omaha beach (SPR DTS) when the rest of the gang arrived. I had a little trick up my sleeve... I had purposely not revealed the contents of my HT in order to conduct a little experiment... I displayed my downstairs system and got a couple of "that's nice... replies and the good little system..." ( I actually would like to hear your thought on that one guys...) and then lead them upstairs to my actually HT. I can safely say the guys were a little happier at that . We proceeded to watch some demos, favorite movie clips, listened to some 2 channel, etc. We also recalibrated my system a little ( sub was off by a couple of db) after a quick bite to eat ( pizza is a wonderful thing) the guys settled into watch Phantom Menace DD on Japenese LD... quite the show for a discontinued analog medium!!
anyway that's it for now If I go into anymore detail this post will be immense...
My thanks to everyone for coming and making it such an enjoyable time.
Lou, thanks for the ride in the morning and for Haunting DTS, your RF demod, and Phantom Menace. Craig, sorry for making you haul the Mac... perhaps next time we can actually plug it in I am really curious to hear it still.
Ryan, thank you for bring your proscan DVD player... (Damn dropouts...) Brent, I still owe you for the pop and chips... next time okay ( thanks for bring your 2200 as well...)
Everyone else thanks for coming... and to let you all know my wife asked me when the next one is so if there isn't another host you can sign me up...
Miles

 

[LarrySkelly]

Great meet guys! I'm really disappointed that I had to leave early as I would have liked to gotten to know everyone and learned what I could. As a newbie with no equipment, these meets are dangerous. Please, whoever has the next meet needs to have some equipment I can afford!!!

Seriously, I still have the sound of those MartinLogan's in my head, and I could not get it out today. I had a couple of hours listening to a variety of CD's I know very well, and the clarity, detail and imaging is stunning. I think I'm in trouble.

A big thanks to Whitby Audio for allowing us to congregate (and monopolize) their store. I feel sorry for the paying customers.

And Miles, thanks for organizing and hosting. Superb job. I'm really looking forward to the next one.

Enough of the sentimental BS, here's what you really want - the photos. I don't know this smilies crap, but I do know HTML, so be sure to mouse over the photos. Not 100% sure on a couple of names, if any are wrong email me at [email protected], and I'll correct them before I submit them to the forum for their photos area.

See you around the board,
Larry


The First Toronto
Home Theater Forum Meet

February 17,
2001




The Dirty Dozen at Whitby Audio


mouse over photo for names

click here for hi res photo



















At Miles' Place

mouse over photo for equipment (enough with the names)

click here for hi res photo

 

[Elliott Willschick]

The pictures turned out quite nicely. BTW just so Craig isn't embarassed, our names are reversed

 

[brentl]

It sure is good that everybody made it home alright. It was a chilly late evening when we finally let Miles get his beauty sleep and trekked our various distances home, some from as far as Kitchener, and Orangeville.... OUCH!!
The system was above reproach, not having a chance to listen to Martin Logan speakers in years this gave me a chance to fall for them again Too bad we can't do anything about the 434, but it seems like a good excuse for an upgrade anyways
I remember seeing Craigs amp sitting under the fishtanks and wondered 2 things "I wonder how that amp sounds" and " I wonder how much Craig would cry if a fish tank broke" Well we didn't find out either thing....too bad!!! Iwas looking forward to hearing that amp.
I think most of us will admit, only under oath, to a "problem" we had with 5.1laser disc.....but I won't get into that I also have to admit I was more than satisfied,and perhaps even a little impressed with the sound a laserdisc can put out...of course that was the 704 a PRIME example of the best players ever made...
It looks to me like a few of the guys enjoyed the trip to the markets for a few DVDs....esp Craig ....If it works for next time, and we "play" in Richmond hill, we could make a point of stopping by DVD Wave. If we tell Michele early enough he could have whatever titles everybody wants on hand....only in widescreen though
Well that's my little pointless post for the day.
One last thing......I had a great time last night!! it's great to see everybody get along so well. It's also good to meet paople that can talk about HT nonstop for hours...I never go tired of it!!
Later
Brent L
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Closing in quickly on JayH...President of the OPHTF!!

 

[brentl]

Sorry I forgot to add the 2 websites that were mentioned on Saturday.
Link Removed
Link Removed
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Closing in quickly on JayH...President of the OPHTF!!

 

[Miles_W]

I forgot to mention something in my first post... I am dedicating the first meet to Andy VX who started the darn thread and through circumstances beyond his control was unable to attend

Next time for sure...
Larry great pics... thanks It was a shame that you had to split early, give me a call...
Brent did you find any c+c music factory cd's for me yet???
oh is anyone interested in that MA 500 ???
Thanks
Miles

 

[Ryan Peddle]

Larry, those pictures turned out great...much better than the ones I took. So I guess I'll leave mine in my personal photo album.
The Martin Logans were beautiful sounding speakers...I have never heard Eric Clapton sound so good b4, same can be said for Abba

The conversations were great, ranging anywhere from
"6.1 and 7.1, if they are needed"
"Room acoustics"
"Bass in the Haunting DTS"
"what stores are good"
"good salesmanship"
"next meet"
It was a very comfortable environment, and I'm quite sure everyone was leary of how we would all get along. But it was as if we've known each other for years.
The next meet should be great. And I hope that we can get a few more people involved, especially Andy, who actually originally started the thread about the meet.
Thanks again to Miles for being a great host and I'll see everybody on HTF.
Later guys
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Oops...I dropped my eardrums
could you pick them up for
me

 

[Ryan Peddle]

BTW...to answer your question Miles.
When you first told us that the lower rooms HT was yours I said "nice little setup"...then somebody else said "where is the real one" b4 I could.
It is a decent system, I just remember you descibing the room to me and I knew that the PSB/Onkyo setup wasn't yours.
Either way, when I went upstairs and saw your Martin Logans and the Sunfire amp, I was in awe. A really beautiful setup.
Thanks again.
Ryan P
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Oops...I dropped my eardrums
could you pick them up for
me

 

[Gregg Loewen]

Too awesome !! I am jealous.
Just an FYI, the next HTF national / international meet will be this fall in LA. Not sure of the dates yet, but it will be a blast!!
Gregg
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The Sonodome
Gregg's DVDs
Link Removed
The Family Units

 

[Ryan Peddle]

Hey guys...I though I'd let ya know personally that I have finally put some pics up on the net. http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/rpeddle1?...src=ph&start=1
Only a breath away from Miles' system....YEAH RIGHT!
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Oops...I dropped my eardrums
could you pick them up for
me

 

[AndyVX]

Hello everyone. Glad to hear that the first ever T.O HT Meet went extremely well.
Wow, very nice setup Miles. Those Martin Logans must sound incredible. Too bad I wasn't able to hear them and be able to meet all you guys.
Well, seeing as how well this meet went, I can't wait for the next one. See you all at T.O HT Meet #2!
Andrew
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My Growing DVD Collection
ICQ# 69241437

 

[Trevor_J]

Hey guys, I guessed I missed this one

. Looks like you guys had fun. Be sure to put me on the list for the next one though.