The next Austin meet? (1 Viewer)

[Colin Dunn]

I've had to shy away from spending a lot of time planning this meet because of a heavy work load. That said, I agree with Hank Frankenberg that we should not do the HT tour just yet, since three HTs are still under construction and won't be ready to show by the 8th. (I propose we do the HT tour in June or July ... by then everyone will want to be indoors in an air-conditioned home theater.)

If we go forward with the May 8 meet, we could make it an informational meet, combined with HT enjoyment, food/drink, and poker at Hank's (since Hank already has offered his place for the meet). I remember some posts a while back about Hank's uber-cool outdoor grill, so perhaps everyone could bring something they want to grill and eat (as steaks, burgers, chicken, etc.).

Any thoughts on whether this will work? Does anyone want to cook up a quick demo or presentation??? If we don't have any volunteers, we could make this a purely social meet and get back to the technical stuff in June or July...

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Colin: My place was to be for the poker guys at 7:00 pm, not the meet, BUT, you just talked me into making it earlier, so everyone is invited, and we will grill fajitas at 5:00. Arrive early if you want to help prep. Here's the deal: I'll furnish the tasty H.E.B. marinated chicken and beef fajita meat. You guys furnish the sides and beverages of your choice. I don't have a high-end HT, so don't get excited. This will be a social thing and HT discussions are encouraged. If Doc will let Igor out of his chains, maybe he can give us a rendition of his room acoustics 101. If everyone wants to do a mini HT tour or a couple of stores before the early dinner, that would be cool.
Termination promptly at 7:00 so the hard core poker playin' eight can get down to bizness.

Mark H: I need to get my poker table top and chips. Give me a call, please.

 

[Greg Risley]

Hey Hank,

I haven't got any of your emails. I'll try to give you a call Fri.

Thanks
Greg

 

[Gomez]

Ok sorry for the non HT question but being that there seems to be quite a few poker players in this group and being that we just got through playing cards, I thought I'd pose these questions regarding Hold em "rules".

Ok say you're down to "x" amount of players and you've just completed the last round of betting after the river. Player 1 shows their cards, Player 2 shows their cards and then Player 3 says something like "take it down you won" but doesn't show their hand. Is there a rule that this player has to show their hand if everyone else has shown their hands after completing the last round of bets? I thought it was essentially a call and basically you're paying to see everyones hand including the player that knows they have lost? Is this true?

2nd question can 2 players use the flop for their best hand? if so does the pot get split between the 2? or does high card win the pot?

Looking forward to the unofficial meet next week. Hopefully I won't be too sore ater the Chuys 5k.

 

[Steve Stogel]

Hey, Gomez. You asked:
I'm pretty sure you mean can two or more players "play the board," which is all five community cards. The flop, technically, is the first three cards dealt after the first round of betting (the fourth card is "the turn" and the last card is "the river," btw). Yes, you can play the board. If no one can improve on the board (like if there's already a club flush out there and no one has a club higher than the lowest club on the board), then whoever is in the pot after the final round of betting would split the pot. This tends to happen most if there's a full house on the board or, say, four sevens and a K. Four of a kind with an ace kicker on the board would always be split as there's no improvement to be had on this hand (even if you had one or two As in your hand, as the best hand is still the four of a kind and the A kicker).

Hope you can find your answers in my long responses.

Steve

 

[Scott Oliver]

Short of your questions are: Best five card hand wins, if two players have the same hand they split, 6&7th cards are a non-issue.

Only two people have to show their hands at the end of a hand, the person that was called, and then someone else has to show their winning hand if they can beat that. Also if there is no betting, then typically everyone shows their hand, not sure if their is a hard and fast rule on this or not.

 

[Steve Stogel]

Man, I guess I could have summed it up like Tubes. Read his answer.

Steve

 

[Scott Oliver]

Back to the meet, Hank I think I am going to run down and ask that one supplier today about the left over acoustic treatment stuff that you believe they would still have. Was it Sonex? Anyhow, might get lucky if I do I will purchase a few panels of it and perhaps we could add Acoustic treatment DIY explanation and project to the mix of activities. At the very least I know I would like to take one and cut it up into triangles for ceiling corner treatments.

2nd Hank is your retro system ready for unveiling yet? I have got lots and lots of good recent vinyl purchases to bring.

 

[John Prator]

Well Thank you Scott.:b I am actually excited about getting you guys to come over and check out my HT but I did do things my own way so it's a bit different. I wanted to try and make this room great for music as well as movies so there are a few "compromises". And by the way, your welcome to stay as long as you want. I plan on also having it set up for vinyl too!!

 

[Scott Oliver]

John, those would be improvements then, compromises are when you sacrifice the music for movies sake.

 

[Gomez]

Steven thanks for the info and yes I meant after the river card and not the flop, was a little buzzed when I wrote the email early this morning. May have to make a house rule on the call issue next time I play. It was more of an annoyance last night that this friend of mine didn't ever want to show his cards, it was annoying everyone so I just wanted to get the "official" rule on this move.

Thanks again.

"If you can't spot the sucker in the first 5 min's of the game...You are the sucker!"

 

[John Prator]

Scott,
Well I hope they are improvements! This is all going to be very close, big tall speakers on either side of the screen. Equipment on a rack just below(I hope)the screen. Projector a mere inch or two from the ceiling fan, etc. I can't wait to see if it all works out correctly but I am a little nervous. We shall soon see.............stay tuned.

 

[Gomez]

I would definitely like to get some acoustic improvement suggestions from you folks if not at this meet maybe at another or just during the weekday/weekend. I'm pretty much done w/ our media room but I would love to get input on improvments for the sound.

One of the quesions I have and I've heard mixed things regarding this is the positioning of the rooms "sweet spot". Now when i adjusted my levels and distances for my speakers in my receivers on screen setup I made the sweet spot be the center of the two chairs on our platform. Being that both the left and right chairs are off "center" MY seating position is off "center". My question is, should I just make my seating position be the "sweet spot"? This would entail me having my left speakers distance (in the receivers setup) a couple of feet farther away then my right speakers (front and rears). This would also throw of the "triangle" affect but then again I'm mainly watching movies and when I do listen to music I rarely sit in the "sweet spot" mainly because I can't. If anything I just use that spot for showing off how the speakers sound. Does it really matter if I change my measurements based upon where "I'm" sitting?

Sorry for the long post and hopefully this question makes sense? I might have to show you what I'm talking about.

Thanks again for all the great info!

 

[Steve Stogel]

If the most annoying thing about a player at the table is that they keep on calling bets and losing the pot and, therefore, mucking their cards, that's not really a bad thing. Whoever wins the pot should just be glad that they got a little more cashola in the pot. Sounds like whoever is betting needs to bet a little more (kind of like supply and demand). If he'll keep supplying his chips to the pots that he loses, y'all should demand more

Steve

 

[Scott Oliver]

John you also had not mentioned your turntable before until above. What you got?

Oh and speaking of glow of tubes, this has always been one of my favorite photos found online.

Interestingly enough the guy uses Nirvana interconnects with that system and view I believe they are a perfect fit.

 

[John Prator]

Scott,
Whoa, like that pic! Nice layer of snow outside, great day to hang out around the house and listen to music, which he was obviously doing!

I haven't decided on a TT yet, I'm leaning towards a VPI Scout, seems it is a good deal for the $$. I want something that is nice and warm, no harshness. Harsh, bright is NOT my friend. Was also thinking of maybe a Rega, or that new MMF9. What do you think? I'm open to suggestions, as a matter of fact just found this one too:

http://www.bottlehead.com/et/bix/bix.htm

Seems promising but what do I know!? I know one thing, I would for sure need some help in putting that Puppy together, I'm a fumble fingers when it comes to stuff like that.

 

[Scott Oliver]

Well if you are new to turntables I would highly suggest purchasing local, so that you can get dealer support for it, and help setting it up.
Two Places I would suggest:

Sound Mind Audio has the largest selection, although he only carries in store the Nottingham and Music Hall stuff. His favorite is Nottingham and he has always preferred its sound to all the other brands he has brought through like Basis, Clearaudio, VPI, and Transrotor. I bought my Not spacedeck from him and he has been good about helping me through the steep learning curve.

The another good place in town selling turntables is Whetstone Audio, he has in store every Rega model. Actually Brian is moving to a downtown location soon, and Rega is coming out with two new models, so he just might be looking to sell one or two demo models, might be worth poking around about.

If you want to hear my Spacedeck just let me know and we can set a time up, I will also hopefully be organinzing a listening/ comparison party soon at my place with a game of poker too follow. That reminds me I need to call Julian.

 

[Mark Hayenga]

Hank:

I tried calling last night around 8:15, but no answer. I'm out of town this weekend, but I can run the table & chips back to you anytime next week...


Mark

 

[Jonathan DA]

John, if you're big into figuring things out on your own then you can save a ton of money by purchasing a used turntable off of a site like audiogon.com. I got my Clearaudio Champion level 2 for almost half price on audiogon and it is in mint condition. The drawback is that you have no dealer or manufacturer support at all. If you're not a big DIYer, then I would stay away from kits and used stuff, and buy local like Scott suggested.

My (minority) take on tables is that they're the least impotant part of the trio. As long it isolates the record from vibration and spins at 33 1/3 rpm then its doing its job. The tonearm and cartridge are the more important pieces. For the money, you can't beat the Rega RB250 and RB300 arms. There is an ongoing debate over which is better, the 250 or the 300. I didn't hear a significant difference in the two so I bought the 250 and saved the cash for a more expensive cartridge. The cartridge will have the biggest impact on the sound, so don't skimp there. I spent $200 more than I wanted to on a cart, but I think it was worth it.

Turntable A vs turntable B is as emotional in the vinyl world as digital vs tube in the amp space. My setup, Clearaudio Champ 2 with a Shure V15VxMR cart, is often criticized in the vinyl world for being too analytical and too "digital" sounding. My take on it is that it is a more accurate representation of what's on the grooves than a lot of the other "audiophile" setups on the market that have intentionally non-flat frequency responses and spurious non-linearities. Having said that, if I hadn't gotten such a deal on my Champ then I would have pruchased either a Rega, Nottingham, Teres, or VPI table, all of which are excellent choices.

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Greg, I don't know what's going on, but I haven't had any phone messages or e-mails (either at work or at home) from you, so I must surmize that you are now on the government payroll and I am your assignment to push over the EDGE. If that's true, then you have a hell of a challenge!

Tubes: I just saw your questions. The fiberglas I bought was Johns-Manville I think. The distributor is on St. Elmo. The retro system is not completely up yet.