San Jose CA - GTG - 7/14/07

Skynut

Give us the date and maybe we can have two?

Ron Temple

F1...dates please...love to meet up.

fredv

Ditto to the last 2 replies. I will treat you enough pie that you don't want to hear PIE for 3 months :-)

Skynut

Yes, if you are in my area I will try to get you some pie also.

I think we can make you sick of pie in Cali.

F1nut

The schedule is pretty tight during the day, but perhaps something one evening. I'm hanging with Beardog in San Jose and staying in Fremont. Somebody PM me a phone number.

Looking forward to some PIE

fredv

Will PM you my phone number.

Skynut

PM sent

Ron Temple

looking forward to meeting everyone...see you tomorrow.

Skynut

I am running late, probably see you around 12:30

fredv

Thank you for your hospitality, Ron.
You HT set up really rocks. My chest was pounded so badly that I may need to see a cardiologist!! Steve, Sky, it was a great pleasure to meet and chat with you 2 great guys. It was a really fun meeting. Not only that we spent time on music and movies, we also talked with our mouth full One more time, thank you for organizing the gathering. It was superb!!

Ron Temple

I've got a few I'll post later...after I tried to take one of myself the camera froze...:eek: .

I had a great time...only 3 Polkies and a wannabe made it, since Luc had a family trajedy...hope everything works out..., but you've got to love the dedication of Fred, Sky and Steve...they loaded and I mean loaded up their vehicles with more stuff than we could cover. Fred played EE like a mad scientist. If you followed the list of stuff, here's what we had.

Sources:
DVD player
Denon player
Pioneer Laserdisk

Dacs:
3 of them...Entech and I can't recall the other 2

Pres: (all Fred's)
Adcom
A tube pre (can't recall the brand)
A Fred special tube pre

Amps:
Carver TFM35 (worked like a charm)
2 Adcom GFA555s (only used one)
Onkyo Mxxx
modded Fred special RS amp
very heavy and nice tube amp

Speakers:
RT35i
RT55i
CS400( I wanted to try this in my HT, just too big to mess with now on my rack...might fit, might not
GR Reseach AV-2
SDA-CRS+
RTA 8
CA AL-III
Sky's special Rock speakers

All run through 2 power conditioners. That was the listening room. In the HT room, it was my normal rig with the M-S902s in surround duty.

We had enough food for 12, so the 4 of us only ate half and took some home. Steve brought and cooked some excellent wild salmon on a plank, Fred brought about 10 bags of salad and Sky brought...ummm PIE (Bonnie's not happy about you leaving that cuz she'll now have to eat it). It would have been great to have a few more hungry Polkies over, but I think we all had a great time.

Due to all the gear, we didn't spend much time with any one combo, but due to Fred's and Sky's source contributions, the front end would make any speaker sound great, and frankly, until we got to the tube amp, it was tough to quantify the differences with each amp swapout, Carver to Adcom to Onkyo...then tube. The speakers all impressed me starting with the 35is. First time I've had a chance to listen to the older RT series...wow these guys really put out the bass for a midsized book...extremely clean and satisfying. Also, I was very impressed with the RTA8s...great with jazz and female vocals, well balanced, pinpoint imaging and deep though not especially wide soundstage. I understand why Cathy loves them. We put them up after the CRS+ and though they are different, it's a pick'em on which is superior. The CAs are amazing, especially on tubes. I'd like to have some more time with them...we were winding down.

There was still gear I haven't mentioned that didn't get in. I apologize if anyone wanted to hear something, but we didn't get to it. That's Fred's fault .

Pics to follow...

Skynut

I would like to thank Ron for being host, I had a fun time.
Fred and Steve it was nice to meet you both also.

It was fun to see and hear all the different speakers and gear.
I think the Carver Amazings may have ruined me, I think I may need to get a pair of those.

After I unloaded my truck I put my RT35i's to work in the garage with a Pioneer amp and they sound great. It's funny I didn't do that before.

The B.B.Q. was great, I loved the chicken and salmon, good salad too.

I had a good time and made it home before 11pm not bad.

Thanks everyone for the gear and food they brought.
It was a lot of fun to just hang out and switch up gear.

Ron Temple

Here are some really bad pics...forgive me guys...someone else should have taken pictures.













Really awful pics...though Steve's wasn't too bad.

RT

F1nut

I know Steve, so who else is whom?

fredv

Me and Sky are in the same picture, I am on the right of the picture. The single frozen smile pic is Ron :-)

Ron Temple

I was going to say the blurry guys were S & F, the good looking guy was Steve and the wasted looking guy was a guest, but Fred ratted me out...A***ole...:p

F1nut

Cool, always nice to put a face to the name.

RuSsMaN

There's a motley crew if I ever saw one.

Skynut

This was so much fun.

I really think I am going to look for a good deal on Carver Amazings for my main system, they look as good as they sound.

I am glad I went, I learned a few things and got to hear real equipment in a real setting as opposed to in a store.

If any of you ever get a chance to do this you should go, it was just plain fun.

Ron Temple

Sky,

You should do an in depth review of the famous "Rock" speakers...

Skynut

They rock, what more could be said.

They were real impressive until we realized you still had the sub running.

They are basically rock shaped speakers for the yard, built out of some type of resin they are supposed to be weather resistant.
Built by KLH they sounded ok for yard speakers, I will be putting them by the pool once I figure out how they will be powered.
I think they were under $100.00 at Costco with around 100ft of speaker cable, probably around 16 guage.
They will blend in real nice with my landscaping someday.

Polk65

Thanks to all of you for making this a fun gathering. Fred & Sky, it was nice finally meeting you. Ron what can I say, you need a shave. The true star of this event was Bonnie for putting up with us and in the end she got some PIE! This was a great mixture of people and gear. The food was plentiful and I'm sorry for how the salmon turned out. 20-25 minutes is all it should have been on those planks but they got double that and came out with a smoked flavor. What else can you say about folks that will load up their cars with gear, speakers and a full size weber grill? :eek:

Memorable quote of the day "the landscaper can't hear the music, he asked to turn it up".

Most memorable quote of the day "I don't know about you guys but I'm sweating like a pig. I'm going for a swim".

Fireman32

Glad to see that it was a good time had by all. Makes me wish PF was here already.

reeltrouble1

The pics were a little better when I removed my glasses, my out of focus eyes with the out of focus pics are a match................

Cool Beans on the Gathering, getting to together makes this place the Polk Nation, now You'all come down Georgia,,,,,,ya hear.....

yee haw..........

RT1

Ron Temple

While I would have liked to have some more attendance...just the 4 or 5 of us really made it easier to get to know one another, **** and have some fun. I'm sure the other PFs and GTGs will be just as rewarding.

Things we've learned...

Sky's got big rocks...
Fred's afraid of his wife...
Steve needs a wife...
I need a shave...

fredv

Next time when we meet, we will certainly review our digital cameras as well;)

Ron Temple

fredv wrote: »

Next time when we meet, we will certainly review our digital cameras as well;)

Ya think??? I could claim inherent gear flaws, but it's probably operator error.