I've been in contact with the department chair of the Sonoma State University EE Department. He is forwarding my email to the person responsible for conference venues. He added that if it happened they would be interested in "partnering" with BAF.
Tom, I'm forwarding the email chain to your aol email address.
It'd be awesome if you came down to The OC.
People from out of town could fly to John Wayne and spend time at the beach... a REAL beach. Plus the place is cleaner, much cleaner.
I can no longer handle SF. We use to go there all the time, but we've stopped going to the Bay Area.
Maybe we could split the distance and have the shindig in Central Calfifornia, off the 101? Think of all the wine we got here, and nowhere as absurdly priced as in Napa. Not to mention the Santa Maria BBQ. Build the amps and then have a party with BBQ, pinto beans and Santa Ynez Pinots.
Of course, having the BAF at UCI and then going to Charlie's Chili would be awesome too.
People from out of town could fly to John Wayne and spend time at the beach... a REAL beach. Plus the place is cleaner, much cleaner.
I can no longer handle SF. We use to go there all the time, but we've stopped going to the Bay Area.
Maybe we could split the distance and have the shindig in Central Calfifornia, off the 101? Think of all the wine we got here, and nowhere as absurdly priced as in Napa. Not to mention the Santa Maria BBQ. Build the amps and then have a party with BBQ, pinto beans and Santa Ynez Pinots.
Of course, having the BAF at UCI and then going to Charlie's Chili would be awesome too.
I’m sure I’m one of many following this thread who has BAF on their bucket list. In my case my bucket would be filled if I got to meet fellow diyers and had the opportunity to shake hands with and thank some who have made the music mean that much more because you provided the dots for us to connect.
So, IMHO, an ideal BAF BOM in OOPs (Order of Priorities) would be something like:
1) Located somewhere Nelson could definitely drag his butt to.
2) Not require renting a car to go from affordable accommodation to amps.
3) Be reasonably close to an airport.
4) Have a few nearby options for after hours socialising.
What have I forgotten….?
So, IMHO, an ideal BAF BOM in OOPs (Order of Priorities) would be something like:
1) Located somewhere Nelson could definitely drag his butt to.
2) Not require renting a car to go from affordable accommodation to amps.
3) Be reasonably close to an airport.
4) Have a few nearby options for after hours socialising.
What have I forgotten….?
Cheap drinks!
Santa Rosa is nice, we spent the night there once, had an awesome dinner -french restaurant, it was our anniversary-, we were driving down the Coast.
But that was a while back. And it is far from SFO and sort of out of the way.
I still think Newport Beach / Irvine are perfect... Surely Nelson could come on down? We'll lavish him with good food and drinks! I'd love to meet him... (*)
Try this, go into an airport looking for the flight to SNA ( OC on the screens ). As you come up close to the gate, ask, loudly, "where is the flight to John Wayne?"... most of the people will think you're nuts... but there will be a small group of like minded nuts that will reply: "Here!".
We're sort of nuts down here... you'll love it.
(*) Whether he wants to meet me is a totally different story. My "Modern Physics" are a little bit more modern than this. ;-)
Santa Rosa is nice, we spent the night there once, had an awesome dinner -french restaurant, it was our anniversary-, we were driving down the Coast.
But that was a while back. And it is far from SFO and sort of out of the way.
I still think Newport Beach / Irvine are perfect... Surely Nelson could come on down? We'll lavish him with good food and drinks! I'd love to meet him... (*)
Try this, go into an airport looking for the flight to SNA ( OC on the screens ). As you come up close to the gate, ask, loudly, "where is the flight to John Wayne?"... most of the people will think you're nuts... but there will be a small group of like minded nuts that will reply: "Here!".
We're sort of nuts down here... you'll love it.
(*) Whether he wants to meet me is a totally different story. My "Modern Physics" are a little bit more modern than this. ;-)
I agree.
I would prefer to be able to take an airport shuttle to the hotel and walk from the hotel to the BAF venue, eateries, etc. I don't mind having to walk 20 minutes to get from the hotel to BAF, but if it starts to involve rental cars and such my interest dims pretty quickly. It's already a $1k weekend. I don't need to make it $1500.
I'm not afraid of San Francisco. I felt as safe there last year as I would in any other large US city.
The South Bay could be workable, though. Flying to SJC wouldn't be my first choice as it requires a layover, but it's manageable.
Tom
LOL.... for us the "South Bay" is Torrance and Palos Verdes... "PV".
Not a bad place for a get together either, but traffic is a lot heavier and LAX is no picnic.
Heck.... more and more.... it looks like Vegas is the perfect place... unless, of course, you're Nelson and you don't feel like going too far. Which pretty much, sets it.
Santa Rosa ain't bad... a LOT better than SF, even if it's a drive. The wine is excellent up there too.
Oh, I've been to Saint Josey, Oakland, "East SF Bay"... many, many times... NOT the best place to do such. Traffic really sucks in there: the normal "flow" is worse than West LA and the San Bernardino Fwy on a rainy Friday.. combined. Ugh!
I was planning on retiring this year... and making the trip... but now some scoundrels offered me a contract. Oh well, we'll see this year. I've been making excuses for years and years and years.
I'll make my last dib for Newport Beach / Irvine. JWA airport. If not, I guess I will try to make the trip this year and astound you all with my soldering -un-skills. But, one thing... I am not going to SF.
Not a bad place for a get together either, but traffic is a lot heavier and LAX is no picnic.
Heck.... more and more.... it looks like Vegas is the perfect place... unless, of course, you're Nelson and you don't feel like going too far. Which pretty much, sets it.
Santa Rosa ain't bad... a LOT better than SF, even if it's a drive. The wine is excellent up there too.
Oh, I've been to Saint Josey, Oakland, "East SF Bay"... many, many times... NOT the best place to do such. Traffic really sucks in there: the normal "flow" is worse than West LA and the San Bernardino Fwy on a rainy Friday.. combined. Ugh!
I was planning on retiring this year... and making the trip... but now some scoundrels offered me a contract. Oh well, we'll see this year. I've been making excuses for years and years and years.
I'll make my last dib for Newport Beach / Irvine. JWA airport. If not, I guess I will try to make the trip this year and astound you all with my soldering -un-skills. But, one thing... I am not going to SF.
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Can't someone carpool with him?
If we take the show to Vegas I politely request that we plan around the Golden Knights' schedule. I wouldn't mind going to a game there.
Tom
YYC-LAX is pretty easy from my perspective. I don't know about LA traffic other than there appears to be lots of it. YYC-SNA requires a stop, but I can make it work. Sorta similar to SJC.
But... Hate to break it to you guys. But if we're optimizing for drivable traffic we should really look at locations east of the Rockies. Denver/FoCo could be cool. Spokane, WA has manageable traffic even though it's on the west side of the mountains. Bozeman, MT I'm sure is traffic friendly. Ya know... Just saying.
Tom
Those of us in the Bay Area bringing gear will look askance at schlepping all the way to Denver. This year if all goes well I'll bring a headphone amp and EQ so all the gear could fit in my suitcase and one checked bag, but the future large speakers would not be amenable to airline travel, let alone the amp rack. Think 90 kg / 170 cm for each speaker with the preamp/PSU/EQ/amps in a 20U rack. The prospect of bouncing my gear 1300 miles in a van from my place to there has zero appeal.
Besides, Denver already has RMAF. Can't we have nice things?
Besides, Denver already has RMAF. Can't we have nice things?
YYC-LAX is pretty easy from my perspective. I don't know about LA traffic other than there appears to be lots of it. YYC-SNA requires a stop, but I can make it work. Sorta similar to SJC.
But... Hate to break it to you guys. But if we're optimizing for drivable traffic we should really look at locations east of the Rockies. Denver/FoCo could be cool. Spokane, WA has manageable traffic even though it's on the west side of the mountains. Bozeman, MT I'm sure is traffic friendly. Ya know... Just saying.
Tom
We used to have a HiFi show here in Newport Beach / Irvine. It was in the hotel across McArthur Blvd from the airport. You could actually walk from the airport to the hotel to the show to the restaurants. They moved it to Torrance, which sucks.
John Wayne airport is right next to a bunch of nice hotels and convention halls. UCI is but three miles. The Newport Harbor is five miles away. You can Uber all over the place... tons of restaurants, bars, etc, etc.. The nearest In'N'Out is three miles away. South Coast and Fashion Island are just a few miles away too.
The traffic is very driveable in this part of the World. You don't have to go very far to find what you'd need. It's not like going to SFO, SJC, LAX... where you have to deal with long distances / lots of travel to go from place to place. I think our traffic here is likely better than any other place in the World because everything is quite concentrated in a small area...
The drive from the SF Bay Area to JWA is about 360 miles... down the 101/5 to the 405... you can even stop at Paso Robles and eat lunch at Big Bubbah's Bad To The Bone BBQ.
My biggest concern is the traffic, cost and conditions in the SF Bay Area... which are pretty bad nowadays. Driving is not an issue, as I can easily do the 1200 miles from The OC to the Puget Sound in one 16 hour drive, non stop. I love to drive.
It's true that JWA is a bit more expensive than LAX. And the airport is closed from 11PM to 7AM.
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I agree with Tom, especially when arriving internationally. Being close to an international airport is a big plus.
I attended BAF2019. I flew into SFO, took BART into the city, and then a short bus ride to Cow Hollow/Marina District lodging on Lombard Street. It was a short walk to Fort Mason, and to many food and drink outlets in the neighbourhood.
It was also a one week vacation for me, so being in San Francisco was a plus as I was able to spend the non-BAF days sight-seeing around the city.
Fort Mason gets my vote, even if the cost of admission to BAF is higher.
No they don't. 2019 was the last year of RMAF. COVID and outrageous terms at the Gaylord compound ... eh I mean ... "resort" killed it.
Tom
Searching for flights and hotels this morning, I am finding round trip direct flights between JFK and SFO plus hotel for 3 nights (F, Sa, Su) in the Fisherman’s Wharf area costing right around $1000. I have been wanting to attend the BAF in person and this just might be the year.
If votes might at some point be tallied, I cast mine for Fort Mason. Realistically though, I will drag my butt to wherever Mr. Pass drags his for this event.
If votes might at some point be tallied, I cast mine for Fort Mason. Realistically though, I will drag my butt to wherever Mr. Pass drags his for this event.
