Embassy Suites TulsaAtrium View

There is no registration cost for exhibitors and no admission price for attendees. If you plan to show your gear, just show up and setup. I would suggest that you bring a tasteful sign to place near your door, and maybe some smaller signs to identify your gear. Dealers and manufacturers may want to bring brochures to pass out to attendees. Or you can just setup and let the sound speak for itself. We encourage DIY hobbyists to display their gear too, even if they are just there for fun. That's what this show is all about.

Your relationship is entirely between you and the hotel; We're basically just all agreeing to meet in Tulsa the first weekend in May. The hotel knows that we intend to show our audio equipment and has agreed to provide us with a group discount. So be sure to let them know you're attending the GPAF event. If you make reservations by phone, dial 1-800-EMBASSY (800-362-2779) and tell them you are coming to the Great Plains Audiofest. If you register online, enter "GPA" in the conference/group field as shown below:

Right now, they're setting us up in their database, so the discounted rate isn't available until this weekend. Registration will begin then. If we have more than 50 rooms, then the hotel has agreed to allow us the use of one of their meetings rooms for seminars, if anyone wants to have one. I think that is an attractive way to do it, since we'll probably have this kind of turnout.

Guest roomMeeting room

This is an excellent opportunity to connect with people in this part of the country. There has never been an event like this here, and there really aren't many dealers of high end audio within driving range. So people from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missori, Oklahoma and Kansas that are intested in high fidelity have had to glean what they could from magazines and internet sites. This show will allow people in this area to experience some of the systems available, and will allow exhibitors to connect with them.

Mark Margiotta frmo the Tulsa Audio club has graciously agreed to write a press release, so attendance can be expected from the general public. Certainly many of the regulars will be here, and it is always good to visit with friends and aquaintences in the industry and active DIY hobbyists. But we can expect attendees from outside our circles too, those that may have never even heard of a tube amplifier, horn loudspeaker or a high end turntable before. This should be an interesting event, and I am really looking forward to it.

I'll start training for the 24 hour drive immediately if not sooner. And trial selection and gear fitting in my Volvo 240 wagon will commence right after I get it a checkup. 3,200 miles round-trip on a 190,000 mile car calls for an ounce of prevention.

I've got a lot of fun stuff in mind, mostly Audio Note, no surprise, but at least two kits among them, a DIY FR speaker and (hopefully) a scratch-built 2A3 amp featuring AN OPTs and interstage transformers.

If it looks like it won't all fit, I may have to ship some goodies to Tulsa Audio Club members in advance. Wouldn't that just suck!

As with any hotels, the acoustics aren't perfect but these rooms are comparible with the average home listening room, with furnature and carpeting that tames reflections. The walls, ceiling and floor are solid except for the wall where the front door is - That wall is much less solid. The hotel has an atrium area and the front wall isn't shared with another guest room, so acoustic isolation probably wasn't as much a consideration for the front wall nearest the atrium. The layouts of each of the rooms is shown below.

What speakers will you be bringing?

Rick

• Great Plains Audiofest