Does anyone know of an audiophile/hi-fi club in the St. Louis area?

March 28, 2007 10:31 PM

Does anyone know of an audiophile/hi-fi club in the St. Louis area? I have recently become interested in DIY Hi-Fi and being a college student with little electronics experience I am looking for a way to get myself better acquainted with everything before I start to spend too much money. The internet has been a great resource, but having some real people around me who know what they are doing and would be willing to provide me with some direction would be very helpful.
posted by Bengston to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

In STL, Webster University is where a lot of music and music production geeks end up. It's a commuter school, but looking at their clubs and activities may give you a place to start.
posted by chrisamiller at 12:11 AM on March 29, 2007

Not directly responsive to your inquiry, but there are a couple of great old line audio dealers in the St. Louis area, who would be very good people to drop in and discuss this with. HiFi Fo Fum and The Sound Room are long time dealers of high end audio equipment, who would know of any such clubs in your area.

If there isn't such a club already, you could certianly start one, and I suspect you'd find some people with similar interests. 35 years ago, in Kansas City, there was a group of about 50 people that met monthly to review new gear, and new recordings together, generally at higher end audio dealers, or the homes of people with impressive systems. We generally got use of equipment and listening rooms regularly from all of the better audio dealers, and we traded used equipment frequently, too. I bet if you decided to start such a group, and could bring in even 8 to 10 audiophiles for a monthly or quarterly meeting, you'd get good support from stores in your area.
posted by paulsc at 12:35 AM on March 29, 2007

There are online forums where you can ask questions. Audioasylum has two DIY forums, plus several manufacturers of kits and parts host forums. There are also the DIYaudio forums. There are lots of online resources, and of these I would highly recomend for beginners the NEETS guides and the Boozhound primer.
posted by caddis at 7:42 AM on March 29, 2007

Its a little bit outside you're question, but you might want to look at Jasper's Antique Radio Museum over on Chippewa. Seemingly no website though.
posted by khaibit at 9:29 AM on March 29, 2007