"Head-Fi is going to have its first National Meet on Saturday, April 22nd, and Sunday, April 23rd 2006. Every member of Head-Fi and press are invited but must sign up in advance and be on the attendee list to enter. This gives all members who have been communicating with each other from all over the world the chance to come and join together in one large meet. Due to space constraints and insurance liabilities, we must limit the attendee age to people ages 13 and older.
We have booked the Ramada Inn/Adria Hotel Conference Center in Bayside, New York. We booked 3 salon rooms for a total of 3300 square feet for Saturday April 22nd and another adjoining room which is smaller (approx. 400 sq. ft.) All 4 rooms will be for Head-Fi members and their guests and also for manufacturers and vendors, who are willing to buy a table, donate for the good of Head-Fi and sell their wares at discounted prices
during the event. The time will be from 11-7, which gives people plenty of time to come and go as they please.


We are trying to have contributors donate enough products and purchase enough tables to enable us to offer a free banquet dinner at the end of Saturday night's event. During the banquet, there will be a moderated panel discussion with a question and answer session with members of the design teams of several major headphone makers.


At the door during check-in, the committee will be taking donations to help offset the costs of the meet. Many of the members of the trade are offering some of their items as door prizes. If you donate $20, you will get one ticket and be eligible to win one of the expensive and coveted donated prizes. You do not need to make a donation but then you will not be eligible to win one of the prizes.


Each ticket after the first $20 ticket purchased will be $10. You can win multiple prizes if you are lucky. At 4 p.m. each of the sponsors who are offering their products towards the door prizes will pick a ticket out of the hat and present the gift to the lucky winner (except for specialty prizes that need custom work). All money collected will go to the cost of the meet, with any remainder going to Head-Fi. The Grado raffle will be a separate event that will have all the tickets sold before the meet. For that one you need not be present to win.


On the second day, Sunday, we have one 1100 sq. foot room reserved for Head-Fiers who wish to attend a second day or couldn't make it the first day. This is going to be a members-only day without contributing vendors or manufacturers selling their products. Just a regular meet. There will be an adequate number of tables, chairs and good power (they do weddings and parties) but we will need power strips and extension cords. As with our previous meets, member donations will be appreciated but are not mandatory. All money collected will go to the costs of the meet, with the remainder going to Head-Fi.


We have reserved a block of 50 rooms in the hotel where the meet is being held and people will have up to 30 days before the meet to book a room. The normal price is $145 per room but Head-Fiers will get a group discount of $115 and with 2 double beds, these accommodations can be shared by two people.


The hotel is a 22-minute train ride (Long Island RR) from Manhattan's Penn Station, which is accessible from Port Authority, Amtrak and NJ Transit. The hotel is about 15 blocks from the Long Island RR Bayside station and has a large car service, that will charge about $3. It is also 1 block from 2 major highways and parking is free but might need to extend back into the neighborhood once their 2 lots fill up.


Contributors, raffles, donations, vendors and manufacturers
John Grado is donating $1,000 to the Head-Fi Meet, raffling off a Joe Grado Package and offering Grado Streetstyles as door prizes. Headroom is on board with vendor table as is Singlepower Audio, Ultimate Ears, Slappa, Ray Samuels Audio, Moon Audio and Todd the Vinyl Junkie. As more exhibitors sign up, this list will grow."