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Subscription Information & Membership Application Form
Club year commences 1st of July.
Subscription rate is $70 per year.
Pro Rata fees apply for joining during the Club year - please inquire.

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Membership
Melbourne Audio Club, Inc.
PO Box 27
Forest Hill VIC 3131

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Apart from coming along to our monthly General Meetings, Membership entitlements include a printed copy of the Melbourne Audio News, full participation in the Club's home meetings and activities and access to our Internet discussion group.

Melbourne Audio News
Melbourne Audio Club publishes a monthly magazine, the Melbourne Audio News (MAN) which details forthcoming home meetings, reviews the past month's activities and contains many articles of interest. We have many friends in other audio clubs and societies in Australia and Internationally and articles of interest from these other clubs often make it into our magazine as well. The magazine is posted to each member every month as part of their subscription and we also produce a PDF edition of the magazine which can be viewed on this site.

Yahoo! Groups - eGroup
The Club has established an email mailing list otherwise known as an eGroup using Yahoo! Groups, where we discuss audio matters. Currently about half the club's membership actively participate on the eGroup including overseas and interstate members. The eGroup allows you to post messages via email that are then distributed to everyone on the eGroup. It's a great way to get answers to any questions you may have, help someone with their questions or simply share your thoughts. You can also access it as a web site via the Yahoo! Groups web site, a link to which can be found on the menu above.

Home Meetings
In addition to the Monthly Meeting the club offers a rich variety of musical and technical pursuits via home meetings. These meetings which are held in members homes are at the core of the clubs activities. Members meet regularly to listen to a diverse range of music, compare audio equipment or discuss technical issues and the current interest groups include...

Pop Music
Historically many of the Melbourne Audio Club's home meeting activities have focussed on audio areas with reasonably defined formats eg. Classical, Opera, Jazz. POP Music in keeping with Kaleidoscope and, to some degree, Acoustic endeavours to widen those boundaries to accommodate the vast variety of music enjoyed in popular culture.

Faber's Companion To 20th Century Popular Music (1990) describes fifty - two identifiable genres/styles of Popular music stretching from Bebop to Western Swing freely acknowledging that this is merely a subset of the total range. With such an extremely broad range of material to choose from we decided to set a central theme for each POP meeting so particular styles/time periods etc could be explored in a little more depth than otherwise would be the case.

It's our ambition to ensure that in the fullness of time ultimately everything will be dealt with. For example, so far we've enjoyed The Fifties - 1950 to 1955, Dylan and Cohen - Rock poets and their Covers, The Eighties - with a special focus on material released then by artists previously 60's icons, Blues - a general overview. Meetings already in the pipeline include, Soul Time - for Motown maniacs, High voltage Rock - loud music!, The Summer of Love - late 60's psychedelia, Gram Parsons - the legend and its legacy, Funk - thank you George (not Bill) Clinton.

Like our Acoustic brethren, our meetings are pretty relaxed and any excuse for a barbecue and a bottle of wine will do. In wintertime we'll forego the barbie but not the wine! Participation is mandatory, guests must bring music to share. Vinyl is as welcome as the 'little round shiny things' and experimentation with equipment is commonplace.

Acoustic
Blues, folk, world, a cappella, jazz etc and most adult contemporary music genres. Yep, you'll find acoustic music there. So, just what is acoustic music? Difficult to explain.The closest answer on offer is; electronic gadget free and unamplified. Sort of unplugged in a round about sort of way. No, you will not find any big blaring bands.

Acoustic meetings are held every second month on relaxing Sunday afternoons. It's usual to begin with a BBQ whilst enjoying the rays of summer sunshine, however the chilly winter months demand pumpkin soup and baked potatoes. A good chinwag is always had over a relaxed lunch and everyone gets to know everyone.

On Acoustic days, it's not unusual to find various exotic high end goodies and toys being auditioned. It's a great chance to sample eclectic gear in the real world environs of the home. Everything sounds great in high end audio shops, but a demo in the home soon sorts the pedigree pretenders out from those that really offer aural or binaural musical pleasure. We are DIY friendly too, cos it does not have to cost a zillion$$$$$ to sound superb. Sometimes that little mod makes just the difference.... Other times not.

However, the music always comes first. We have occasional theme days, but the 'norm' is usually open slather. Everyone brings musical offerings to share. What an opportunity to sample something new that you might never ever get to hear. Some absolute gems are uncovered.

Casual..... That is what Acoustic days are about. We all enjoy our music and friendly banter abounds. A great day is enjoyed by all. All that is required is an open mind and your best set of listening ears. It would be great to see you there too.

Home Theatre
The group meets to listen to and view the latest in Audio Visual and Home Theatre extravaganza. Equipment used include video projection, laser discs players and the latest DVD surround sound set ups. A varied list of titles including new releases, older movies and the latest musical selections mean something is usually available to meet all tastes of members. In addition discussion of the latest issues in Home Theatre such as DVD, DTS, Dolby and other digital processing forms keep members up to date with the latest technical happenings.

Jazz
All styles of Jazz are catered for, as diverse as the members, although it is fair to say modern jazz is the most popular of the different styles. From the current crop of new jazz musicians like Cassandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, Christian McBride to the renowned jazz giants Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Earl Hines, James Morrison and Miles Davis, the group listens to a many and varied catalogue. Members of the group arrange visits to many jazz concerts and festivals such as the annual Wangaratta Jazz Festival and the Melbourne Jazz Festival.

DIY / Audio Action
Do you like to tweak? Do you like to make your own amplification, speakers, interconnects etc? Then this is the group for you! The Audio Action Group meets to do all of this and to discuss modifications to home grown and commercially purchased Hi - fi equipment. After all, there is always something to tweak! In the past year, members of the DIY group have built IMP analysers that allow the frequency response of speakers and amplifiers to be easily measured. A subwoofer project was completed where some 40 members built their own sub woofer based on a design of another member. There is a strong interest in valve and solid state amplifier construction along with a number of avid speaker builders. The group though will have a go at anything, previously having modified CD players, turntables and the like.

A number of members have web pages which go into their ideas and designs in more detail. These can be found on our links section. Each year, members' constructions are demonstrated to the rest of the club at general meetings. Last year’s demonstrations included Tractrix Horn Speakers, Digital to Analogue Converters (DACs) and Class A Valve amplifiers and valve/solid state hybrid amplifiers.

Kaleidoscope
As the name suggests, the Kaleidoscope group listen to a wide variety of music. Some of it is middle of the road, some of it is all over the road! A recent article in the magazine described a typical Kaleidoscope meeting as miscellaneous, varied and with a good ear to audio quality. Each evening can run the gamut of musical genres, from light classical to hard rock, with much in between. Also not forgetting what may be described as World music and music to get you into the mood for just about anything.

Classical
The Classical group, like most other groups within the club. meets monthly in members’ homes and boasts a regular attendance on average of about ten. It is up to the evening’s host to select the musical programme and in view of the wide diversity of personal taste, this ensures that over time, an amazing variety of music, composers and artists are surveyed.

The field of music loosely termed "classical"; is vast and our programmes bear this out with content running the gamut from renaissance through baroque, 18thcentury classical and 19th century romantic to 20th century music in all forms, styles and genres. This includes orchestral, chamber, choral, instrumental and vocal. There is much lively discussion about music, the performances and of course the recordings themselves. This adds an extra dimension of enjoyment unavailable with solo listening and also provides a useful shop window on possible additions to one’s own music library.

A great deal of fun and enjoyment is had by all at our "classical nights" and one never fails to learn something new at each evening form those who are knowledgeable about things classical. As such, these evening are also an ideal stepping stone for newcomers to classical music as the great variety of musical experiences on offer can serve to point the direction of a burgeoning musical taste.

Needless to say, the convenor of the group is always appreciative of ideas for the programmes and offers of home venues in which we present them. We hope to see many new faces at our monthly get - togethers in the future.

Opera
The Opera group meets every month with a view to exploring both popular and lessor known works of the opera repertoire. Opera being primarily a visual medium, many works are presented in the video medium where possible. However, we do listen to L.P's and C.D's when appropriate, particularly where performances have never been filmed.

We have recently presented performances of Bizet's "Carmen", Verdi's" Attilla"(a forgotten masterpiece.) and Carl Zeller's "The BirdSeller", a delightful Viennese operetta.

Audio only presentations are accompanied by detailed notes and libretto, so that participants are made familiar with the operas. We urge anyone with even a slight interest in opera to sample our evenings and become more enlightened.