INVOLVE AUDIO - Indiegogo crowd funding campaign

Dear fellow surround extremists

LONG BORING PREAMBLE

I first became a member of this unique forum in April 2012 when we announced the coming Surround Master and Total Perspective technologies (now called SST – Sweet Spot Technology). Over this time as with every “plan” things change……you develop and idea and another pops up that’s better. Still I think we are still on the same path and in the immortal words of Martin Luther King – I have a dream!

The path we are on and I think many QQ members would agree with can be loosely summarised by the following points:

1 Simplification: Today’s surround receiver processors are way to complicated for the average Joe to understand and set up correctly
2 Confusion: We have too many competing and often non compatible systems ….and now Atmos requiring between 9.1 to 32 channels in the home.
3 Speakers: Way to many, sales greatly minimises for anything above 5.1
4 Center channel: We hate it and see it as being a rather bad patch. We are promoting our SST that gets rid of it and enables you to sit anywhere.
5 Bandwidth: Today’s digital systems are in fact mostly lossy and need large data files essentially restricting its usage.
6 Stereo: Stereo is still the most dominant format and will remain so. All surround systems need to be fully compatible with it.
7 We really want to reignite a general interest to true stereo compatible surround sound.

We have spent a great deal of time developing our consumer market targeted surround sound systems (Y4) to hopefully solve some of the above issues and take on the big boys in the surround market. I think it is fair to say that we are very different from all the cloned “me to” stuff sold today. I fully understand that most member of this forum are not in fact our target market but we are actually of the same purist philosophy. Unfortunately sales is risky and few and far between in the high end market! Been there, done that.

We will continue to develop the Surround pre amplifier, updated SQ vinyl optomised Surround Master (Dave will start in a few days!!!) and in particular our Involve studio encoder / decoder. These are more related to our purist origins. Meanwhile we need to keep the cash flowing and in particular help fund our first production run of our Y2 and Y4 systems (see photo’s) and hopefully generate some publicity in the process.

We have decided to do an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign. As you will remember a week or so back I suggested that QQ members delay buying our stuff until the campaign starts as there will be some bargains.

The campaign is scheduled to start is a few days time and here is a preview. It is still being modified and edited so I would love to hear from you guys for any last minute changes.

Go to:
https://www.indiegogo.com/project/preview/f284518f

Also up the very top of the page is a video arrow. Push the arrow and the password is (involve) – you will be treated to 3.5 minutes of our presentation, including yours truly just before the pirate.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May I request that you guys could help spread the word about this campaign to Facebook, Twitter, OTHER FORUMS, audio clubs and friends?

Also if any of you guys would want to participate in the campaign with comments, Photos of you, statements and opinions by you, video presentations by you then please join in.

Recently PONO (with the support of Neil Yong) had great success in a similar campaign promoting an “audiophile Ipod” signifying a return to quality, we can only hope for a similar path

I hope this is not beyond the scope of this forum but I think we will all benefit if it succeeds.

Regards

Chucky

Hi Charlie, a very informative campaign page. Looks fine, with a lot of info also for people not much involved in surround sound at the moment. The features and benefits is a good summary of the system.

Just a few typo's:
"everything you listen to will be in produced in surround sound, " this sentence has one "in" too many
"If your into games " this is not the correct "your" is it?
The timeline at the bottom looks a bit confusing with the starting year 2103 also 2014 seems to start again after November 2014.

Just a question about the campaign donations. Isn't it confusing when people can select delivery only? Or is this a clever marketing trick to have people select shipping and a product? An excellent price on the surround master! The other discounts are great too.

Good luck with the campaign.

Hi All

Ooops, put this in the wrong place.........sorry!

Just a note, we have established a USA based marketing headquarters in Eugine Oregon and a new USA website that is more up to date than the usual one. For your light entertainment please visit:

http://www.involveaudiousa.com/

Things are still changing by the minute so be patient.

Our Indigogo campaign has been delayed a bit till mid next week and the emphisis has changed towards lower cost stuff. I promise to offer existing QQ forum members that have already purchased Surround Masters so really special discountS and I will advise shortly.

Regards

Chucky

chucky3042 said:

Hi All

Ooops, put this in the wrong place.........sorry!

Just a note, we have established a USA based marketing headquarters in Eugine Oregon and a new USA website that is more up to date than the usual one. For your light entertainment please visit:

http://www.involveaudiousa.com/

Things are still changing by the minute so be patient.

Our Indigogo campaign has been delayed a bit till mid next week and the emphisis has changed towards lower cost stuff. I promise to offer existing QQ forum members that have already purchased Surround Masters so really special discountS and I will advise shortly.

Regards

Chucky

Click to expand...

Hi Chucky!
When is the Indigogo campaign going live??

Hi sfactor23

The current theory is Tuesday 14 October with a bit of luck - we are busy navigating all the social media stuff.

Regards

Chucky

sfactor23 said:

Hi Chucky!
When is the Indigogo campaign going live??

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Hi Surround maniacs

If all goes well the Indiegogo campaign will start tomorrow, I will keep you posted. Pre-existing QQ members will recieve additional discounts. If you want a spare Surround Master this will be way cheaper that will ever be available!

Meanwhile we have completely updated our website (some minor things will change in a day or two), please visit:

www.involveaudio.com

or

www.involveaudiousa.com

Regards

Chucky

Wow. I really don't NEED the Y4 system, but I feel like you are offering a deal too good to pass up, especially if there are additional incentives for QQ members. I'm fairly certain I will be one of your first contributors, so keep a Y4+2 sub system on hold for me.

Hi CobraJet

The campaign is now active, if you want to be first visit it now on:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/involve-audio-s-surround-master/x/8405552

If you buy something contact me direct and we will work out a perk for you!

Regards

Chucky

CobraJet said:

Wow. I really don't NEED the Y4 system, but I feel like you are offering a deal too good to pass up, especially if there are additional incentives for QQ members. I'm fairly certain I will be one of your first contributors, so keep a Y4+2 sub system on hold for me.

Click to expand...

Congrats on the campaign Chuck, great discounts on all the different items

I will get in touch with you in the next few days.

Good luck with the campaign.

Charlie
How did things go at the Audio Show?

rustyandi said:

Charlie
How did things go at the Audio Show?

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Hi Rustyandi

The show was really good, probably the best I have done and it was real nice being next door to old friends from Redgum Audio and Equinox speakers (good stuff for those interested).

We had an average of 6 people listening to our stuff at all times for 3 days. Most showed the WOW factor and some amusement when they found out the sound was coming from the see through things on top of the stand (that they thought was the speaker!). Only had around 3 "know it all dickheads" poo pooing the system (without listening.....go figure).

Had some actual orders at the show and a bunch of "verbal" orders- we shall see!

On the down side of things the Indiegogo campaign has been very slow, more dead than viral. I really would appreciate if all our supporters could pass on our links to others on the campaigm.

Regards

Chucky

Dear All

The Indiegogo campaign is to raise awareness, and to a lesser extent money, hence the limited number of special price units.
As a secret bonus for the qq forum, if you select the 199 surround master perk, but donate an extra 100 (299 instead of 199) we will send you an SQ edition. All you have to do is send us a message on the forum, or an email, and let us know that's what you've done.

An unrepeatable chance to pick up an extra unit, there is only 22 days of the campaign left to get this (at cost) offer.

Regards

Chucky

Thank you for your email chucky! I'll let you know when I complete the transaction.

Hello All

Just a quick update. We have added some new video's and a bunch of other stuff to the campaign front page, please take a look.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/involve-audio-s-surround-master/x/8405552

So far I am very dissapointed at the response and we have failed to drive masses of people to the site. Oh well 17 days to go and hopefully the computer geek marketing genius's will win out. Hard to work it all out really with snivelling snots like Justin Bieber becoming an overnight "viral" internet sensation (something like 500 million youtube hits), and on Indiegogo - check out The Core:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-core-wireless-speaker-system/x/8405552

So far they have scored over $900,000 with 5 days to go. Next project is to design a 6 inch cube with a bunch of speakers pointing every direction surround box me thinks.

Yours with a drop of bitterness

Chucky

anyone has spare 2k that can give me, I want the Y4 right now!

I've spent most of the afternoon researching this new Y4 system, and I have a couple questions.

The specs show 3 HDMI IN, and two RCA in. My current audio system is based around a Sansui QRX-9001 with turntable, quad reel, cassette, and CD player. Does the Y4 system have a discrete input for phono?

I bought a Niles AXP-1 to switch between all my 2-channel sources, so I suppose I could just get another switch to select the output destination, therefore running two independent systems. I would just set the Y4 speakers on top of my Bose 901's. How long are the speaker cables?

I like the idea of the wireless connection between the front and rear amps. Plus one sub powered by the front and one sub powered by the rear amp.

How would I (or could I) incorporate a SoundMaster into my existing Onkyo TX-SR607, since it does not have any discrete 4-channel RCA inputs?

I would love to have this system, but I'm not sure it is going to greatly enhance my listening experience over the four channel setup I have now. I do not consider myself an audiophile in the strictest sense, I just want to get the best sound from my old audio sources.

Hi CobraJet

The Sansui is a really nice unit and I would not get rid of it!

The Y4 is in line with the current trend of no phono pre amp stuff (I wanted it but could not justify the additional cost- it is already extremely complicated with around 100 IC's, 12 Transformers and stuff). The speaker cables are 3.5 meters (11 feet) but can be ordered at custom lenghts on direct email request.

If your Onkyo does not have discrete inputs you will need an additional spare stereo amp to use the Surround Master.

You have an interesting system that includes the Bose 901's (that fire the sound both ways- nice). In some ways this is similar to electrostatics (dipole) that we use and this does add presence to the sound. Frankly on first listen some users will think electrostatic speakers sound harsh or over bright even though they measure flat. This is because on an impulse waterfall decay response the resonances decay to negligible within 80 microseconds on the electrostatic where cone speakers take around 3 milliseconds. What you hear is an absence of coloration - or lacking "warmth" or harshness. We usually find when a user listens to the electrostatic for a while and then they go back to the cone , then they report that the cone sound dull or "muddled".

The Y4 system offers the user the following:

1 Electrostatic performance
2 Full Involve Surround Master decode
3 SST- The elimination of sweet spot without a center channel (no need to fight for that center seat)

It produces a freedom or a sound environment.

If you really like the Bose speakers and always sit in the middle I suspect the Y4 might not be a huge gain or in fact may sound a bit harsh in comparison. Sorry to put you off - never said I was a good salesman!!

Regards

Chucky

CobraJet said:

I've spent most of the afternoon researching this new Y4 system, and I have a couple questions.

The specs show 3 HDMI IN, and two RCA in. My current audio system is based around a Sansui QRX-9001 with turntable, quad reel, cassette, and CD player. Does the Y4 system have a discrete input for phono?

I bought a Niles AXP-1 to switch between all my 2-channel sources, so I suppose I could just get another switch to select the output destination, therefore running two independent systems. I would just set the Y4 speakers on top of my Bose 901's. How long are the speaker cables?

I like the idea of the wireless connection between the front and rear amps. Plus one sub powered by the front and one sub powered by the rear amp.

How would I (or could I) incorporate a SoundMaster into my existing Onkyo TX-SR607, since it does not have any discrete 4-channel RCA inputs?

I would love to have this system, but I'm not sure it is going to greatly enhance my listening experience over the four channel setup I have now. I do not consider myself an audiophile in the strictest sense, I just want to get the best sound from my old audio sources.

Click to expand...

Chucky,

I appreciate your honesty. That is a rare commodity these days. Unfortunately, that means that neither the Y4 and Surround Master will integrate into my existing systems, and I don't have another room available for the Y4. I actually really like my Sansui-based system and had no intentions of getting rid of anything, I just wanted to enhance it. The built-in synthesizers do an adequate job of generating surround sound, but certainly not at the same level as the Surround Master. Since most of my best music is in vinyl form, I can't see how I would be able to incorporate the Surround Master to utilize all of my components. The Bose 901's take my only 4-channel inputs. If the Surround Master or Y4 accepted phono inputs, I could feed that, plus my Niles switch box into the SM box and directly to my Bose Active Equilizers. However, this would then negate use of CD4. D'OH!! It just doesn't work for me and my systems. I guess I'll just have to live with mediocrity until the next generation of Involve Audio systems are developed.

Hi CobraJet

My only thought is that "modern" amplifiers have largely phased out the phono inputs (even though vinyl is making a comeback) in preference to the use of external purpose built phono pre amplifiers. So a possibility is to use one of these, prices start around $25 and end at $10,000 if you are a "purists" with a big wallet and "chump" written on your face.

Regards

Chucky

Hi Everone

Just a note, Dawson and myself will be in Los Angeles 10 November to 15 November, we will be doing a special invite session of our Y4 surrround system and encoder/ decoder on Wednesday 12 November.

I will provide details of the venue soon, if any QQ members want to attend please contact me.

Regards

Chucky