• Mr Speakers Ether C is great.  Different people rate it differently compared to HD800, Ether (open), etc., etc., but I didn't speak to anyone who wasn't impressed by it.  Personally I could have spent all weekend listening on these (at the Schiit table with their multibit DACs and Mjolnir 2)
• Chord Hugo is a real winner.  It's not just another semiportable DAC/amp (there's very different stuff going on inside), and the difference is really audible.  There is a tabletop Hugo now too, but I didn't listen to it (there's a higher end one in the pipeline, named Dave). 
• The Questyle DAP is really good.  I'm not an AK owner, but it seemed like the people with lots of AK experience were really impressed by the Questyle's sound.
• Pendulumic Stance S1+ (I think that's the model name) Bluetooth full-sized closed headphone sounds great (obviously with the caveat it's Bluetooth).  Has a nifty little twistable volume knob, and weighs noticeably less than my AKG K845BT.  A winner if you want a Bluetooth headphone of this kind.
• Those super thin Linum cables for IEMs are for realz and they sounded great to me.
• ACS' new lineup (Evoke < Evolve < Encore) sounds fantastic, ships with Linum cables, comes universal or custom, and is really nicely priced.  Evoke is supposedly really close to the old T2 (which I never heard), and it goes up from there.
• Audioquest Nighthawk sounded good to me but I didn't hear anything special distinguishing it from other higher-end dynamics.  (Admittedly I was pretty listened-out by the time I got to these on Sunday afternoon.)
• None of you will be surprised to hear that the HE-1000 was at several stations at the show and that everyone I spoke to loved them best out of the GS-X (seriously, I heard that a lot).  BHSE + 007 and 009 got the expected raves as well.
• I'm pretty sure that the museum-quality Orpheus I spent a little time on is the one that was stolen in Berlin yesterday.  Fuck.

KSA-5 Clone

Balanced Dynalo

Whatever this new amp is called.

About the only headphones I recognized at this meet.  Along with the 50 pairs of LCD-2s

Some amp the audio store guy was peddling.

A pimped out Crack

and a normal Crack

Impossible not to start with Hugo's Orpheus set (although that's not his DAC), always a fantastic joy to listen to.

^ The whole point of it all!

And now, to some brief impressions:

Sennheiser HD800

I never liked it, but recently got a pair, understood it and I'm a convert. I get fantastic results with the GS-X, but it's undeniably rather cold so I guess I like it a lot mostly because it has a role to play in a more complete system. I wouldn't be able to live with it as my only headphones with the HeadAmp, but I thought both the DNA Stratus and the Leben CS300XS made it a lot more musical.

HiFiMAN HE560 and HE6

The HE560 was a nice surprise mostly because of the upgrade in its physical qualities. Fit and finish is a lot better but the biggest improvement is the weight. It's really light and a lot more comfortable than the other models. Soundwise it seems more correct than the HE500 (although not as fun) but still clearly a step behind the HE6 in authority, resolution and transparency.

JVC DX1000

Nice headphone, but IMO not worth the price tag.

Audio-Technica W3000ANV

I always thought that pairing it with a more musical amp would be too much of a good thing but I was wrong. I reckoned the result with the DNA Stratus was utterly incredible.

AKG K1000

Again a surprise with Felipe's set – DNA Stratus and Yulong DAC. It really made it sing. It was never this good in my system.

Unique Melody Demos (Merlin, Miracle and Mentor)

Curiously I prefered the Merlin to the Miracle because it had smoother mids, but while I liked them, the treble was a bit pearcing for me after becoming accustomed to the Roxanne. The Mentor, however, is in a class of its own compared to the other two. Still no Roxanne, but to me it's a JH13 (pre-freq) beater.

Grado SR200 w/ Black Star HP1000 Drivers

Somehow it sounds a lot different than an actual HP1000 (which was present but didn't make it to the pictures). There's a lot less body, but there's also a lot more transparency.

Audez'e LCD-XC

After testing it with the Leben I thought it wasn't all that (still sounded like a closed headphone with somewhat sucked mids and piercing treble), but the Stratus changed that. I much prefer it to the LCD2, which I never liked.

Audez'e LCD-X

Even better! This I like.

Ultrasone Edition 8

Sounds good, although a bit too energetic and I think it's weirdly positioned in the market. Too expensive and in the territory of much more capable headphones.

Parrot Zyk

Big surprise! It's obviously not an audiophile headphone, but it sounds good enough for portable use, it's supremely comfortable, wireless and massively convenient.

DNA Stratus

As you can probably tell from what I already said about other equipment, this to me (and to most other people there) was the surprise of the show. I know they don't get much love around here but I thought it was an extremely musical and engaging amplifier. I'm usually a SS guy, but I really could see myself living with it. Plus, that blue paint is bloody incredible.

Calyx M Portable Player

In the past I've had a HiFiMAN HM-801, an iBasso DX100 and a Sony ZX-1. I sold all of these because to me they just weren't worth the extra over an iPod in sound quality terms, especially since the former two offered big compromises in terms of UI. Well, the Calyx is the exception and I thought if offered a pretty substantial upgrade in SQ, IMO well worth the money.

BMC PureDAC

Already posted a review, so I guess some of you already know what I think. Great DAC, not so great headphone amp (even though it's technically a no-amp).

Schiit Magni

How on earth can something so small and cheap sound this good?

Seeing as the event was beer and desserts, we stopped next door for sushi and Japanese beer, at a spot Dinny might have inspired

Our host Todd and his protege Alyssa

The good stuff

The snacks

Getting under way with the beverages

"Palate cleansers" were Nellie and Me So Hoppy at two junctures along the way

Some stand-outs among to awesomeness:  2012 Elijah Craig 12 Reserve (single cask chosen to be set aside).  Mikey likey.

2012 Java Coffee Eclipse with the Purple Pearl Swirl wax

2012 Gourmet Haus Staudt Eclipse

Damn, I cannot remember what was in the unmarked bottle -- was it Iced BART? -- and we lost our list due to being buzzed at the end of the evening!

Mixing it up with some amazing Annularity

And both brewmasters signed the bottle for me

Anticipation

Satisfaction

The Closer:  2008 Pappy van Winkle

This was a fantastic event that cannot be repeated because we drank up most of the remaining stocks of some early and rare Eclipse variants.  Next up will be the morning after and the Release Party.

Todd listening to his new HP system.

Welcome to CanLanta, tkam!

**BRENT**

Gear was mostly electrostatic: T2, HV, BH, Aristaeus. Dynamic: Balancing Act. Phones: 009x2, HE90x2, 007, SR-O, HD800, LCD-3x2, LCD-2r2, R10x2.

We had a great time and a nice pasta lunch made by my native Italian friend. He made a home-made sauce, very nice.

Purrin was talking about the 009 in the LCD-3 thread, about how it changes with source quite a bit, and I agree. We had everything running through the Amarra Model 4, and could switch between that as source and Purrin's PWD MK2/modded Marantz transport combo. His was definitely more lush with extra bass, very nice. The computer was more open/extended but there was some glare, which I mostly don't have at home. Was really a cool comparison. Several felt the glare issues were from the computer transport and they were probably right. I am not giving up on computer audio though as they said they had. It's just too convenient.

Everything really sounded great. I still feel the T2 is a cut above all amplifiers but I do like the other flavors of the HV and Aristaeus.

Will post more later including pics. Thanks to all for making it an enjoyable time.

Vlad, Hirsch, cetoole, dreadhead, Dusty Chalk, rugby and I were in attendance, with a brief appearance from our benefactor, Mrs. Dreadhead.

A good time was had by most. Pictures to follow, including the obligatory blurry beta 22 photo.

Best of show for me was the JH-3A and the SR-009 on the BH and Woo amp.

Ari's Tower of Power with some rude Ginger hand jumping into my shot.

Kerry's Blue Hawaii

Random dorks with headphones.

Random Gear

Colin, a little too excited about Diet Mt. Dew.

As the title implies, we just had a small meet here in Rio lastSaturday, and although I didn’t think it would be very successful at first, wemanaged to gather some great people (only two are members here, though, HugoFreire and mario_fpolis) and fantastic setups.

We had a few problems with the setups – the outlets werechurning out 130V and, understandably, Hugo’s Power Plant Premier didn’t seemto like it, and ended up blowing his Aristaeus’s fuzes. So we used the eXStatAto power the HE90 (heresy!) but, to my surprise – and to Hugo’s –, it did a very respectable job. Also, my ECD-1decided not to be a DAC anymore (got it fixed already though), and we had touse Hugo’s EMM Labs CD player and Benchmark DAC1 Pre as sources for mostheadphones. Anyways, I won’t talk much about the whole systems so that I can bebrief(er), but if anyone is interested, just ask and I’ll be happy to explainhow the setups were and also to give my impressions about what I’ve heard

Here’s a list of what was there, since there are many thingswhich don’t appear in the photos. By the way, I didn't take any of them. So all credits to Rodrigo Pita, Mario Lemos, Hugo Freire, Rafael Paulucci and Luiz Octavio Chaves!

Headphones: Orpheus, OII, K1000, HD800, D5000, SR225i, DT770Pro, SR-303, SR-202, Shure SRH840, HD650.

IEMs: JH13Pro, JH5Pro Demo, Triple.fi, Audio Technica CKS50.

Amplifiers: Aristaeus, eXStatA SS, Little Dot MKVI, MKIIIand I+, Alo RX.

Sources: Meitner EMM Labs CD player, Electrocompaniet ECD-1,Benchmark DAC1 USB, Marantz BD7004, Hifiman HM601, Sansa Clip+, iPod Classic.

To the pictures!

And thanks to Craig for bringing some of his product line. I was able to spend some time comparing an HD800 with my K702 on his pre-release Eddie Current Balancing Act. I doubt that recorded Bach organ works can sound better than this.

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Craig and his new baby.

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Our host and the Eddie Current Zana Deux. Woo Audio amp and other gear I wish I could afford.

I also compared a K701 with my K702, and noticed that the notorious headband bumps are not the same. They are narrower and harder on the 702, wider, softer, and not so deep on the 701. Much more comfy on the latter. I have to wrap the K702 headband with a foam-padded sock to cushion it, or I can't wear the phones longer than about an hour.

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Above left, top to bottom: Sony Qualia 010; Audio-Technica ATH-AD2000; AKG K702, K701, K601; Audez'e LCD-2. Right, the AKG K70x headbands.

First and foremost it goes without saying that Team Chicago was on their game and delivered, to my perception, a seamless meet. Easily the best hotel I've canjammed in, in terms of great rooms, great on site amenities (large bar, coffee shop, consistent airport shuttle), great proximity to at least one tasty Italian restaraunt, great rooms, and friendly staff (Elma at the front desk totally flirted with me). The convention facilities were great, I liked the way the rooms were laid out.

Though it takes a lot of manpower to put together an event of this magnitude, I always try to make it a point to shake the hand of the head dude and thank him personally. I neglected to do this in person. Ryan, thanks for selflessly contributing so much of your time so we could show up and play. It was a pleasure meeting you, and I hope we get to hang out at a future meet when you aren't working on keeping a convention running.

Gear wise, the big winners were the JH-3A / JH-16 Pro and the Audeze LCD-2. Thats why they are in bold.

Audeze LCD-2: After Tyll said it was the best headphone he'd ever seen in terms of measurements, I went and checked it out. Source was just an iPad I think, connected to a Woo Audio amp of some kind. Of course most of the music they had available was worthless bullshit no one but assholes would listen to. They did have DSOTM though, and a Buena Vista Social Club album, so I did my listening from those two. I didn't read much about the LCD-2 before Canjam, but today I was browsing the old threads here at HC and came across some impressions Wayne posted this past Fall. He said they reminded him of the O2 in that they get out of the way of the music. This is exactly what I said to the Audeze guys after listening, who by the way were extremely friendly and socially competent, not at all the assholes you would expect based on the music selection.

The cans felt accurate and natural across all frequencies, without being overtly "remarkable" in bass/mids/highs. What was remarkable was the headstage, which felt very large and spacious. I knew the asking price ($950), but in the spirit of conversation I asked the Audeze guys anyway, and he told me $3,000. He then quickly said, "nah just kidding, but what would you say if I told you that?" and I told him I'd buy a brand new O2 first. Which isn't totally true since the O2 isn't PJ head friendly...

...which brings me to the next issue, comfort. Personally I found the LCD-2 quite comfortable. The rods stretched out at max fit my head perfectly. Make no mistake, these are heavy cans, but to my head not too heavy. I actually like the heft, it gives the impression of quality. Having said that, I would advise potential buyers to attempt to try a pair on before buying, because they could be to heavy for some. The pads seemed comfortable, but it was hard to gauge if/when the sweat factor would kick in.

I am a big fan of headphones coming in fancy storage boxes, and the LCD-2 comes in a very fancy box, wood lined with satin or a satin-like substance. Very nice touch at its price point.

In summary I found the LCD-2 a very interesting can. It's unfortunately hard to say with 100% authority if its all its cracked up to be, but what was so exciting about it was it reminded me so heavily of the first time I was listening to the O2. And with the O2, it took a long time of listening to many different recordings before I started to comprehend the magic coming out of the cans. It is this "O2 factor" that has me seriously considering a purchase.

For the sake of completeness, the LCD-2 was recabled with something from ALO, just like every other can at the meet.

JH-16 Pro / JH-3A: OK so I didn't listen to the JH-13 last year because IEMs are stupid, right? If I would've known prominent members of the hobbyist community would start dumping high end rigs left and right in the following months after catching Jerry Harvey Fever I might have paid closer attention at the time.

Well I still didn't listen to the JH-13, but I did listen to the JH-16 Pro. First listen was on an iPod with the Rx amp, by ALO or Red Wine or somebody. Surprisingly enough the iPod was full of an entirely unique array of bullshit only an asshole would listen to, not your typical audiophile vendor bollocks. However, the audio gods were smiling upon postjack this day, as their was an old Allman Bros SBD off what must be a collection called "Dreams". I listened to "You Don't Love Me No More" and it was simply magical. I had an almost immediate emotional response to the music, I mean tears really did start creeping up into my eyes, it was wild (caveat, this is a fairly regular reaction I have to music I love, but I can't recall it ever happening at a meet, or so suddenly and unexpectedly, or as the result of a first time listening to a piece of gear). Luckily I didn't weep openly, because then I would have had to challenge Jerry to a fist fight to reclaim my masculinity in front of his lovely assistants.

How to describe the sound? To people at the meet I just kept mumbling how "magical" it was like a tired dumbass. The bass was outstanding, the midrange was fracking awesome. It didn't have the absolute perfect realism my ESL-63's have, but what it did have was a creamy delicious richness with just the perfect amount of peakiness to tickle the audiobone in my brain. In general I love the way Grados do electric guitar, and these beat the shit out of any (John) Grado I've heard.

Then dude asked me if I want to hear them balanced, and I said sure. Listened to the same track, but apparently I didn't get the fit right because it sounded very different, the bass was way bloaty.

Later at Vicki's insistence I went to listen to the JH-3A with the JH-16 Pro. For those that don't know how this thing works it is very interesting. Basically there is a laptop and a iPad and an amp with a DAC in it and an ADC and a black box underneath the amp and there is a USB running from the laptop to the black box and then a line out dock running from the iPad to the amp and the headphones are connected with a proprietary plug which allows postjack to get confused and a little scared. Luckily JH is a super nice dude and his calming charisma put me at ease. Right before I stepped up his iPad died and was replaced with another iPad. No ABB on this iPad, in fact there weren't really enough recordings to get a good feel for the rig. I would go so far as to say it was mostly worthless bullshit no one but assholes would listen to. Of course I found my saving grace and listened to Metallica's Master of Puppets. While I love this record its not the best at judging rigs. Everything sounded great as best I could figure with unfamiliar recordings, but I definitely wasn't having the same emotional response I had with just the iPod and the Rx. I'm chalking this up to unfamiliar source material and possibly another bad fit.

You can get the whole kit n' kaboodle for $1750. Considering you just need to add a transport and you are good to go, it is a true hi-fi bargain. Even though I didn't get the full experience on this particular listening session, my first experience with the JH-16 proved to me their potential, and I'm assuming the amp/DSP makes them even better.

thats all the energy I have for impressions. I will say KG's T2 rig with the 404LE was outstanding, a real delight to listen to, toasty hot pot and all.

Before I start with re-inserting 25 or so pictures, let me start off with a HC exclusive. I hope there are no small children around. **Colin Note: I decided to skip the bathroom pics this time, in loo (get it, literally toilet humour) of the shot below**

He's baaaa aaaaack!

Event organizer: Trav

Listening to what we can all agree was the best rig there... mine.

Trav in his normal/more natural pose

The triumphant return of Ingwe

Can you seriously believe someone brought a kid to a meet!?!?! :facepalm:

Oh well, at least he brought a Wii. Doesn't this kit have great hair? Yeah, he does.

Cybertron trying to run away with Purk's R10s. Oh, wait... nevermind.

What!?!? Another kid? Seriously? Oh well, at least she was super cute.

From left: Some guy's arm, Cybertron, Zoe (Beauty), Ingwe's head (Beast), blurry Trav, MrArroyo's right arm.

I never knew TomB was a Viking...

Oh yeah, if you didn't know, it's Tom B, not "tomb". He doesn't really remind me of the Crypt Keeper, makes a lot more sense with caps, no?

Internals of JJ900s Exemplar 3910.

You've met the machine, now meet the man. JJ (JeffreyJ900. Seriously dude? Seriously?) with some L3ks via Purk out of the ZD + Exemplar 3910 rig.

Here is Paul Tarver, a founding member and current Treasurer of the A-VCOA (Audio-Video Club Of Atlanta). These guys invited some HF HC members along with the great (and sadly absent) Tyll Hertsens of Headroom fame to a Computer Audio demonstration in the Atlanta area last summer. We had a great time there and have kept in touch some, and I invited their group to come out to our headphone meet this weekend. I'm not sure of the total count, but I know at least 6 or 7 members came out and unlike the last gathering, we had plenty of rigs and time to listen and talk about things. If you're reading A-VCOA guys, thanks for coming out, hope you enjoyed it! I believe the rig is an Exemplar 5910 -> Headamp Gilmore Reference amp (I'm sure Purk will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is one of the one or two single ended Gilmore Reference amps in existence).

You'll have to ask Fitz what this is, but it has the blackest blacks I've ever seen. I'd want a blacker faceplate, but otherwise I greatly approve of the visual palette used.

HC Bonus: HF-1 porn (TomB's, though)

These next two pieces of gear need no introduction...

OK, so maybe they do need an introduction, but I will let our good friend TomB answer that one for you.

Speaking of TomB yet again, here is a horrible shot of him with a wonderful shot of someone's beautiful naked HP-1s. Yes, I just ruined anyone's chance of finding this thread with SafeSearch turned On.

Mrs. JeffreyJ900 sporting her new office rig, right Jeff?

I didn't get to listen to this guy's rig, but I got to play with his computer, and I want one. From the picture album entitled "Excuse: Seriously, the lighting was tough in this room, guys..." I bring you ZeroIbis' Alienware M11x.

The DIY sub-forum: Fitz and TomB

Foreground: Ingwe and TwoTrack (who brough a high-rez rig with some of his digital recordings, which is one of the things I meant to get around to listening to (along with the, I believe, ALO modded SR225s around his neck). Background: Cybertron facepalming after realizing he was going to wind up making a purchase on this event day.

Those silly kids again! This time forgoing their portable rigs for something a little more grown up. Xavier's rig: 4th gen iPod Nano->PX100s. Zoe's rig: Sansa Clip+ ->JVC Flats (in pink). (I wonder if I could send some SR-60s to Colorware... hmmm...). Their portable rigs are loaded up with ALAC/AAC/MP3 and FLAC/MP3, respectively. Zoe is listening to Dave Matthews & Time Reynolds: Live In Las Vegas (if you were wondering why she was smiling so big (and you were)).

Cans I brought to the meet: HF-1 #39 / HP-1 / HF-2 #39

Cans Cybertron wound up taking home with him along with whatever he brought. Lucky...

Daddy shaking a finger at Junior telling him to be good for his new friend

My rig from my viewpoint

My rig from Zoe's viewpoint (she took this picture while using an impromptu flash diffuser made out of a white napkin)

I had a great time at this meet. Lots of great gear, lots of great people, lots of fun. Can't wait to do it again, but hopefully we won't have to wait another year.

Trav ran a good event last year, this one was bigger... next one? Bigger, maybe?

**BRENT**

'Twas a great time as expected and more to come later. No pics or impressions yet. Tired. Must sleep. zzzzzzzzz.

Axpona was pretty cool today. It was fun listening to a wide variety of speakers. The hotel venue was smaller than expected, but inside the hotel was fairly well decked out with the audio stuff in lots of rooms. Compared to RMAF, I'd say the event is maybe around 20-25% the scale - and even then I still didn't get to see everything today, let alone listen to everything. If I was continuing tomorrow I'm sure I could've covered the rounds completely. But it's ok, I heard plenty of stuff anyway and I also took some pics too.

Both Music Direct and May Audio Marketing were there (May Audio supplies Elusive Disc, Acoustic Sounds, & Music Direct with their audiophile recordings, like the XRCDs, AF Gold CDs, MFSLs, etc) and I was glad to hear they were selling music at discount prices (unlike at RMAF, which I'm still miffed about). So I picked up a handful of CDs and actually saved a nice amount not only from the discounts but no shipping either: Amanda McBroom - Midnight Matinee XRCD, Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms XRCD, Horace Parlan - Speakin' My Piece XRCD, Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down The Wind MFSL, Santana - Santana MFSL, and Tina Brooks - True Blue XRCD.

My Axpona experience is over now and Beerfest is next. Looking forward to what will surely be a smashing time.

Next installment to come Monday night.

Uh....any chance we could make the Meets & Meets Impressions forums invisible unless you log in? I've been noticing lots of guests/lurkers in this area with our recent meet impressions....

DISCLAIMER: The below is a joke. A bit of parody, if you will. We would never put such insane requirements on something as simple as a Head-case post.

Please, when posting impressions follow a few simple rules.

If you attended this meet, please place all feedback for it in this thread. Make sure to include your answers to all the following questions in your feedback. If you are the attendee, you only need to answer questions for the first form on the page, "Form 1". When you make a new post for yourself from within this thread, use the "quote" button and then highlight only the top form, Form 1". You can type your answers where it says "PLACE ANSWER HERE". After you leave the meet, I will fill out feedback on "Form 2" and post that in your feedback thread. If you do not have a feedback thread, I will start one for you. Thank you.

Form 1 -- FOR THE ATENDEE TO FILL OUT FEEDBACK ABOUT THE HOST AND THEN GIVE TO THE HOST

Head-Fi member: Tyrion - The Host

Graciously allowed the following to attend his party:

Head-Fi member: YOUR NAME HERE - THE ATENDEE

1) SATISFACTION

a) On a scale of 1 being worst and 10 being best, how would you rate this entire meet from start to finish? PLACE ANSWER HERE

Would you do business with HOST again in the future? PLACE ANSWER HERE

2) GEAR IMPRESSIONS

a) ATTENDEE should provide details about any gear listened to, including any information on vintage, possible mods done, and serial numbers.

ATTENDEE must describe his or her mood and state of sobriety at the time of listening.

c) ATTENDEE may then give their honest thoughts on the quality of said gear. If the HOST can prove that your praise is a result of 'SHILLING', you may be flogged at a future meet.

3) PICTURES

a) ATTENDEE is encouraged to post pictures but must post in a resolution that is conciliatory to the thread reading experience. Larger pictures may be posted by the ATTENDEE but thumbnails are mandatory for resolutions over 800X600.

ATTENDEE must post a mix of gear pictures and candid shots of the other meet attendees.

c) ATTENDEE is expected to check any potentially embarrassing candid photos with the potentially incriminated party. Blackmail is also an option.

4) NOTES & COMMENTS:

Please leave any additional notes or comments if you would like, i.e. things HOST could do to make the transaction go better in the future. i.e. any additional things you would like to say about the transaction or the HOST. PLACE ANSWER HERE

Thank you very much for taking the time to fill out HOST's feedback. HOST will always reciprocate the same level of detail when SELLER leaves feedback for the ATTENDEE. If ATTENDEE has already paid for the item, HOST has already left feedback (in the form of "Form 2" below) for the ATTENDEE in the ATTENDEE's feedback thread.

DISCLAIMER: The above is a joke. A bit of parody, if you will. We would never put such insane requirements on something as simple as a Head-case post.

To start it off, let me just say that in the wake of this meet I want CanJam to get here so fucking badly it is almost painful. The gear has become such an afterthought for me that I wonder if I should feel badly about it . Hanging out with the guys is my main interest now, no doubt about it.

But... here a few gear thoughts:

1) AD2K on Jim's rig (BA, 840C, Mac Mini). Only afterwards did I find out from Jim that Craig uses the AD2K most frequently on the BA (or at least he did at CJ). I can understand why. Excellent, excellent match. The dry midrange of the AD2K takes that slight warmth of the BA that we all generally agreed it exhibits and puts out some very damn musical tonality. Imaging was a little bit better than on my GLite, which I still think is good, so that surprised me a little. Overall wonderful match.

2) Qualia on Jim's rig. I was more impressed with the AD2K tbh. I had a decent fit with the Sony, not quite perfect seal at the bottom of the cups but it was pretty close. It does remind me of the AD2K in a few general ways but with more of a metallic sound, like it's almost too treble-happy. I didn't find it too bass weak but I can certainly see why people would be bothered by the low end. It is very different from many of the current production headphones. Overall I liked it and definitely want to hear it again.

3) Shure SRH840 from Chris' rig (Rotel cdp, Gilmore V2-based DIY). I was pleasantly surprised by this headphone. I'm not quite sure I'd pay retail for it but it is a decent closed headphone that offers something different from Denon or AKG, no doubt. Good isolation, very comfortable (more so than Denon imo because it has a little grip in it which I like). Another I'd like to spend more time with.

~~~

After the meet 6 of us went to the Ram restaurant and micro-brewery for dinner. Good food and supposedly better beer (19 days away from legality goddamnit); overall solid pick Ryan . It's times like these that I really become totally satisfied with what this hobby can provide.

As always, great to spend time with everyone. Jim you are the best. I know I said thanks a lot already, but thank you once more to Jim, Ryan, Billy, Chris, KG, Mike, Steve, and everyone else for the best Saturday I've had in a while.

Jacob's speaker rig is truly awesome. Pretty much does everything I'd want a system to do. Tonally my absolute favorite part was the highs. I love it when the highs are perfect, and they were. The soundstage had really awesome depth, and the imaging was great. We went from small scale classical to large scale classical to a bunch of jazz to Rush to that weird guy from Soft Machine doing weird spoken word free form jazz.

Although I spent a bit of time telling Jacob to buy a turntable, after my buddy and I left and the experience began to sink in, I started asking myself why I mess around with vinyl when digital sound like the Capitole is out there. So that should tell you how much I truly enjoyed it, as I've never suffered from "vinyl doubt" until this past weekend.

Reks was a gracious host, and tons of cool tunes were played and absorbed. The only regret was we didn't have more time to hang. My friend who I brought along has a running knowledge of general consumer audio, but very little exposure to the audiophile religion, would not stop talking about the rig the whole night and the whole way home. He's starting to ask me about prices, and DACs, and all those wonderful things. We'll see where it takes him.

thanks again Jacob!

Got to spend some time listening to Nate's new amp, Colin's new amp, Ari's new amp and Dinny's Beta 22 and the 12 DACs he brought to the meet.

Ari took lots of pictures with his new camera so I assume he will be along soon to show all the toys.

I'd first like to thank Marc for shipping the LCD1 and Fostex T50v1 up here so we could do a great three-way match up between the TOTL Head-Direct, Fostex, and Audeze (the LCD2 isn't technically out yet) orthos.

And so, without further ado, here is my view on the three:

HE5: A good amount of soundstage and there is a slight angling of the pads, which is a nice touch. The pads themselves are quite stiff and aren't the most comfy, and the cable isn't all that great, but otherwise the build quality is superb. As to the sound, it is indeed the most balanced ortho I've yet heard, with no particular frequency spikes or troughs I could detect, through to the extremes, which are well extended. Speed is middling for a planar, which I don't mean at all in a negative way - there can be too fast as well as too slow. Amazing that this can be accomplished through absolutely no damping whatsoever, and very simple traces. The midrange is not as organic as I've heard so I'd like to figure out how to open it up and tweak a bit myself.

Don-modded LCD1: Indeed, the tonal balance is brighter on the LCD1 than on the HE5 and in fact kind of sounded like my SR-X. The mids were clearer than on the HE5 but the tilt toward the treble made the HE5 still the more enjoyable listen, in comparison. There wasn't any hint of harshness/peaks in the treble; just the tilt, and so the LCD1 is the second best ortho I've heard to date. I'm eagerly awaiting impressions on the LCD2 now, especially since I hear the impedance will be quite a bit higher than that of the HE5.

Don-modded Fostex T50v1: I actually thought the T50v1 was stock when I first heard it and immediately recognized the classic under-damped vintage ortho sound (raw, slightly bloated upper bass to lower midrange). I turned to Colin and said it needed damping, to which he replied it had already been damped by Don. We agreed it needed more tweaking, possibly in the form of more damping or pads that had larger holes in the middle to let more treble through, or a combination of both. Overall the sound was decent, with no glaring flaws (the soundstage was surprisingly decent, though not above average), and so was third ranked among the orthos.

It'd be great to hear the T50v1 again after further modding since I think it has potential.

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Will post rest of impressions later.

Someone also brought a crappy CD player that no one wanted to listen to, as you can clearly see from the "no disc" status.

We also discussed the greatness of Grado quality control, or how every Grado had the same kink right at the cable Y where the wires split. We were astounded at how every Grado from the 225 all the way up to the PS1000 had that same kink at the Y. Oh yeah, and someone said that the pads on my Senn 580 looked like they were made of panties, or pantyhose. I'd like to state for the record that this isn't true, it was made from an old skirt.

I'll let the other guys fill in on the gear & music impressions.

Tons of top end gear to enjoy and good to share time with old acquaintances.

A scrambled slide show to tease, more later ..dB

The guy in the first pic is my uncle (I was slightly taken aback when I saw the pic but found out he was a Head-Fi'er this past summer): http://www.head-fi.org/forums/6092529-post9.html