Meet Impressions

We had a meet yesterday at his new apartment. We had all the expensive Grados. Except the GS1000. Because it sucks. 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 wa…

I'll start since I'm home and finished my homework. 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…

Wow another great mini at Craig's house, I wanted to come down to hear Joe's (Dreamcomposer) balanced Zana and A/B with the HD-2 that I own. Well I got to do that and a whole lot more. Rounding out the amp line up was Eddie Current HD2 Eddie Current Balanced Zana Duex Eddie Current balancing act (prototype) We also had a singled ended Zana and a EC proto amp with C41 power tubes that sounded great. David (909) was nice enough to bring his amazing source the Reimyo 777 CDP, if you get the chance this is one great sounding source. We also had the pleasure of going back to the future and hearing to well regarded linear tracking turntables from the late 70/80s the Sony…

This is the first meet at which I did not take a single picture, so I apologize in advance. KG and Steve should be able to suffice I think. 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, excelle…

Here are my impressions from our meet. I had a great time at the meet, as well. I was able to see some old friends like robm, rhythmdevils and asr (who did a great job of organizing). I also got to meet some new people, and put faces to some names that I?ve seen around on the boards. RSA Apache: I heard this amp using the Ayre CX7e and it was a completely underwhelming experience. This was the first thing I listened to and I spent over 30 minutes on it. It simply did not engage me in any way shape or form when I was using my 580s and listening to some CDs I had brought with me. The sound was extremely dull and devoid of dynamics, especially with Eric Clapton Un…

Had a great time spending the day with Nate, Ian, Ari, Dinny, Tom, et al at the NY Meet. To make it even better I brought home HF-1 #10 to match my #10 HF-2. Freshly turned NH style Wenge deep bowls and leather headband make these even better! 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.

There's a group of Brazilian hobbyists on Facebook that we sometimes actually call the "Brazilian Head-Case" because it's a small and closed group of actual friends who are more experienced in the hobby and some of the traits that we find here (irreverence and occasionally some hostility ) are also found there. It's a place we really treasure. Recently we decided to get together in a meet and this is the result! The pictures are not mine, they're courtesy of Matias. Impossible not to start with Hugo's Orpheus set (although that's not his DAC), always a fantastic joy to listen to. …

There was quite a bit of uncertainty as HF is down and the attendees had no way to communicate with the organizers. I am sure bhjazz, who organized the meet, was nervousrs about whether people would actually show up. I arrived 30 minutes late, and there were only 4 people, including myself. But soon thereafter, most of the attendees arrived and another great meet was had. Based on my conversations with several people at the meet, I may have been the only Head-Caser in attendance. In other words, this thread may turn out to be a one-man impression thread. I did tell a few people about HC, so we'll see. Sorry, Brian. I couldn't wait until HF came back online to do th…

I'm currently taking a break from a mini-meet, it got pretty intense and my friend & I are taking a break to go grab some food and catch up on things a bit before returning to the listening. A little teaser, we have a modded Audio Aero Capitole, a custom built 2A3 amp, and a balanced RS-1 recabled with copper litz wire. For shits & giggles, we decided to compare a regular store bought CD (Tori Amos - Boys for Pele) with a CDR copy burned on a Fujifilm CDR. I've heard people saying CDRs sound better but never heard a difference on my system, so since we had a top-notch system at our disposal we decided to test it out. Shockingly, the CDR sounds better, and I was li…

Yesterdays meet at Earl's was a good time as usual. Here's the obligatory gear pics:

Hi Guys It was a great meet. I always enjoy everyone's impressions. First off, it was too bad trose49 couldn't make it. I was looking forward to meeting him. n_maher, on the other, hand did make it and he brought some great sounding stuff Nate was nice enough to open the Herstens DAC so we could have a peak inside it was hard to compare the balanced mini M^3 to the one I brought because Nate was feeding it from an Arcam into his "Hertsens" DAC and I was going optical out of a Shuttle computer to a Constantine DAC..... but I'll leave it to those who are not as affected by placebo effect as I am to report on the sound.... I thought …

Let me start this off by sort-of crossposting from HF. Not being able to just C&P from HF to here and have the pictures show up is REALLY annoying. 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!?!?!…

Because y'all are too lazy to make a thread, I made one for you. 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

It was fun. Too tired to comment on gear right now.

Not really a "meet" per se, at least as far as Head-Fi meets go, but a good time regardless. As the event was only 4 hours and primarily for the LA/OC Audio Society, I did not expect to do much listening, and indeed did very little and got to spend only a few minutes with a phat pad-modded Audio-Technica AD2000. (Which was still pretty good, even if it sucked out the mid-range a bit compared to a stock non-modded AD2K.) I spent most of the event talking to various people and taking photos wherever I could. The Head-Fier/Head-Caser turn-out was pretty good actually and I saw various familiar faces. Notable equipment highlights - Tyll's Wadia (not sure which model) &…

We got together at the last minute at my mom's house (she was away) for a small meet. Sorry I couldn't invite more people. We had me, stv1756, another friend of mine who made lunch, n3rdling, purrin, 909, and anaxilus. 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 bet…

This was my first meet, and my camera shat the proverbial bed a few weeks ago, so no pix for me. I spent most of mine time hanging out and bumming around/talking to people, but did get to listen to a few things along the way. I went down there with the the intent to listen to a Millett Max (something which I'm thinking of purchasing). Let's see... there was Fitz' AKG collection, which was just massive (maybe 35-40 pairs?), and I believe they were all out of production (or at least most of them were). I just listened to the K1000's, as I knew it was something I wouldn't consider purchasing due to price, so there were no worries of me trying to sell my soul to obtain…

Hey everyone, 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 t…

Ken started this over on the other side but this is where all the love is Hey all , really good to have met all the new folk and of course to catch up with old faces. I just love the DIY enthusiasm in PDX , yes I am a little biased but it is fun to 'shoot the breeze' without people glazing over. talk about gangsta :beerchug: Finally managed to twist searleb's arm to join us and he brought along his UBER cool Bijou - very clean workmanship and just oozes simplicity and form. oh yeah - sounds like a Bijou , you have to hear one to get it. Many new experiences and some I have been wanting have as well as revisiting. Many highlights for me…

I got a call this morning about a meet which I'd discussed in passing a few weeks ago and then promptly forgotten about. We listened to a stock RS-1, my K340, and a modded RS-1 along with a Grado 225. The rest of the gear list is as follows: modded Audio Aero Capitole Naim CD5x modded Denon 650F EML 20B & 2A3 tube amp SinglePower MPX3 w/6BL7's my experimental tube amp The short summary. The MPX3 was not as good as I expected, I thought it would at least hold its own against my tube amp but it got beaten in all respects once I swapped 6BL7 tubes into my amp. The Naim and my Denon are quite similar in terms of sound signature, but the Naim has more resolution …

While there were not a lot of Head Casers there this year, the ones that were made the meet worthwhile. Had a good time seeing some of the old school NY crew and finding new toys I need to buy. 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.

Biggie hosted an Oakville meet today. I'm still working on my impressions file but here's the quick summary. Lavry Black is good, but not as good as tubes. HF-1 is better than last time, probably amps & break-in. My tube amp needs more work or better tubes. The Senn 650 at this meet has way more bass than the other 2 650's I've heard in the past. The K701 doesn't have enough bass. The 2 pairs of K340's are getting closer in sound, but still rather different. The PS-1 still remains my favourite headphone. The SR-60 is the best headphone for the price ever. People who say "Grados have no soundstage" need new batteries for their hearing aids, or they need hearing aids in…

Had a good time yesterday at my house. Grover Huffman (maker of Grover Cables) came over peddling his wares.... well not really peddling.... I had upgraded three pairs of my Sc. Grover ICs to his newest creation the Sx IC I also replaced my 10 foot long Monster Speaker Cables (yuck!!) with 3 foot long Grover Sx speaker cables. But really its about the comraderie, so Grover came over cables in hand, so we could have some fun swapping cables and doing some listening. Oh... he also brought another pair of surprises A pair of 60 watt tube monoblocks which he built himself So we started off by listening to my system in its baseline state with …