Seattle Meet (11-17-2007) Impressions

[bhjazz]

Another Seattle meet finished. They seem to go by so fast. As socrates said, we were

nailed having hedd-fy go down less than a week before our meet. With all of the contact

information, including phone numbers (!) locked away, I was nervous and frustrated. I was

hoping that people would remember where it was, and when it was. (I later found out that

some enterprising souls were smart enough to check the cached pages form google, so I have to say I was impressed!)

My two biggest concerns were: Justin from Headamp, and some gear coming in from Headroom. If the meet fell on it's ass, we'd have a difficult time trying to get any traction in the future.

We split the difference.

Connections through headwize and emails somehow went askew with Justin, so he played it

safe and opted not to come. Gah! I'm definitely sorry that happened, but I know this was his hard-earned dollars going towards the visit, so I absolutely don't blame him. Justin, if you're reading this: we'll plan another and you are definitely invited. By that time, we can trade email, phone numbers, whatever!

As luck would have it, though, Andrew Hertsens dropped me an email at my home address, and

got a package together really fast, and had it out to me in a few days. Thanks, Andrew!

The box showed up with the 2007 Portable Desktop and the 2006 pimped out Desktop. Here's

a photo of the opened box...heh heh...

hey, where's the portable?

Oh, that's right, I'm listening to it while packing. Never mind!

You've seen the 12:20 photo I took. I honestly was pretty nervous. But in the back of my

mind I thought: come on. People will show. And the did. THANK GOD!

And socrates showed up with Pizza....'sall good my brotha!

Socrates (Young) vowed to bring less gear. Looks like that didn't happen. I was happy

with that .

Nate: Wow. I got to listen to the Nugget and was really impressed. I started in with a

pair of K701s, but was just not gettin the love. Then I plugged in my HD600s and wow,

everything just worked. Beauty! Very musical, and a sweet build. Nice to see some Maher gear making it to the west coast.

They're multiplying!!!

The coolest part of the meet was getting new members. Here's kelvinz enjoying the MPX3.

And here's kelvinz enjoying the MPX3 (yeah, I just said that. But at least the police could identify him from this picture.)

Here's xtreme4099 pretending he can't hear socrates singing along.

Gil with his customized KSC75s. Behind him is my DVP-S9000ES driving the Headroom gear.

Another new member, Akui, who sponged up so much information. He's already modding his gear. Go DIY!!!

aNOTHER new member!!! wittyzTH. I was happy to see him here as his ride to the meet was quite compromised from the heddfy outage.

Andy (HerrBlau) blazed in and quickly set up his desktop machine. Looks all profesisonal-like down to the pen! Zhalou, too!

Here's Joshatdot's buddy K. What a guy. The wisecracker with a totally straight face. He's all fly here...

But once he tried a few different pairs, he fell into a trance...

Welcome to the dark side, K!

Aren't you wondering what's on that monitor? I was...

The ATH-ESW9. I had a short listen with these and definitely liked them. The bass was surprising and I didn't expect to hear that much!

Andy with the pimped-out desktop.

And...Andy lost in the wonderful world of the pimped-out desktop. I definitely liked this amp.

Yet another new member. I will admit I am terrible with names. If you are here reading this, uhm...please let me know your name so I can post here! I was impressed with this guy, though. He went straight to the DIY stuff, and began asking lots of questions about my Pimeta. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have another DIY'er in our midst! Excellent!

Okay, and the fourth of five (5, count 'em) new members. Geez! Very cool! I was totally jazzed (you could say, bhjazzed) that these new people were there. Excellent!

Mike...motherone. I understand Mike has, at any one time, something like 58 projects going at once (well, that's what I heard, anyway. My ears might have been ringing at that point). Still, he's got to be the DIY king of Seattle!

here are two shots of Mike's table.

The wood paneled units are the Millett Max, and the original Millett. Nice work!

And finally, just to prove that, just because the last two Seattle meets have been in libraries, we're not a bunch of wimps!

I'll never forget K's story about when he met Josh. The fact that he TOLD this story in a crowded restaurant just a few feet from other tables full of families proves the cajones on this guy. Hilarious.

[boomana]

Thanks for the added pics, especially putting some faces to the names. Glad your meet turned out so well.

[socrates63]

Awesome photos, Brian.

I just have to say again that I was really happy with the Desktop Portable. We definitely need to get Headroom amps again next time.

And Justin, you were missed. Seattle being so far from most parts of the country, I was really looking forward to the opportunity to meet you.

His said his name was George and he had been on HF for a couple of years (I think) but never registered.

There was another person who was unregistered on HF but nonetheless made it to the meet. Too bad he came very late as he was another enthusiastic fellow with a lot of questions.

Anyone know this guy? He came to the May meet as well, but I never got his name.

motherone's gear... he was a no-show at the last meet, but I will forgive him because he brought so much interesting stuff, including the Monica2. Too bad he came a bit late.

And you can thank Kelvin for getting me to bring more gear than I had intended. Originally, my intent was to stick with the DIY theme and bring only the Beta22 and my 3 portables.

[jp11801]

looks like a great meet I have to make it up to Seattle next year, it's a great town and it looks like you guys have a great crew

[socrates63]

Thanks for the added pics, especially putting some faces to the names. Glad your meet turned out so well.

We're trying! I know we still have a ways to go to duplicate the atmosphere of the Florida meets (that's a good thing, right? ), but we're getting there.

[jinp6301]

Nice to see that headroom got back to you and you got some loaner gear. They didnt even send me an email back! :'(

[bhjazz]

Nice to see that headroom got back to you and you got some loaner gear. They didnt even send me an email back!

Please send me a pm and let me know what email addy you are using. It took a bit of doing...I left out mention of a handful of other emails.

[bhjazz]

Thanks for the added pics, especially putting some faces to the names. Glad your meet turned out so well.

You're very welcome. yes, faces -> names is a good thing. I am glad the meet turned out good as well. This gives me extra energy for the next...and the next. I already have a few ideas to throw some curve balls in just to make it fun.

Awesome photos, Brian.

Many thanks. Yours as well. Thank you for telling me about headcase. I needed a fix and really needed a place to chat about the meet!

I just have to say again that I was really happy with the Desktop Portable. We definitely need to get Headroom amps again next time.

It was a surprising unit. The sound was dark and clean without being syrupy. I think it would make a great combination with any computer and especially with any portable unit. Alas, I didn't try it with them, though. What was I thinking! I agree that we'll need to keep in touch with Headroom. I've already dispensed email to them saying thanks, and letting them know we look forward to hearing more in the future. Hopefully Tyll can stop by some time as well.

His said his name was George and he had been on HF for a couple of years (I think) but never registered.

I knew it! That was the only name that went through my head, but I figured I was wrong. Neat. Thank you.

There was another person who was unregistered on HF but nonetheless made it to the meet. Too bad he came very late as he was another enthusiastic fellow with a lot of questions.

The guy with the crew cut? I believe that was Joe... Yeah, enthusiastic! In fact, all of our new members really were cool. I had some long discussions with Akui (that you caught in a photo) and also found out he lives minutes form my home! What a surprise. He has good ears and we traded notes about the HD600 vs HD650 with some "live tests". That was pretty fun.

And you can thank Kelvin for getting me to bring more gear than I had intended. Originally, my intent was to stick with the DIY theme and bring only the Beta22 and my 3 portables.

Well, we all love to see what you have, Young! No worries there. I think for the next meet, I'm just going to bring my headphones (well, and the CK2III that I promised this time...sorry) so I can listen to more stuff. I never did get too far, and wanted to hear so much more. Gah!

[KobaltBlau]

Hi Folks, I don't have much experience/ability to describe the flavor of the sound, but I will share some observations:

I really use ABA testing to help highlight the differences between various equipment, particularly by using my own equipment in part of the chain. While a meet is a very unique experience, with opportunities to listen to all sorts of stuff, it usually does not offer the chance to do rigorous ABA'ing, for example taking music that you like a source that you like, cans that you like, and trying 5 different amps back to back. For example, as you will see below I was very impressed with the HeadRoom Desktop with Max module, but at a previous meet I was very impressed with the Meier HA-2 MKII SE, and I don't really know how to compare those two because months elapsed between my listening time with those units. What a meet does excel at is giving you a chance to listen to a set-up that is completely different from your own, from the music to the cans, and show you how good that can sound. However, I do think that it is better if you can use familiar music, which is sometimes a challenge at a meet due to differing sources (computer, portables, disc players).

Headphones:

I spent a limited time on cans this meet, listening primarily with stock HD650s (there were 2 pairs at the meet, thanks for letting me use them so much guys), my own stock HD580s, and I also spent some time with the AKG K701s. All of these are great headphones, and I also find all of them very comfortable. While the HD650s certainly show their superiority over the HD580s, to me the differences are not huge, and I think for under $150 the HD580s are an amazing value. With the HD580s, I could still notice the differences between $1000 amps clearly. On the other hand, you could probably say that the HD650s are a great value at their price point as well. The K701s are a wonderful can as well. After reading impressions on forums, I expected them to be somehow brighter or less ?full-bodied? than HD6X0, but I thought they gave a balanced treatment to the music. My personal preference still lies toward the HD6X0 with the gear I tried, but not strongly. I would not hesitate to pick up a set of K701s, they were very impressive overall. Now, if only someone could bring a set of Darth Beyers to a Seattle meet

Amplifiers/DACs:

My amp time centered around the ?maxed? HeadRoom Desktop that they sent bhjazz for our meet (yes Young, I really was hogging it. Sorry! ) I quickly honed in on it as a ?benchmark? unit. If my information is correct, this unit is a HeadRoom Desktop Amp with all upgrades, meaning the Max amp module, stepped attenuator, and Max DAC. On HeadRoom's site it prices out a bit over 1500. Unfortunately, on their site it highly recommends using the DPS with the unit if you have the Max upgrades, and I wasn't using a DPS because as far as I know they didn't send one to bhjazz. The unit sounded great as it was, but of course I wonder how much difference the DPS would have made.

I made several ABA type comparisons with this unit. First, I tried the amp section versus the integrated discrete headphone amp in my Zhaolu, using the upgraded DAC section in the D2C Zhaolu for both configurations. This was a very noticeable upgrade, as should be expected. Then, I tried the HeadRoom DAC section versus the upgraded Zhaolu DAC section, using the HeadRoom amp section in both cases. Again, the improvement in clarity and control was easy to spot. I must also note though that at around $200 I do think that the Zhaolu is a great value, with a few of the right upgrades.

Moving on from the Zhaolu, I wanted to compare the amp section with a couple of other possiblities. In each case, I used the Desktop's DAC section. First, I tried a ?maxed? PPA with a DPS owned by Xtreme4099, I don't know the exact specs but apparently it is pretty pimped. The ?maxed? HeadRoom Desktop walked away from this one, with a sound that was both less bright and more controlled. Sergey (Xtreme4099) suggested I compare with the LISA III instead, so I did, also using a DPS with the LISA. This was much closer to the Desktop's amp section, with good clarity and separation, but I still felt the LISA had slightly more distortion than the Desktop's Max amp section. However, I think the comparison spoke well for both the LISA and the Desktop. I think part of my preference for the Desktop was ?synergy? with my Senns and the Desktop's Max DAC, but I still felt that the sound quality of the Desktop was slightly clearer.

Finally, I had the chance to compare this ?maxed? Desktop with a new offering from HeadRoom, the 2007 Portable Desktop Amp. This is roughly a half-height version of the Desktop, but it also has internal batteries that allow for about 12 hours of runtime untethered. This is an impressive piece of engineering, and as of now it is a single model, without the module upgrade options of the standard desktop (such as Max module or Home DAC etc). It runs a thousand bucks. I initially thought that it was missing coax in and line out, but they are simply on 1/8? jacks which makes perfect sense due to the unit's size. According to their site it uses the ?Home? amp section and the standard desktop DAC electronics.

This is a really neat unit. In ABA-ing with the maxed Desktop, the Portable unit showed that it is very impressive itself, with a similar character (not surprise), and sound quality that was pretty close to the maxed Desktop. The differences were there, but they don't jump out at you. For example, if you had a ?maxed? desktop at home and a Portable for work and flying, I don't think you would feel like you were compromising when you are using the Portable, even with the same cans. All in all, there isn't really anything else out there that I know of with the quality, the portability (it's large for a portable, but it is definitely autonomous), and the integrated DAC. It would be hard to go wrong for the price if you need a lot of flexibility.

I primarily listened to these amps with the HD580/HD6X0 series, which sounded great, and I have a hunch that many of the HeadRoom guys use 650s a lot too. The K701s sounded wonderful with these amps as well.

Overall, I think the HeadRoom Desktop offerings are very impressive as an integrated package. If you're tired of having a bunch of different components of questionable quality chained together and just want to listen to the music, the Desktop offerings could be a great choice for you. If you love tube or op-amp rolling and swapping out one tiny component of your synergy chain at a time, you are probably way off in DIY land anyway