Seattle Meet Impressions: June 21st, 2008

Just getting this thread started. Still at the meet.

It was fun, and hot. LOL

pics and impression will be post later.

Fun and hot...yes!

Had a great time. Before I move on to anything else. first things first:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
to the vendors who attended our meet:

Cosmo of Streamline Audio Video
Ken of Revolution Power
Brad of Triad Audio
Our friends at Bop Stree Records
and Larry of Resolution Audio:Video.

We're happy to have spent the afternoon with y'all.

Pics!


Cosmo of Streamline Audio Video



Ken of Revolution Power...



...and Ken's tables of all things power.



Brad of Triad Audio.



A shot of the venue. We were upstairs at Resolution Audio:Video. Neat place to hang!



Mike (motherone) and GIl (Big Poppa)



An unknown cyclist. Hey, look: vinyl and tubes! A few years back, who would have ever expected to see this?!!



Here's a shot downstairs. I definitely need an afternoon to take in everything that was there. Wow. What a lineup!



System owned by dgbiker1. I should have introduced myself! (if this is yours, let me know who you are!)



Gil's Figaro. That's two meets now where I didn't get to listen to it. Next time for sure, Rocky!



Ray Samuel's Raptor with a PS Audio Digital Link owned by Witty. Nice, nice sound goin on.



Witty has got quite the stash, no?


Sweeeeeet. Millett Max with Linn Genki. I have a lot to say about this setup owned by TimJo. I'll give you a hint: amazing.


I didn't get a shot of Mike's Xiang Sheng 708b toob goodness, nor did I get a closeup shot of Brad's all cascoded tube amp....but I should have!

If you have photos, please post!!!

Ill let everyone chime in on what the surprise of the meet was, and then post my impressions later, it was fun stuff see all the regular goofballs there. Ill be posting pics a little later.

The meet was great. Thanks to everyone who put it together!

Resolution Audio was really great for having it. The place was a bit toasty, but I'd imagine that's what happens when you have 30 people plus 60 amps all going at the same time. It was awesome to find a high-end shop in Ballard and away from the U-district.

The two big highlights for me were hearing the massive new tube rigs from George Wright and PPL/Triad Audio.

I thought George's amp was stellar. It drove my K701's beautifully. From what I could see, it appeared to be a 12AX7 gain stage, with some other tube who's label I couldn't make out as a phase splitter, followed by a pair of ECC99 tubes per channel (paralleled?) to drive the cans. Very effortless presentation, with great bass (no small feat on the K701).

The Triad amp was great with the Sennheisers, but a little rougher with low impedance cans. Since it was completed only 3 days before the meet (!), I have to imagine PPL probably needs to get some transformers with output taps for lower impedance cans. Still, an awesome display of dissimilar triode TV deflection tubes!

I didn't manage to get to hear the Darkvoice amps that were present, or Tim's Linn CD player (damn!). I also wound up with a strange compulsion to pull the trigger on the Usher monitors that I've been wanting to pick up (damn you Resolution Audio for having so many awesome looking toys).

Thanks to everyone who coordinated and sponsored the show! It was really great to see all the regulars again and talk shop.

We had an excellent time at the meet. Talked to a lot of people and saw a lot of great gear. Even managed to pick up a couple of good recordings from Dave at Bop Street Records.

I want to thank Larry allowing us all in there and also those that put in the work to set things up.

Sorry bhjazz, the macbook/k701/sr225s were mine

This was my first meet and it was a blast. Great people and great equipment. It was definitely eye/ear-opening, hearing the equipment myself completely changed my list of future purchases (I loved the Beyers and ATs).

The system that really surprised me was Tim's Millett/Linn system, it made the K701s sound exactly the way I want them to- warmer than the S.S. amps I'm familiar with, but more controlled than my tube amp. I was looking forward to building a Beta22 this summer, but now it could be a Millett.

Traffic, on the other hand, was a bit more intense than usual it seems. The Town Car in front of me on I5 plowed into the car in front of him, I slammed on my brakes and sent my amp flying from the back seat into the dashboard. Then I look behind me to see a suburban barreling towards me, not too excited about the prospect of my little VW sandwiched between a town car and suburban- thankfully he swerved into the ditch and I made it to the meet in one piece

Had a great time and want give a big thanks to everyone who helped put this together.

I really didn't have a plan. I mostly listened to Wittyz Audio Technica headphones on my setup. I really like his modded W100 for the harder rock stuff. Seemed more aggressive than the L3000. My other favorite is the portable ES9. Has a great full sound with impactful bass. If I ever need a really nice work headphone, this would be it. We also tried swapping out power cords and couldn't really tell if it made a difference on my setup. If it did, it was too minor for me to tell.

The other interesting thing was how well the modded W100 performed on the DHA3000. When I tried it on his Raptor and also the tube amp hooked up to the vinyl setup, the L3000 leaped ahead. I'm assuming the DHA3000 made his headphone sound better instead of thinking it's holding the L3000 back. Not sure.

I also played around with the HP-1 again. For some reason, on the few setups I tried this time, they just didn't do it for me. They seemed be missing something. I was even preferring the Senn HD650 to them. I also gave the HD650 with the huge word cups a try. I was surprised how well they sounded but they put too much weight on jaw, so they'd be extremely uncomfortable.

One of the last things I tried was the vinyl setup. I listened to some Neil Young and Led Zeppelin. Both sounded great. Very natural and dynamic. When I tried my L3000 in the setup, it was amazing. I then went back and tried the same song on my setup and it fell short. It still sounded pretty good, so I am not willing to give up the convenience of digital to go vinyl.

Anyway, it was nice meeting everyone and look forward to seeing everyone at the next meet in a few months.

Another successful Seattle Head-Fi meet! Great job, guys. It looks like each meet is getting better and better. I'm sorry I couldn't make it.

Young, it is OK you are one of those who inspired me to what I am today. The meet was really good, But it wasn't perfect because you were not there with your gear. I make trips to my truck now. Wittyz is following in your footsteps, man his gear is great. But it is not yours. I will give my 2 cents in a bit. Missed you at the meet.

It was pretty good venue for the meet. Many of gears there were stunning. I really like to try Bel Canto Dac3 at the front of the shop with my system .


Firstly, I did a mistake in this meet. I planned to copy many of songs in various genre to my laptop. Sadly, I copied them to the wrong hard drive. So I just have one album of Dream Theater for the audition.


I really like L3000 with my setup too. I guess I need another silver cable for my setup since overall sound now is too warm.

I guess my modded W100 doesn't like tube amp much esp. with the blackplates RCA 12BH7A which produce really mellow sound. It tames the overall tone a bit. (but it's good to me because I listen to music quite long - 6-7hrs a day.) I should bring the GE 12BH7A to do the tube-rolling too. It sounds more aggressive than the blackplates RCA.

I also like the tube amp from Traid audio. It sounds pretty good.

The Vinyl setup is very stunning and sound really great, but again I think it has the same tube as in my setup so it doesn't work well with my modded W100. Anyway, with this setup, I really like L3000 and HD650. I also agree with Mike. HP1 was not for me too with this setup.

Millett Hybrid with Linn CDP is the nice combo too. It works very well with Beyer DT770s and my ATs.

Gil's Figarro amp is great for the price too. I was surprise how the isolation cone improve the sound. (and still not understand why it has to be only 3 not 4 cones. ) I may purchase them for my setup too. His HD580 is also great. The Clou cable is very stunning - very anaconda-like big , and sounds really great too.

I also have a chance to listen to many of Grado again since I haven't tried them a while. They are not my cup of tea except Josh's Alessandro MS1 with the new cable. It sounds great.

Headphile's HD650 is very good also, but it's really heavy and look awful (nah.. sorry.. )

K701 couldn't impress me again. With several setups, it's still lack of energy and too neutral for me.

----

ALso, thanks for the Revolution power, Streamline Audio Video too.

ps. pics will be post later.

OMG

There was an amazing assortment of equipment and music at this meet!
The AKG K 701 through the Wright Sound WHA-22 Amplifier was fine. I don't know how many hours were logged on the AKG phones but I was impressed with the octave-to-octave balance, the purity of the high frequencies and the transient speed. The only reservation I have about these is the control at lower frequencies, and that may just be a matter of burn-in. Reviews I've since read say that it takes 100-200 hours for the K 701 to settle into best performance in the nether regions. I already knew the amp was sterling through my well-broken-in Sennheiser HD-650, having listened to it over several evenings prior to the meet. By all accounts and my own experience the AKG K 701 has a similar overall balance to the Sennheiser HD-650, but since you can get the K 701 shipped to you for $260 it’s a bargain in high-end cans.
If I was impressed with the AKG 701, I was wowed by the Grado PS-1 as heard through the vinyl/Rega P1/Grado PH-1/MIT Shotgun/WHA-22 and the same Grado phones with the CD/Lisa amplifier chain playing the "MELLOW SAXOPHONE" - track from Mapleshade's Music Festival, Boogeyin'! Swamprock, Salsa & `Trane by the A La Carte Brass & Percussion (#02452). It’s sad that Grado PS-1 cans are no longer made. I heard you-are-there reproduction of percussion, trombone, other horns and lifelike vocals.
Those impressed with the sound from the vinyl front end need to keep in mind that what they heard was merely entry level high-end vinyl playback priced at $400 for turntable, cartridge and tonearm. It gets so much better than that with more capable components. Being a vinyl evangelist, I welcome any inquiries about vinyl playback and record care. Tim, I'd like to hear your Scout/Benz/Millet chain sometime. Please PM me.
I didn’t get to hear most of the gear on hand. How long would a meet have to go on to hear everything, much less every combination of hardware on display Saturday?
Thanks to all who shared their gear, and thanks to Larry Israel of Resolution Audio:Video for the generous donation of the use of his venue. Thanks to Dave of Bop Street for bringing the LPs. I particularly liked hearing Cream’s Disraeli Gears from his offerings. Thanks to all the sponsors as well.

That was fun! Thanks to everyone who came. It was nice meeting new people and seeing some familiar faces again.

Please stop by my store anytime if you want to spend more time trying out the Shure SE530 and SE420 earphones or M-Audio Transit. I'm around Monday to Friday in Georgetown - you can reach me at 206-762-7627.

Thanks Gil for all your work in organizing this, and thanks Resolution Audio for hosting the meet.

I got to meet Triad Audio (TriadAudio.net) - that was great!

I'll try and post some pictures soon...

Cosmo

Man, I so missed out. Joshadot, I'm trying to send that 5 bucks I owe you through paypal but I don't have any cards to register... I wanted to pay you back at the meet but what should I do now?

More pics, please!

I need to get out of my DIY backlog (like that will ever happen) and find a Xiang Sheng to mod. What a surprising amp. It just sounded good and I think a weekend of mods would hotrod it pretty nicely. (any place to get these other than eBay?)