[daveDerek]

if i may state the obvious (to anyone who's ever followed florida meet threads), these guys 'n gals, er gal, know how to throw a party ! - in the form of a meet. it's going on 3 am and stevio has woken up refreshed from his nap in the tub while the gang in room 5xx are chowing down and then complaining about how spicy their pizza is, after spending a few hours lubing their gullets with microbrews and single malt whiskeys.
i had a productive day, in audio terms , checking out some very cool gear during set up day and forming some impressions of how different gear stacks up. i had the opportunity to do lots of cool and nerdy comparisions such as seeing how a 701 compares to a balanced 701 with stock cables vs a 701 with balanced cardas cables. or how a senn 650 with a 580 cable compares to one with a stock cable vs one with a cardas single ended cable vs one with a balanced cardas cable. justin has set up the prototype of the lastest incarnation of the famous blue raincoat, er blue hawaii (obligatory leonard cohen reference...) e'stat amp. it sounded sweet playing some sacds via the latest stax O2s! it should sound even better tomorrow after they have a chance to properly charge up. i can hardly wait! philodox brought his famous amp (whaddabeaut!) and 340s (if you don't know what i'm talking about search for it) and nmaher will be debuting his latest creation. vinnie of red wine was busy soldering up some cool toys for auditioning tomorrow. ray had his usual range of lovely amps and i got a nice listen to his balanced r10s being driven by his b52 - 'twas very easy on the ears! the wizard Oz was busy getting his 'let there be sound' room assembled and it should be really nice! lots of other folks were setting up plenty of drool inducing rigs. there will be many pix and impressions to follow but i gotta either get back to the party or get some sleep, so later my fellow head-fiers (and why aren't y'all here?!?).