Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio - Head-Fi Meet Impressions, Trade Show Reports, Factory Tours http://www.head-fi.org/forums/ This sub-forum will serve as an archive location of past Head-Fi Meet impressions, trade show reports and factory tours. en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:32:05 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.head-fi.org/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio - Head-Fi Meet Impressions, Trade Show Reports, Factory Tours http://www.head-fi.org/forums/ NY area meet Nov 14, 2009 impressions http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/ny-area-meet-nov-14-2009-impressions-455588/ Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:24:39 GMT *New York Area Head-Fi Meet Impressions (November 14, 2009) (http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/ny-area-meet-nov-14-2009-impressions-455588/)* ...
New York Area Head-Fi Meet Impressions (November 14, 2009)


Photo by Towert7

i'm surprised that there's not a thread going already so i guess i'll have to start one. first of all thanks to Erikzen for organizing this get together. thanks also to the vendors for showing and for their generosity with their donations to the 'silent auction' (run by Yikes in his inimitable way!) as well as the generosity of all the other donors. the auction was quite successful and paid for the room with funds to spare as well as allowing for a nice donation to Head-fi.
it's always great to see the ny crew as well as the folks who travel from out of town to join us (Wayne even took time from his busy casino schedule to fly in from Monaco ;)).
i had to take care of personal things earlier in the day not leaving nearly enough time for listening or even for schmoozing (which is at least half the fun of a meet). there were all kinds of cool offerings to be sampled from Ray's Thunderbolt powering Jades & Orpheus to his tiny Shadow (and you thought a Mustang is small!) running his R10s (dark side of the moon sounded very tasty on this rig, which featured a meridian seedie player for source), a bunch of lovely Woo amps nicely running a variety of cans (i briefly got to listen to allison krause and union station via the hd800s, audeze, and he5s being juiced by the ever sweet sounding wa5), Vinnie's cool rig (as described by ruknd), universal versions of some jh audio iems, yikes audio-gd phoenix powering siltech wired balanced denon 7000s, and all kinds of very cool rigs which i didn't have a chance to listen to. Nate always cooks up something interesting. this time it was in the form of a scaled down version of his killer Menace amp (which made appearances in ny and at can jam in florida).
afterwards a bunch of us went out to a local diner to chow down and converse in a quieter environment ;). let's do it again sometime guys, and gals! ]]> Head-Fi Meet Impressions, Trade Show Reports, Factory Tours daveDerek http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/ny-area-meet-nov-14-2009-impressions-455588/ Dutch meet 08-11-2009 at Soest. Folks, gears, place and all that fun, come and share http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/dutch-meet-08-11-2009-soest-folks-gears-place-all-fun-come-share-454659/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:08:08 GMT First of all, huge thanks to Jaap ( paaj ), and his mama&papa, who were organising and hosting the whole thing. The location & house were great, to say the last, beautiful. Another huge thanks to everyone who took a time to help with food, coffee and tea etc, really nice of you.
Another mega thanks to Henk (tohenk2 ) who gave me a ride and make it possible for me to come, but not only, to have the opportunity to try his amazing headphone collection as well.
One little min point, Henk and I must leave to early, so, I having some hard time to give the fully & detailed impressions about the gear I tried, sorry about that. There were also not that many matched amps to try them with, next time we need that guys as more sources to, so, less laptops more CD players and amps.

Here we go.

The eye opener

He Audio/Jade electrostats + GES Woo amp ( aRRR set up ): Never been a truly fan of electrostats, but with this combo I got the feeling that there is something that still take my attention, which this combo was. I am quite impressed with the space / airiness of these stats, compare to HE60 they reproduce huge space, which was bit like to K1000, not as natural, but still. Bass was good, but I was missing tightness, it was bit loosy, however buy changing of IC, and I am sure if Woo gets some NOS 12AX7 pre tubes, this issue will not be there anymore. Even with their huge reproduced space found them quite balanced sounding through the whole sound spectrum. They are quite picky to the record and possible to the rest of the gear they are connected to. Comfort wise, well, not bad. They are light weight, but I think if you have small head, you may be having little "problem" to keep them tight while moving, however can be wrong. These babies cost like USD 1500 and made in China, I believe, so, here are some issues. For that money I expect better quality material, but also the finish, which wasn't top notch, however they do come with luxury box. Leaving this aside, like their sound better than HE60.

Big boys

L3000 & R10 (tohenk2): This meet offered amazing quantity of headphones, but matched amps just weren't there, so, don't take this impression to serious.
R10 are quite light and pretty comfy, found them having better comfort than CD3k I had in the past. Finish is good, but not amazingly impressiver than W5000 for example, so, lets leave it there. Sound wise I wasn't impressed, flat and lifeless, that's all I can say. I tried them on two amps, first was Akai AM69 Power Amp
and second was KEES's small USD 600 Goldpoint amp, which did significally better job with both of them, however not good enough to say more, sorry. L3000 are the same story, not that I found them flat, just not enough energy came out to say more. Like I wrote, to many headphones and not that many matched amps, pity. I will not say anything more until I get the chance to hear them with the right set up, other than that I wasn't blown away, if you can say so, especially when we are talking about money these costs, no way I going invest that much.

And more...

Stax 404 ( paaj ): I listened to it very briefly and they leaved quite nice impressions, not that I am going to buy them or any stats, however for the money they sounded better than HE60, but than again, we had one great GES Woo amp, which did better job using with Jade than HE60. Unfortunately I didn't try 404 through it, expect to sound even better.

DT48E - To heavy and industrial looking/finish, they looks same as they sound, nothing special.

Ultrasone Pro900 ( modded by KEES ) - Another interesting headphone. I found them to dark for my taste, but some strong points, like bass, without blowing the rest and still quite balanced made them very interesting, not enough for me, but certainly with great potentials, pity I missed ED9, next time maybe.

W5000 - I like these and probably would buy if I need some closed back, just find a matched amp for them and enjoy. Most what I like about them is there ability to sound not as closed back, but having enough space/soundstage to create nice open feeling. The rest of the spectrum are very good, at least to my liking, never had a single issue with comfort either, great headphones.

Grado HF2 ( paaj ) - Using with Graham solo was pretty nice, but with KEES's amp not, to shrill, especially when you compare them to PS1, which to me are the best Grado ever made, well after my beloved GS1k and Yoshino HP4, was glad to hear them again, thanks to KEES by bringing them again. Also tried SR325i through LD MKIII amp+LD CDP 1 player set up ( Stitch ), great combo, very good headphones and LD set up to, was quite impressed how good LD sounded, great budget amp, especially when you invest in some NOS tubes. There was Cambridge magic DAC as well, in that set up, all by all, very good combination.

HD800 - Not quite understand them. I tried them with budget NAD set up ( cd player+integrated amp ) and they leaved the same impressions as with other gear I tried. Still having some questions about their focus and not been involving enough, seems that they are trying to be great headphones, but having hard time. For example reproducing of piano, where you can clearly hear that last hit, which do sound right, but there is no weight or life behind, so, the whole representation feels like not finished, which may translates in artificial kind of sound, don't know guys. To me, they try to be the stats, while they are dynamic and that's where I cant put them in the same league with K1000 at all, they just don't hold it. On the other hand I do understand why they are loved by many, cos Sennheiser have produced something that maybe with next model will hit the top rank. Their finish, look and comfort are good, way better than HD650, but for now no HD800 for me.


Sorry guys/girls if I didn't mention everyone buy name, cos like I wrote, was to short for me to have that last fun to know you better, with beer and chips, which I regret by not be there. On the positive side, meeting all of you, where some I know for years ( Kees and Indra ) and others just for the first time, with no differences, all, for sure, leaved enough good impressions and take their own place in my memories. My apologies to Henk that he was missing his family event, cos of that stupid traffic problem, hoping you were fine after all. My greetings to Anouk, keep it that way, was very nice to meet you in person to. All by all I enjoy this meet very much, thank you all and hopefully see you next time again.

Here some pics

Beautiful place





And of course great people and set ups

















apatN, Drosera & ZarakiSan


tohenk2, Anouk & Contrastique


tohenk2&Anouk


tohenk2 & Contrastique


apatN


Stitch


Contrastique, Drosera and aRRR
]]> Head-Fi Meet Impressions, Trade Show Reports, Factory Tours Blackmore http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/dutch-meet-08-11-2009-soest-folks-gears-place-all-fun-come-share-454659/ Mini Meet in Orlando, Florida: November 7th of 2009 http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/mini-meet-orlando-florida-november-7th-2009-a-454601/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:31:41 GMT I want to start by thanking Rumi (f00fighters) for organizing this meet. Although small in numbers it was quite a hit in the number of gear present... I want to start by thanking Rumi (f00fighters) for organizing this meet. Although small in numbers it was quite a hit in the number of gear present and the enthusiasm shown by all the parties who participated. Sure hope to see them posting their impressions and pictures. I am kind of tired so for now I will leave you with this small slide-show of pictures I took. Thanks again Rumi and to all of the crazy guys who showed up: Reference to HiFlight for all the mini amps/gear he brought and to Alex who needed like three trips to haul in all the nice stuff he brought. :biggrin:

Orlando Mini Meet - November 7 of 2009 slideshow by mrarroyo - Photobucket ]]> Head-Fi Meet Impressions, Trade Show Reports, Factory Tours mrarroyo http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/mini-meet-orlando-florida-november-7th-2009-a-454601/ ChiUniFi 2009 Impressions http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/chiunifi-2009-impressions-454390/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:26:36 GMT Opening up a thread for impressions. People are setting up gear as I type so you'll see some impressions in the future. ]]> Head-Fi Meet Impressions, Trade Show Reports, Factory Tours Absorbine_Sr http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/chiunifi-2009-impressions-454390/ UK Meet: Manchester 2009 Impressions http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/uk-meet-manchester-2009-impressions-454293/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:40:02 GMT Worth getting the ball rolling early I think :D Trip down was hellish. My mothers little Honda was not built for that kind of journey in that... Worth getting the ball rolling early I think :D


Trip down was hellish. My mothers little Honda was not built for that kind of journey in that kind of utterly festering miserable weather. I'd also forgotten just how far it is and how misdirectional my satnav can be.


Lass O Gowrie pub:

The pub was a comfortable, slightly over-eccentricly decorated place. It was busy, but still a lot of space and good fast jovial service. I adocate a return on part of the meet masses tomo evening. Has a Pac-Man tabletop game table, which is pointlessly retro cool. Also they played Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer, which scores +10 points.

Black Sheep ale: Nice enough, average enough. Pleasing in a very generic way but frankly, nothing to commend it over a pint of lager or cider for the price.
Olde Trip: Nice enough, slightly darker, too cold. Had to wait for it to warm a little.
Cromwell: A horridly insipid 70 shilling disguised as a darker beer. Sweaty nose, foosty taste with a lingering ugliness on the tongue.
Gold Digger: Best of the four. A good light ale with a strong hops, a pleasing nose and a good bit of bitterness and very light fruitiness.

Other Head-Fiers: Nil. Poor show. Although I was assailed by an incomprehensively slurred drunk Irishman for wearing a poppy.

Also I think my room at the Ibis is nicer than the room I had at the Days in 2007. But not by much.

What time is kick-off proper then? Don't want to be the same as last time where I turned up at the rooms to find them locked. Went away for five minutes and came back to find all of the tables taken. ]]> Head-Fi Meet Impressions, Trade Show Reports, Factory Tours Duggeh http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/uk-meet-manchester-2009-impressions-454293/ Sound around Sound II Impressions (Bellevue, Wa) http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/sound-around-sound-ii-impressions-bellevue-wa-452154/ Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:25:19 GMT Just wanted to start the thread. I might have a few pictures to post at a later point. I know there were others with cameras though. I played... Just wanted to start the thread. I might have a few pictures to post at a later point. I know there were others with cameras though.

I played around with the HD800 (both stock and recabled) and end up liking it better than the last time. The problem was it still didn't do it for me on rock music. Just missing the punch and lacks body in the bass. Still easily preferred my L3000, but also preferred the Grado HF-2 to it. Not for the technical abilities but just for getting my foot tapping and enjoying the music.

Also tried the Grado HP-1's again and didn't like them on the first setup I tried but really enjoyed them on Kingstyle's fully batteried powered setup that included the Offramp jitter reducer. Looking forward to trying the Offramp in my setup to see what it does.

I guess that it for now. Had a lot of fun, as always. And thanks again to BigPapa for setting this up.

Photos below:

















]]> Head-Fi Meet Impressions, Trade Show Reports, Factory Tours iamoneagain http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/sound-around-sound-ii-impressions-bellevue-wa-452154/