Official NYC Fall Regional Meet Impressions, Nov. 11, 2007

[mrarroyo]

It seems you all had a blast! The ATH-W5000 sure look great, I am selling my W1000 to help finance the purchase of the W5000.

[bozebuttons]

Originally Posted by Hi-Finthen

Had to LOL at Warrior05's comment on being rightfully impressed by the cables present, "Holy Cow Batman"

Those where the new Synergistic Research telsa active cables Mikhail(Singlepower) brought.He even brought a balanced synergestic active cable for the HD650hooked up to his new Transparent Preamp outputs.
THe Hd650s really stood out with this combo.

[vcoheda]

some impressions.

D5000 and DX1000. i listened to the D5000 this weekend for the first time from Ray's G08 and Apache and was disappointed. the D5000 sounded thin and small in terms of the sound stage. they sounded cheap! right next to them was another closed headphone, the DX1000. i was very impressed by the DX1000, heard through the Apache and B52. it had an overall warm, fluid sound, with a very good sound stage. there seemed to be a slight coloration to the mid range, but that was my only complaint.

L3000, W5000, K701. the L3000 i had heard on a few occasions and its smooth luxurious sound had always impressed me. this time was no different. i listened to them stock SE on my Apache/G08 combo. the sound was warm but clear, the sound stage was of reasonable size but by no means large, and the bass was of very good quality and hard hitting. sometimes too much so. on hilary hahn's bach concertos, the bass seemed to overpower the violin. when i switched to some regina spektor and feist, the bass quantity was perfect and the sound glorious. i suspect balanced and recabled, the headphone will excel even more. i enjoyed them very much, but am still turned off by the price. $2000+ is a lot to spend on one headphone, especially since it seemed to perform better with some genres than others. i also listened to the W5000 (Bal oracle cable) back to back with the L3000. i found the sound stage on the W5000 to be larger, the bass was far less, and there was less texture and layering to the music, but the sound was not thin and the detail seemed sharper and imaging a bit more precise. hahn through the W5000 sounded near perfect. there was a small treble spike but it did not bother me, at least in the short term. after that i switched to the K701 (Bal black dragon). the sound stage was larger than the W5000 but not as much as i imagined. the detail was about the same, but the W5000 seemed a bit more brilliant at times. my first thought after hearing the two side by side was that the W5000 could possibly replace my K701 for classical.

Ed.9 and GS1000. i listened to the Ed.9 and GS1000. i was not overly impressed with either. the Ed.9 - heard on two different systems - had this odd sense of isolation when you put it on, almost like an IEM. it was hard to get over. it made the sound stage seem very small or maybe it was that small. the bass was as has been often reported - very good, but possibly overpowering the other frequencies. they were somewhat poor for classical but much better for rock or pop. i thought they sounded different but could not imagine spending $1000+ to own a pair. i also heard the proline 750 which although having less bass (much less) had a more natural presentation. as for the GS1000, it had a very good sound stage but a recessed mid range. the headphone sounded better on a WA2 over a solid state, but i still didn't care for it much.

Other Stuff. The HE90/ES1 combo is one of the best. just high fidelity at its finest. there was a balanced mini3 which for its small size sounded very good. i compared my RS1 to a vintage pair. the latter was overall smoother but needed more volume to get up to the same level. The HP1000 is the closest headphone to speakers in terms of its ability to expand the left and right channels. heard a modded RKV with a HD650 (SE equinox). sound stage really opened up on this setup. I don't quite recall the 650 ever sounding that good SE. a K340 (headphile modded) was enjoyable - a very clean sound with good body. very hard to drive though. i still don't get the K1000, heard through the WA5. just an odd experience.- not quite headphones; not quite speakers. lower end stax headphones continue to sound thin and slightly unmusical. The R10 is still amazing and probably the best headphone out there for classical. most amazing sound stage and incredible detail. i heard two versions - one balanced by mikhail; the other by ray. there was no PS1 there. the only high-end headphone i have yet to hear. listened to the pico with a grado. sounded nice. not really into portable stuff though. the GS1 didn't really do it for me - at least on the setup i heard. mikhail had these insanely expensive synergistic research tesla cables. amazing build quality. they were used in a new solid state balanced amp (the transparency). sounded nice. i think it was very expensive though. thought my apache (modded with different op amps and larger caps) sounded better than ray's, which was unmodded. the modded version had a larger sound stage and overall fuller, richer sound. another head-fier who owned a 10K single power thought my apache sounded very good. he said it was close to or as good as his HR balanced max, another amp he owned.

afterwards, went out to dinner with a bunch of people. good time overall.

[joelongwood]

Two weeks is a helluva long time for this old brain, but the two things I do remember, however, are the sound of the Orpheus and the Omega II........real tough to forget! To my ears, even though they have their own particular presentation, they are the best sounding headphones I've ever heard.

[immtbiker]

Originally Posted by 2deadeyes

R10: Has the best soundstage from a closed hp that I've heard...

Just want to interject that the R-10 is not really considered a closed headphone. Sound travels in and out of the Zelkovia wood the same as any open headphone.

Tom, thanks for hosting this event. It was as good as any NY meet could be!

[dmk005]

I enjoyed meeting the NY folks and eating much too much food afterwards. Who would have thought a double cheeseburger in NY is actually 2 cheeseburgers. Someone had the thoughtfulness to order Ray a Happy Birthday cheesecake which we all enjoyed.

I was wowed by the RSA predator as Ray had it rigged to directly compare it with a Meridian G08. The noise floor on the predator is amazingly low and the warmth was palatable. In comparison, the Pico was a bit more neutral to my ears with a very nicely tuned mid-range.

I spent some time listening to the Woo Audio 5 and loved it. I would say it was comparable to my RSA B-52 in many ways.





Potential next headphone?
[/quote]

[nikongod]

:cracks knuckles and prepares to TYPE:
soooo the meet was sweet.
i got there before pretty much everyone but fang from head-direct who showed me the new clip-on headphone. (i forget the name, it was 2 facking weeks ago...) fortunately i dont forget the sound! i compared these fine clips to my ksc-75 (stock cable, 50 ohm resistors, volume control removed) on my supra and i do prefer the head-direct clips. the overall sound was CLOSE, with the bass of the ksc-75 coming through strong from the new-phones, but the high end was a little more refined with the new ones. i think you have done it again fang.

next on the list of cool gear was nates balanced mini^3 amp. very cool. it drove all my balanced grados QUITE nicely. i was very happy with the sound compared to my balanced RA-1. i think the "hertstein" dac is really a spectacular bit of gear, and i wish i could get my hands on one. it would save me the effort of buying a meridian at least...

enc40c1 (ian) had a pretty shway millet, and his DAC was also very cool. i like the denon "sound" so i suppose thats understandable. he looked like he was having a good time listening to my collection of old grados, so thats cool. i like it when people enjoy my gear.

Mikhail's balanced hd-650 with the actively shielded cable were a SOLID treat from both my supra, and mikhail's solid state balanced amp. they really did quite nicely, with good air and balance. i dont think i have ever heard an HD-650 sound that good.

continuing around the room, the orpehus was surprisingly good this time around. talking with bosebuttons about it, it seems he has 2 sets and one has a screwed up sound. the first time i heard the orpheus it was this one, and it was FANTASTIC. i do prefer the O2 as a personal thing, but the orpheus is rock solid. the 2 meets in the middle, the orpheus has been sounding pretty pathetic&sad, this was the "bad" set. and now we are back. they did FAR better at this meet than i think ever before.

the taket T2 parked next to the orpheus was VERY VERY nice. they had a very solid air around instruments, but didnt sound the least bit thin. also very nice. i only listened to them for a few miniutes as i was on a source-quest...

the woo-table was quite a treat to hang out at. i really listened to the electrostatic amp more than anything. it did very nicely by the 1812 overture with my STAX Gama Pro headphones. they got the "room reflections" right with the cannon fire... hearing them with this amp tempts me to get another electrostatic amp so i can use them again. I listened to the Woo-5 at the "not so ultra super mini-maxi-R10 meet" and it did sound VERY good there with both the k-1000 and the R10.

the balanced headroom rig (the monkey) was running nicely. im glad everything came out ok with balancing the HF-1 the night before the meet.

i listened to a BUNCH of ray's gear, and was impressed by the new portable amp. i did hear a difference between its on board DAC and the meridian (one had better bass the other better treble) but i guessed which was which incorrectly. suffice it to say that the SQ from the on board DAC was QUITE high.

some random headphone stuff:
it was VERY nice to hear the 600-ohm DT-990. They do have a very nice sound, and probably the best bass detail of any headphone i ran on my supra at the meet.

i DID quite like the denon D5000 a lot. i do agree they are a tiny bit thin, but they have a very coherent sound. what i mean by that is they dont seem to miss anything or have any obvious gaps in the sound. overall, im totally confident they could easily be tricked into sounding absolutely fabulous with a slightly warm amp/source.

i listened to the L3000 with a couple amps. the last time i listened to the L3000 it was from a slightly underpowered amp. they sounded like poop on a poop stick covered with more poop. i was hoping my previous impressions were all the amp holding back the headphones, as often happens with the hd-650 as an example. so i tried them again on my supra, and ian's millet. they sounded better on both amps then they did before, but they seem to want to play the bass more than anything. they managed to find DEEEEP bass in music i didnt think went below mid-bass and then obscured the mid-bass with it. while it was cool to hear bass this deep from a headphone im not impressed.

on the whole, the meet was AWESOME, and it was nice to meet new people and see everyone from the previous meets.

[MrSlacker]

damn nikongod, thats a lot of typing. It has been to long and I am too lazy to type a lot.

It was another great meet. Thanks to all manufacturers who could make it. It was great seeing old friends and meeting bunch of new people. Special thanks has to go to Aaron's wife for those amazing dark chocolate pretzels... if anyone knows where I can buy some that taste at least half like those, TELL ME!!!

Now to the gear. I had the pleasure of listening to HeadAmp's Pico for the 2nd time. The first time I heard it was the very first time Justin brought it for public to see and hear. I thought it could not sound any better than it did the last time I heard it. Boy was I wrong. Justin tweaked it to sound even better. I spent most of my time listening to it with my own Denon D5000 and every song sounded just amazing. I would never even imagine that something that small could ever sound this good.

Of course everyone wonders how it stacks up to Ray's Predator. I did listen to Predator for a little bit. Ray only had one prototype available so it was hard to compare it with Pico. I was not able to hear the same song out of the same laptop so I cannot make a fair comparison. Ray did A/B it with some fancy CD Player to show how similar they sound. It is hard to comment on that set up. Both of them were hooked up at the same time, all the time so I don't even know if I listened to Predator's USB DAC when I did lol. Also, both USB DAC and CDP used Predator's amp which obviously made them sound similar. Overall, it sounds like all other RSA products. You should hear one for yourself to see if you like it or not.

SinglePower had some crazy looking cables. I have never seen cables that hook up to an outlet for ground and have LEDs in them. I didn't listen to them so can't really comment on sound.

Nate's dual mini^3 was something! And his DAC was a lot bigger than I have ever imagined. Both sounded amazing of course.

Damn it! I ended up typing a lot more than I was hoping

[upstateguy]

Someone said

So I have a few pictures to complement the write ups... for those who have never been to a meet, this might give you an idea what it's like: I apologize if I get any of the names wrong.... If you PM me I'll fix it.

I got there early, as everyone was setting up, this is the Woo Table



Head Direct was already there



Janus's uncased millet





Nikongods Toaster



n_maher jumping a fuse for Ray Samuels



AE2



Attack of the Clones



What's this handsome guy listening to?



Justin's Pico

[upstateguy]

Dared



Single Power



the mighty Woo table









Francis' Woo 5



warrior05 concentrates on the Woo5





it started to get crowded



those Alizee videos



Pete's amps