Santiago de Compostela (Spain) Mini-Meet IV - February 9th, 2008 - Impressions

[carlosgp]

I am still with the hangover of the meet in Santiago, but here you have some photos. This time I took many, many pictures . Selecting a few of them was a job in itself...

The meet was a complete success. I think it was the best of the four ones we have celebrated in Santiago. The hotel was perfect, the people fantastic and the weather incredible. And what could I say about the lunch? It was more a feast than a lunch! Wait to see the pictures

In the next days I will try to post some impressions about our meet. Please, excuse us if we do not post enough impressions. Most attendees are not fluent enough in english. If you understand spanish you can read about our meet in Auriculares.org.







We had a lot of Grados in this meet, which is strange because Grado is almost non-existent in Spain. One of the RS1s was vintage (without serial number). Here in Head-Fi seems to be a frenzy about getting a vintage over the new RS1, even at crazy prices. Well, the difference can be heard easily, but it is not big. It is significant, though. I cannot say that one is better than the other. I think both are at a similar level. The vintage is softer, the new is more aggresive and rocks harder.

[carlosgp]

Group picture . From left to right: Charlieboa, Carlos (me), A, Picodeloro, Jorgillo, Bea, Hitoridekimasu, Rocoa y Luisa. Rodaballo was taking the picture .



It will continue with the lunch. We had a typical "galician cocido" .

[carlosgp]

The lunch was in Casa Rosinda, a country house placed in a rural area near Tambre river. Every time I go to this place, I find it prettier. Their owners are doing a great job along the years.



Outside the main dinning room




The view from the dinning room to the bucolic landscape



The dinning room had a "country décor"



First toast to the health of our friends in San Francisco Bay Area. We have decided to "sister" our two cities because by coincidence we always celebrate our meets around the same dates, this time included . You can see some impressions about their meet in the Mayberry thread. It was faboulous, probably the best meet I've seen in Head-Fi .

¡Salud!



As I have said, we had a big galician cocido only for good eaters. Is a traditional meal that nowadays is mainly prepared around this dates, the "Entroido" or galician carnival.

Panoramic view of the first round of plates



A cacheira do porco, boiled pig head. It is very nice, better than bacon



A delicious "lacón", cured foreleg. It is a kind of salty cured ham that is served mainly boiled, like in our "cocido" (cocido means boiled).



Orella (pig ear), lengua (tongue), jarrete (knuckle?), gallina (hen)...



There are not pictures of all the dishes that compose the "cocido" because they were arriving gradually and we were not going to let them cool . We can name some, like filloas (a kind of crêpes, but lighter, used instead of bread if salty or like dessert if sweet), boiled chorizos, or "costillas", cured ribs.

Carving the "laconcito".





It was difficult to carve. Who wants the bigger piece?



Let's eat!



We had some bottles of Ribeira de Valboa, a simple but nice mencía that goes well with this kind of food.

[carlosgp]

Who wants a good "chuletón" after the cocido? I do not know what is a "chuletón" in USA. I think we have different beef cuts. Maybe ribeye steak? It is a huge beef cut from a big cow for two or three people. Impossible to resist!




Mine rare, please






Good! The moment we were waiting for. Aguardiente de hierbas, blanca, vella, licor café...



Salud to our californian brothers and headfiers in general! I have to say that there were many toasts like this one







The drinks start to kick in...













Are we all ready to go?

[carlosgp]

Before returning to the hotel we took a look of the surroundings to clear the head. The weather was really splendid.






More pictures, this time after returning to the hotel. The main columnade has a nice view over the gardens and the outskirts of Santiago.





The hotel's chapel, surrounded by the quiet gardens.



I took less pictures after the lunch. I tried to concentrate in remaining awake after the heavy lunch and listen to some headphones

[krmathis]

Stunning!
You have certainly done a great photo job here. Really looks like you guys and girls had a great time, both at the listening room and at lunch.

Envious!

[Voltron]

Congratulations Carlos, Charlieboa, A, Picodeloro, Jorgillo, Bea, Hitoridekimasu, Rocoa, Luisa and Rodaballo for holding the Most Beatiful Head-Fi Meet Ever! Absolutely gorgeous from the hotel to the countryside to the artful gear arrangements and of course the fabulous lunch/feast! Your Bay Area sister city Head-Fiers are touched by your many toasts, and from the pictures it seems you were "touched" as well.

Another small coincidence among many is that jp11801 pulled out his cigars for the small group still together on Sunday night. We had a smoke and last drink on the patio at my house, and it was a pleasant way to finish the weekend. It looks from the pictures that at least Rocoa had a nice smoke at the end of the feast.

I hope to meet some of you at the Head-Fi Int'l Meet in Florida this May, so let us know if any of you can make it. Also, let's plan our next for the same day so that we can get on the phone and toast each other live. I certainly hope to make it to one of your meets in Santiago de Campostela someday, maybe on a trip to visit my relatives in Southern France near Pau, and you are all welcome here in San Francisco if you are travelling this way.

¡Salud!

Alberto/Voltron

[Cool_Torpedo]

Wonderful pics Carlos, I'm sorry I couldn't make it. The meal and the place look even better than the cans

Rgrds

[rodaballo]

As the previous meetings this has been an excellent one.

Lots of interesting gear and what is most important, wonderful people.

Interesting chats and quite a location.

The meal was close to medioeval!!!

Carlos defend of ourselves of the beast with the "KNIFE"

We have to have to have SF Bay Santiago de Compostela meeting soon.

Thanks to Carlos and Luisa for the logistics!!!

Preparing for the next one...

[carlosgp]

Alberto, you can say it, we were a little "touched", indeed . But no, we had not a cigar. I think only rocoa smokes, but yes, it seemed a nice cigar.

It would be nice to plan our next meet the same day. We have to try at least. About the international meet, it would be nice to be able to assist. I do not think I will be, but maybe in the future. I am sure I will go one of these years and seize the opportunity to visit the USA.

[carlosgp]

By the way, krmathis, we have to talk about your 4070s one of these days . I am thinking about going for a world class headphone in the future, but it has to be one able to rock hard. It seems the 4070s are a good candidate. The only "but" is the price, that must include an electrostatic amplifier. Voltron, krmathis, what do you think about the 4070s for rock/metal? Are the 'stats good for this job? Because I am looking for the best

[Voltron]

Originally Posted by carlosgp

By the way, krmathis, we have to talk about your 4070s one of these days . I am thinking about going for a world class headphone in the future, but it has to be one able to rock hard. It seems the 4070s are a good candidate. The only "but" is the price, that must include an electrostatic amplifier. Voltron, krmathis, what do you think about the 4070s for rock/metal? Are the 'stats good for this job? Because I am looking for the best

My only exposure to the 4070 was during that weekend, so my impressions are limited. However, I really liked them with rock music, and think that their tendency to have more energy and be more forward (as opposed to more laid-back like the O2) is a good match for rock listening. I may well own a pair very soon, so I hope to be able to give you more significant impressions before long.

Actually, I am still hoping that krmathis and/or spritzer will give me a sense of whether my SRM-1 MkII can power the 4070 at least for an interim period. I am thinking of getting the SRM-007tII because that combination was very good but I also would like to know if my current electrostat can handle the job relatively well. While the 007tII would be a very big upgrade from where I am, a truly world class amp would be a SinglePower ES-1 or perhaps a HeadAmp electrostatic offering.

[carlosgp]

Thanks Al. I will be following your experience closely. I see you have the PS-1 and I'm sure you are familiar with L3000s. At the present, do you think the 4070s are more advisable than these two for hard rock?

[Voltron]

Originally Posted by carlosgp

Thanks Al. I will be following your experience closely. I see you have the PS-1 and I'm sure you are familiar with L3000s. At the present, do you think the 4070s are more advisable than these two for hard rock?

I adore the PS-1s and I have been teased with a recabled and balanced pair that must be sent back to Grado after a cross-country shipper seems to have killed one of the drivers. With a nice balanced amp I am not sure you can beat them for hard rock and high volume listening. The Leatherheads are nice too, but I believe the balanced PS-1 will beat it for your purpose. I will know much better after I get the 4070 up and running next to my other setups.

I was going to talk to you at some point about what you mostly listen with now -- cans and amps -- because electrostats might not give you the same impact of dynamics. I am just venturing into electrostatic ownership, after getting a Lambda Pro/SRM-1 MkII combo around Christmas. I enjoy them a lot but would not call them truly world class and certainly not fabulous for rock compared to my dynamic rigs.

I hope you will have the opportunity to try before you buy, but I will do my part to share experiences and comparisons.

[amphead]

Salud! Team España!