After our intense two hour listening of the three amps, it was very easy for us to pick out the differences between the Dacs. This implies that the differences between the Dacs were much more pronounced than the Amps. This makes sense if you consider the price margins between the products (200, 400, 400 for the amps and 300 to 975 for the dacs)

The headroom meet should have four dacs - some inline to amps and some not - for us to test much more rigorously, and though the foot traffic might prevent quite the same length of analysis, my ears are quite a bit more sensitive to the differences so I should still be able to deliver a whipper of a review, though it should be even more trying than the previous amp heads up.

~Gigs

I suppose it's about time that I chime in as well, even if I am a wee bit late. Sorry, but my ears needed time to recover before my fingers would type. Stange how that works...

All the neat gear (amps, headphones and dacs), along with the excellent company made for a great meet. In no particular order, the ramblings of a scattered mind...

Coming in I was afraid that it would prove to be an expensive endeavor. For the most part I made it through unscathed. What I found most interesting was that I don't care for the HD650s (so that's the veil), but liked the 595s much better as far as the sennheisers go. Both were much heavier, something instantly obivous when changing between them, than grados and the shiny sonys that were so popular. Speaking of which, the SA5000's, paired with the DAC1, produced the best sounding combination that I listened to. Superb, simply superb! I thought that the SA5000s lacked a bit in bass, but had incredible detail - much better than the 650s, which did not even come close to living up to the hype for me. (Perhaps they were the victim of high expectations?) I can see why so many like them (SA5000) so much. The meet was illuminating in that I discovered that I prefer the grado house sound. Maybe some MS2i or 325i are in my future. Even in hindsight, blindly ordering MS1s proved to be an excellent purchase

Amps seemed to have the least impact on the sound. Once a minimum level was reached, the differences really seemed like splitting hairs to me. Maybe I have tin ears which my wallet will thank me for in the long run. I could hear a distinct difference between the inexpensive portable amps and more robust home amps though - no contest here. The bassboost on the M^3; was much better than I expected and went a long way to giving back some of the bass I thought that the SA5000s lacked. It was well controlled and very usable, a pleasant surprise.

It was fun. Thanks guys.

To all of you Oregonians, I just got my hands on Z-Audio's 3 prototypes for the Pittsburgh meet, and boy you guys were right! Right now I'm using the line out on my Karma to the Lambda, which is powering my HD580's, and Dream Theater is rocking like crazy. This amp seriously reminds me of my PPA. It has this nice resolved low end, without lacking a nice *punch* that Portnoy's double bass most certainly deserves I think Zemo has something going here, I'll be interested to see if he comes out with anything in the future.

yeah thaddy, he mentioned you were going to get your hands on them. Hopefully you have other amps in that range that you and the other folks can do a comparison on. Alas, we were restricted to the higher range competitiors, but we still had a great time with his amps: super tight bass.

~Gigs

The HeadRoom amps will be there, that's all I know of for sure. Someone might have a MINT, Pimeta, or something in that range too, you never know.

Right now I'm watching the Dave Matthews Band - Live In Central Park DVD on my portable DVD player, with the line out going to the Lambda, and it's not that bad I'm missing some low end, but I'll stick the blame on my DVD player.

Sorry, I'm a pic whore!

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Ah, you enjoyed Zemo's fine work as well, eh? I'm going to get an Epsilon for myself very soon, along with a bunch of opamp chips for rolling. It'll be great with my Chaintech's line out, once I can get the thing up and running. I'm still stuck in 16-bit mode, and I have no program for inline recording(from source, mic, etc.), but the Chaintech is kicking ass so far with optical output. And as we all know,
"There is nothing more better than the Chaintech AV710. It is your best choice."
,
Abe

PS- Great pics BTW, Thaddy!

OMG!!! I missed the Portland meet! That's what I get for not checking the forums in a month, stupid internship!

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Well then, try to make it to the upcoming HeadRoom meet in Portland. It's Aug. 2.
See you there!
,
Abe

Maybe we should start a phone list at the next meet for people who would like a call to notify them of upcoming meets? I would be willing to call people say one month and then one week before a meet and remind them it's coming up.

Opinions?

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Wait... this is from the guy who almost forgot about the last meet?

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I'm thinking PM's or emails with your choice of timing should do the trick. One month, drop a line, and then at one week, drop another, and even perhaps the night before drop one more as well.
,
Abe

OMG when did you guys kidnap B2B?

Oh yeah he moved...opps..my bad


The meet looked like alot of fun, I am really getting the urge to try one of the 3 new sony cans....havent seen one in life yet

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Man, you is missin' out! Now that my SA1000's have pretty much been through the burn in process by now (20 days or so since the last meet), I get the feeling they may close the gap just a tad with the SA5000's, especially by meet day. They should have north of 250-300 hours on them then.

On another note, yeah, we kidnapped B2B, Billy. Whatcha gonna do about it? Come to the next meet with all your Grados and your jacuzzi(mounted on a pickup bed) so you can distract the lot of us while you extract him?
That would be great, see you there!

Oh, and B2B, did you ever catch Samurai Champloo yet? I hope you enjoy it.
,
Abe

well budgie, it certainly isn't a horrible to keep people up to date, but i dunno if everyone' is comfortable with the idea.

And one thing about the Sony cans bhd: they have superior fit and comfort with their headband, kind of disappointing to look at other cans after you check out the sa5ks design.

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NOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had successfully forgotten about all that. Next time I see you, I'm going to kill you.