Myself and two other head-fi'ers had a listening session this sunday just past. I had a great time forcing all my music down their throats, and they seemed to enjoy themselves. I gave Micah [Redleader] my headroom hat as it doesn't fit my massive head. The picture of Nick [datamorph] didn't turn out all that well due to my poor camera skills... man I need a tripod.





Here is another one of Nick that was taken with his ghetto camera. He had to beat the crap out of it to get it to turn on and it was making weird noises.

Oops, I meant to put this in the meet impressions forum. Can a helpful mod move it for me?

well I can sum up my impressions of the K340 again with : I'm glad I've got a pair on the way. I got my first listen to the massive attack, and I have to say it's a very nice amp for sure. Nice and quick, very detailed with power to spare. My only issue with it is it seems a tad harsh for my tastes. That could easily have been the tubes and/or the fact that the amp isn't actually technically done yet. Either way it'll be very interesting to hear when it's completely finished with fully burnt-in tubes.

I brought my 70s Pioneer SX-720 as I was extremely curious about how it would drive the K340. It drives my Paradigm Titan V4 very well, and handle my Senn HD580 surprisingly decently. To my surprise I think I'll be alright with it for awhile until I manage to get a dedicated amp. It's not amazing, but it handles them very decently. This thing never ceases to amaze.

We were messing around a bit with that old Chinese soundstick I bought from usbgeek, and discovered that the soundstick + pint + hd201 = Surprisingly good sound for such a cheap package. Why a $20 can needs that much power is a bit of a mystery, but when it gets it, they shine.

Jay didn't so much "force" his music on us as share some of his favourites. Me and nick both have on the order of 10,000+ tracks on harddrives, and yet there was a tonne of music neither of us had heard that Jay pulled out from his binders. We are all trip-hop fans and had a great time sharing new music and talking about new/old acts and albums. I can't wait till I go back, K340 and various materials in hand!

damn Jason that Massive Attack amp looks great I have to make the trip up north to hear it

Nice of you to share the Massive Attack love Jay! You guys look so chill.

I just recently received a much-travelled pair of K340s with the full Headphile mods and velour pads and man are they hawt! I can listen to my stock pair and these beauties side-by-side and there is no question that the mods are a massive improvement. I will need to get them reterminated with XLRs but that shouldn't be a big deal.

I suppose I should also post some .. "mini-impressions".

First off, the whole trip was a blast. As Micah already mentioned, Jay didn't so much force his taste down our throats as turn us on to a bunch of great new music. Thanks to him, I've been listening to Kristin Mainhart and Zero 7 quite a bit since Sunday. I've also decided it's about time to stop using the Yamaha AX-500U to drive my HD-580s, but I knew that already.

Again, to the K340s, wow. I definitely know what my next set of cans will be. Unfortunately, it'll have to wait a while, with the holidays and all that fun stuff. I had a chance to listen to these cans at the last GTA meet, but hearing them in a quiet and less hectic setting (while being a lazy arse in Jay's excellent listening chair, I might add) has given me a whole new respect for them. I threw all my regulars at them - Pink Floyd, Portishead, Tool - but what really shocked me was how well they handled System of a Down. I've been most impressed with these cans, and when I finally hang up the Senns for a while, I'll be looking to get my very own K340s to replace them.

As far as the Massive Attack goes, I'm not sure what I could say about this that hasn't already been said - for an amp that's "not finished yet" it sounds really wonderful. I can definitely hear some slight differences in the sound quality since the last time I had a listen at the meet. I noticed the bass was definitely a bit more refined than I had felt last time, I'm not sure if that's due to adjustments or burn in, but it was a definite improvement. I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen as work progresses.

The Soundstick, PINT and the HD-201s - that was just ridiculous. I realized when I got there that I hadn't brought my 201s along, to which Jay responded by promptly producing a pair from his closet. I also eyed a PINT on the shelf, and asked if I could give it a listen since I haven't been able to audition this neat little amp yet. All I can say is wow - that was unexpected. The sound quality was ridiculous considering these headphones are worth $20, the sound card is worth $10, and the only thing that's not completely scraping the bottom of the barrel is the amp. I also tried my HD-580s in place of the 201s in this setup, and have decided that I rather like this amp, and will probably be buying one in the near future to keep in the laptop bag.

The best hi-fi component of the day was surely Jay's "turntable", though. I'm not sure how to describe this other than to say it came in a suitcase, said DISCO across it, and had built in disco lights. I think Micah and I were both pretty much speechless. I still say we should see if we can put a new tonearm and a nice cartridge on it.

All in all it was a blast as usual, and I can't wait for the next (mini-)meet! Next time I'm going to have to take a bigger library of music on CD ..

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Oh man, I had completely forgotten about that! Any turntable with built in "disco lights" and built in speakers is amazing. Add to that the fact that the tonearm looked like a 2-minute chinese factory dip-job and... wow! If I could bring myself to sacrifice some of my vinyl I'd love to hear what that thing can do

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'Chill' is an understatement. At one point I recall completely spacing out. That setup can send you to another world of happy goodness with the right album.

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Well, the tubes should be burned in given how much I've been listening to it. We'll have to see what you think after the amp is completed and the output stage on my CD-E5 is upgraded. Were there any particular tracks where you heard this harshness? Quote:



I'm looking forward to the modding as well. Should be good times. Quote:



Its a combination of the green walls and my comfy chair I think... the music might have something to do with it as well. Quote:



Glad to hear it, I look forward to some more impressions as you get used to the differences. I've been thinking about getting a second set for curiosity sake... but someone went and jacked up the price. Quote:



That was probably the NOS set of matched Sylvania 6GU7's that I am using in the amp now. At the last meet it had some mismatched 6CG7's instead. I've told Peter about this and he is interested in hearing the change since as a rule he does not believe tuberolling makes a difference in his amps. Quote:



LOL, that's Disco80 foo!

...and it is my wife's if anyone is wondering. I hope to get a decent turntable somewhere down the line, but with only 10-20 records at the moment, it is low on the priority list.

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It seemed to appear when I cranked up my metal, electric guitars seemed to be the culprit for some reason. Of course, this was when the volume was probably too loud for my own good, but it is something I noticed. When I have to look that hard for an issue, you know its a decent setup

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Waittaminnut... Metal sounding harsh?

I can't believe it.

Looks good, I might have to meet with you guys since I'm in Orangeville now. I didn't bring all my gear,but some of it came up(k701, Millet, E4, Karma, Nano).