steve hoffman thread. thank you

The Steve Hoffmans's conference will be "podcasted"? Great!

Wow, I had no idea he was there. I'm glad he will get a chance to listen to some great headphone set-ups. He's been a little, uh, skeptical let's say about them in the past.

i will impale myself with a whizzer cone if no one recorded it. not a blunt one, the spiky ones that zu cable uses.

I also really would be interested to hear what the most honourable Mr Hoffman had to articulate to the head-fi masses. I look forward greatly to the post-meet-podcast.

I really enjoyed hearing the recordings that Steve Hoffman brought along with him. His stories were very entertaining too.

I would be very interested in hearing Steve Hoffman's talk as well.
Hopefully it will be Podcast'ed soon...

Just got home.

All I can say is: Head-Fi people RULE!

I learned a great deal about the gear, met many wonderful people and had a really great time.

Glad you all enjoyed my talk; it was really great meeting all of you.

Thanks again to Todd for inviting me and to all of you who showed me such kindness!!!

Definitely one of the highlights of the Meet for me, thanks for sharing Steve! I loved the intimacy of Ray Charles singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," and when that acoustic guitar started comping on Moondance I decided right then to grab the release you just finished on vinyl - good thing I just got my vinyl rig in good shape! I also love Joni, so "Blue" is going to make a new home here too! Well, one version is already here, but it's the ugly Redbook stepsister compared to the new vinyl release, right? Thanks again!

It's funny because I didn't want to say this in Steve's presence (for fear of embarassing him), but when he was talking about how blown away he was to have beeen in the presence of Ray Charles and Paul McCartney, among others, I couldn't help but to think about what a great opportunity this was for all of us to get to meet him! Maybe I was the only one who saw the parallel, I don't know.

Listening to Steve's presentation wasn't at all like going to see a keynote speaker at some massive conference in an auditorium. He mingled with everyone throughout the day, hung out to answer questions after his chat, listened to all sorts of gear, ate with us, etc. In other words, he's a very normal, down to Earth type of guy. It just so happens that he's done some incredible things with his career and his body of work has added to the listening pleasure of millions of people! In any case, I'll admit to having been a bit star struck.

I had the same feeling last year when Wes Phillips and John Atkinson made their first appearance at the national meet in New York. It is inspiring in the sense of what it suggests, which to me is that Head-Fi has come a long way in less than 6 years. We wouldn't have their attention otherwise.

On one hand, I could understand why a lot of heavy hitters in the industry might quickly discard headphone and portable audio as a waste of time and as a juvinile activity, but as I've suggested many times to the Audiogon crowd, "Don't knock it until you're tried it!" Over the years (by going to shows), I've heard some of the best speaker systems in the world. But no matter how good they might be, some fairly modest headphone systems can do certain things better than even the best speaker systems can (and visa versa of course). My point is that there is space in high end audio for headphone and portable audio listening, and obviously that's a growing space.

Thanks, Steve. Hope to see you again at some of our future meets. Same goes for Wes and all other media representatives in attendance. In time, I'll learn not to be so giddy is your presence.

Wmcmanus, I felt the same way... my sentiments exactly.

Seriously - a HUGE THANK YOU STEVE HOFFMAN!!!!!

When I saw Steve walk in my geek meter went to 11. I have met some famous people before but Saturday was the first time in my life where I felt starstruck. I saw him early in the morning and I didn't gather up the nerve to even say hi until about 1 hour later. I kept thinking "****, IT'S STEVE HOFFMAN - ****, IT'S STEVE HOFFMAN - ****, IT'S STEVE HOFFMAN - ****, IT'S STEVE HOFFMAN".

Encouraged on by Jasper994, I finally went over to introduce myself. With a shaky hand and a geeky voice I said hello, my name, I really admire your and am a HUGE fan. I swore I would be the first to get something signed by you - would you mind? To my surprise, he said yes. Now I own an autographed original DCC Elvis 24k Hits.

I was soooo happy. Then my wife comes down and we bump into Steve and he stares at me. Poop. STEVE HOFFMAN HAS STARED AT ME! OMG! Well, I introduce my wife to him and move along - nervous as hell - while confirming that I would attend his lecture.

The lecture was AWESOME. The sound of what he played was AWESOME. The information, insight and pleasure of hearing THE mastering master was AWESOME.

So the day turns to night and I bump into Jude with his flash mic. He asks if I want to interview MEMBERS so I say sure and I suggest HE interview Steve Hoffman. Jude looks at me and says "Well, you know about music - YOU interview him." Poop. I NOW NEED TO INTERVIEW HIM!!!! AWESOME and NERVOUSNESS..........

SO I find Steve and ask if he would mind and he agree to an interview!!!! He finishes his dinner, walks over to a still starstruck LFF and sits down with me for an interview.

Steve - if your reading - so sorry I was nervous - I felt like you when McCartney showed up to your door. So I ask a few questions to which I get some informative answers and silly question which I am sure you are all wondering.

After the interview I went up to my room, and said to myself "Poop. Poop. Poop. I just interviewed the mighty Steve Hoffman - the god of mastering. WOW!" So I layed my head to rest and fell asleep feeling like a lucky man.

Steve - thanks so much. You made my weekend and I appreciate you putting up with my geekiness and fanboyism.

EDIT - And thanks for reading my picks of the week. That was a HUGE compliment.

Just wanted to add my huge THANKS as well.
Besides getting my new amp, it was the highlight of saturday for me.
I knew his name, but not exactly what he did...
so, while just intending to briefly drop by the room to see what was going on, i stayed and stayed and listened to both his great stories and his even more incredible music.

wonderfully interesting into the his art, the people, and of course--the music.

Thank you very much Steve, listening to all those musics and hearing those amazing and funny stories was a lifetime experience!

Steve, many thanks to you and for Todd getting you there. Your talk was was a definite high point for me and my son. We both enjoyed it very much. Your modest demeanor was refreshing and made us all at ease and we're grateful that we could hear some of your awesome experiences. Leaf blower and all.

BigGuy