I'll reply to the posts in more detail when I'm not on my Blackberry.

Quoting things is next to impossible on this thing.

My comment on the 3rd picture? I don't see how that is funny.

One thing I just wanted to add to my impressions while I am thinking of it:

Though I liked the RS-1s initially, it wasn't until I asked Renato and Jim how they wear them that I really unlocked their potential. I've known for a while that how you wear the K340s drastically changes their sound, but for some reason didn't think that would be a factor with a supra-aural headphone.

What I learned:

The Grado's sound best if the drivers are centered over the outer ridge of your ear. Not sure if I'll be able to explain this properly and might have to draw a diagram, but your ears should touch the drivers, not the pads. Initially I wore them so that the rear of the pad was resting on the outer ridge of my ear. After talking to the Grado owners, I tried moving the ear cups back on my head so that the pad rested behind my ear and my ear actually touched the driver. What a difference.

I also tried out the flat pads, and though they sounded excellent with music that didn't have a lot of bass... It was a little much with Massive Attack, Group Four.

Now, for the K340 I did placement testing a while back and came to a different arrangement. With them I find they sound best if you center the pads around your ears and then push the cups forward so that the back of your ear touches the rear of the pad.

I can't help but thinking some head-fi'ers may be missing out on what many headphones can offer because they don't perform these sort of 'callibrations'.

Well, that is enough typing on my Blackberry for now... thumbs tiiired.

Heh, I found the RS1 a better headphone for Blue Lines than Mezzanine, but whatever floats yer boat. Indeed, the RS1 is quite susceptible to "calibrations" as you put it, a bit too much for me though, I just prefer wear-it-and-forget-it headphones.

So does this mean you'll be getting the RS1?

I think that the MS-Pro or RS-1 is definately in my future, but it will be a while yet.

I would say that I prefer Blue Lines to Mezzanine on any headphone, but you knew that already.

Group Four is a great bass test track though, and that is what I use it for mainly. I have it on a mixed CD that is always with me at meets.

I doubt I'd be reaching for the RS-1s to listen to Massive Attack though... I think they would mainly be my 'rock' headphones. It is a crime against humanity that I had no David Bowie with me at the meet, but Jethro Tull gave me a good taste. They won't replace my K340s, but I think they would compliment them very well.

hahaha, that caption is hilarious. I showed the pictures to Lisa, and she kept asking me who is patrick82? All I could do was laugh

I had a fantastic time Sunday. My apartment isn't really arranged in a way conducive to meets, but we made it work.

First, pretty much every piece of gear we had at this meet was excellent. Often, differences between various pieces was very small.

A few revelations were to be had for me: all of our sources sounded very similar. Jay's zapfiltered Eastsound sounded remarkably like the zapfiltered Opus I've been putting together for Steve. I'm not even sure if my cat would be able to tell them apart ;D

Jay's Eastsound against my Ballsie-output Opus yielded a few audible differences, but I certainly wouldn't be confident picking out the right one in a blind test. My impression on the change between the two was that the zapfilter sounded a touch more vibrant, maybe from slightly better impact in the bass, and also possibly crisper highs. Unless you are giving a comparison all you've got, though (see the Serious Jim pic), I don't see anyone noticing the differences in normal listening.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to compare Jay's Massive Attack directly with Renato's explosive looking amp, but I did manage to switch between the latter and my single-ended beta22. The difference between rigs was basically the transport, given our later tests. Renato's Aikido bested my beta22 in soundstage, but that was easily the largest difference. The beta22 had a bit sharper (quicker) attack, while the Aikido was a bit softer and more relaxed (though that's probably overstating it, actually). This definitely told me a tube amp is in my future, though...great, great sound.

I'd given up on the K340's in the past, but both Renato and Jay had a pair that could bring a smile to my face. I could easily see it being a second can for me...and I'm a one-can kind of guy. Steves Donuts sounded good to great out of my Beta22 + the zapfiltered Opus. Everything else resulted in disappointment with these cans. I'm sure the balanced beta22 will make those cans sing. The tube amps didn't give it the balls it needed, maybe lacking enough current drive or not liking the odd load.

On the two tube amps, the RS-1 threw a pretty impressively sized soundstage. There was one point where Jay was listening to them and literally thought he was hearing a sound coming from somewhere else in my apartment. I can see why, because there were a couple moments I had with them where the sound came from far off out of nowhere.

The RS-1 and MS Pro sounded very similar. To me the largest (but still small) difference was that the Alessandro sounded a bit dry compared to the Grado (I think Renato noticed something similar, calling it cleaner or more accurate, I think).

The brief jaunt out afterwards was a lot of fun, too (probably due to the mixed drinks I had that were really just cups full of gin with a splash of tonic), even if the music at the bar was horrible for the most part, both in content and fidelity.

I'm coming out of this meet really wanting to refine my rig more than make any drastic changes (unless you call going from a top solid state amp to a top tube-based amp drastic). I had a blast and look forward to being able to make the trip up to the great north for some time with the Toronto crowd sometime soon.

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Wouldn't that be ironic! Quote:



They were both built very well and looked great. Sound great too! Quote:



It is a really nice amp. I have heard it many times before and didn't comment because of that. Comes pretty close to my amp unbalanced with most headphones. Quote:



I definitely need to spend more time with them. My amp puts out a lot of current as well as voltage swing [K340's require lots of both, though voltage swing is more important], so it *should* be able to drive them... not sure what is missing, but something is. Could be a fit thing. After the RS-1 revelation, I am going to have to re-examine how I do everything. A slight change can sometimes make a huge difference. I'll try not to turn into Patrick in the process. Quote:



Good, I'm glad you're not disappointed. I think you will be very happy with your DAC... your entire setup really. It is going to be worth the wait. Quote:



Actually, there was no drinking at the meet, just afterwards... and I only had three. Which in Salamanca gets you drunk given how much alcohol is in each drink. Quote:



I'm glad you remembered this. I wasn't surprised, since when Renato had his old DAC we did a huge shootout among tons of digital cables to find what worked the best. It was pretty awesome that the cheapest solution was the best. That new one looks alright since he dressed it up in tech flex and heat shrink, but you should have seen the prototype!

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lol and that one looked ugly to my cable standards it sounded good though, which is slightly more important lol

I'm cranking up the bias on my max now... i wanna see what it can do.

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I have one of Renato's "ghetto" coax cables too, and the reason I say ghetto is because you look at those old style cheapy connectors and you say to yourself "what's up with that?" Then you listen to it and you say "Wow! What's up with that?" . I have a Signal Cable Silver Resolution Digital Coax and I prefer Renato's cable in every way.

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I have found huge differences in different K340's. From everything that's been said of Jay's they sound remarkably similar to my pair. Find the right pair, feed them a lot of good quality juice and they can be magical.

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It sounds like I've made the right choices then. I love tubes also, but they just didn't seem like a perfect match for the Donuts, and now I seem to be getting confirmation on that.

I thought the Patrick82 caption was funny, but I just thought that Jim actually named his cat after "SuperTweak".

I think picture #1 is a winner for the cheesiest "male model" type pose. And Pic #5 is just hilarious! A river dancing amp builder, who knew.

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Some day you'll have to show her one of his rants and she'll understand. Quote:



True enough. When you get to the better stuff it is usually like this. Especially in DIY. Quote:



Nice! I knew you were enjoying them. A couple times when I looked over you were moving to the music. Quote:



hehe, that was hilarious. I started looking around and took off my headphones and asked what that was. You were all laughing, so I figured something funny happened that made the sound... but none of you knew what the hell I was talking about. You were laughing because I started acting crazy all of a sudden.

EDIT: Slip there... not my headphones. Not yet anyways. Quote:



I said they sounded cleaner, not more accurate... but maybe Renato said that. Quote:



Yes! Same here. We need to start the Patrick82 club. I'm totally there. Quote:



LOL

Well, it was the only picture of me, since I took most of the pictures. Didn't have much choice. I'm surprised nobody has commented that I'm wearing Sennheisers. The facial expression I was shooting for didn't really happen.

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I'm quietly gloating I'm weakening your anti-senn resolve

hehe, It was the best I've heard a Sennheiser sound in a while. I'm beginning to think it may just be the HD650 that I completely hate. Maybe the HD580 and HD600 aren't complete crap.

Maybe.

yeah, I prefer the HD580/600 to the 650

if anyone would like to post impressions of my Max here feel free and I'm sure others would be appreciative.

btw, I turned the db up to 75mv last night and she sounds smoother than ever with my beyers

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...19#post3400119

Looks like a great time had. Where those Renato's MSPRO's?

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Yep, though I almost left him in Salamanca and made of with them. If only I had a drivers license.

I'd almost forgot a couple beautiful shots Renato took from a local bar, the Red Garter. It is situated on the top of a little hill/mountain in Salamanca. It was a little overcast, but I like the effect. I've cut and sized them to 1680x1050 if any of you want to use it as wallpaper on a widescreen monitor. I'm using the second one at home.

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