CanJam 08: Team Florida Invites All Their Friends... - Page 8  

Eric Culberson Blues Band CDs

Anyone who was at CanJam '08 and attended the dinner and show Saturday evening got to see and hear a really good blues player and band, The Eric Culberson Blues Band. The boys are from Savannah, GA, and Eric can surely pluck a string as well as anyone, and his interpretations are great.

I asked him if they had CDs we could buy, and was told "we are all out at the moment, but just go to the web site and place an order." I already have "LIVE AT THE BAMBOO ROOM", and recommend it as a good representation of the show he put on at CanJam '08.

Get your's here: .: eric culberson blues band :.

The site is old school, and low tech (the guy's a musician, not a geek), and you'll have to click on the the blues store link. Then you'll see the list of CDs, and where to send your $16.95 for the one you want to. Just do it! If you liked the Sat night show at CanJam '08. you'll be glad you did.

I'm back at home after a spectacular weekend. I'll post my impressions, maybe, at some point. Right now I'm tired, and I have a lot of work coming up tho, so it'll be a while.

The highlights were the people, of course.

Well, SinglePower was the last vendor to get set up and going on Saturday but gets credit for being the last one standing as of moments ago at 11:45 PM. The room had 6 or 8 people in it and Mikhail and Galina were still chatting and Grahame was taking advantage of the opportunity to throw on the Party at Neil's demo CD and rock out some R10s.

There will be pics of the mysterious new SinglePower products soon because roving photographer Asr told me that he has them. Quickly, Mikhail had two new offerings, both of which are pre-amps and headphone amps and both of which have more 2-channel stereo styling with a new look for SP. There was no speaker setup to hear them as preamps.

The Sonic is a one-box, single-ended unit with a sleek, modern, clean lines approach. The face plate has small glass panel, maybe 3 inches wide by 1/2 inch high, through which you can see some small submarine tubes glowing. I don't know the details of the innards, so I will leave that for Mikhail or others to announce. I will say that in a side-by-side R10 comparo of a s/e R10 in the Sonic and a balanced R10 in the SDS-XLR next door to it, daveDerek and I agreed that the Sonic had more body and particularly the low end was meatier. The tubes on the SDS were 6SN7/6BL7GTBs and that combo can be a little more reserved than my tastes these days. The R10s were different too, with the "bassier" model being on the Sonic, for what it is worth. In any event, the Sonic is a very nice little solution for preamp duties in a speaker rig that also functions a no-compromise headphone amp.

The Odyssey is a two-box affair with two completely unique tube domes on top of the amp section. Each dome of glass ceramic (I think that is what he said it was) contains a tube complement "module" on a metal ring that contains mini driver and output tubes for each channel (again, if I am not mistaken). The 4 in the back are a little taller than the 2 in front. These are supplied and replaced or rolled as modules. The Odyssey has an even bigger sound and really had the feel of a super high end headamp. I heard some music I am completely unfamiliar with yesterday and thought it was really great, but I didn't have a lot of time with it and then today there was a cabling dilemma when daveDerek and I tried to switch over from the SDS. Great stuff.

No idea on price for the Sonic, but the Odyssey is going to end up being $7-8K. I believe both of them will be sold by audio dealers, not just SP direct.


Once again, very tired and up later than expected, but here are some other gear highlights from the meet that I intend to write up more fully:

1. TTVJ 307A amp designed by Pete Millett and built by TTVJ. Incredible! Fricking incredible! Awesome with K1K, RS-1, HD650 and K701. If anyone ever says the K1Ks lack bass, slap some on that are attached to this amp. The Meridian 808.2 puts out a lot of detail and this thing feeds it to your ears in all its glory. The amp looks much more pleasing visually in person than in current marketing pics. (Todd, remember to get those beauty shots from Nate!)

2. Speaking of which, I loved the N_Maher Menace. Also designed by Pete Millett but executed beautifully by Hole-Cutter Tech Nate. Really Awesome Amp. Maybe that is what it should be called. Kickass balanced sound from a s/e amp.

3. Woo Audio GES and the new WA6 SE. I have never heard the GES for some reason and it really sounded great with the He Audio 1.2B. Jack and Team Wu said this demo amp is actually their prototype and is rather old, out of date, and maybe 75% of the current model's performance, but it is a nice amp anyway. The WA6 SE is a KILLER amp for $950. It is a two-boxer, each the size of the original. Same tube complement, but the power supply significantly increases the voltage and the amp uses direct coupling. I am not a scientist and can't give details on that stuff, but I know it sounded great driving K1Ks with and would be an amazing solution for dynamic cans across the board. Should have put some Grados on there because they love that high current...

4. The Eddie Current Balancing Act. Craig has done some really great stuff to this amp since I heard an earlier prototype in February. It has a really glorious EC sound with detail and drive in spades. The balanced RS-1s sounded amazing. My own balanced PS-1s with Equinox cable sounded good but maybe too bassy on one track (forget which) but then AMAZING on a Linda Rondstadt with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra disk. Really want to hear this one some more.

5. The HeadRoom Audiophile Desktop. Rocked out with Tyll after police intervention moved the party down to the HeadRoom room late last night. The speaker stands are a must and I am buying them. The 2-ch entry amp with the Amphion speakers was rocking and slamming and detailed and all that. BUT, what really floated my boat and would work better for me in my desktop setting was the bi-amped Harbeth speakers. Wow, dreamy. Detailed and warm and inviting and luscious, and all THAT. Given that I already have the amp/dac/psu, the rest of this fabulous rig may be soon to follow.

6. The HeadAmp Blue Hawaii Special Edition. The best I have ever heard the Omega 2s sound without any doubt whatsoever. Justin has nailed this utterly and completely. Makes me second guess my recent sale of the O2s although I cannot wait to get the 4070s which will tide me over for now. Too bad the great Tats of Yama's Inc had just sent them to Todd in Montana for shipping to me in SF given that both of them were in SoFla while I was too, but what the hay! Back to KGBH SE. Super duper. Enough said.

7. My own Rockhopper Audio 6-channel Beta22. I just purchased this from the much-missed thrice and had it shipped directly to CJ08. I am so very pleased that I made the call to buy it because it is awesome. It drove the balanced RS-1s, PS-1s and Ed. 9s great and the s/e channels are great too! Thanks Stephen, I am really going to enjoy this amp.

8. Bunches of more stuff. Later.

Head-Fi'ers Gone Wild!

Just a few people pics from throughout the weekend ...

pizza time on setup day (Friday) - GrAwk and pholodox, front and center

lan, jude, GrAwk, boomana, and n_maher Friday night

The young Turks ... edwood, Iron_Dreamer, and philodox

guzziguy, stevieo, and edwood

bozebuttons and guzziguy

tyrion getting serious about meet planning

todd and Queen boomana

billie and matt the younger

dave derek and wmcmanus

philodox, eh?

dd and the viper

glendale viper, solo

ok after passing out for a few hours and just waking up, im going through the pics now and will get some posted.

Just to start off a review of my own..

First off thanks to Tyrion and the gang (Voltron, Agile_one, Nightwounds, Boomana, JP11808) for hosting this and for making it happen. It was EXTREMELY hard for Tyrion to plan this and make sure everything went off with out a hitch. Thanks to Tyrion's family for doing registration for event...often sitting outside for hours, im sure being bored =)

Secondly i wanted to thank everyone for showing support for the forum and attending the event. Most of you were from other parts of the country and only flew in for a few days to hang. Also it was harder on them then most cause they pretty all shipped their gear a few weeks prior and now have to ship it all back. Everyone deserves a huge thank you for going through all the trouble. Big thanks to our brothers from the North (Canada) you know who you are eh? Not to mention Phioldox and Glendaleviper who are both 100% canadians..thanks for joining us for the event.

I really didnt listen to alot of gear...as i was busy chatting, helping out as much as i could. I also grabbed some new items for my humble setup. Got a nice tube for my DV, also a nice raw wood stand from TTVJ. Also a really nice set of ICs. Not to mention the SA6s which i traded for..Thanks Sleek =)

Some crazy parties going on both nights. I have to say, it was a packed room as the party moved from the downstairs to the upstairs. All the head-fiers, drinking it up and having a great time.
Was awesome of Tyyl to let us in his room last night, he cranked up some tunes through his amazing 2.0 setup. I also snatched up some time with his balanced MAX...i want it =).

The band and the dinner was also great. I really enjoyed the band and was never really into blues that much. Very musical and great voice. I cant remeber the bands name..however they came from Georgia to play for us.

Sick amounts of give aways at this meet. I mean, i CANNOT believe how much the vendors gave for the raffles. I mean Mikhail gave away a free amp and ANYTHING he makes is fantastic (Thanks for the VT231 btw, was perfect). Uncle Wilson must of gave at least 30 different items, ranging from GoVibe amp/Dac, micro USB DAC, various IEMS and other items. He is a great guy, extremely happy all the time. The Head-direct people (Phang and his GF, i forget her name =( sorry) were also gave some different headphones and amps. Shure gave up a pair of the 530s...Hats off to you guys for you donation and generosity. Sennhesier was also in this...giving away various new IEMs...not to mention Eric (Sennhesier guy) is kewl as hell and you will notice he loves what he does. Sleek audio gave up a pair of their SA6s..Todd the Vinyl junkie gave up one of his INCREDIBLE portable millet amps. Kimber kables donated some awesome ISOMIKE Cds also a really nice set pf ICs. I got a chance to listen to one of Kimbers cables and i have to say, VERY nice work. Freq also gave away a free set of customs...also other vendors doing in ear molds for people. Redwine audio was kind enough to donate a complete IMOD job with one hell of a LOD cable. I actually won this prize in the raffle. It was just my luck as im not apple guy at all and never will be. Which also leads me to a thank you to Sleek Audio guys for switching my prize to them for a set of their SA6s. I know im missing some vendors and prizes...i will for sure edit this as my sleep intake increases over the next few days.

Also would like to thank the vendors for bringing us gear to drool over. I spoke to alot of you and you were fantastic at asking questions. Also thank you for the swag (numerous different tshirts, hat (TTVJ), Headroom stickers, cable ties, some extra mini to mini cables.

more new singlepower amps.

i really don't understand that company. it seems that every meet they come out with 1-2 new amps and then you never hear about them again, as if they were one time offerings.

any impression on Jaben/crossroads offering?

Hmmm, busy watching the EPIC San Jose - Dallas 4OT playoff game. It will be a while to get through all the pics, but here are a couple of the new Singlepower offering. It's called the Odyssey, but perhaps Siren would have been a better name?

Highlife,

Thanks for pics.

few notes about my current condition and my surroundings - i am currently covered in a blanket that is really light and warm but smells like really awful tea. it is 2:19 am on sunday night as of right now and i doubt ill be able to finish this post as a result of sleeping roughly 13 hours since last monday. so if this post makes absolutely no sense to you, well there isnt much i can do about it besides sleeping and typing it out again. however with the adrenaline pumping strong after 2 days its hard to prevent myself from doing this. here we go nonetheless.

a disclaimer first...the following gear/people are mentioned in no particular order. i spent a little more time with a few people and some gear than others but i like them all just the same. well a few more than the others but it is especially hard in posts like these because you cant avoid mentioning people altogether and when you do, you are bound to miss someone that you really had a great time with. if i do forget to mention you, kindly find it in your heart to forgive me.

7:30am saturday - i wake up. get ready.
9:00am saturday - in the car.
9:03am saturday - flat tire.
9:34am saturday - triple a guy comes and fixes the tire.
9:51am saturday - on the road again.
10:04am saturday - flat tire #2.
10:35am saturday - same triple a guy comes and fixes the tire.
blah blah blah...
11:42am saturday - i finally get to embassy suites.

lovely hotel. i walked up to the reception and asked the lady where the canjam convention was and she looked at me with the most innocent face afraid to say she didnt know (she was rather young so im guessing she was afraid she might lose her job for not helping me out or something). and then i said, "how about the place where theres all the weird headphone people?" and all of a sudden i was pointed to a room with this unexplained energy about it. you could feel it from across the atrium.

the moment i entered the room i meet voltron (im not going to say he is awesome and be a brown noser because he knows he is. rather i didnt come across a single person who wasnt cool and awesome so whenever i mention someone please assume they are) who gave me a tour of the layout of the place and then cut me loose in the main room. the moment i saw all that gear i completely forgot about all other people in the room. so much so, i was rude enough to forget to introduce myself to a lot of people (i didnt get to shake hands with tyrion until after the concert when everyone was hanging out - my apologies to you and everyone else). it was such an overwhelming feeling especially for someone who hadnt had such a vast array of toys to play around with. anyhow, i drifted over to the head direct table and i know i said i wasnt going to do this but fang is probably the nicest person to talk to if you are in the same boat as me when you arrive at your first head fi meet. but soon i realised that everyone was like that.

**gear alert** i have the oddest ear canals so iems rarely stay inside my ears. they keep slipping out and the ones that i tried at fangs table were no different. immediately moved on to the pk series earbuds. the pk 1s were excellent earbuds but the real bump in sound quality came with the pk 3s. first off, in terms of comfort ive never worn a better pair of earbuds. the foam padding made a perfect fit between the pinna and the bridge of the ear so i didnt have to twist it in circles 15 times until i got a good fit like i have to do with random crap earbuds. the bass was surprisingly plentiful. a tad uncontrolled but this was in the absence of an amp. with an amp (ive already forgotten which one they had =/) the bass reached deeper and was a little better managed. the pk 3s did get a little faster compared to the pk 1s with the help of the amp but not grado fast which was a good thing because i dont particularly like that fast of a sound. it was a pity there wasnt a similarly priced hd 595 to compare it with. completely different animals but it would have been nice to be able to compare the two simply from the price perspective. i would not be surprised if they held their own amongst full size cans. /end **gear alert**

after a few minutes of playing around with the pk3s i moved down to an even more welcoming gentleman, craig, from eddie current. considering the amount of time im probably going to spend writing about his tiny little solid state amp i really dont think i would do it justice if i were to write about it now but i will say this - it was the best amp i heard at all of can jam (i will explain this more as the post lengthens, there were better amps but for something that i could afford, the ecss won it by a HUGE margin)

...yeah i didnt think i was going to finish this post or even get halfway through to be honest and this lack of sleep is starting to take a toll on me because i just saw a bird fly in front of me (in the room) with a pancake in its mouth. which might perhaps be an indication that my batteries need recharging. shall complete this post sometime tomorrow.