[size=large]Fifth Sydney Head-Fi Meet Impressions - 21.06.08

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Thank you all for attending, it turned out to be a great meet Sadly there were a few no-shows and late cancellations, but despite this we still had our best turnout so far, probably about 15 people. Beware to all ye US head-fi'ers, we may not be rivalling CanJam yet, but our numbers are growing

I made no secret of the fact that the one standout for me was the stock Denon D2000. Man the bass on that can is satisfying. Metallica - Enter Sandman from the Pico to the D2000 simply kicked ass.

If those who were taking pics could please post them in this thread that would be appreciated. Thanks again to everyone who came, look forward to seeing you all next time as well

Pics or it didn't happen!
lol I felt that the grado/alessandro house sound was good! Something totalyl different compared to the others.

dude Nismo and I are ordering a pair of HD600's right now haha! Thanks for organizing and hosting the meet

farout, sorry about my damn wallet eh?

CAUTION I HATE YOU. WHY TEMPT ME FOR

I WAS GONNA GET TF10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOW.... i have strayed to side of the full sized cans....

COSTLIEST MEET EVAR

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Glad you enjoyed them I'm going to have to go and re-read the Markl mod thread and investigate further. I want that D2000's bass with HD600's balance.

Yes, hats off to Jason for organising and finding the venue for the meet. It really was a great afternoon spent listening to good music and mixing with nice folks who just love their equipment.

I will post my views on the various items i had the pleasure of listening to tomorrow after i have had time to down a few cold ones and put my thoughts on paper.

Nice work folks....

If anyone fancies venturing into deepest darkest west Sydney some time the pool fridge is full of stubbies and the bbq gas bottle is full

[size=x-large]More Pics on Next PAGE!!! (Page 2)[/size]

I only noticed a few days ago that you guys had set up a meet - damn. I'll keep a better eye out next time. With a little bit of notice I should be able to bring some neat toys to the party.

Me being in Canberra, the near side of Sydney would suit me a bit better.

I'll start casing up my latest DIY efforts in preparation for the next one.

Ok now for my impressions :]

Pk James let us hear his DIYMod with Black gate caps and a stock 5g Ipod, the difference was so small, that it was really hard to tell the difference. I personally preferred the stock Ipod as the DIY Mod had more boomy bass, but who knows, "burning in" the black gates could make a difference.

The next thing I tried were PkJames's DT-990 03' editions recabled with canare star quard I think it was? next, they have a LOT more bass than the 880s, way too much to the point that they started taking over mids. They had a lot more clamp force than my '05 880s as well.

Next I heard the HD650's vary briefly, these didn't really float my boat either. They were a bit too dark and bassy for my liking. As you can probably see, I'm not a basshead

Tried a range of portable amp, and was AMAZED at how SMALL the pico, tomahawk and the hornet (Oops I almost spelt horney) were in real life. The difference between portable amps are so minor, I'd be happy with most of the ones I tried. The Hornet was upfront, the pico really didn't change the sound signature of my er4's, the move and the headsix were on the warmer side of things, and the Minibox-e on the bright spectrum.

Tried Nismo's SF5's, I thought they had recessed mids, but keep in mind I was coming straight from ER-4S's, I also tried the TF10's as well, and Both have the same house sound, but they made everything sound so wrong imo.

I tried the RS-1's from my setup, great for metal/rock as expected, but I found them a bit too bassy for anything else, this may be a good thing for all of you bassheads. I then tried em straight out from the Lavry DA-10's headphone amp, and I still thought there were too much mid bass and it was too coloured for my liking.

Then the AKG K701's out of a PKJames mad ear+ out of my mini-dac, this sounded great, everything was clean, and reminded me of a full sized version of the ER-4's very nice, and very unfatiguing just as PKJames said it would be I'd definately consider the 701's if they weren't so pick with amps.

Next were Covenant apure sound v3 recabled HD600s out of my home set up. Veil? What Veil? this combo sounded Very nice! They have very nice midrange, just enough bottom end and had caught the timbre of instruments, mainly acoustic guitars so accurately. And these are way more comfortable than the DT-880's imo. These were my favorite cans from the meet.

Last and not least were dvse's Enormous Stax system, I'm not sure what his dac was, but the amp was a headamp KGSS and SR-007 and lambda sigantures. Nice wide sound stage, nice instrument separation and it sounded very clean everything sounded effortless, but the 007's made one of the tracks I was listening to sound really weird, It may be because I'm not used to how electrostats sound like, I couldn't quite seem to figure out what was weird about them, but as Soon as the lambdas were put on, everything sounded much nicer imo, which is a bonus since they cost 1/4 of the 007's

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I'm a westie too, I might have to take you up on that offer sometime

Thanks for the pics too nismohks

Those are the pics! 2 posts full above~~ ^^^^^^^^^^

nice pictures I remember someone else took pictures as well. It amazes me how big the portable amps look in the pictures, yet they are so tiny irl.

Thanks Covenant for organising it!

I'd agree with Covenant that the D2000 was amazing, which I tried on my Headsix! The bass was so good! But a bit heavy for me. The mids and highs were a bit laid back. So I didn't listen to it that much. But comfortwise, these were the most comfortable pair of headphones I've ever worn.

The Ibasso D2 just blew me away compared to the 2move when using my ER4S's. The Bass was just what the etys needed. And I was using both amps as dac/amps out of my laptop. They definitely suit the etys IMO.

The DT990's both the older and the newer version were very bass heavy to my taste. And the bass just engulfs everything else. The instruments are kinda messy IMO.

The DT880's.. Ah.. My perfect headphones. Not too much bass. Not too little. Instruments were quite well seperated, vocals were pretty much not as forward as every other headphones I tried, using pkjames' Mad amp, which I compared all the full sized headphones with. The detail was adequate enough to my taste.

The HD600's and 650's.. Both weren't my taste at all. The mids were rather recessed and bass heavy to my taste. But comparing these two headphones, I find the HD600's more enjoyable as it is somewhat more musical.

The AKG501. Man was this pair hard to drive. I had to use like, the volume control at 2 o'clock to power these. The bass wasn't that appealing to me somehow. Somewhat muddy to my taste. But the instrument separation was so good! Not as good as the Stax. But very good.

The AKG701's were even more of a beast to power. I had to adjust the volume to 3 o'clock. IMHO, they sound muddier than the AKG701s. The highs were almost as bright as my Etys, but not there.

The RS1s. They are as wonderful as people say. I've never enjoyed rock music that much out of any other headphone here. The double bass, the heavy guitar riffs. Simple amazing! But the Grados didn't sound that well with everything else though. Very musical pair of headphones to match with rock and metal.

The stax. Ah there's a beast. The soundstage was so wide, it actually made me like wide soundstages! I especially enjoyed some part of high & dry and thom yorke's "The eraser" with these. The detail with these headphones were jawdropping. I'm hearing so much more detail compared to all the other headphones I listened to.

Now for the portable amps. I did some listening to with my ipod and my etys for these.

The 2move sounded similar to my headsix IMO. Maybe tighter bass.

The Tomahawk didn't really appeal to me. The mids were a bit laid back and the bass not as what I'd expected.

The Hornet was much of an improvement over the Tomahawk. But still, an improvement. The bass was tighter, but not as tight as the 2move.

The Xin Supermicro was surprisingly good. The bass wasn't as tight as the other amps but the highs and mids were sweet!

Didn't get to try the pico and Boa though as portable amps.

That little FIIO did what it did. Make things louder!

The diyMod vs the iPod. IMHO, The only difference is personal taste. If you prefer something more bassy, standard iPod. Something more neutral, diyMod. But I see nothing special about the diyMod. I as well preferred the stock ipod over the diyMod. Maybe it was the blackgate (if I'm not mistaken) caps, but oh well, that'll be another story.

And the finale, the triple fi's. Wow, simply wow. I was hoping for something more bassy compared to the ER4S but wow. Much more musical, and more to my taste for certain music. Yeah, lacking detail compared to the Etys but much more enjoyable!

Didn't get to try anything else though, sadly as I was more into trying out headphones and portable amps. And hands down, after today, the TF10's, D2 & DT880's will be my next purchase, sooner or later. Unless something new comes along.

Thanks everyone for coming and sharing your gear!

Thanks to Covenant for organising the meet and obtaining the meeting space, and thanks to everyone who was generous with their gear! I enjoyed myself and could have spent a lot longer listening to different combinations.

Some impressions:

Even at a small meet there was far more interesting gear than time to listen to it all

I haven't heard DT990's before, and they packed a fair punch in the bottom end and were fairly strong at the top end too. It was nice to hear the bottom end and the top end detail and there was a lot that was enjoyable about them, but I felt they were a bit fatiguing after a while (which may have been an effect of the less-than-vampire-friendly conditions before I wised up and put on the second layer of sunglasses). For the money they seemed pretty decent. I found I had the D2 Boa up to about 80+% of max volume to drive them when the room got loud (with conversation). For comparison I run my HD280 Pro's at about 50-60% most of the time (but they isolate better so there's less temptation to turn them up in a loud room).

The Pico sounded good when I listened to it, but I didn't have a chance to closely compare it with the Boa (at 1/3 the price) as the room got pretty loud by then. I did notice it had significantly more juice than the Boa - I could run the DT990's at maybe 50% of max or less. On the other hand the volume knob felt smaller and was a lot more fiddly to use than the Boa which was surprising as the Boa is slimmer - I'd be seriously tempted to try and mod it.

I had a short session on the DT880's and they didn't wallop as much in the bottom end, but I didn't get a proper listen. It might be that they are less fatiguing over a longer session.

The Triple.fi 10's sounded pretty good when I held them against my ears to make a seal - I couldn't get them into my canals. The Etymotic ER-4's sounded very enjoyable too, although without as much in the bottom end as several other cans. These experiences make me think the somewhat boxy low-mids I experience on my SuperFreqs are probably not due to the shape of my ears resonating strangely...

The stock Denon D2000s sounded pretty good out of the Pico on brief listens to several pieces of music. Nice sense of epic soundstage on Enter Sandman and bottom end that made me burst out in laughter on some tracks (such as Jigalong from Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to Rabbit Proof Fence - a big slab of low rumble comes in about 30s in and they weren't shy at letting you hear it).

The Stax Omega II out of the Gilmore amp + the rest of the rig sounded pretty good (unsurprisingly) at most things. It's certainly a setup you wouldn't mind listening to on a regular basis if someone happened to give you one they didn't use any more I think this rig sounded better than the one at CanJam (Omega II and Stax amps - both solid state and electrostatic), which sounded to me at the time like the top end was too recessed to hear as much detail as the Stax should be able to deliver.

I had a brief listen to HD650's out of the Benchmark DAC, but got interrupted before I could form any real impressions, and didn't get to the Lavry at all. And there was other gear I didn't get that far with...but there's always next time