Ok a few impressions. To begin, this was my first meet of any type and I had no idea what to expect. Some part of me clearly thought that it was going to be very uncomfortable yet interesting - definitely worth doing. While the latter aspects certainly proved true the first did not at all. Although I got claustrophobic at some points (small room with a lot of stuff and people) and walked out for a bit to sit outside or grab a smoke I found a the whole experience to be enjoyable. Everyone was very friendly and fun to talk to. The guy from head-firect was nice and looks like he has a real cool great sounding amp coming out in the next week or so. Now for impressions:
Beyerdynamic Headzone: I was pretty curious about this as I read about it and interested in trying it for sure. To be honest, and this was a general finding among the people there, it wasn't anything more than a gimmick for regular stereo listening. There was a firmware issue that disrupted the effect, as you turned there were two points, like 15 degrees from the top on each side that would kind of pause. For the surround sound concerts, the effect was pretty entertaining. I feel like Smyth's product will out trump this one if the reviews I have read are in any way accurate but this was still fun to try out. After me and Larry did some comparisons between two cheap DVD players (more later) as a DAC (to a Meier amp) and transport (to the Headzone) we found that the Headzone had a reasonable DAC and amp. As Larry put it, certainly a bargain for a tenth the price.
Whiplash Audio: First off, I feel obligated to speak on behalf of the two guys at Whiplash Audio. They were both knowledgeable and helpful and I learned a few things that I did not know before, ranging from simple care of equipment to a bit about cables (more later). Their rigs were absolutely incredible, and I greatly appreciated them bringing the RS-2's. The headroom unit through both the AKG 701's and the RS-2's were both incredible systems. I didn't spend time with the Stax system on the other table because I would keep getting distracted but in my opinion, that system stole the show. Dark Side of the Moon SACD was nothing short of astounding in that system.
Throughout the day, SACD-Man was touting his cables pretty strongly to most the audience. I pretty much watched and observed, clearly not believing the hype. Finally I sat down to listen to different LODs in the following setup: Hotel California > iPod > ***** LOD > iQube > RS 2. I switched between four cables, two at a time and found that I was actually hearing a difference. I waited to hear him describe what the supposed difference was to confirm what I was hearing or to write it off as hype but what he described as the difference was what I heard. I like copper and will be interested in doing comparisons down the road between copper and other materials.
I ended up buying one of their products for my father, a foldable iPod / iPhone stand. It looks great and my dad really likes it. If you are looking for a classier solution then just keeping your iPhone lying on the desk, I would check this unit out. I have a feeling that these guys will be shaking up the industry real soon and their exposure at the meets like this one will certainly help them. Now onto the different rigs I heard.
Jellojoe: The resident NJ AKG collector, jellojoe had a really cool collection of headphones. The two of his that I listened too and came back to listen to later was the 501 and 400. I will be checking eBay for the 400 on occasion now. His CD player looked real sharp witht he wood customization and had a really cool rig to listen to. A great guy to talk to as well.
Barry: I didn't get to listen to his rig but the I did spend some time with the RS-1's he brought. Yeah I want them a lot haha but that is way down the road which is really fine with me. Comparing them to Whiplash's RS-2 I confirmed what I already though, both are in my opinion outstanding headphones but I have the feeling that long term I would prefer the RS-1. I would have to spend more time in a quieter setting with both to come to a real decision.
grandenigma1: I have never really gotten a chance before this to hear a quality vinyl rig and I was nothing short of amazed. The system was incredible. I brought the Radiohead In Rainbows boxset so I could side by side compare the vinyl to CD on the same headphones (different amp) and could see why vinyl garners so much attention. I am fairly anxious to start getting into vinyl - it should be a lot of fun. Zach was also a real cool guy to talk to as well and his work really looked professional.
88db: Another guy that was very interesting to talk to, his rig sounded excellent as well. While I had heard that the high-end Sennheisers had good bass extension, the 600 took me by suprise. His Tonewin CD player was pretty interesting, it had both a tube and solid state output. I perferred the solid state over the tubes and found out later that the rest of the guys did as well. Maybe mixing tubes with the Channel Islands Audio VHP-1 and VAC-1 wasn't a good combo. Those units were really cool - sounded good, looked sharp, and were very small.
clauswitz: I spent a lot of time talking to this guy throughout and especially towards the end of the meet and he gets the award for budget buyer. He had a great sounding system at a fraction of the cost of a lot of the others.
More to come later.
Beyerdynamic Headzone: I was pretty curious about this as I read about it and interested in trying it for sure. To be honest, and this was a general finding among the people there, it wasn't anything more than a gimmick for regular stereo listening. There was a firmware issue that disrupted the effect, as you turned there were two points, like 15 degrees from the top on each side that would kind of pause. For the surround sound concerts, the effect was pretty entertaining. I feel like Smyth's product will out trump this one if the reviews I have read are in any way accurate but this was still fun to try out. After me and Larry did some comparisons between two cheap DVD players (more later) as a DAC (to a Meier amp) and transport (to the Headzone) we found that the Headzone had a reasonable DAC and amp. As Larry put it, certainly a bargain for a tenth the price.
Whiplash Audio: First off, I feel obligated to speak on behalf of the two guys at Whiplash Audio. They were both knowledgeable and helpful and I learned a few things that I did not know before, ranging from simple care of equipment to a bit about cables (more later). Their rigs were absolutely incredible, and I greatly appreciated them bringing the RS-2's. The headroom unit through both the AKG 701's and the RS-2's were both incredible systems. I didn't spend time with the Stax system on the other table because I would keep getting distracted but in my opinion, that system stole the show. Dark Side of the Moon SACD was nothing short of astounding in that system.
Throughout the day, SACD-Man was touting his cables pretty strongly to most the audience. I pretty much watched and observed, clearly not believing the hype. Finally I sat down to listen to different LODs in the following setup: Hotel California > iPod > ***** LOD > iQube > RS 2. I switched between four cables, two at a time and found that I was actually hearing a difference. I waited to hear him describe what the supposed difference was to confirm what I was hearing or to write it off as hype but what he described as the difference was what I heard. I like copper and will be interested in doing comparisons down the road between copper and other materials.
I ended up buying one of their products for my father, a foldable iPod / iPhone stand. It looks great and my dad really likes it. If you are looking for a classier solution then just keeping your iPhone lying on the desk, I would check this unit out. I have a feeling that these guys will be shaking up the industry real soon and their exposure at the meets like this one will certainly help them. Now onto the different rigs I heard.
Jellojoe: The resident NJ AKG collector, jellojoe had a really cool collection of headphones. The two of his that I listened too and came back to listen to later was the 501 and 400. I will be checking eBay for the 400 on occasion now. His CD player looked real sharp witht he wood customization and had a really cool rig to listen to. A great guy to talk to as well.
Barry: I didn't get to listen to his rig but the I did spend some time with the RS-1's he brought. Yeah I want them a lot haha but that is way down the road which is really fine with me. Comparing them to Whiplash's RS-2 I confirmed what I already though, both are in my opinion outstanding headphones but I have the feeling that long term I would prefer the RS-1. I would have to spend more time in a quieter setting with both to come to a real decision.
grandenigma1: I have never really gotten a chance before this to hear a quality vinyl rig and I was nothing short of amazed. The system was incredible. I brought the Radiohead In Rainbows boxset so I could side by side compare the vinyl to CD on the same headphones (different amp) and could see why vinyl garners so much attention. I am fairly anxious to start getting into vinyl - it should be a lot of fun. Zach was also a real cool guy to talk to as well and his work really looked professional.
88db: Another guy that was very interesting to talk to, his rig sounded excellent as well. While I had heard that the high-end Sennheisers had good bass extension, the 600 took me by suprise. His Tonewin CD player was pretty interesting, it had both a tube and solid state output. I perferred the solid state over the tubes and found out later that the rest of the guys did as well. Maybe mixing tubes with the Channel Islands Audio VHP-1 and VAC-1 wasn't a good combo. Those units were really cool - sounded good, looked sharp, and were very small.
clauswitz: I spent a lot of time talking to this guy throughout and especially towards the end of the meet and he gets the award for budget buyer. He had a great sounding system at a fraction of the cost of a lot of the others.
More to come later.
and Matt (threEchelon) showed up from Philly, who I have attended a meet with. They both brought RS-1's, which I was happy to compare to my HF-1's. I never realized this before, but the HF-1's with flat pads sound very similar to the RS-1's with flat pads. This was a very interesting thing to actually hear. The RS-1's have a darker midrange and brighter highs with the flats with better resolution and detail, but the HF-1's are pretty close, IMO. the HF-1's sound way more like the RS-1's than any other Grados do. This meet re-confirmed for me that the RS-2's are a great value, and at the same time, nothing like the RS-1's in the Grado universe.
