Yeah definitely will have less people next time and be more forceful with banishing conversationers to the balcony. Mikeymad PM me with what you want to do with your sacd/hat.

Edit: Bah I'll let Filburt speak for himself. Which he did ;p

Thanks again Dan for hosting. I agree with you Mike, that it was pretty loud, but more than that, just distracting because of all the good conversation all around.

I got there late, and was pretty overwhelmed by all the amps and cans, and people, and just dove in right away, but then at the end, just sat down and listened to everyone.

It was really nice to walk away from another meet totally happy with my current headphones, the K240 Sextetts. They just sound right in a way that not many other headphones do. There are a plethora of cans that are better at many things- better soundstage, better bass, more detail, more air, etc (however, Im not sure anything can do vocals much better than the sextetts ) But these headphones always screw up these attributes with, usually, way too much treble. And the cans really wow me for the first few seconds, but then they are just bothersome. I hate being pushed away from the music by sounds that stick out and jab a little bit at the ear drums. The sextetts never do this.

AD-2000 "air". These things are amazing in many ways, and have a similar sound to the sextetts. At first I found myself thinking I needed to get a pair, because they are way more open, and dynamic and detailed than the sextetts. But I was listening to the new Sigur Ros album, and there was this female vocalist in the background, and it just stuck out, was jagged, and a little piercing. (I was listening to a different pair of headphones on the Balancing Act, while Aaron was listening to the ad-2000 on the nautilus, and he turned the volume down at the same place I am talking about ) But it is a good recording, and the amps and source were perfect- emm labs. So then I tried the sextetts, and in this same track, they weren't creating the supernatural "air" that the 2000's did, they didn't have that "wow" factor, but that female vocalist was ALL there, the full body and breath of her voice was there for me to fall into, without any sharpness or peircing notes flying up around the sides to push me away. EDIT: and this is when I always come back to the sextetts. Because, like I said, despite them not being as otherworldly, or ethereal, I am able to think about the music, I am not distracted by the headphones. And every time I am reminded that I am wearing headphones, it brings me back here, out of the world the music is weaving around me- and the whole point of having nice headphones is sort of lost.

Of course, the orpheus is wonderful, as well as the O2's. I was very impressed as usual. They are incredible, in most ways better than real life could ever be. Seriously. But sometimes I just find myself feeling like they are too light and fluffy, and that notes should have more weight.

I preferred the Nautilus over the Balancing Act by a bit with everything but my sextetts. They are both amazing amps, but with everything else i tried, including the HD-650's, the BA had a bit of an edge to it that flattened off the sound stage, it felt like all the notes were compressed forward into a vertical wall a tiny bit, whereas the nautilus let me fall back into the spaces between the notes more, and also the sides of the notes, they were more full and rounded. But, I should say here, that Craig at Eddie Current prefers the Balancing Act, and he told us that it is an unfair comparison at this point because the BA is not finished, and he knows what it will sound like when it is. So I'm excited to hear it when it is. And also, they were both great amps, my favorites at the meet, and the Nautilus was one of my favorites at the last Norcal meet as well. It sounds much more neutral than most other amps to me. The Woo amp is great, but in comparison, it sounded somehow like notes were being rounded off, and then the edges sharpened, and brought back up. I noticed the same thing with the Singlepower Supra. But wtih Craig's amps, the notes felt much more evenly portrayed. If that makes any sense

The last thing I wanted to mention, was the RS-1: Vintage w/ Brown Headband vs. New w/ Black Headband. I finally got a chance to listen to this better. I took them both out onto the porch where it was quiet, and just listened to them out of my ipod! ha ha. But the differences were NOT subtle. They sounded like completely different headphones, much more difference than i remember between the RS1 and RS2. Brown sounded to me, like it was right in between the new RS1 and the HP1000. It had more of that gorgeous neutrality of the HP1000, where everything is sort of bare bones, or "nothing but the facts" and very transparent, but it had some of the warmth of the wood added in, as well as more treble sparkle (if i remember correctly- i did not have an hp1000 to compare them to, but i did own an hp1000 a while back). I wouldn't be surprised if the driver actually reflects this, in being a modified HP1000 driver. Im suspicious that the RS1 driver came from the HP1000 driver, and this was a sort of resting place along the way.

As I say over and over here, I can't stand grados with bowl pads, they've got to have flats. But with most grados, it has some side effects. These were not seen in the brown RS1. In comparison, the black RS1 had a much warmer, more liquid midrange (which was sort of nice actually), more prominent highs, and a mid-bass hump that created a bit of a muddy effect in the lower frequencies. It also sounded like there was a seperation between mids and highs with the black, as if there were 2 big hills in the frequency range, one in the midrange and one in the treble, and some notes were a bit lost when they fell in between. The brown RS1 transitioned seemlessly, and notes in beetween the two were not lost. In fact, this seems like a great way of describing both the Brown RS1 and the HP1000, that there is this beautifully seemless transition between all frequency ranges, where nothing sticks out at you, and also, nothing is drowned out by anything else, it is an even sweep. The Black RS1 did seem to have a bigger soundstage, or more open sound in the upper registers, but in the lower frequency range, this was cancelled out by the slight muddiness.

I think a lot of people would actually prefer the black RS1, for it's liquid, warm midrange, and sparkly highs. but for the purists out there, who apreciate perfect tonality and color, but don't want to go quite as far as the HP1000 takes it, this might be a nice phone. From memory, the HP1000 still beats it though

I came and went likely before many arrived, though as the 'protector of gear' at lunch it afforded much equipment time with no lines.

Icarium thanks hosting. Of course. Great to see you and everyone else. Also great to spend a little time with Craig.

Running through some very quick impressions:

Yamamoto HA-02: Nicely brings the maybe overrated W1K to life, but doesn't eliminate the upper-midrange problems I have with the W5K. So unfortunately didn't feel better synergy here than some other tube amps. Still seems to excel more with AT than others.

Balancing Act/Qualia: I haven't always been a fan of the Qualias, but coupled with the Balancing Act I am. Certainly many of the traits that leads me to electrostatics are shown in this matching. Nice speed and even weight all around.

Balancing Act/RS1: I really haven't been a fan of the RS series, but again coupled with the Balancing Act (and a pair of flats), I may consider this some day. Such a pleasant engaging world they create if you can deal with the soundstage, though even hear the Balancing Act helped greatly. Balancing Act has once again turned me over on a phone. Not much better compliment than that.

Zana Deux with various phones: I never know how to discuss the ZD. Everything sounds so right. See?

Square Wave: Again expectations played a big part. Didn't expect much and surprised at how well Senns responded single-ended from the amp. Not sure the status of this model or if they're even still being produced, but if size is at all an issue this is a must consider. Quite a wide, rich experience. Perhaps could be happy stopping here.

Filters thingamajobDAC: Only heard through the Square Wave. Seemed beyond its cost, but unfortunately didn't get a chance to hear on other gear.

Lambda Pro/KGSS DX: Not too shabby.

007/O2: And I can't, can't, can't figure out why these are so popular (believe there are more discussions of future created equipment, than any criticism of phones with gear so far made). I mean I still admire them on many levels, but I've yet to hear them with any amp beat the HE60/90. If you call that liking the etch so be it. I refer to it not liking the soft politeness. So I guess for me it's still a Lamdba to Senn move if I ever upgrade.

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Nah, you know you want to. What opamp you using now, and how about slapping in those Burson discrete jobbies like this guy did?

I mean I'm sure he'll give his own answer, but from my talks with him he didn't just blindly change opamps until he found one that sounds especially nice or swap caps to blackgates or whatever cap he happens to be partial to, but he did incremental changes and made sure whatever part he swapped in not only improved measurements as measured by industrial level machines but didn't take away any benefits gained from earlier part swaps.

It was careful min-maxing of devices that allowed him to achieve the level of end result that he reached. There is a careful balance struck that was achieved through trial and error style tuning.

I am all about fully discrete audio components, but I recognize that at this point if he wants to see real benefits from a discrete output stage it isn't as simple as swapping in a zapfilter and expecting an improvement in all areas because technically a zap filter is discrete.... I think he feels that in order to guarantee that sort of performance increase he would probably have to design his own stage which he is capable of but given his current life situation the money/time investment is not feasible.

P.S. I guess I ended up putting words in his mouth after all!

Quote:



It's not really a given that this would be a better solution than what I current use, especially considering the degree of effort I put into making sure the parts were operating optimally. It is not enough to simply have apparent stability; distortion products distribution may change substantially under more subtle design changes. I can't even guarantee you would be able to reproduce my results given the same apparent parts configuration, let alone be particularly confident that just slapping in something like what you suggest would actually improve my situation.

In fact, based on what people seem to frequently say about these modules, I'm a bit wary about dropping money on them when I'm probably reaching just about the limits of what I can squeeze out of the present topology of my DAC. More than likely, I would have to invest in doing a new design from the ground up, or at a minimum throw in a few to several hundred dollars and untold hours towards developing my own discrete stage. Again, this really just isn't practical for me, and after hearing a variety of other sources compared against it, particularly after the experience I had with my previous DAC, I'm just not sure it's a justified risk at the moment (I suspect it isn't).