Many, many thanks to Andrew for arranging another great meet. Once again it was fun to meet new people, and to see old faces. It was a lot of fun, and though I may not have been terribly conversational this time around, it was still nice to chat and hear some great equipment. I continue to be impressed by Donald's builds, which are getting progressively more refined, hopefully soon to reach his own personal nirvana (and then - source! ).

Pics and impressions to follow.

"So yeah, I think the problem started when I added the plutonium to the output stage..."


now these are true frankencans


crazy cool retro design


recorded for posterity (kwkarth making audio recordings)


"what the hell is that idiot with the camera doing on the floor"

What a fun time that flew by fast.It was nice to meet Kevin,Donald,Sam,Devin, Saachi and of course Andrew (thank you for taking the bull by the horns and making this meet happen btw).Everyone shared something valuable and I am grateful for all that I have learned today,hopefully I can return the favor when I have my gear together in the next meet.
Nice pictures btw Devin

Always fun to get together and blather on about the things we enjoy. Just to echo the thanks to Andrew H and glad to see that he has not stopped pushing for better SQ in his maximo iems. Looking forward to hearing the production versions of the prototypes you brought along.

Also a special thanks for filling our bellies , after all that deep thought, we needed some nourishment



Really enjoyed meeting some new folk and of course catching up with the folk I met last year and have kept in touch with. Chatting with kwkarth about modding headphones - , a man after my own heart - always willing to tweak and fiddle

Thanks for the pictures devwild - obviously more gifted behind the lens than I am. I must have been doing a lot of reflective thinking, or was it more of an "I'm clueless" pose

I few pics from my humble lens.

The yoggi man paying homage to a deserving deity



some G1K love



kwkarth and AndrewH discussing the merits of.....



Finally welcome Sam , hope it is an enjoayble journey for you



gotta dash ..dB

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My eyes were just hurting from the orange paint job
I kid because I love.
Honestly though,that amp you got there was no joke.It was my favorite at the meet,can you share alittle of its details with us here or give us a link if you have already share about it on another thread?

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Had fun making them and as you know they are a work in progress. I appreciated the honestly of all the comments too , gives me a clearer understanding of where I need to take them. There is only so much my ears can tolerate before it all starts to blend.

more pics please folk.

A few impressions:
I enjoyed listening to the stax again - just so effortless
I thought the SA-5000's matched extremely well with the EHHA - very detailed response with a soundstage to suite and not lacking in the lower registers.
A positive note for me was getting to hear the heavily modified ultrasone lineup from kwkarth, especially the 2500's - a sound that suites my tastes.
The G1K - very glad to finally get to hear them, I can see why people like them so much. It would be hard for me to make any real conclusions about them considering the limited time but my memory of the RS-1's overshadow the "new" horse in the stable.
I nearly forgot to mentioned Sachu's DIY DAC - superbly done with great sound. I never got to hear it through my EHHA but amped by the mini3, I could hear enough to tell me that this is a very good digital source.


The information on the Stacker can be found in this thread. The simple synopsis is that the tubes are arranged in a stacked or totem topology, the first triode sets the current in the second triode which feeds the audio signal to a transistor buffer which has a very high input impedance. The tube effectively doesn't see any load and thus the sound you hear is pretty much the characteristics of the tube - it is thus very sensitive to tube rolling . It is my favorite amp of all the variations that I have built. Glad you liked it yoginasser and I look forward to hearing your gear once you get yourself settled ..dB

that stacker amp is sweet, Donald is the design finished?

Hey there JP, I would have to answer that with a hedged "yes". There are 5 prototypes being built of which 1 has been fully built, tested, scoped, RMAA'ed and proclaimed to be audio nirvana. Once a few more of the remaining have achieved this status, the amp will be up for public release. ( It should hopefully be soon )

ps I got rid of the pesky protection circuit and upgraded the coupling caps, sounds heavenly to me..dB

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looks like a great meet and I love this communities DIY ethos, wish I lived up there as some of the DIY skills could be learned. Please LMK when the design is done as I want to find a builder for one of these beauties. To me it is a top class amp that plays with the big boys. Sorry to take the thread slightly OT.

If you lived any closer, we would spend more time exploring single malts and then trying to electrocute ourselves while attempting DIY . I will let you know when the amp is ready to roll..dB

Time for a few impressions of my own, little though they may be worth in meet environments

dBel, thanks much for sharing your can creations. I'll leave how much of the hardware you want to discuss up to you, but regardless, it was great to hear a first try diy headphone with so much detail and potentially great all around sound once the dampening is worked out. I'm still impressed that they can have as much treble as they do without sounding as fatiguing as what is typically associated with Grados or sa5000s (which both admittedly have spike issues). You should try and get a frequency measurement once you have the casing more refined. Debated data worth aside, I'd be curious to see their graphed signature.

For me too, it was nice to finally hear the GS1000s. As much as the Portland crowd had drifted away from Grado lately, I wasn't sure the opportunity would show itself. The GS1000 is certainly a significant refinement over your typical Grado, being more balanced than I remember the RS1 being (take with a grain of salt), and very detailed and fast. If it had a major fault, at least on the gear I tried, it would be a fair mid-bass hump which also seemed to resonate at times. I still started to feel a bit of eardrum fatigue too, due to the characteristic Grado treble, but not bad. All said, like the SR80 and 225s I used to own, I would say these would be great for certain sounds (like classic rock, and as yoginasser mentioned, for movies), but still not balanced enough for all-around cans, which is what I would personally want from that price range. (but, then it wouldn't be a Grado) Oh, and yes, those new pads are way more comfortable

The SOHA II with the internal usb dac coming from the Q1Ultra was a fun, self contained little system with a good overall sound. That would be a great pc or office setup, and a nice DIY alternative to the likes of the headroom amps. It also paired well with different headphones, which can certainly be a plus.

The EHHA with it's latest tweaks is really a sweet hybrid. I recently had one of SnoopyRocks's early builds on loan for a while, and personally I think I like Donald's configuration better (again, meet condition caveats), which has a slightly more "tubish" sound to it, with zero noise floor that I could hear, even with the SA5000s. Speaking of which, yeah, they worked really well with this amp. I may have tweaked my M^3 setup for my uses with the SA5000s based on my tastes at the time, but really, the Sonys are born for use with hybrids.

The Stacker was great, very solid, very powerful, very clean. I don't think I want to delve any further into the sound signature (particularly extension) though until I hear it with a different source and in a quieter environment (mini meet dBel? ).

The 770s are still too bass heavy for my taste, but I have to admit, those with the Z-dac were a fun jazz setup.

Sorry I didn't listen to the in-ears Andrew, the genre just generally doesn't play well (physically) with my ears. I really hope the best for your latest model though.

It's always interesting when I run into another low volume listener like yoginasser. Granted, I'm not that great at verbalizing my impressions very often, but I can usually tell when mine differ from others. When I talk with people who listen at lower volumes though, I always find that their impressions echo mine much more consistently. It really goes to show how much of a difference volume level makes, both with headphones and with amps, which tend to have the most dramatic signature changes (and unfortunate instabilities) near the bottom of the pot. Cheers to saving your ears!

I also find it interesting how looking back over many meets with many different people, the impressions (including mine) change significantly. Sometimes there are technical reasons for this - for example, next time I suggest dBel take a listen to the M^3 driven from the dac and better interconnects rather than the modded CD player direct. I wanted to see the current reaction to that basic configuration, so I deliberately left the Presonus out of the chain. I mentioned at the meet that I don't really care for the 701 with that M^3 configuration as much as other amps, but in truth it's a much better pairing (still not the best I've heard, but nice) when using a neutral, clean source.

Oh, and cellofourte... pure awesome. I desperately need some music, but I haven't felt particularly inspired this year.

This post written while listening to ye ol' Stax - every time I go to a recent meet, I'm reminded that I should use them more often.

Hey, I just noticed something, that's the K701 smile I made over in the smilies.

Details of my DIY headphones can be found scattered on the orthodynamic thread over here at HF. They are essentially dipole tweeters manufactured by Sawafuji in the 80's as part of their (very expensive) high end speakers called the dynapleats (iirc). Through the hard work of several members on the forum and the unselfish nature of ericj who bought the drivers on ebay in the first place and redistributed them as matched pairs for us to experiment with, I have been able to come up with something that is showing great potential as a high end headphone. The drivers themselves need a fair amount of treatment to start performing near their potential and that is where I think I have them at this time - near their potential. more experimentation to follow once I have a more rigid enclosure for them.

I agree with the observation that the G1K is far more neutral than most other Grados and that they sound very pleasing. One of my reservations at this time is that I had the impression that their bass was not as well controlled as it should be BUT they need extended listening to characterise fully and I didn't give them their dues.

The cello music came from a small quartet in Pittsburgh (thanks Batman) , a group who call themselves Cellofuorte - very good music and I am sure we will be hearing from them in the future as their popularity increases. Portland has their own secret cello "band" too, The Portland Cello Project - well worth investigating.


I could go on, but my attention is needed elsewhere but I wanted to echo devwilds sentiments about people's impressions changing over time and also the merits of listening at low levels - this is generally how I listen at home too and I have noticed significant changes in my own attitudes to music and equipment ( I do like to crank it every now-and-then )

Oh before I forget to mention - The EHHA ; it has the ability to be tweaked to the listeners preferences - gain can be set using the closed loop feedback and the open loop feedback, the open loop feedback also changes the sound quite significantly and can be tuned to be more analytical or a warmer sound. Mine is set to lower gain and I think you can guess on which end of the spectrum I prefer the open loop setting . I am very glad I persisted in tracking down why my S22 was oscillating and managed to get it fixed before the meet - AMBs power supply really makes this amp sing.

..dB

It was a great meet in PDX this weekend. I truly enjoyed meeting everyone and seeing those again that I'd met at previous meets.

Seems like I didn't get too much listening done, but had a great time chatting with fellow Head-Fiers.

You can navigate to a couple of montage MP3s I put up to hear sounds of the meet:
Inside this folder, you'll find a 128kbs and a 64kbs mp3 you can download and give a listen.

There were three things that stood out to me personally, based upon personal interest, I suppose.

It was absolutely great to meet fellow tweaker, dBel84 and compare notes with regard to fiddling with cans. He's really got some outstanding things going there! I also very much liked the stacker amp. Sweet sounds!

I also enjoyed being able to look over and listen to AndrewH's line of earphones. I was particularly intrigued by the engineering sample he had there. That was a very enjoyable listen and should be popular with many Head-Fiers when it becomes available. Looks like it's going to have a killer price point as well!

Here's a link to the slide show of snaps I took.
Slide Show PDX meet/
Here are a few selected snaps;


Devwild's always excellent PreSonus Central Station - I've gotta get me one of those! I love lots of buttons, especially when they yield good sound!


To these ears, some exceptionally sweet sounds emanated from that orange stacker.


It was an absolute treat to see and hear AndrewH's collection of IEM's, and most excitingly, the new prototype!


The look says it all; "You've got to be kidding me! You think this sounds better than kwkarth's K-1000's?"

I was having such a good time, that I overstayed my parking meter by an hour and didn't even get a ticket! [size=xx-small]Shhhh[/size]

And I finally got to hear yoginasser's G1000's! Awesome!

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Indeed, that is actually what I was trying to convey by saying that I preferred one configuration over the other, though it may not have come across right. This is really one of the joys of DIY and customizable amps, but a frustration when trying to compare them as well. Just because you don't like the amp in one configuration, it doesn't necessarilly mean you won't like it in another. My first experience with this was when op amp swapping in the M^3, which made a bigger difference than I thought possible at the time. It's part of what piqued my curiosity in hybrids.

Jeez....I forgot to mention my headphone impressions
First of all,being that this was the first meet that I have attended as well as the first time that I have had the opportunity to listen to so many new (to me) headphones in one sitting,I had alot to wrap my ears around and absorb.The variety was ample enough to make baskin robbins envious and I am still reflecting on those valuable experiences;the three most interesting to me were as follow and in this order:
1.Andrews prototype in-ear monitors have me wishing to explore IEMs fully.They were the last that I herd at the meet and at a point that I was even wondering if I even wanted to listen to any more gear as fatigue had seemed to have already set in,but I was REALLY glad that I gave them a chance.As a result,I now feel that I may be more relative to IEM style headphones over any other;but there is still much more exploration that will be required to come to a definitive conclusion.
2.devwilds K701s were the only dynamic cans that I would consider owning as a secondary set to my GS1Ks,I was impressed.
3.Also courtesy of devwild,his Stax set up.This was my first experience with electrostats and it was very pleasurable.It sounded so different to me initially that I thought that there would be plenty to not like,but I found myself adjusting to it's flavor very quickly and simply enjoying the music at ear.
*I did not listen properly to kwkarths gear but I hope to in the future,nice recordings btw
I like to mention that every headphone that I listened to sounded beautiful in a different way.
In conclusion,no gear can make you enjoy music if your not happy.