Marin Meet - 10/18, 2008 Impressions

Many thanks to Grahame for hosting and introducing me to some music. Thanks to others for the alcohol supply. Good to see so many of you again.

A few quick impressions:

The Luxman P1 was so effortless. I'm sure some could call it thin or at least flat, but accepted on its terms it was beautiful and once immersed very difficult to find anything wrong with them. Played very nice with HD650/K701/CD3K and great to rotate among all three on especially jazz tracks. Wish I could afford. Forget price and aesthetics, the P1s sonic presentation whispered subtlety and sophistication.

The Eddie Current Nautilus is always a pleasure to hear. It's a shame it's disappearing to make way for the Balancing Act (which is also so solid). If the P1 is how music is, the Nautilus is maybe how it should be. Really nice energy. Combo with Senns is the dynamic rig most likely to pull me away from stats.

The Woo 6 and the right rectifier is a favorite of mine with the GS1000s and the maxed version present was even better than I remember. Also nice synergy with the L3000.

The Yuin OK1s are surprisingly nice. I still don't know the full differences between them and the PK1s, but "full-sized" buds. Would easily recommend and if I didn't have so many IEMs I'd buy a pair immediately.

The Slim Devices/Logitech Boom had a much fuller sound than I was expecting. More interested now.

I still hate the Omega 2s.

Who makes those copper ribbon looking strands? I assume they are ICs?

Thanks for the pictures too!

Good times, but weird meet day for me. Dropped off gear, said my hellos, then left for parenting duties until 5pm. Missed most of the meet, but got back in time to hang a bit, listen a bit, and drink more than a bit.

I will do some work on impressions of gear and such, but I and a guy named Josh took a number of pics that I will post for now.

Fall in Marin



Oh, wait, most people in Marin see Fall more like this



Our gracious hosts Grahame and Joanne



Here's the entrance to the meet



Wait, this is how most people in Marin saw the entrance to the meet



Here's MikeyMad talking on the cell near the entrance to the meet, although I am not sure how he saw the room



This is the guy named Josh, and his buddy Atothex and Bigguy and Becky in the background





Like I said, Josh was good with cameras and took a couple of pics himself







robm123 enjoying one of his favorite headphones and chillin'





Atothex and utep10 are enjoying adult beverages and talking gear



This was how I saw Bruce while he had that beverage



Speaking of adult beverages. . .





Finally, Grahame skips the booze but is a connoisseur of brownie bites and Fairfax Scoop Honey Lavender Vanilla ice cream









Oh well, odd selection of pics and I didn't manage to get presentable shots of everyone, but gear shots up next.

Looks like you guys and girl(s) had a really nice time.
Lots of great gear, like SR-007, 4070, K1000, ... and some great drinks (whisky).

Gear pics, also odd, I have to say.

Grahame's little, flac-filled Sansa player pumps out tunes with authority



The beautiful Luxman P-1 amp can handle 3 headphones at once without any discernible loss of performance (and I hope somebody else got better pics than I did)



Plenty of tunes on silver discs, and some gold ones, although as usual there were several laptops as sources (none cooler than Bigguy's tricked out and accessorized beauty), and of course Grahame has expanded his Slim Devices / Logitech holdings so he was streaming all over the meet. The Boom is smaller than I thought -- which is a good thing -- and has a big sound. Very nice option for bedroom, kitchen or office or whatever. Nice









Foo_Me had the Eddie Current Nautilus loaner but I didn't get to listen to it again before he left. The Transporter was sourcing the Nautilus and the Corda





As usual, Mikey went above and beyond by filling up the Falcon full of gear and practically cracking a table in half with his setups

Those are Stefan Audio Art Endorphin XLRs. They are a new product that I am checking out. I have not compared them head to head with my other cables yet, but they certainly sound good.

Another fun time!

First the important stuff...
Thanks to Grahame for hosting a great time in Marin!
He truly went all out getting a nice space which had plenty of chairs and even a few couches to have very comfortable listening sessions along with a few glasses of scotch! Also provided drinks, snacks, and lunch!

With Mr. and mrs bigguy, thanks the always-welcomed candied pecans and brownies.
And of course Mikeymad (and to Al as well for the bourbon) with his roving selection of scotch. Love the Murray McDavid
Can a meet get any better than that!

Impressions:
Luxman P1:
Not my cup of tea, but I can see how other people could really really like this amp. Very relaxed, smooth sound. However, lacking in dynamics and detail. With the Sony CD3000, there seemed to be really nice synergy. Detail was there, highs seemed to extend well and the midrange wasn't recessed. However, lacked bass quantity. With the Senn 650, overall best, balanced sound. but again, a little too smooth for my tastes. With the grados RS1, not very good. Bass was bloomy, no dynamics, and congested. Impressions could be somewhat source related since it was hooked up to a Onix? cd player and not sure about the performance or sound signature of it. Think Mikeymad planned to listen to it with his marantz, but not sure.

Woo Audio 5 (upgraded) -
Does not get enough attention here. It's consistently one of the best headphone amps that I think you could buy. Every headphone I use it with sounds great! Balanced, thick, plenty of bass, detailed, without any harshness. Plus, drives the k1000s very very well.

Lambda Sig/Pro -
Best bang for the buck in the e-stat world. With the stax amps they were on, it was somewhat hard to differentiate between the two. However, when switching to Mikeymad's ES1, it was not subtle at all. THe Lambda sigs are the better phone...just a richer, thicker sound from the headphone.

Yuin OK1/OK3 (OK2 was broken) -
I was pleasantly surprised as well...first time I've heard these and they definitely do have a full-headphone kind of sound. If I didn't have UE11s, would seriously want to consider these.

Omega 2
Still not a fan...even on the ES1/Marantz. Too dark...think it's just one of those things.

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Just have to say...the best thing about head-fi are the meets.
Anyone who has a chance to go should definitely go!
I've been through alot of gear and am pretty happy with what I have now.
Not shopping for a radical change or anything anymore, but what keeps me coming back are the people, the meets, and occassionally listening to gear that I haven't spent a lot of time with.

Hey all, thanks for the good times. Y'all have some good taste and great gear.

BTW foo_me, are those RS1s considered vintage or new?

They are a "vintage" pair

Wow. Excellent, excellent series Voltron. And then another !@

Former Concord Bad here. I guess you're never "former" .