Champaign, IL (3/14/09) Meet Impression - Page 2

I wanted to post a few thank-yous now. I will post a few impressions and some pictures later.

First a thank-you to all the head-fi members in attendance. You guys are the meet, so thanks for coming and thanks for making it a great meet. As usual, I spent more time conversing with old and new friends than listening to gear. It was a great time.

A very large thank you to Van for allowing us to use the rooms at Busey Bank for this meet. It was a great venue for the meet with plenty of room for everyone and their gear.

Lastly, for those who contributed for the pizza. When I counted the money after I got home there was more money than needed to pay for the pizza. So I can either donate the excess to head-fi or we can use it for future Chicago/Illinois meets. If you have an opinion, let me know via PM.

Looks like fun and thanks for the impressions!

A few pics

Looks like a great meet. Well done!

Really enjoy those pics too.

Looks like a good time. I figured it would be, considering the things that weren't for sale and the people scheduled not to appear, tho.

Another great meet. First and foremost, thanks to morphsci and vdukeman for their efforts. My experience was made more enjoyable in part because the drive was not as brutal as I imagined (Pleasantly light traffic and zoning out to sports talk made the time fly). I could easily get suckered into attending another downstate meet.

I don't want to repeat what's been stated above, but everything I listened to was pretty amazing. The highlights or standouts for me:

Listening to Aura's Moth amp. That hulking caged giant-tube beast is zexy as hell. Seriously, it's a privilege to listen to a Moth amp.

Audio Addict's re-cabled(?) 702s with the Oppo-Apache combo (I don't think there was a DAC in there). I have not been real impressed with 701s in my limited exposure to them at meets. I decided to throw a little metal at them and was quite surprised how they performed. My apologies to Audio Addict if I corrupted his 'phones with Mastodon .

morphsci's modded retro AKGs (340s? - the model # and the name of the head-fi'er he got them from escape me). The soundstage on these really really comfortable closed headphones was astounding. Actually morphsci's whole setup was a lot of fun - I got to listen to the Headamp GS-X with a few different cans, and the Mac Mini server provided a nice space to sample cans - you could quickly and easily move through several different genres.

Alright, when's the next one?

Had a great time yesterday, it was very nice to see new guys that don't make it to the northern IL meets too often. I gotta say, this venue was terrific and anytime you guys want to do southern/central IL, I'm game.

For me, it was more social this time around. Not that I wasn't interested in the gear, just that seeing old and new faces was more interesting for me . Jim and Van, thanks so much setting everything up. Mike, Billy, Ray, old guys, great to see you again. Matt, Dan, Christian, everyone new (to me), awesome to meet you dudes.

The two focuses of my listening time were at the beginning, with Mike's Zana Deux and the TTVJ FET-A that Ryan loaned for the meet. I've the ZD twice before, but this was the first time I got an extended period with it in a quiet environment, which I've been wanting to do ever since I got my Moth. The verdict - hearing the difference between OTL and Transformer-Coupled was obvious. Mike's amp was more revealing, somewhat more analytical. I'm wanting to avoid using "more detail" to describe it, but it very well might be. I get the feeling my Moth ever so-slightly masks a slight bit of detail in an effort to translate more musicality in the presentation (this doesn't mean though that the Moth is entirely more musical, I believe that is based on preference alone). I will say that I prefer midrange on my amp, it is as natural as I have ever heard. The Zana gave too much airiness to the vocals of a few of my reference tracks, making them seem slightly less natural and a little more analytical. Classical sounded better on the Zana; the classical track I used was as good as I've ever heard it.

The FET-A was a beast. It is probably the best SS amp I've heard for under a thousand, with a presentation that was neither warm nor cold, just even. Balance was great, bass was tight, I thought the treble really flourished with my tracks in general. Based off my own rig, however, the mids were not ideal. I guess I've been somewhat spoiled by what I've heard in the middle freq's, so I should not expect the less expensive FET to match it. It's a great amp to be sure, I'd probably buy one if I had cash to burn.

*note - used HD600 with both Zana and FET*

~~~

Again, the meet was great. It's a bit unlucky for me, but yesterday was probably the last time I'll hear my Moth for a while; this morning it suffered a nasty channel imbalance and I couldn't remedy it myself, so I'm going to have to see if Craig can help me diagnose and I'll either send it to him or find local help. I don't believe anyone or anything at the meet caused this, it's been slightly finicky the last 3-4 days and I think I had this problem coming anyway. Hopefully it will be fixed for the next meet, whenever that comes around.

Thanks much for everything, hope everyone had as good a time as I did.

Incoming flurry of pictures

All I gotta say is..

Do the Duex.

More intelligent insights later.

The meet was so much fun and everyone was really cool. I can't wait for the next one!

I tell you what though, I am still taken back by the GS-X. It just made every headphone hooked up to sound its best. I am seriously thinking about trying to explain to my wife why I need to spend $900 on a GS-1. Although I don't think she will understand

Simple, it's a preamp for your speaker amp

Absolutely awesome pics! Whatta table full of gear! It looks like it was a great meet.

Thanks to Jim for hosting an awesome meet. Thanks to Van for providing a wonderful venue for an awesome meet. Thanks to everyone who awesomely showed up for an awesome meet!

I spent more time chatting than listening. Old friends, new acquaintances. Music, gear, life in general. It's always great to talk with this bunch. I had one objective, which I did accomplish. I've been using my iPhone at work with the TTVJ Portable Millett and ESW9's. I wanted to try that setup with the Pico and the Mustang, to see if I needed to change amps. Both sound very good to me, and if I wanted true on-the-go portability, either one would be an excellent choice. But after a few good listening sessions, I decided I'm quite happy with the TTVJ. For what I want to hear, it does the job very well.

Looking forward to the drive to Terre Haute next weekend. And thanks again to the fine folks at this meet. It was a blast.

A_Sr.

Great pics Jim!