Some of my impressions from the meet. I know you can never get enough impressions on the Uber rigs that were there at the meet, but I'm gonna focus on the more affordable, "I can get them today if I want to" kinda gear that was there at the meet, well except the HF-2 that is.
First of all thanks to JP and all the other members who helped arrange and organize the meet, it was definitely a success, and a very good selection of hotel and rooms.
Note for JP: The Gilmore Lite you tried was on my rig, the USB to optical used was a TBAAM which is a bit perfect optical out (C-Media), so I don't think there wouldve been any effect on sound due to that. If anything it wouldve been because of the Glite or its PSU (Elpac).
Some of the other stuff I had thoughts on. I didn't like the Grado HF-2 at all, I tried it off a few different rigs, and with so many RS-1's present, there is really no reason in my mind to opt for the HF-2, you are much better off going straight to the RS-1. The sound is just not right on the HF-2, it sounds way too unnatural, the vocals seem to jump out, and I had to frequently adjust volume on some of the songs. RS-1's on the other hand sounded very good, nice and refined, if I had to pick on anything I'd say I would like a bit more bass, but I think thats just personal preference more than anything else.
I really liked the Denon D5000's, especially out of my current setup. I did a direct comparison of my Beyer DT770,Ultrasone 680,Shure 840 and Denon D5000 and coming out of Dacmagic+Gilmore I would rank them D5000>Shure840>Ultrasone 680>DT770.
I realized in this meet that the Gilmore Lite is not enough for the DT770, they really demand more and the more you give them the more the mid range comes out, else its just like a big U curve with bass and treble and recessed, unrefined mids.
The Ultrasone 680's are very underrated HP's on headfi IMO, they have a nice clean sound, but a bit lean on bass. I noticed that they sounded much better coming out of SOHA as opposed to Glite.
The Shure's are clearly designed to be very very comfortable, there's padding all over the place and its like you have soft pillows around your ears and on your head rather than headphones. They clearly have much better bass than the Ultrasones, but I was not impressed with these for rock and metal. They sounded very good for all other forms of music, but were slightly fatiguing for rock and metal.
The D5000's were very comfortable as well, they are huge, stick out of the sides quite a bit due to big comfy pads. These exhibit fantastic "twang" for music. I felt the D5000's really made the dynamic range and impact stand out in music, and it felt powerful. There is a slightly unnatural quality to the mids, which is not very obvious or annoying, but overall, one of the best closed HP's I've heard.
Just for kicks I tried the HD800 after all these and I was just floored. Even out of my humble rig, the HD800 just obliterates everything else. My wife felt the same and she told me she just felt like listening to it for longer cos they sound awesome. I tried a few random songs from Porcupine tree to Satyricon to Focal audio Demo cd's and everything I threw at it, just sounded right. It was very obvious that the Glite was the weak link here, since I heard the HD800's off some of the ohter rigs present there. But if any of you can afford the HD800's, just get them, they are fantastic, sound better than anything even on lower end rig like mine, and only get better as you move up.
I had yet another chance of trying the GS1000, this time out of Ipod->Wadia->Benchmark and was yet again very dissapointed. Please don't get offended, its just my opinion, the RS-1's HF-2's and even AD700's on the same table sounded better than the GS1000. Completely lean, thin, anemic, soulless, and one dimensional.
I also compared the Benchmark to the Dacmagic, and I honestly preferred the Dacmagic. If anything I would say the Benchmark offered a tad more detail, but the Dacmagic just sounds smoother and fuller to me.
As for AD700's, the hype surrounding them is fairly justified, but not completely. The build quality is pretty questionable IMO, the A700's definitely appear to be sturdier than the AD700. But sound wise for 70-80 bucks, they are definitely pretty good. If you can get past the ridiculous color scheme and cheap build, they are good for the price.
The other surprise was the "Budget" bottlehead rig, with Sony CDP, S.E.X amp and HD 497. I know the 497's are ok, decent for the price, but out of this rig I went "WOW". Really, it was a revelation. The cdp and headphones cost next to nothing at 100$ and 40$ respecitvely, yet they sounded very very good. It was really a showcase to show there's always value to be had even in the audiophile market, and throwing wads of cash into it isn't always necessary to get good sound.
Last but not least were the Audeze HP's. The demo rig he had setup made them sound very good. I find the build quality of the housing to be slightly questionable, and the plastic feels a bit cheap. The HP's are also quite heavy, and its apparently because of the drivers. For 400$ I think they sounded very good off his demo setup (which I don't quite remember correctly). But they didn't sound that good on my rig, not sure if it was the amp, I didn't follow up to find out more. I'll however consider it only if they improve the housing and plastics used.
Thats it for now, I'll post some more once I transfer some pics from my camera.
. Give me a shout when you next come up and we can have lunch in the studio.
