Mini Meet in Orlando, Florida: November 7th of 2009

I had a great time with the attendees. It was nice to hear Singlepower amps working as they should, brought up to spec, and this has settled my dilemma whether to have mine fixed or give up on it.

I was surprised to hear how much better the AKG 501 sounds compared to the 701. Usually, the higher models are supposed to trump the little brothers, but this was certainly not the case. The 701 sounded a bit airier, but that was about it. The 501 did everything else, literally better.

I was also expecting Miguel to include a certain controversial finding in his post, but since he did not, I will go ahead and post the assertion myself, not caring about what aftermath may ensue: the HD800 sounded well straight out of the little AMP3 portable DAP. I don't know how it managed to drive them, but it was! The quality of playback did not seem to suffer in the least bit. I will not argue about whether the HD800 was reaching its full potential or not, that's another topic, but as far as music quality, suffice it to say I was impressed by how the little thing outputs. More than satisfied with it. That combo was certainly the biggest surprise that day.

I also got to hear the Duet out of a MAC, but since I am unfamiliar with how to play with settings, I don't think I managed to make it as neutral a transport as possible.

Other than this, I mainly helped people set up their rigs and talked with the attendees. I spent most of my time listening to the music people brought, really, as I am quite happy with my rig and just wish to expand on my musical collection.

If I find a cheap 501 (Miguel stated they sell for around $125-ish), I will pick one up.

I'm glad everyone got a chance to listen to the HD800's as well as to both of the old school Grados. Hauling all my gear for people to have a chance to listen to was well worth it.

Also, lunch was damn good.

I had a great time. I finally got to hear some amazing rigs. And I got to try out my phones on different ones as well. I wish I brought my own CD's to test out some of the others (stupidity on my part). I enjoyed Alex's HD800 on the denon/amp combo the most. But it looks like a b-i-t-c-h to drive. It seems I have to put a small fortune aside to drive those Senn's, eh?

My allegiance is still with the Grado sound. For acoustic/rock, Grado gets me. I also enjoyed the Grado HP series.

I too discovered that I enjoyed the K501 more than the 701. Suffice to say, I'm still not an AKG guy.

It was really nice meeting everyone ,and I appreciate you all coming.

pfft, lets see some faces.....

gear looks great though....that luxman looks familiar =-) as does that EX 2900

I also want to say that I had a great time at the meet in Orlando and many thanks to Rumi and all the others who made this gathering possible. There was a lot of great gear and it was nice to be able to sample them.

My observations:

1. Yes the AKG 501s sounded a lot better to my ears then the 701s.

2. I heard with my ears an HD 800 and AKG K1000 being driven by an AMP 3 port. DAC. OK you HFi gurus can explain that one.

3. The Grado HP-1 and HP-2 are sweet cans. Thanks Alex for sharing them with us.

4. Liked the sound of the HD 800s driven by the Luxman P1.

5. Lots of nice gear and phones from Alex, Miguel and others.

Yes we have Fi in Orlando!!!!!!!!!

I thought the HD800's sounded fantastic out of my WooAudio 6 setup.

Much more airy, and neutral than the HD650's. Really good for jazz/vocals/classical. So much more "real sounding" to my ears. The HD650's do have a much much warmer, more intimate sound to them. Comparably, the HD800's sound bright, almost harsh on the same material.

The Grado GS-1000's are an odd headphone. Headroom says they are good for "low level" listening...however that really isn't possible at a meet :-).

HP1000's are sweet cans. Sweet sweet midrange.

The HF2's were nice, but I think the RS1's are much better.

A big thanks to Alex, Miguel, Remi, Raffi(sp?), ScooterBoy, and highlife everyone at the meet for making it a good one!

Good times. I thought I would just be there for an hour or two, but got talking to Ron about different portable setups and ended up staying quite a bit longer.

Couple thoughts/things in no particular order:

1. 501 was better, but 701 was airier for sure.
2. I've never had such a contraption as the K1000 on my head and that was a bizarre, albeit awesome, way to hear music presented from a headphone.
3. I went home and ordered myself a D4 mamba. I had to since I bought Ron's topkit at the meet.
4. The high's on the HD800 were incredible. The volume of space those headphones created around my ears was almost holographic.
5. My JH13's go a lot farther and sound a lot better on quality amplification.
6. I should have stolen all your equipment when you were at ale house.
7. AMP 3... what the hell is that thing. I need more storage space but holy **** that sounded good.

Sorry for the late impressions......thanks again to Rumi for organizing a successful meet. It was nice hanging out with some old friends as well as seeing new faces. I'm glad head-fi is alive in the Central FL area!

Quick Impressions:
1. The Audio Aero Prima DAC is an absolute wonderful DAC; once I come across one I will definitely snatch it up!
2. I still like the HD800 as much as I liked it when I listened to it in CJ09. I was afraid of how it would synergize with my rig but my fears were unfounded.
3. The K501 is definitely a nice sleeper can!
4. Joe Grado vintage cans (HP-1/HP2) are very nice but I still don't regret selling mine.
5. The D4 Mamba connected to different portable players sounded very nice indeed! It made me realize how much I miss my portable rig.
6. K1000s are really good earspeakers but need good amplification to reach it's full potential.

Great meet guys! Time definitely flies when you're having fun! Hope we can do this again.