London UK 20/12/09 minimeet impressions

It was really good to meet these nice guys.

Amps:
Well, my little bravo proved to be quite limited in what it did well, for instance it was noisy with the Sure 840s but not really powerful enough to be very good with HD580/650s. Kabeer's CTH was very precise sounding and amply powerful, but for most cans was too bright - but perfect for some of his Yamaha orthos which are tuned a bit dark. I understand that the brightness is a tube characteristic. That iBasso was nice too, as an amp it's close to my neko soundlabs amp (the later perhaps imparts a little more soundstage), but it has a good dac to add - unfortunately we didn't compare the dac to my v-dac.

Phones:

It was nice comparing the HD650s with my 580s, the 650s are a bit more emphatic and 'hyperreal' in their presentation compared to the 580s, I'd guess if you listen to processed music then the 650s would do the job better, and if you like acoustic music the 580 (and I guess by extension the 600) would be the job. I prefer my 580s.

The ultrasone pro-2500 was nice, the bass was strange, big but soft, it didn't sound out of control, not unpleasant to me - they seem nice for classical actually, the openness and soundstage seemed appropriate for that, the sound drifts to you.

The Sure 840 were really impressive, easy to drive, smooth and well balanced, enough soundstage and instrument separation - absolutely fantastic for the price. I'm tempted to save for some.

The main event for me was Kabeer's phenomenal ortho collection.

One of the YH-1000s had a 3kHz bump which was a problem for me in an otherwise fabulous headphone (I'm a bit sensitive to 3kHz bumps because it took forever to work out how to get rid of one in my T20v2s), the other was just fabulous - not obvious, not amazing extension, not much soundstage, but lovely tone, detail, smoothness - you could listen to them for a long time with great pleasure. Really first rate headphones.

That Yamaha was up there with the Wharfdale ID-1 which has nice soundstage and air, and extension, and sounded pretty flat in what was admittedly not a very analytical listen. As Kabeer observed there was a slightly plastic quality to the timbre from the headphone out of my Cyrus One, which was not present at all from the speaker posts. To die for.
The other great ortho for me was the Smeggy modded (very modded) T50RPs which are another flavour of wonderful, a little on the bright side, but not too much and very good throughout the range, soundstage was there too. I can see a project like that on the horizon for me.
The other orthos were all fabulous in their ways too, I'd be very happy to own a HP-3/YH-3 for relaxed midnight listening.

In such illustrious ortho company I was wondering how my T20v2 would hold up, and they did OK. They're not going anywhere.

My Cyrus One blew a fuse near the end, no damage though.

As much as trying the kit, it was really nice meeting these guys.

Well it's time for me now to get the impressions rolling in. First of all I would like to thank Lecky for making this possible and in particular his generous and warm welcome to all the individuals that were present on the day.

I have had many auditions on the day with a lot of Orthos from Kabeer. I've never come across a person who is as fanatic as Kabeer is about the Orthos. Ideally he should be named as Mr. Orthodynamic. His collection is fantastic. So many vintage orthos from the 70s and 80s. I felt some of those were slightly bright such as the Fostex ones (T10). But my favorite and the headphone that have won my heart on the day were the Yamaha YH-1000 orthos. They have got a neutrally warm, lush signature. Mids are outstanding and in particular the vocals have just got that authenticity with emotions. He has got two pairs of YH1Ks. His hybrid DIY tube amp was also good, but there was a lot of floor noise when driving my 840s. For inefficient headphones like Orthos and 600 Ohm ones it should be a good match. The other ones which Kabeer brought were the Aiwa vintage headphones. They were outstanding as well and never thought that Aiwa are that good a manufacturer.

And I've done auditions with Lecky's Beyer DT990 Pros (600 Ohms). My D10 was able to provide enough loudness for these but nowhere it was able to control the very bright nature. But Kabeer's tube amp was a good match on that day and it was able to tame the harsh spikes in the treble and provide a full bodied neutral sound to those. But I wasn't able to hear the cute little Bravo amp as it had a lot of floor noise when driving my 840s. I could sense the tube warmness but with that sort of noise in the background it wasn't worth an audition. I liked the relaxed and laid back signature of the 580s and they would make a good match for midnight sessions. They were quite similar to my 600s which I had before.

TBH I was more of a newbie on that day considering the amount of head time Lecky and Kabeer had in all these years. I learnt quite a few things about Orthos and in a way I am in love with them. Now that I am thinking of saving up for the HE-5s or LCD-2s. All in all, it was a good meet and nice to meet people and put some faces to the strange IDs on Head-Fi. Looking forward to having another meet again.

Cheers....

My turn.
It was real nice meeting you guys, and thanks to Lecky for organising this.

It was interesting trying other headphones and amps.
My favourite orthos were the Aiwas.
I enjoyed listening to my HD650s through Leckys Cyrus One + V-Dac, as I did with the orthos.
From what I remember, Kabeers tube amp added a sort-of softness to the music.
A couple of his orthos were too small however, so the sound was high up, making it hard to give an opinion.
I found the PortaPros were a bit sibilant (s sounds and stuff emphasised, I just happened to be listening to Meiko, so...) and the bass a little "bubble-like" (the only description I can think of.
For the cost, they are a steal however; it's unfair to be overly critical of something in that price range.
Sort-of like one step down from the HD238.

I discovered at this meet that my taste wasn't based on headphones being "bright" or "dark" (which I see as more being about suiting genres more than my taste in general), but their ability for soundstage/separation, as well as having appropriate clarity/presence, while properly reproducing textures/tones. This will make future purchases far easier.

The 'phones I was most impressed with, were the "vintage" Sennheiser HD 424s. Lecky says he nabbed em for £15...!! They're better IMO than the HD238 (not boomy). Unfortunately they are 2000ohms so I wouldn't have an appropriate amp. Maybe if I get a speaker amp....

The Ultrasones and the Shures had a fit I was unused to, and though the Shure SRH840s weren't to my tastes, I found them better than the Dr Dre Beats I tried at an Apple store recently.

I can't wait to do this again.

Thanks guys...!!

I'll update this later as I remember stuff better...

Those Aiwa orthos sound marvelous, and look fantastic! They look like something from some '80s sci-fi anime.

Exactly, those Aiwas are like something used in Starwars. But they sounded great to me.

Pictures?

So P4Z I see you got the MKVII. How are you (and others) liking it?