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Brisbane, Australia Meet 17 July 2010 - Impressions

post #1 of 88
7/17/10 at 3:20am
Thread Starter 

I'm happy to let everyone know that we will break even when the last of the contributions get here. Sorry if I wasn't all there as I'm not feeling too good in addition to having a late night out. 

 

  • Thanks everyone for coming. There were 3 guys who live in NSW, one chap who lives on the Sunny Coast and one on the Gold Coast. Cheers to the two guys who rocked up after ghosting Head Fi. :D We also had two guys from OCAU who were great to have around. 
  • A huge thanks goes to John from COEM Audio who made a significant contribution to the meet. Without his support, we definitely wouldn't have such a nice venue. 
  • Thanks to both Audio Jester and Nakattack who helped during the planning and funding stage.
  • Iceworks turned out to be a pretty nice place and the service was good. Thanks for suggesting it Qusp. I'm glad you could make it!

 

Impressions and funny facts:

 

  • I didn't do that much listening but I really enjoyed listening to jrisles' Eddie Current Balancing Act. 
  • Jrisles took the longest to set up - 1 hour plus. The amount of gear he had was mind boggling.
  • I didn't mind the DT880 but they didn't wow me like I had hoped.
  • 4 people like death metal and its derivatives.
  • 2 people had AD900s with a missing wing. This does say something about the design.
  • There was no HD555 and only one AD700. These are supposed to be the most popular phones.
  • Most people hate the Burson HA-160 stepper.
  • A lot of people enjoyed the RS-1. From a extremely brief session, I came away thinking I liked them more than my MS Pros.
  • The MS Ultimate didn't impress me that much. The MS1000 on the other hand is always a joy to listen to.
  • I'd say the HE-5's build quality isn't as bad as I had imagined it was.
  • JIGF's dad is awesome! 
  • Ultrasones aren't as bad as I thought they would be although they don't do it for me. The modded Pro900s weren't that bass heavy and neither was the LA2000. 

Edited by MomijiTMO - 7/17/10 at 5:34pm
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post #2 of 88
7/17/10 at 4:04am

Was waiting for the impressions thread to pop up! I want pictures! 

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post #3 of 88
7/17/10 at 4:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Joboto View Post


Was waiting for the impressions thread to pop up! I want pictures! 





did the storm trooper make an appearance in full battle order and the works? :)
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post #4 of 88
7/17/10 at 4:29am
Thread Starter 

There were cameras so there might be some photos. Hopefully Mr Joboto can come next time.

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post #5 of 88
7/17/10 at 4:57am

I had a great time at the meet, was good to meet some of the fellas and listen to some really sweet gear. My main impressions from the meet were:

 

  • The HE-5 sounded reaaaaaaaally good. Beautiful textured bass that didn't encroach on the other frequencies was the main thing that stood out for me. The detail level is also super impressive.
  • I enjoyed the Ultis, sounded like a better detailed version of the 1000's with a little extra bass kick.
  • I didn't get a chance to listen to the RS-1's, which is a little disappointing, but I'm sure I will hear them at least once in my life :)
  • Disappointed with the DT-880, I find them fairly boring to be honest. The way some people around hear gush about them raised my expectations which they didn't meet unfortunately. The K701 has a beautiful soundstage, but not enough bass for my taste. The 650's are nice, but not as detailed as the 880 or the 701 and are a little to dark for me. Seems like none of the Mid-Fi kings will be residing in my stable any time soon. The AT woodies sounded very nice, next purchase maybe?
  • I found amps didn't have that much impact on the sound. DAC's are where all the detail comes from, and it was made painfully obvious that my source needs an upgrade.

 

Thankyou JIGF for bringing the HE-5's, it was a real treat! I'm looking forward to another meet sometime in the future, this one really helped me appreciate the subtleties that different gear brings. I'll upload some piccies tomorrow!

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post #6 of 88
7/17/10 at 5:02am
Thread Starter 

Yeah the RS-1s were good. Not really sure if I'd bother seeing I already have the Pros. Decisions decisions decisions.

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post #7 of 88
7/17/10 at 5:43am

PICS I SAY!

 

Congrats guys on a successful meet  =)

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post #8 of 88
7/17/10 at 5:54am

Hey guys, I had a great time, I'm glad I came along, even if I didn't bring any gear myself. My name's Toby, I was kind of walking around awkwardly the whole time listening to everyones gear =). I'm only just getting into the whole hi-fi thing, so didn't know too much about the equipment there, but it was a great experience. It was awesome to be able to listen to a several thousand dollar setup. That balancing act amp was amazing! Listening to the ultrasones was a lot of fun too, the bass is surprisingly energetic for headphones.

 

If there is ever another meet, hopefully I will have more gear to bring along. There may be a DIY job in my future, who knows ;).

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post #9 of 88
7/17/10 at 6:08am

Come on, this thread is useless without pics!

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post #10 of 88
7/17/10 at 6:16am

First off, thanks to everyone who helped put together the meet. The amount of gear on display was impressive and everyone was very generous in allowing it to be used by (essentially) strangers.

 

I managed to get a brief listen to the RS-1s and found a lot to like about them, they were just a bit too forward compared to the MS-Pros for my taste. 

 

The DT880s were pretty nice out of the Burson, a good contrast to the MS-Pros - a more spacious sound, more bass.

 

Tried the K701s and wasn't that impressed - on one track I encountered a pretty exaggerated and unnatural soundstage (tried it with both the Burson and the Red Wine Audio amps) which put me off.

 

Found the (modded?) GS-1000s with the bowls just too boomy in the bass, although they were more comfy than the stock MS-Pro foams.

 

Plenty of amps to try and I had a go at most of them. Didn't glean too much except that just about everything I tried is going to make my MS-Pros sound better than with my Corda Move. 

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post #11 of 88
7/17/10 at 7:16am

Awesome meet, loads on display.i would like to thank everyone for being so generous with your gear.Was simply blown away by the hd 600 & eddie current amp combo. Cant wait for the meet in December. Thanks again from one of the ghosts.

 

 

 


Edited by brash - 7/17/10 at 7:19am
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post #12 of 88
7/17/10 at 11:11am

PICS!

 

 

impatience.jpg

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post #13 of 88
7/17/10 at 1:08pm

Sounds like you guys really had a blast. Can't wait to see some pics.

Did any1 get a chance to hear the HE-5 out of the burson amp?  Also interested in general impressions about the HE-5 compared to the RS1, MSPro or AD2k. 

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post #14 of 88
7/17/10 at 3:03pm
Thread Starter 

Hopefully the pics will come today.

 

I happened to have listened to all of the four (owning 2). The HE-5 is pretty different to the other three with a much larger and more spacious sound. JIGF was saying that he's had a hard time finding an amp to drive them better than the EF5. They sounded good to me out of the EC Balancing Act but I never got a chance to listen to the EF5 :p. The other thing that was interesting was how smooth the HE-5 was compared to say a RS-1. 

 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to say how unimpressed I was with the W5000. Jrisles was saying that he was pretty disappointed at first but over time began to appreciate them. I have a similar experience with my AD2000s. Must be an AT thing :p.

 

The time really does fly. 10:30 to 5:30 felt like 2 hours. The room was probably the right size for the amount of people but it was pretty hard to do any critical listening (noise). 


Edited by MomijiTMO - 7/17/10 at 3:10pm
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post #15 of 88
7/17/10 at 3:35pm

On my concerto and stagedac I found the AD2000's to be veiled compared to what I've become accustomed to. In my brief listening with the HE-5's on my rig it just seemed to be a different sound signature from what I'm used to. JIGF and a person who's name I can't seem to remember did some more extensive listening with HE-5's and RS1i's.  

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by angle_sh00ter View Post

Sounds like you guys really had a blast. Can't wait to see some pics.

Did any1 get a chance to hear the HE-5 out of the burson amp?  Also interested in general impressions about the HE-5 compared to the RS1, MSPro or AD2k. 


I think the only holy crap moment I had was listening to my pro900's on jrisles rig with some extremely well recorded drums and it was great watching other people listen to the same track because you could see the changes in peoples faces as soon as the drums kicked in. 

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