Seattle Meet 10/2/10 impressions - Page 2  

Thanks to Paul and Heather of FPE for hosting our group so graciously. Members of the trade presented fabulous gear at this meet. Particularly stunning to these ears were The Tape Project and Bottlehead Crack. There is crack in my future. I spotted a phono stage in Doc B’s room that had adjustable turnover, rolloff and shelf settings as well as gain settings. Intrigued, I asked Dan what he had wrought. He tells me it is the result of collaboration with a customer and a group of advisors. It is meant to optimally provide a selection of equalization curves for use while transferring a large record collection to digital media. Many of these recordings were made before RIAA standard equalization was adopted. Many were never re-issued on digital media. There are recordings ostensibly made after adoption of RIAA that obviously used other equalization as well. I need to hear this marvel. Paul at FPE had done the assembly and chassis work.
The Audeze LCD-2 was familiar to me, but it was revealed more fully to me at this meet.  I spent nearly an hour with them to see if the octave to octave balance and microdynamics bettered my present stable of cans. I can happily report that they did, and I am now in the queue for a pair. This meet had great company, fine equipment and good cheer.
 

Samsung NC 10 running foobar using kernel streaming through jkeny-modded M2Tech HiFace àOyaide DR-510 75-ohm coax àBenchmark DAC1 Pre àFive nines silver cotton-insulated interconnect sans solder on cryoed Xhadow small RCA plugs àWright Sound AU-215i integrated amp àMoon Audio Silver Dragon cabling à Sennheiser HD650

OK,

#2 is, L to R, Bottlehead S.E.X. amp with MagneQuest iron upgrade, Bottlehead Crack with Speedball, with a custom FPE top plate, and a Bottlehead Quickie battery powered tube preamp converted to headphone use. That would be PB's Beyer 880s and HD800s and my HD202 bench dogs and HD600s with Bottlehead/Cardas cable by DIYCable.

#3 the thing in the foreground is a prototype Bottlehead active loaded hybrid shunt regulated line stage built on a Crack chassis. Behind that is a pair of Bottlehead Paramount 300B amps that were driving my AKG K1000s. The little black box is my distribution box that lets us run four amps at once from the tape source. The great big knob on it is the level control for the K1000 amps.

#4 that would be my modified Nagra T Audio tape deck, apparently laying on its side...

#5shows the custom Bottlehead Tube Repro tape head preamp in the Nagra T doghouse. This one has an additional EQ setting for Nagra's own Nagramaster playback EQ.

#6 shows our new Bottlehead Tube Phono, a pretty much all-out assault on LP playback with adjustable bass shelf, bass turnover and treble rollover for pre-RIAA eq LPs.. It will be showing along with my Nagra T at RMAF in the Audio Salon/Marutani Consulting/Magico room.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doc B. 

OK,

 

#2 is, L to R, Bottlehead S.E.X. amp with MagneQuest iron upgrade, Bottlehead Crack with Speedball, with a custom FPE top plate, and a Bottlehead Quickie battery powered tube preamp converted to headphone use. That would be PB's Beyer 880s and HD800s and my HD202 bench dogs and HD600s with Bottlehead/Cardas cable by DIYCable.

 

#3 the thing in the foreground is a prototype Bottlehead active loaded hybrid shunt regulated line stage built on a Crack chassis. Behind that is a pair of Bottlehead Paramount 300B amps that were driving my AKG K1000s. The little black box is my distribution box that lets us run four amps at once from the tape source. The great big knob on it is the level control for the K1000 amps.

 

#4 that would be my modified Nagra T Audio tape deck, apparently laying on its side...

 

#5shows the custom Bottlehead Tube Repro tape head preamp in the Nagra T doghouse. This one has an additional EQ setting for Nagra's own Nagramaster playback EQ.

 

#6 shows our new Bottlehead Tube Phono, a pretty much all-out assault on LP playback with adjustable bass shelf, bass turnover and treble rollover for pre-RIAA eq LPs.. It will be showing along with my Nagra T at RMAF in the Audio Salon/Marutani Consulting/Magico room.

Haha, sorry Doc. Should've mentioned you can post your own comments in the actual album. Allow me to cut and paste....

Doc, your tape setup and association with the Tape Project leaves me jealous. I wish I had the money to devote to a tape rig, I also wish more modern music was available on tape straight from the masters. I have an old Akai 7" deck and some assorted tapes from my parents/ebay and while I can tell there is some possibilities of unparalleled sound quality, the selection just kills it for me. I think a tape setup like yours with master copies such as Tape Project media could very well be the pinnacle in sourcing.

Perhaps I'll have a chance to listen to your setup or one similar at a national meet if I ever get to attend one.

The unsung heroes of this meet, not of any order. Curbfeeler, Kigstyles, equus, Uncle Bob, Heather of FPE. It is not just me organizing these meets. There is a group that does what ever needed to get these meets put together and handled. All the rooms made a huge difference. You can go into any MOT room talk and it was very quiet in those rooms. Listen to gear, there wasn't a crazy line. It was such a pleasure going into Doc B's room. Love that room. KB next door, how convenient is that? And you had Joe Pittman's room across the hall with all that great gear. The cool part, the open room with all the head-fiers. I called it "General Population". Pretty close,LOL. Big thanks to Sachu for the Voo Doo Doughnuts, had the cocoa puffs one. Mrs Seamaster needs to register on head-fi. Really, she is one of us. Big Thanks to Andrew from Audeze, making it again from Los Angeles. He must love it up here? Just saw him at the Portland Meet. My twin bro had a very good time. A little complaint of not much portable gear to audition. He is registering as Illegal Alienus. That is what he told me. He was asking me who everybody was. Smeggy you are in trouble!LOL. Again Again Again, Thank you Front Panel Express. The meet was just so awesome. A BIG THANKS to KEN GARZA of Revolution Power. All that cool DIY gear donated. If you don't support your local MOT's YOU'RE CRAZY!!!! They give us so much love. They help make the meets great. Paul from FPE just made the most over the top DIY amp to be given away. That just gives an idea how much FPE likes us. They did not charge us one penny, they invited us and got extra tables at the last minute. Joe Pittman just got Head-fied a short time ago at the Woodinville meet. He is the Summit fi/ Server-fi Specialist. Ask and your questions shall be answered! Will probably rant some more soon.

This was an incredible meet.  There was so much ear-enchanting goodness, I only got to about half of the rigs set up in the various rooms.  Let me say thanks again to Big Poppa and Front Panel Express for their efforts and kindness.  Having the Members of the Trade there was so exciting and gratifying.  Thank you all.

One the nicest 'inexpensive' set ups I heard was the standard Grado SR-80s being driven by a Little Dot.  That was an inspired combination for, I think, not too much investment.  The sound balance and excitement level was very satisfying.  Very worthwhile to hear this pairing.

I got some time with the luxurious analog setup (one of the Project turntables -- and these look even better than you might think) turning out some John Coltrane and Dire Straits. 

The Thunderpants headphones were nothing short of beauteous.  Please note that these are made by human hands although you may feel somewhat god-like when you hit the boulevard des jardins wearing these along with your favorite iPod-a-like-device.    Thunderpants Inc, and a few others, had their source selection playing directly from an iPad.  This makes a very nice user interface -- almost approaching a miniature Sooloos interface in its wonderfulness.

I can't really capture everything I heard but I wanted to mention the various excellent sounds coming from the Bottllehead room.  This was my first time hearing the AKG K-1000's and simultaneously hearing them coming off of a pair of beautiful 300B monoblocks (the Bottlehead Paramounts, I think Doc said).   This combo should definitely get into the Hall of Fame.  For those of you wondering about the new Crack amplifier, this is also very sweet and enticing set up.  I think I heard the version with the extra add-on circuit.  That was lovely with a variety of headphones, including the HD-800s.  Ahhh.

I spent a good bit of time in the ALO room.  I had been thinking about one of the ALO Line Out docks for my iPod.  What better time to get one of these, I thought.  This turned out to be a great kick up from taking the signal out from the analog amp in the iPod.  

A very big WOW in this room was the Red Wine Isabella (with the latest upgrade circuit and battery).  This is a captivating device... everything else just disappeared when I locked into this.  I also got a good long listen to the LCD-2's  driven by the Isabella.  This is another must-listen set-up for those of you that still have some buoyancy and lift in the vicinity of your wallets.  Boy, that was good. 

By the time I got to KingStyles mind-deconstructing and eye-popping system, I felt like I had fallen into a different dimension entirely.  Words fail me.

The venue at FPE was excellent.  And such nice people work there.  And they are friendly.    Overall this a wonderful experience. The raffle was a gas.  The MOTs put in such great stuff and that was a rush.   I wish I could remember all of the folks I talked to.  I love hearing about how people got to the point where they are now with their headphonathonical pursuits,   Really I can't wait until next time.  This event was so great.

Front Panel Express: Thank you! 

I just realized I did not mention your very large donation of AN ENTIRE BUILDING to the meet! 

Seriously, you people were just so nice to let us hang out in your offices for an afternoon.  Thanks!

And, in the future: Doc B: I think a meet at the new Bottlehead facilities would be very cool.  We can pull in any Head-Fier's from Silverdale to Aberdeen, as well as the usual cast of characters from this side of the water. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingStyles

The stacker and liquid gold amps both sounded great with the orthos. I heard that the liquid fire pairs even better. Hopefully I will get a chance to listen to it someday.

I was a bit worried about the Liquid Gold amp.  That volume pot with the gold volume knob was crazy loose.  I'd sure hate for that to fall off in mid tune and short itself!  Let me know if I can assist you in getting it tightened back up.

 

yeah yeah i know it is loose..i lost the nut that holds the encoder in place...it doesn't bother me and i have just been lazy in trying to find a replacement for that nut.

I am actually looking at the Liquid Gold with its guts out in the open on my workbench after i got it back from the meet. Doing some upgrades to the output stage tonight and will get to that loose encoder pot as well.

Going to start with non-gear pics because there were too many gear pics to get through in one day. Will post gear pics later, along with pics of the tour of Front Panel Express in a completely separate thread.

Raffling off the prizes (Gil/BIG POPPA on left)


KingStyles with his free Bottlehead Crack


The raffle prize winners


sachu and smeggy




Left to right: Ken (from ALO Audio), Alex (from Audeze), Gary (smeggy), & Sachu (sachu)

Nice photos Asr, thank you!

Boy you can see my BIG side