Philadelphia, Delaware and New Jersey Area mini meet impressions - Page 3  

Thanks so much for letting me participate.  I'm very new to all of this and it was a great experience for me except that now I need to start saving up for more gear apparently!  I really liked the HD600's and the little dot, those will probably be coming up soon in my line of purchases.  But what I really enjoyed was the Omega's.  I definitely want to get something to sound like that here.  So I'll have to start researching into that arena as well!

Thanks again, it was a pleasure meeting you all and being able to sample your awesome gear!

Oh and I really enjoyed checking out the DIY amps.  I may look into putting something together myself if I have the time coming up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbradley 

Thanks so much for letting me participate.  I'm very new to all of this and it was a great experience for me except that now I need to start saving up for more gear apparently!  I really liked the HD600's and the little dot, those will probably be coming up soon in my line of purchases.  But what I really enjoyed was the Omega's.  I definitely want to get something to sound like that here.  So I'll have to start researching into that arena as well!

 

Thanks again, it was a pleasure meeting you all and being able to sample your awesome gear!

Bill it was a pleasure having you over. You may find the Omega on Audiogon from time to time and you should check out their website and there are some inexpensive low watt amps like the Virutre that also Louis tell me runs well and the Minimax tube amp as well.

Aaron the Leben is a very nice amp but if you are going HP amp only I think there are better out there for the price. If you needed a high quality speaker and HP amp and were willing to compromise on both ends the Leben makes total sense. It is a very good HP amp but at 3 grand there are several others I'd look like the EC BA or TTVJ Peak with the volcano supply. If you had a pair of 95db speakers or a near field desk set up this would be a go to amp. It is uber sexy though and I really had the jones to get one when I saw it and checked out the build quality. Oh and it was dead quiet with my JH13s which is a pretty big feat from a tube amp.

I LOVED the Logitech Touch what a cool source. It was providing a digital signal to a CIA dac stack but out of the analog outs the touch sounds great as well at least to me.

I had the chance to re-check out the HD800 at this meet. The HD800 is a strange one for me, I was blown away at CES when I first heard them but later cooled on them. I'm back to loving them as a top flight headphone. I still prefer the LCD 2 but the HD800 smokes the LCD from a fit and comfort standpoint. It also is the opposite of the LCD as it sounds wide open where the LCD is a bit closed in. I could see making a place for both for at a minimum a lengthy home eval.

I did a mini Grado 125 shootout between a new 125i and my old as dirt pair with what appears to be pink drivers. You would not recognize them as the same headphones at all. Both exceled in different areas and wierdly through the Schidt amp the 125i put a big smile on my face. I liked the pink drivers better out of my Sonic Studio 305 (which betrayed me and the MBP software crashed after setting up). One day I'd love to get 6 or so of the same grado over a 10 -12 year spread to check out the change in the signature over time.

March???  I really have to wait until March for those dang HE6p's??   Dang you Fang..  LOL

Quote:

Originally Posted by immtbiker 

Wish I could have made this one.

x2. unfortunately i was oblivious to this happening
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by jp11801 

Aaron the Leben is a very nice amp but if you are going HP amp only I think there are better out there for the price. If you needed a high quality speaker and HP amp and were willing to compromise on both ends the Leben makes total sense. It is a very good HP amp but at 3 grand there are several others I'd look like the EC BA or TTVJ Peak with the volcano supply. If you had a pair of 95db speakers or a near field desk set up this would be a go to amp. It is uber sexy though and I really had the jones to get one when I saw it and checked out the build quality. Oh and it was dead quiet with my JH13s which is a pretty big feat from a tube amp.

 

I did a mini Grado 125 shootout between a new 125i and my old as dirt pair with what appears to be pink drivers. You would not recognize them as the same headphones at all. Both exceled in different areas and wierdly through the Schidt amp the 125i put a big smile on my face. I liked the pink drivers better out of my Sonic Studio 305 (which betrayed me and the MBP software crashed after setting up). One day I'd love to get 6 or so of the same grado over a 10 -12 year spread to check out the change in the signature over time.

wow, running the jh13s off the leben! how does it sound as an iem amp?

re the grados, i'm not sure you have to have them from greatly differing time intervals to hear sonic variances. having listened to grados of similar vintage they seem to have more unit to unit variability than other brands.

btw, how does the he6p sound compared to the regular he6? are there sonic differences or just efficiency diffs? and how efficient are the p versions? can you drive them from normal, or even small, can amps? will a portable amp do the job?

Quote:Originally Posted by daveDerek 





"...btw, how does the he6p sound compared to the regular he6? are there sonic differences or just efficiency diffs? and how efficient are the p versions? can you drive them from normal, or even small, can amps? will a portable amp do the job?"


All three, the HE6 prototype, the production HE6 and the HE6p all sound a bit different but are obviously from the same family. Fang told us, that when properly amped, the production HE6 will sound better than the HE6p.

I listened to the 6P briefly. Much easier to drive and Fang is marketing as a portable can and it played well of his 801 source. I do not like the 1/8 connector as my 1/4 got stuck in my Taboo when I removed it but only listened very briefly but if I were to use it it would not be for portable use as they are as bigh as the HE6.

re the he6p - any item of how easy to drive it'll be, eg.  can it be run directly from a dap, will a small portable like a pico slim do it...? i wonder if this is what he was showing in ny running directly off the 801 player. i thought he had a regular he6, since i wasn't aware of the he6p being mentioned until the ces reports came in, and that he had a special high output amp in the 801 driving the 6. given the tiny caseless sr71b prototype driving the heck out of he6s this didn't seem far fetched.

it seems a stretch to call the 6p a portable, but i suppose hard core travelers might bring it along if the associated equipment to run it off of is easy enough to bring along. how big a difference was there between the p & the standard unit, let's say using the leben to drive the std off the spkr taps and the can jack to drive the ps? that'd be a good test to see the diffs between the two as the leben is being touted as a great amp for the he6s and it's headphone jack is supposedly not compromised but driven off the main amp but stepped down (not some cheap op amp headphone section as integrateds and receivers often have).

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveDerek 

re the he6p - any item of how easy to drive it'll be, eg.  can it be run directly from a dap, will a small portable like a pico slim do it...? i wonder if this is what he was showing in ny running directly off the 801 player. i thought he had a regular he6, since i wasn't aware of the he6p being mentioned until the ces reports came in, and that he had a special high output amp in the 801 driving the 6. given the tiny caseless sr71b prototype driving the heck out of he6s this didn't seem far fetched.

it seems a stretch to call the 6p a portable, but i suppose hard core travelers might bring it along if the associated equipment to run it off of is easy enough to bring along. how big a difference was there between the p & the standard unit, let's say using the leben to drive the std off the spkr taps and the can jack to drive the ps? that'd be a good test to see the diffs between the two as the leben is being touted as a great amp for the he6s and it's headphone jack is supposedly not compromised but driven off the main amp but stepped down (not some cheap op amp headphone section as integrateds and receivers often have).

Dave, I ran them directly out of my iPhone headphone out (with the volume at about 95%), and they sounded great.  They were however even better plugged into my iBasso D4 (better than my HD600's out of the same source).  I didn't do any real A/B'ing with a dedicated headphone amp since my only options at home right now are my iBasso D4, my iPhone, Sansa Clip+ and my PC's headphone out.  They aren't anywhere near portable in the sense of size or convenience, but I love the fact that I won't need anything more then I have right now to run them.  I can't wait until March...

Quote:

Originally Posted by jp11801 

 

Dave the Leben sounded very good and extremely quiet with the JH13s. Not the best I've heard but very good.I did not listen the the 6 just the 6p but I trust Fang's word on this. The 6p was powered from an amp Fang brought I think when I listened.

The 6P was on the 801 Fang brought with him The HE6 sounded very very good on the Taboo CSP-2 combo

Lee you wasted no time in spending your bucks and are now a full fledged member of the Go Broke club here at Head Fi. thanks for the impressions and comments. I only supplied the venue but my co host Ross was a major help from a good friend and we look forward to doing another one. Thank you for your participation and the wonderful pictures you took.  Now you will want to buy another amp. LOL You are actually set with your amps and LCD2 that is until you buy your next flagship remember this is Head Fi and we spend spend spend.

Some more impressions:

My reference point were the HE-5LE's since I had been listening to them for the past few months.  My first listen were the LCD-2's on the Leben amp and my first impression was that they were a bit dark compared to the HE-5LE sound.  However, they were still quite enjoyable and I could see why a lot of people enjoy them.  I also listened to the HD800s and they seem to be pretty picky about amps.  I have listened to them in the past on different setups and found them a bit funky in the treble and soundstage, but I really liked them off the Woo amp and off Ari's amp.  I listened to Frank's Taboo setup with the T1's, the LCD-2's, and my HE5-LE's and it drove everything with ease.  I'm still not a fan of the T1, but it was probably the best I've heard the HE5-LE's (the other time being the B22).  Again, thanks to Frank and Ross for the great mini-meet!