Lofty's minimeet impressions  

How is it?  --  Thanks Howard for putting this together, it was one mini-meet where some meaningful listening got done.  I had good time with everyone & enjoyed it.  If anyone cares, I ended up finding Main St. & my way to the Palisades.  The directions the bar-lady gave were terrible, I should've gone with my instincts when she said turn left and pointed right.

Hey guys, thanks for coming. I certainly had a great time. Braeswel, I would suggest googling Music Reference and going to the web site. You can read Rogers bio and all about the design philosophy of the RM10. Just click on the RM10 link. Not sure your receiver will do the amp justice.

for those of you that weren't there, lofty had a sweet mini-meet at his beautiful digs. this mini-meet was somewhat focused on ortho/planar comparisons with the audeze lcd2(rev.1) and lcd3 present, along with the he6 prototype cans (too bad i wasn't real clear on all this before hand or i'd have brought along my production he6s to join the crew. oh well - mebbe next time). other cans in attendance included the hd800, sony mdr r10, akg k701, fostex (t20?), and sm3 iems. common source was a cambridge audio 840 which was mostly run thru a havana dac. there was also an ipod setup (not sure how it was outputted tho). amps included an rsa apache, virtue audio one.2, Ari's great silver ghost diy job (fantastic amp!) and a few others whose names i'm not recalling at the moment including a very nice little diy portable which sounded lovely with a few of the cans (i'm sure the other attendees will fill in these blanks). somehow i managed to miss out on the music reference rm10 pictured above. one of the points of this small meet was to minimize both distractions and variables to make comparisons more meaningful. with the lcds though one variable was cabling and another was whether they were run single ended or balanced. that said i'll share a few impressions after first thanking Howard (lofty) for his and his lovely wife's most gracious and generous hospitality!

the lcd3s vs the 2s are a bit more extended and better defined throughout the range. folks commonly comment on the fullness, extension, and texture of the lcd2s bass but the 3s are more defined and textured at the bottom end, and indeed through the midrange and highs as well. they are also more extended at the top. these are important, if not huge differences. i also find the 3s more comfortable with their softer pads and subjectively they feel just a bit lighter. personally i also find their zebra wood more aesthetically pleasing. the he6 protos are more comfortable (thought the hd800 is much better than the planars in this regard. of course they're much better than most phones wrt comfort!) and pleasingly brighter on top. they too have a full, punchy, defined and pleasing bass. some folks will clearly prefer the sonic signature of the hifiman ortho while others will lean towards audezes approach. it's hard to go wrong with either imo, and i think most, though not all, head-fiers will concur with this. the he6 protos were driven very nicely by the virtue audio amp. this amp should silence the needlessly extended discussion about the difficulty of driving these cans. the amp was smaller than all the can amps except for the portable, is less costly than many/most can amps, and drives them effortlessly. Ari's hd800s thru the amp he built is one of the nicest hd800 rigs you're likely to hear, and it seems to garner near universal praise at meets. i listened very briefly to the sm3s and thought them very pleasant and well worth spending some more time with.

Looks like you guys had a blast. The RM10 looks stunning. Roger makes fantastic amps. I bet with the audible illusion pre and vandersteen they sound great. Cant wait to hear it.

Pics or it didn't happen!    That's your cue Ari.

I'll throw some impressions in: 

I'll start with Dave's Virtue tripath, very nice little box that manhandles the HE-6 prototypes.  No lack of power there.  I commented later to Ari that the HE-6 take on a warmish, full sound when properly powered, and the tripath delivered.  I wonder how many watts it puts out into 50 ohms?

I thought the LCD-3s were a slight cut above the LCD-2s, on the right track the 3s are just so much more lush and moving, but that approach doesn't work on all types of music and the dry presentation of the LCD-2s works better then.  The LCD-2s actually sound more "reference" to me, though pretty un-involving.  

Ari's Silver Ghost amp (which was made for the HD800s months before the HD800s were announced) was just perfect.  I think the HD800s are a little thin at times but boy does it work for most types of music.  Perhaps if Ari had his Behringer there the bottom end of things would have been a little more fleshed out.  It's hard not to consider that combination an "endgame" combination.

The R10s.  Yes.

Cambridge 840C vs. Havana; as expected the Havana sounded less dry and it's a preference thing between the two: I prefer the Havana.

The LCD-3 off the Objective2 vs. the LCD-2 off the RSA Apache -- I liked the former.

Im still here, just have no time to edit photos & upload them. I will post them in force tonight or tomorrow. 

Some pics:

Our gracious host sitting attentively as another guest arrives at the door.  

Got a little tired meeting all the new people. 

If this were my house this is right where I would plop down to listen to my HD580 with 600 grills and a Cardas cable too. Excellent choice. 

People and their headphones keeping me up. You don't want to know what happens if I dont get 20hours of sleep a day. 

Seriously, Howards pets were very cool. Onto people and gear!

Our actual host, Howard, listening to the Audeze LCD-3. 

A quick snap of the table. 

The R10 make an appearance. 

Brasewel with the R10

sphinxvc with the HD800

Pictures to continue after the break. 

Dave with the HD800

All of us, taken by Mrs. Lofty. 

Some gear:

The stars of the show:

The LCD-2 and LCD-3

The Apache headphone amp

The CD player and DAC are in the back there. 

The O2 headphone amp. Sounded quite nice.

The AKG-K701 

Behold! The Audeze LCD-3 headphones. Although they look good here, they look much better in person. 

The RSA Apache, mostly used for the Orthos, but also used for the HD800 for a bit. Its amazing to see how systems fit together, I didnt like the HD800 on the apache as much as my amp. 

My side of the table :) 

R10 

World Audio Designs HD83 (this marks the 5'th thread that the WAD HD83 has been mentioned in on head-fi)

The Silver Ghost - the OTL tube monster amp that I designed & built. 

A better shot of the HD83

One of The Silver Ghost. 

Great pics & great lighting on some of these.

Well, I can see why his handle is Nikongod! Fabulous pics, love the close ups of the cans. Thanks Ari.