Portland Head-Fi Meet (03/02/13) at Echo Audio - Impressions/Pics

A BIG shoutout to Damon Coffman (left). This amplifier is one of the most beautiful instruments I've ever heard. That's me on the right!

I have to say, this whole evening was a great success thanks to Rob (MusicPDX) and everybody who came and brought equipment. I had a great time and learned A LOT.

-sheldon 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheldonkreger 

 

A BIG shoutout to Damon Coffman (left). This amplifier is one of the most beautiful instruments I've ever heard. That's me on the right!

 

I have to say, this whole evening was a great success thanks to Rob (MusicPDX) and everybody who came and brought equipment. I had a great time and learned A LOT.

 

-sheldon 

I could not agree more with sheldon.  The HA-1 headphone amp is going to be something and is way up there near the top of the class of reference headphone amps, I would gainsay.  It remains a spiritual revelation every time I put in well-recorded CDs.  The tone and timbre of instruments is achingly sublime on acoustic and jazz pieces.

Rob and Kurt were very gracious.  The customer service at Echo is beyond excellent.  I shall return...and I sincerely hope to be at the next Portland area meet.  There were several pieces of fine gear I did not have a chance to listen to as I had to leave just as the meet started to rock...the Fosgate and Yamamoto looked very cool and I look forward to impressions from other attendees about those two tube beauties..

Echo is a great place, no doubt.  Kudos to Rob for a wonderful time...

One of you fine gentlemen had an HD-800 hooked up to a Burson Soloist, a Fostex HP-P1, and some other tube amp. If somebody wouldn't mind telling me what tube amp it was, I would really appreciate it. Your/his set-up was magical.

Quote:

Originally Posted by anoxy 

One of you fine gentlemen had an HD-800 hooked up to a Burson Soloist, a Fostex HP-P1, and some other tube amp. If somebody wouldn't mind telling me what tube amp it was, I would really appreciate it. Your/his set-up was magical.

I think it was the fosgate signature headphone amp with a Pure i-20 Ipod dock. 

http://www.head-fi.org/products/fosgate-signature-headphone-amplifier

ohh was that the soloist?  I thought it was the 160.   I really really enjoyed it.

edit: I think it was the hp-p1 with the fosgate signature and the burson with the pure i20.

Ah yes, that was it! I got Fosgate and Fostex mixed up so Google wasn't giving me any results haha...thanks!

Yeah that set-up with the HD-800 wowed me. Then I listened to the 800s out of that HA-1(?) amp that they were debuting I think, and I was really underwhelmed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wharfrat 

 

I could not agree more with sheldon.  The HA-1 headphone amp is going to be something and is way up there near the top of the class of reference headphone amps, I would gainsay.  It remains a spiritual revelation every time I put in well-recorded CDs.  The tone and timbre of instruments is achingly sublime on acoustic and jazz pieces.

 

Rob and Kurt were very gracious.  The customer service at Echo is beyond excellent.  I shall return...and I sincerely hope to be at the next Portland area meet.  There were several pieces of fine gear I did not have a chance to listen to as I had to leave just as the meet started to rock...the Fosgate and Yamamoto looked very cool and I look forward to impressions from other attendees about those two tube beauties..

 

Echo is a great place, no doubt.  Kudos to Rob for a wonderful time...

As a musician and aspiring producer, it's very inspiring to know that engineers like Damon Coffman are creating instruments like the HA-1. All of the hours of practice and all the struggle to buy gear, create music, etc . . . it's all worth it to me for my love of the drums. But, this weekend, I discovered a whole new level of motivation, which is to create music which really allows high end listening equipment to perform at its best.

Thank you so much to everybody who brought gear and arranged the meet. My eyes are open to a whole new world!

-sheldon

It was a fun meet and I was amazed with the knowledge floating around the room and the products.  I had a lot of fun eavesdropping in on a lot of conversations.  

The highlight of the night was DenonBeavers facial expression when the gentleman who likes his music LOUD demoed the LCD2.

The gentleman on the left when you first walked into echo audio had some amazing gear.  (sorry i forgot your name ) I really enjoyed the t1's with the burson.  His setup also made me rethink about giving apple another chance.   Your collection was very impressive.

Sbradley02's jolida setup.  After watching the mechanic Jolida was a brand I wanted to hear.  I didn't get a chance to check out your cables, can anyone comment?

It was really cool to see the sennheiser amp and the coffman

Thank you Echo, MusicPDX, Mr Coffman, Sennheiser Dude & everyone else!

Yeah, the Sennheiser rig was awesome. Plus, I got a lanyard, pen, and t-shirt!

*puts in his IE60's*

\m/

-sheldon

Thanks again to all of you for coming to Echo, sharing your equipment, and for making the event such a fun success. I attended CanJam last year, but this was my fist local meet and I enjoyed meeting you and listening to all your rigs.  

I've lurked the Head-Fi forums for a few years now and have benefitted a lot from member insights when making my own purchases. So it was fun to work with Kurt to plan an event and give something back to the community here.

Look forward to doing it again!

Cheers

Rob

I had a great time!

Kudos to the organizers and to Echo Audio for being such a great host

The HA-1 is a true work of art

One of my favorite pieces was the Bryston amplifier. This is a real giant killer at the price

I especially enjoyed talking to all the newcomers, that was cool
 

From Damon@coffmanlabs.com

A big thank you to everyone for showing up!  I had a blast and it was great to meet everyone.  We should do more of these if Kurt is up for it.

As I mentioned to some of you it was a bit of a scramble for me to get our new Coffman Labs H1-A headphone amp near-final by the event date.  It resulted in several late nights J BUT I really wanted all the feedback I recieved.  Thank you so much!!!  Some of your comments will show up in the final production.

I was thrilled to hear so many positive comments and to read the evaluations after the event. As the designer there is always the fear that people will tell you your baby is ugly. 

We have a couple tweaks to make, but with your insights and enthusiastic thumbs-ups we’ll be going into production very soon.   Check with Kurt or at the Coffman Labs website in the next few weeks.

www.coffmanlabs.com

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tattare 

 

Sbradley02's jolida setup.  After watching the mechanic Jolida was a brand I wanted to hear.  I didn't get a chance to check out your cables, can anyone comment?

I loaned pairs to Echo Audio and Coffman Labs