[zabzaf]

Post 'em if you got 'em...

 

[tjl5709]

Thanks to all who set this up, and who all participated.
 
Overture Audio should get a big applause for letting us take over their floor space. It's a nice shop.
 
I want to thank Jude for letting me experience his Shure KSE1500's.
 
This is a love hate thing. Blown away by the sound. No way I'm able to swing them.

 

[MrTie84]

1. HiFiMAN HE6 Headphones will be shipped to XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX by Amazon.com.
   Guaranteed delivery: Mar. 28, 2016

 
Is that enough of an impression?

 

[MrTie84]

Wonderful meet, this one was straight up overwhelming in the amount of people and gear to take in. Thank you all for putting this together and to Overture for hosting.
Standouts for me.
 
1. HE-6: The last hifiman I had yet to hear, and boy oh boy was it a doozy. I've already started retooling my gear plans and ordered one. The mean, ungodly inefficient, mule kickingly physical, person baby of the HD800 and the LCD3, THIS is what I live for in a headphone. Now to accomplish the herculean tasks of amping it well and making it barely comfortable.
 
2.Stax L700: At the last meet up I had my first taste of Stax, namely the 007 and 009 off the Blue Hawaii, and while I could see how the otherworldly cleanness and ethereal treble could appeal to people, I was not a fan. My gain , I thought,  I'll never have to worry about that particular audio cult. Well....the L700 is everything the 009 isn't to my memory. What a supremely balanced and great sounding can, I think what I said all day was wow this the most "Normal" sounding stat I've heard. Relative terms, my ears and preferences of course, but this can is definitely on my future radar when the stat cultist sell them off to move up the chain. Female vocal are to die for on these things and they made real bass.
 
3.Fostex TH-X00: I figured these might be riding high on the hype train and i generally don't enjoy closed cans.....I was wrong these things are the business,  killer cans for electronic music. Easy recommendation for anyone  in the upper reaches of middle priced gear, I would place them in good company with the HD6x0, and HE-400S. If I hadn't just blown my wad on HE-6 I would be eyeballing the Purpleheart massdrop of these real hard tonight.
 
4.TOPnut's entire set up: You sir are a madman! That 445 stole my damn soul on both our HD800s. Very cool tube CD players as well. As empty a platitude as this is in audio that was like hearing that Steely Dan album for the first time.  I may never be able to approach that kind of gear but it's wonderful to know just how high my HD800s can scale. Thank you so much for hauling all of this crazy crazy stuff out. I hope you got into your car ok.
 
Also huge apologies to people who tried my Multibit/Uber test in the first hour and a half, I am an idiot and had not toggled on the matching eq... I think the later testing was a lot closer. Please don't think I was trying to run some kind of Objectivist witch hunt,  but DACs are by far one of the most subtle changes I've experienced in my system and I thought some people could appreciate a little brevity in the face of so much colorful prose about huge differences.  Whatever you thought from this,  Schiit makes a damn good product all the way up the line.
 
I had a blast, as did my friend Adam who learned a lot more about what he wants from this hobby, so mission accomplished.
 
I only snapped one quick picture, but piles for miles.
 

 

[sealykojac]

Glad to finally make a meet. Was nice to chat with fellow enthusiasts. My quick thoughts on the gear. The Yggy is huge, Schiit is everywhere, the N90Q's are range certified, I never win anything, glad I passed on HD800s, unfortunately may have to buy an Edition X (my LCD2 possibly FS)?

 

[zabzaf]

First, I wanted to thank a2keith and the Overture team for being such gracious hosts for today's meet. Without you, none of this happens. Thanks also goes out to Grado, ADL, HifiMan, NAD, and Nordoost for the awesome prizes. Very impressive! Thanks to JEspina456 for the badges and place cards. Loved them!

Alto thanks goes out to all the participants that took their day out to spend together. Looking back, I'm finding that for me, the meets are more about getting together as a community than simply hearing new gear. Don't get me wrong, that's a big part. But I, for one, enjoy just talking about gear and sharing stories.

For those of you who joined us at Wolverine Brewing after the meet, thank you for wonderful and spirited conversation. Someone, I think it was jude, said that a 5 hour meet just isn't enough. I think that says it all for me.

As far as impressions, I think this meet more than ever underscored the fact that I am happy with my current set-up. Don't get me wrong, I'm always looking for something new. Some of the highlights for me:

-The estat Shure in-ears. Simply the finest in-ear I have ever heard. It left both myself and AKGunkie at a literal loss for words, which doesn't happen often.

-The Audeze Sine are my next can. The Cypher cable mates perfectly with the cans making the iPhone a formidable portable source.

-The Chord Dave, Eddie Current 445, and Bricasti M-1 represented the finest in summit-fi. Simply stunning gear!

-Catching up with the crew...dinner with elrod-tom, JEspina456, musicman59, AxelCloris, timkwhite, hikaritenchi, Turbo AL, and of course jude.

For me, this meet will be remembered by as the year of the automobile fail...one dead battery, one set of keys locked in a car, and one loading dock that got tagged!

Lastly, I'd like to dedicate this meet to to [@]kayandjohn[/@], warrenpchi, and krikor. You were missed this time around but I think you would have been proud...

Enough with the mush, bring on the impressions!

 

[canthearyou]

I'll get some thoughts here tomorrow. Tl;dr a great meet, a great place and great people.

Oh yeah, I'm enjoying those NAD Viso HP50's!

 

[PETEREK]

  Glad to finally make a meet. Was nice to chat with fellow enthusiasts. My quick thoughts on the gear. The Yggy is huge, Schiit is everywhere, the N90Q's are range certified, I never win anything, glad I passed on HD800s, unfortunately may have to buy an Edition X (my LCD2 possibly FS)?

Dude I am actually about to put the LCD-X up for sale to fund an Edition X purchase.

 

[PETEREK]

Oh, and who at the meet owns a Mazdaspeed 3??

 

[superfluke]

The meet was great! It was awesome to get to try out so much different equipment. Thanks @zabzaf for letting me try out my amp with your Gugnir. Trying out the HD800S and @MrTie84's HD800 and Bifrost Multibit/Uber comparison probably saved me selling my HD800 for the HD800S and getting a Gugnir Multibit. Jude's Shure elecrostats were amazing - how do they make in-ears sound so good? I actually had to avoid listening too long to TOPnut's setup and the Stax/Dave setups because I don't want to get unhappy with my current setup! My HD800 sounded so much better with TOPnut's 445.
 
I've been a long time lurker and am super happy I came out to the meet. Everyone was super friendly and it was a good time. Thanks ADL for the H118! They sound great and I'll be using them any time I'm away from home.
 
Next time I'll make sure to bring a power strip and some FLAC!

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Big shoutout to the guys with cameras that attended so that us members on another part of the planet can be there in spirit!!!

Spoiler: Digital polaroid

Looking forward to the pics!

 

 
 

   
  1. HE-6: The last hifiman I had yet to hear, and boy oh boy was it a doozy. I've already started retooling my gear plans and ordered one. The mean, ungodly inefficient, mule kickingly physical, person baby of the HD800 and the LCD3, THIS is what I live for in a headphone. Now to accomplish the herculean tasks of amping it well and making it barely comfortable.

You know, I never really enjoyed the weight of the Audeze and older double magnet Hifimans but there's a comfort strap you can buy from one of the members on Head-fi and it absolutely transforms the comfort of these heavier phones. Essentially adding a leather strap to work as a suspension headband equalizing the load on your head and adding comfort for DAYS. Or so it was with the Audeze stock headband to them but I would imagine the older Hifiman metal band wrapped in leather to have the same benefits. @Lohb is the guy to talk to.

 

[zabzaf]

Here is a link to the Periscope video I took...

https://www.periscope.tv/w/acaZjjF6WUViTWR5TmtqZXh8MXpxS1ZvWk5reVZHQoIMhpQinpolv_7Oa8gzL4HMjxXFE0MB1FZJEWfLV0sM

 

[zabzaf]

My favorite rig of the day...

https://www.periscope.tv/w/acaZ9DF6WUViTWR5TmtqZXh8MVJER2xNQlJ5Z0VKTHWYBBU2On51-E4mtqjiBl9-y6rHoXjubLwZH95PPTH6

 

[MrTie84]

Awesome video and a reminder I need to lose some damn weight again lmao.

 

[JEspina456]

What a great meet.  I felt like I got to try a lot of stuff and talk to more people than usual.  It went very smoothly and had a positive vibe. 
 
What I learned:
 
1)  I still want a HD800.  I has, and so far, always has, been my favorite headphone.  The HD800S tops it, but that's out of my price range!  Trying the HD800 on various amps and DACs still affirms my love for it.  
 
2)  Eddie Current...Unobtainable, but absolutely wonderful.
 
3)  Dharma is interesting.  I like the look and fit and it stands out in it's own category.  
 
4)  Dragonfly Red.  Jude brought this out at the end.  Using a CCK to my iPhone 6s Plus, the Dragonfly can power full size headphones without charging a battery.  This is what I was hoping the Schiit Fulla could do, but it could not.  I will be picking one of these up for when I sit and do paperwork at the library or coffee shop.  
 
5)  Rega Turntable.  While I was there, I took the opportunity to learn a little more about upgrading my vinyl setup.  The entry level Rega RP1 is $445 and not too shabby.  It's also fully upgradable as you go.  Although it's boring looking to me.  Superficially, I prefer the brighter colors of the Pro-ject line but Overture Audio did not carry their line (sorry!)
 
6)  Audeze Sine with Cipher cable.  Wow!  I love that I can power high quality, Audeze sound with the lightning port of my iPhone.  And, suprisingly, the bass is smooth and powerful to this bass-head.  
 
7)  The guys at the meet.  I talked to so many new faces yesterday.  Great to meet everybody.  @sealykojacand @timkwhite educated me on my new interest, photography.  Now I just need to win the lottery....
 
John (JEspina456)