Thank you all the vendors and members for coming and bringing their gear/sharing their audio xps, and Paul for making it happen despite being preoccupied w the baby. also pleasing to see he got enough people helping him out as volunteers!
Wish I handn't missed half the meet due to lack of pub transport skills and quality spacing out skills.
nice to catch up w some of you I know from before, or traded with and meet a lot of new people.
special thanks to the electrostatic/diy people (wink and nattonrice) and a2a (wink is also the - 10s of high end hp scattered around the table on the far left
person) - I enjoyed those tables and chats immensely. (and complaining
). not to mention it was great to hear high end stax and senns stats and t2.
finally - nice gear from tralucent audio (the secret vendor).
I quite liked the reasonably priced portable amp (the interconnect was very sturdy and aethetically pleasing too).
I thought their hybrid iem was fantastic (dual ba driver in the nozzle - mids and highs) and dynamic for lows above. it also seemed like there weren't explicit sound tubes inside, but couldn't see well as the shell was pretty opaque?
Lillee was saying they're selling on simplicty and clever design and sound purity/coherency ?
the universal version might not fit everyone(Paul?), but I found it comfortable and it sealed well.
the sub bass was deep and satisfying, the mid bass - plentiful but not bloated, the mids forward and pleasing and highs extended and detailed but not sibilant or harsh.
whoever tuned/designed them has something to be proud of.
I can't really conclude that IEM vs Merlin, due to different tips and form factor (and my price for used Merlin vs special price to hf meet people), but I am impressed.