During this meet, I discovered that my apartment has crap wiring. I connected my amp to the Shunyata cable they had in the room, and after it powered up, I immediately thought, "where's the buzz?". At home, the moment the relay clicks and the amp output turns on, I hear a distinctive sawtooth buzz coming from the amp itself. I never figured out where exactly it was coming from, the tubes or something else, but it's always there. And it wasn't there at the meet. If I put my ear right up against the amp, I could hear the faintest buzz, but from the couch, I couldn't hear it at all. At home, I can hear it 8 feet away. So you guys really heard the best that my amp has to offer. I've always been a cable skeptic, but I'm seriously considering getting a Shunyata cable now, because the amp buzz at home is something that always slightly irritated me, but I thought it was inherent to the amp.
I'm glad that a lot of people really liked the L700. I was talking to one of the guys (the one who came along with
@lord_tris I think) about the Jr vs L700, and we agreed that the Jr is an electrostatic Hifiman while the Stax does something different and distinctive. I think at the last meet, since there was also the Audeze CRBN and only one amp, the L700 kind of fell by the wayside compared to the expensive estats, but at this meet, people were able to give it proper listening time.
Speaking of estats, the Koss unit is good. Thanks
@Svperstar for bringing it. I didn't sense the same staging qualities as on my L700, nor did it have the same bass texture as either the L700 or the Jr, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper, and it isn't as bright or nasally as the Stax. It's well balanced and affordable, which is a good combination of traits. I wish the amp's knob wasn't as finicky though.
I'm not sure why I had such a scowl on my face in that photo above. There must have been some noise coming from the tape corner while I was listening to the Caldera. I swear I'm not an angry, irritable curmudgeon.