First off, I'd like to say I had a great time at the meet! It was my second one and it was absolutely phenomenal, I definitely gained a lot of knowledge and further understanding there. I have to say today(well, yesterday now) definitely reinforced my thought that higher fidelity definitely makes you appreciate certain genres and artists a whole lot more. I was never a big muddy waters fan but I was floored by how raw and emotional it ended up sounding on Niel's headroom setup for his 325i's. His balance act on the LCD-3's was a favorite of mine yesterday as well and I got to get a lot of enjoyment out of that. My favorite session of the day had to be listening to Rachmaninoff on HD800's through one of Herbert's amps that Sphinx had brought in. I had heard a lot of praise for the staging of the cans but that was some incredible stuff I heard going with the piano work.
Overall it was fun to just go around and learn while I helped gain a palette for myself which I am kind of short on. I do think I got closer to my next can with the Maverick D1 I brought along and the Senn HD650 seems to be a match made in heaven. They had some blue dragon cables on them as well so that may have made a difference but I had no stock cables to compare to. A lot of the other cans I tried just didn't seem to have amazing synergy with the D1 overall except maybe the VModa M80 but I don't think that can really seems like it'd be too picky about what it's being plugged into. Definitely am NOT a fan of the K701 through the D1 vs what I had heard through some Schiit gear earlier this year. Biggest disappointment though was not being able to listen to Pras' new set up with the Hifiman's and Herbert's bread board DIY stuff that was next to mine....I dunno, just kind of got lost in everything today
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One last thing though. The SR009's with the Blue Hawaii? One word, unreal.