Quote:
Koss PortaPro on nspidel's Eddie Current Balancing Act = awesome.
wow, what a brilliant geekishly mismatched pair! wish i'd gotten to hear that - musta been a blast!
first of all thanks to Tom'buttons for organizing yet another terrific meet. this one seemed particularly fine, even by the high standards of his previous events!
i was tied up earlier in the day, and then sat in LI traffic on the way there, so unfortunately i didn't get too much actual event time in. as always, it was great seeing the gang again, especially some of the folks who hadn't been to one in a while.
since there are requests for impressions (Tom, feel free to toss in some of your own!), and given the large turnout for this event impressions have been frightfully scarce, i might as well toss out a few. the hifiman ef6 and he6 combo was a special treat. i'm not a big fan of stepped volume controls but this one seemed to do the job nicely. the amp has been a long time coming and it costs a lot more than it was originally estimated to, but the combo performs at a very high level and we've all seen rigs that cost more than this that don't deliver this level of performance. i'd love to try this amp with other cans too. i bet it will do a nice job with many (ortho)dynamics this side of an iem. as many have noted, Ari's diy amp and eq'd senn hd800 rig is a particularly fine sounding one, with none of the treble excesses that can oft times tarnish hd800 systems. i got my first listen to magnums (v4s) and would like to spend some more time hearing what it has to offer, especially in comparison to their grado cousins. it did have a very open sound. mr speakers mad dog modded fostex also sounded like it's worth spending a bunch more time with than the few minutes i heard it playing via an iphone and portable o2 source/amp. it sounded pretty full range with out gross colorations. the ue personal reference monitors sounded really fine. they were tight lipped about the construction of these devices and wouldn't divulge the mix of the 5 drivers so the curious amongst you will just have to speculate for now. and one would need to spend a bunch of time in a far less distracting environment than a meet to get the knob twiddling down to the exact preferred balance as once it's locked in and made, the settings are final. it'd be nice if there was a way for the owner to electronically tweak them but that does not seem possible. beyer had a couple of new cans. the t90 or t70 at about half the price of a t1 sounded quite nice, though clearly not as refined as their flagship (it would have been surprising if that was not the case....). headamp, woo audio, and red wine all had stuff that i can only wish i had time to play with, although my previous experience with all of their goodies has left me wanting much more time with them! lots of folks brought along a wide range of cool gear, from commercial to tweaked to diy.
the post event dinner outing was a nice opportunity to catch up with old friends and shoot the audio breeze. once again kudos to Tom, and all the participants without whom it wouldn't happen, for another great event!