Hey kids! I had great fun at the meet and yet again, shout out to Raj (rmx) for throwing together a great meet. It always takes someone to organize everything and that person usually isn't me!
POTENTIAL MINI-MEET!
My vote is totally with Enricht about a boatload of pizza over going with an admission charge but this was a good way for everyone to meet at first! I'm totally down for a mini-meet at someone's house, my vote is sooner than later to just hang out with some other people who appreciate music and good gear.
My place is a super small basement suite and between my queen sized bed and 7.1 Home theater setup, there's really only room for 2-3 guests comfortably though more could fit, it'd just be cozy. And it's messy as hell. Oh well, another reason to clean (the reasons as well as the mess seem to keep compiling). But my home theater setup is pretty fun! I even have ass shakers in my Walmart futon that get a direct feed from the sub channel for those bassy moments like T-Rex in Jurassic Park! It sounds like rmx's place or for that matter almost anyone else's house might be better suited, but I'm down if no one else is.
PEEPS!
Anyways, back to the meet, everybody was super crazy friendly and very warm and open. Rmx (Raj) was a superb host and made sure everybody was welcome. Shion (Gabriel) had his permasmile going on and his goofy demeanor kept the mood fun and light-hearted. Enright (ok, seriously, I can't remember everybody's name! people gotta post their real names for me!) and his gf were a blast... your camera is totally sick dude! Looks more expensive than a lot of people's complete setups! You guys had great chemistry and kept it real just being your goofy 'selves... I loved the Karaoke, your gf is hilarious! Roastpuff (Diondi... sp?) was super enthusiastic about all the gear and a great guy... Aliacha (Matt) was kinda the wise sage of the group, keeping to himself but very insightful on all sorts of gear, esp. grados... Applebook (derek i believe?) was super cool, it was cool to find another w2002 fan... I had the senn 600's before the w2002, so I can totally see how you'd like them. And I'm totally spacing on this dude's name, Tim was it? Anyways, dressed in black vest and blue collared shirt was super crazy nice and had a really good knowledge of DIY stuff... totally beyond my current comprehension. Knew all about this Millett hyprid i keep hearing about...
NO SHOWS!
Speaking of Millett Hybrids... there were supposed to be 3 of them and all of them no-showed! Not to mention any beyer's, no RS-1 etc. etc... You guys gotta show up next time! I need to hear your cans! heehee...
GEAR!
Now on to the fun stuff!
Alessandro MS2i: Rmx's (Raj) blacksilver-recabled ms2i's with Beyer C-pads were my absolute favourite cans of the meet! I'd never heard a Grado or Alessandro before this meet so it was great to finally try them out. These were totally fun cans... weren't super bright like the other Grado cans I listened to (esp. the HP2) and to me sounded like they had a subtle "V" equalization to them... (ie. a lil emphasis on bass and treble and a lil suckout maybe on the mids, but didn't really get a good chance to give them a listen with so much gear at the meet) but remember, I usually listen to the w2002 which are pretty well known to have an upside down "V" equalization to them (emphasis on mids, suckout on sub-40Hz bass and rolled-off treble). I didn't get a super long chance to listen to them, but I might like the sound signature of these cans better than the w2002! But I didn't feel they had the details of the w2002... maybe ms-pro is that can? Who knows...
Grado HP2: Wow, do these things feel over-hyped... I realized this meet that I don't like overly bright cans and WOW these things are super bright. Totally not my cup of tea... and I heard MSRP was in the 300-400ish range or so? Wow, I really don't see the appeal except if you want a really bright can.
Grado SR60 and Alessandro MS1: Holy crap these things are amazing! No wonder people rave about them! I had a VERY brief listen to them, but they are in NO way over-hyped as being an amazing value... the over-riding lesson at this meet was that there wasn't a huge jump from high-end to low-end... the prices might be huge differences but the sound quality is actually relatively close.
Koss KSC-35: OMG value cans again!!! I might even prefer the sound signature over my ew9 and em9d! Yet again, not overhyped at all and will have to A/B vs. ew9 and em9d... obviously the ew9/em9d win on detail, but the ksc-35 are just tons of FUN!
K1000: Fun to actually try these out, for me personally sounded they had an emphasis on the treble and upper midrange. They were very good, but somehow not my cup of tea, but revealed a lot of details and can see the appeal for an upgrade over a lot of 2 or 3 hundred dollar cans.
Random Stanton's: Wow these things are horrible! Out of the DAC1/Dynahi combo they make songs I've heard a thousand times before practically unrecognizable! Amazing!!!
Senn 650: Used to own the 600's which I bought before I heard of head-fi and realize their a lil too reserved for my tastes, though they're solid overall cans.
Audio-Technica A900: Could hear the sound signature of the w2002 but obviously didn't have the magic. I think I'd take an MS1 over the A900 at this price range personally, but might've been the novelty of a new fun, agressive sound signature vs. hearing a downgraded version of a sound signature you're used to.
AKG 271: Wow, at first I listen to them out of the Lil Dot tube amp and I really hated these things... thought they were insanely mediocre. But then tried 'em out of Rmx (raj's) laptop and Xin insanely small amp (can't member name) and they sounded golden! Might've been the bass boost in the amp, but all of a sudden these things were crystal clear and super transparent... maybe just need a lil bass boostage in your source or amp and these things really are a steal! Probably my second favourite can at the meet after the ms2i.
Grado HF-1: Yet again, not seeing the hype... are they grado's? yep. Are they totally mind-blowing? Not for me. Write another one off to flavour of the month, though they are good, they're just not "OMG you have to try this"
DYNAHI!
BTW, the Dynahi wasn't the limiting factor on the volume for K1000... it's just cuz I'm using the w2002 with the Dynahi at home so i've turned down the calibrated sound on my DAC1 as low as it can freaking go... otherwise with stepped attenuator, it gets way too loud after like 2 clicks. So I'm sure it could get a lot louder, but I listen low compared to most I believe. It's crappy that the poor lil Dynahi has a grounding issue (random buzz in right ear... not to mention EXTRA random buzz when holding the stepped attenuator...) gotta get that fixed in the future, but I'm a lil apprehensive leaving it at Trevor's considering his reputation for getting around to making people's Dynahi's and the whole fiasco with the Porta Corda II's for western Canada. So if anybody knows anybody, maybe I'll consider. Maybe just PM headphile or Larocco cuz I go down to Seattle fairly often with Moniki_123 (monique) my gf...
But buzzing aside I freaking love this amp, it's even better than I remembered from my very first meet a year ago and hopefully we can do up a mini-review of sorts at a mini-meet cuz there is still very very little dynahi reviews out there... especially maxed out dynahi's like mine cuz I think the MSRP was a lil over $1500 initially for this one. I'm pretty sure Trevor back in the day said his Dynahi's have over $500 in parts alone in them.
CONCLUSION
Anyways, rockin' meet.... great to finally try the Grado/Alessandro sound and meet a lot of wicked people to hopefully meet up with again soon! Keep in touch kids! And if you Van people could post your real names that'd be awesome! It's hard to remember everybody's name... too many people for my lil brain! Keep in touch kids!
Dylan (iamsmrt)
P.S. I gotta run to work so I didn't proofread this... might have some mistakes (i know on valentine's day... but i'm working with my gf!).