[uzi]

Quote:

If you wanna meet up, I can bring my Gungnir out, might as well shoot high right? I honestly always knew the MSII was a winner, but I never met anybody with the MSII+ before. It's absolutely nuts. Everybody expects the DIY build to be good because it's not hiding anything.. and for $300 in parts, thats about right.. but a $350 USB DAC with no power supply? Cmon..
 
The HD650 may be an old world grail, but it's presentation still goes toe to toe. I mean if you don't like HD800 (many people don't), or the planar sound (many people don't), what else is there really? Also removable cables are rather important, to me at least. Sennheiser knows that
 
Oh also how awesome was that Donald North amp, everybody? One of my favorite amps at the meet and it's relatively expensive, but it friggin looks fantastic and it sounds good as well.

Yeah, I'd be down for meeting up to A/B the MSII+ versus the Gungnir.  I'll warn you that I'm in Moraga (near Walnut Creek), so a solid hour away for one of us.
 
I didn't get a chance to check out Donald's stuff at the 2012 Bay Area meetup (I think he was there), but I had a good solid listen at the 2012 LA meetup.  I liked the Sonett 2 for sure, but the Stratus knocked my socks off.  He's doin' good stuff.

 

[warrenpchi]

Quote:

but he did mention it is a very risky mod that could permanent damage the drivers

 
LOL, how long did it take you to say yes after he mentioned that?  I'd have started asking all kinds of questions about his success rate and stuff.

 

[moshen]

Quote:

Moshen (who was also at the meet) and I had a two-man mini-meet a couple of weeks ago in which we compared his ODAC with my MSII (I didn't have the MSII+ yet... I had just picked that up at the meet on Sunday from Verber), his O2 Amp with my Burson Soloist and his HE-500 with my HD650.  I'll let him pipe up if he wants about how he felt, but for me it went a little something like this:
 
* The ODAC and MSII are really similar with the MSII winning by a hair in terms of musicality.  I figure the Modi is probably similar as well, and the MSII+ smokes 'em all, but is more than double (or triple) the cost of the others, so that shouldn't be too big a surprise.
* The O2 and the Burson Soloist are moth meant to be neutral and transparent and both succeed.  It was kinda hard to tell them apart via A/B testing, but I felt the Soloist won by a hair.  It would be interesting to conduct this test again with the better DAC, but not bad for a $150 unit against my $1k unit.  At the same time, the Soloist has more power and flexibility to it, and I have no regrets in purchasing it.  Meanwhile, the Bottlehead Crack+Speedball was very different than the other two and terrific in its own way.
* The HE-500 and the HD650 are both very different, and both very good.  They have entirely different presentations, and we both felt that we could both be happy with either... though Moshen preferred his HE-500 and I my HD650, which makes sense given the genres we listen to -- a lot of electronic stuff for him and rock stuff for me.

 
 Comparing uzi's HD650 to my HE-500, I found the HD650 mids to be more intimate and bit warmer. The HE-500 had a larger and more dynamic soundstage, with slightly colder and more distant mids and much more extension and detail in bass. I listen to a lot of electronic music and the HE-500 are clearly better suited to my tastes. But the HD650 were very excellent on everything else and are also more comfortable because they weigh much less. I didn't find his HD650 to be slow, or veiled in the treble that other people have mentioned.
 
I found the Soloist to be nearly identical to the O2 amp with the HE-500 with maybe a tiny bit more bass on the Soloist. I couldn't hear a difference between the ODAC and MSII once we did some careful volume matching (important when comparing extreme subtleties like this) - maybe on much more focused inspection I'd be able to hear a difference here.
 
Uzi and I have known each other for ages, so it was also fun hanging out and catching up. Next time we should get a mini-meet going with a few others

 

[ronetna]

I had lots of fun. Thanks everyone who organized and participated with their gear.
For me, the highlights were:
 
- STAX Lambda Nova + Stax SRM-3 + Sony C222es SACD - Wow, natural image, phenomenal bass extension, and it's from mid-90's! I want one.
- Donald's (DNA)  amps + denon 2000's + Sonic Frontiers SFCD1 - excellent, smooth yet detailed sound, that rocks (Santana was playing when I put the cans on).
- Mr. Speakers Mad Dogs + Burson Concert - listened to a bit of Al Dimeola, Brian Eno, and Amber Rubarth (Binaural+ Chesky). Wonderful, liquid mids, smooth highs, reasonable good bass extension. Excellent performance for the price.
- BeyerDynamic Tesla T5p (modded)?  Maybe the music selection was not to my taste (or was it the Nagra player?), so I was not very enthusiastic about these. Very good, but not "wow".
- Ringingears's Project Sunrise Kit amp + HD650 = very musical, it bested, IMO, the X-Can v2 from Musical Fidelity which was nearby.
- Uzi's Bottlehead Crack with Speedball upgrade + HD650 = nice build, no noise, but this was the first time I listened to the BH Crack, and was expecting a little more definition, oh well...
 
Missed:
- Fostex TH-900 
- K1000
- Koss ESP950
 
Some photos:
 
Mr. Speakers and one of his newest customers:
 

 
One of my favorites: ~ 20 year old Stax Lambda setup, with Sony c222es.
 

 
The little kit that could: Project Sunrise 

 

[uzi]

Quote:

- Donald's (DNA)  amps + denon 2000's + Sonic Frontiers SFCD1 - excellent, smooth yet detailed sound, that rocks (Santana was playing when I put the cans on).
- Uzi's Bottlehead Crack with Speedball upgrade + HD650 = nice build, no noise, but this was the first time I listened to the BH Crack, and was expecting a little more definition, oh well...

Heh, that was probably my Denons and Santana CD.
 
So with the Crack, I'm not the world's best DIY builder and I haven't put much effort into the tubes nor done any upgrades.  It's pretty close to stock.  So basically take what you heard as the baseline and imagine it can only get better.

 

[aamefford]

Quote:

Snipped.... - Ringingears's Project Sunrise Kit amp + HD650 = very musical, it bested, IMO, the X-Can v2 from Musical Fidelity which was nearby.
snipped...  
Some photos:
 
The little kit that could: Project Sunrise 

That little sunrise kit amp captivated me also.  Outstanding with the HD650's (what a great headphone - gotta get a pair.  I say this every time I hear them).  The sunrise was also outstanding with my Mad Dogs with the Alpha pads - I'm considering one.  I talked to ringingears a bit about it, sounds like a $200 kit and about $50 to have it built if you don't feel like doing it yourself.

 

[jazzfan]

@ringingears, please PM me.  I have a question about your setup.  Thanks.

 

[Questhate]

@ringingears, please PM me.  I have a question about your setup.  Thanks.

Don't think Ringingears has an account on here. Catch him on the open seas

 

[Bill-P]

Quote:

Missed:
- Fostex TH-900 
- K1000
- Koss ESP950

 
Oh wow, you missed the TH900.
 
I'd think that if the T5P could not wow you, then the TH900 could have done so.
 
I think we had quite a collection of closed-back high-ends this time.

 

[aamefford]

I missed the TH900 also, and I've been curious about it. It looks a lot like th Denon D7000 on paper, and Fostex was the D7000 OEM. I'd always wondered if it was an overpriced D7000. By all reports it is much more.

 

[daigo]

Quote:

I missed the TH900 also, and I've been curious about it. It looks a lot like th Denon D7000 on paper, and Fostex was the D7000 OEM. I'd always wondered if it was an overpriced D7000. By all reports it is much more.

 
I would have liked to try the TH900's as well.  Would have been nice to compare them with the other closed dynamics available.  

 

[Bill-P]

aamefford, It is much more.
 
Take the T5P you heard and multiply the soundstage width and depth by 2x. Then take away the rumbling bass, leave just the refined parts behind. Push the mid and treble presentation slightly back, but leave the little nuances behind, and smooth things out a bit more.
 
That's the TH900. I don't think it's an overpriced D7000 at all. In fact, it didn't sound anything like a D7000. It sounded more like a HD800 with more refinements... and some magic to prevent it from leaking sound in and out.
 
About the only thing it was lacking is the midrange of the W3000ANV in my opinions. It was lacking some soul in the mid.

 

[En_R]

Quote:

aamefford, It is much more.
 
Take the T5P you heard and multiply the soundstage width and depth by 2x. Then take away the rumbling bass, leave just the refined parts behind. Push the mid and treble presentation slightly back, but leave the little nuances behind, and smooth things out a bit more.
 
That's the TH900. I don't think it's an overpriced D7000 at all. In fact, it didn't sound anything like a D7000. It sounded more like a HD800 with more refinements... and some magic to prevent it from leaking sound in and out.
 
About the only thing it was lacking is the midrange of the W3000ANV in my opinions. It was lacking some soul in the mid.

 
I disagree with so much of this. Starting from where you talk about taking away the bass.
 
Also is there a reason why this is not on the front page? I was under the impression this was major meet (I almost got bought a plane ticket.. even though I am on the east coast..).

 

[Bill-P]

Quote:

 
I disagree with so much of this. Starting from where you talk about taking away the bass.
 
Also is there a reason why this is not on the front page? I was under the impression this was major meet (I almost got tickets to go.. even though I am on the east coast..).

 
The modded T5P had a lot of bass. And by that, I really mean a "lot" more than anything else I heard at the meet, including a D7000. And that was directly out of a recorder without any amplification.

 

[rubenpp]

Quote:

Also is there a reason why this is not on the front page? I was under the impression this was major meet (I almost got bought a plane ticket.. even though I am on the east coast..).

      Maybe because it was originally supposed to be a just mini-meet of sorts. I think you would've enjoyed it , if you did come.