[AudioCats]

I can bring the SRM-Xh again, also a modded SRM-1 (not the same as srm-1/mk2). 
 
SRM-1/Mk2 and WOO WEE are also possible, if I haven't sold them by then.

 

[Asr]

I went ahead and created a new thread for CO Meet #2 here where folks can vote on the date: http://www.head-fi.org/t/773039/2015-denver-co-summer-meet-2-august
 
First set of (smartphone) photos, click any for a larger size:
 
Effusion's desktop PC rig

 
Hardwired's setup w/ Alpha Prime and HE-560

 
mandrake50's setup w/ NAD HP50, Senn HD650, HE-400i, HE-560, and Garage1217 Project Polaris

 
Allanmarcus & Rynsin's setup w/ SRH1540, V6, SR225, LCD-3, and Bottlehead Crack

 
my setup w/ MT220, AD2000, and Garage1217 Project Solstice (on left)

 
Greystaff's setup w/ Alpha Prime, HD700, and Yggdrasil (behind the laptop)

 
hans030390's Singlepower MPX3 and Audial Model S

 
Misterrogers' Eddie Current Super 7 and prototype dual mono AK4495S DAC

 
Misterrogers' Valhalla 2 and AAK Blackbird DAC (ESS9018)

 

[Rynsin]

Nice pictures ASR (although it appears my lovely MacBook Pro and LCD-3s were mis-attributed!) -- I believe Allanmarcus will upload more once he gets a free moment.
As has been said many times, thanks to ASR for organizing things. He couldn't have done a better job.
There was a lot of great and diverse equipment, and I did my best to listen to everything. I regret not bringing a notebook to write down impressions, as now I can't recall much of what I heard.

1. AudioZenith PMx2s (modded Oppo PM-2s): these were interesting, and I believe the intention was to make an exceptionally neutral headphone. I'm not sure the effort was successful -- to me, they sounded over-dampened and a little lifeless. hans030390's modded PM-2s, however, were quite excellent.
2. STAX SR-303 and HeAudio Jade: AudioCats brought a bunch of electrostatic gear. Having only heard electrostatics in a very loud room previously, this was pretty awesome for me. The SR-303s look completely ridiculous, but are surprisingly comfortable and lightweight. The Jades look much more like "normal" headphones, and are also surprisingly light. AudioCats had a pretty awesome setup with a lot of custom gear. He managed to use a scotch bottle as casing for part of his stack, which was really cool. Overall I'm extremely impressed with the level of detail, the excellent timing, and extremely smooth highs of both of these electrostats. I've been told that they lack bass, but I found the bass to be clean and un-muddy, unlike a lot of cans that are allegedly very "impactful."

 

 
 

1. ZMF Blackwood/Cherrywood: Tedman brought a pretty cool setup, including an extremely modified Havana DAC. Tedman also had both the ZMF Blackwood and the ZMF Cherrywood. I believe the only major difference between the two cans is the wood used in the cups. Tedman's setup made it possible to hear the slight differences between the two cans, which really impressed me. Since I failed to take notes, I may be getting this backwards, but the Blackwoods seemed to have a heavier bass while the Cherrywoods seemed to have more detailed mids.

 

1. ALO Studio 6 Amplifier: uliko brought this totally amazing amp. I suppose at almost $4,000, it better be pretty good. I got to listen to a few songs on both the HD800s and my LCD-3s (with both the stock and Silver Dragon cable). The Studio 6 seems to do a very good job of sounding good across fairly diverse headphones (the HD800s and the LCD-3s) as well as across many different genres of music (rock, jazz, classical). Another great feature of the Studio 6 is its ability to drive 4 headphones at the same time without affecting each other. I'm not sure how this feature is helpful for personal use, but it sure is great at a meet! It's very large and impressive looking, and the build quality is fantastic: it feels like a hardened piece of equipment. I haven't listened to a lot of the high-high end of amplifiers, so I probably don't have the experience to really assess the Studio 6. Is it better than the Schitt Lyr 2? Absolutely. Is it 7 times better? Not to my ears.
2. Schitt Bifrost, Asgard 2/Lyr 2: I forget exactly who (Hardwired?) had a Schitt Bifrost connected to a Lyr 2 and an Asgard 2. I listened to both stacks with my LCD-3s and with the HE-560s, and I'm pretty impressed with both amps. I don't think I can quite discern the difference between the Bifrost and the PeachTree DAC-IT, but I didn't do an A/B comparison. I liked both the Lyr and the Asgard a lot, and perhaps it was the tubes being used, or perhaps I just prefer a solid state sound, but I thought the Lyr was only slightly better than the Asgard. The Lyr's sound was a tad warmer, and the mids had a certain smoothness to them. But I think the Asgard had a cleaner and more articulated bass.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped educate me about tubes, balanced systems, resistors, volume pots, and custom mods! It was a great experience and I hope to be able to do it again soon.
(this was my first meet, so I say this with a grain of salt, but our community does seem to have a bit of a diversity issue)

 

[Asr]

Some of my general impressions. Nothing very detailed, just my take-aways:
 
- Beyerdynamic T90: I liked these quite a bit out of Misterrogers' setup. Although I previously owned the T1, I couldn't possibly guess how similar-sounding they are. They did have a bit of a treble bite, but it wasn't unpleasant and actually made the violins in classical music really interesting to listen to.
 
- hans0303090's self-modded Oppo PM-2 & Audio Zenith PMx2 (amped by Leckerton UHA-6S MK2): I thought hans' self-modded PM-2 was remarkably similar-sounding to his Senn HD650 (which was also a bit self-modded by him) but had a bit more clarity. The Audio Zenith PMx2 had a bit wider imaging than hans' self-modded set, as well as a bit more treble, but I didn't feel that it was enough of a sonic upgrade that I'd personally pay ~$600 extra for the Audio Zenith over hans' self-modded pair.
 
- Massdrop K7XX: I took these over to my setup where I tried it out of the Project Ember 2 (w/ a 6SN7 tube), and it sounded surprisingly good with the variety of genres I quickly threw at it (classical, folk, pop, metal, & electronica). I previously owned the K712 and although I can't say how similar they sound, I could probably take the K7XX just as well.
 
- Koss ESP950: These were quite honestly one of the most surprising headphones I've ever heard! The clarity and imaging through AudioCats' DIY electronics was superb; very holographic and it was super-easy to hear every layer in the music. The only thing I didn't like about them was a lack of bass in general. For the price that these can typically be gotten for on Black Friday via Amazon, I'd call them a no-brainer.
 
- ZMF Blackwood / MrSpeakers Alpha Prime (sourced & amped by Schiit electronics): I ended up coming away from the meet disappointed by both of these headphones. Not that they were terrible, but it just felt like neither really did anything great, and both still sounded too closed-in for me. Yes I know that they're closed headphones, but they both sounded too much like closed headphones for me to truly appreciate them, at least in the meet environment.
 
- Audeze EL-8 closed: I took these over to my setup (Ember 2 w/ 6SN7) to give them a spin, and promptly thought they were one of the worst headphones I've EVER heard. I gave them a quick run through some classical and folk, which they just sounded really weird with, mostly due to a very unpleasant treble spike that made me wince every time. They fared better on metal and electronica, but by just a little. I genuinely can't believe Audeze actually put out headphones that sound as bad as the EL-8 did....
 
- Tidal: No, not headphones, the Internet music-streaming site! A few people at the meet were using Tidal and I found it to be awesomely cool, the service had available every artist I could quickly think of, which I thought was amazing. I thought it was a great solution for Head-Fi meets in particular, since so many people (myself included) tend to complain about the music on offer by vendors and/or Head-Fiers, but with Tidal you can access the discography of nearly any artist you want on the spot!
 
- It's official, CDs are dead, and computer audio is the present & future. Although I still listen to CDs myself, and probably won't move away from them for at least a while (since not all of my collection has been ripped, and I just prefer to run equipment separately from my computer), I'm probably never taking a disc player to a meet ever again. Just about everyone at the meet had a laptop computer-based rig, and I finally realized that I too have to move with the times and develop a better laptop rig myself, at least when it comes to meets.
 

Nice pictures ASR (although it appears my lovely MacBook Pro and LCD-3s were mis-attributed!) -- I believe Allanmarcus will upload more once he gets a free moment.

 
I just fixed that, thanks for pointing that out.

 

[Hardwired]

 

1. Schitt Bifrost, Asgard 2/Lyr 2: I forget exactly who (Hardwired?) had a Schitt Bifrost connected to a Lyr 2 and an Asgard 2. I listened to both stacks with my LCD-3s and with the HE-560s, and I'm pretty impressed with both amps. I don't think I can quite discern the difference between the Bifrost and the PeachTree DAC-IT, but I didn't do an A/B comparison. I liked both the Lyr and the Asgard a lot, and perhaps it was the tubes being used, or perhaps I just prefer a solid state sound, but I thought the Lyr was only slightly better than the Asgard. The Lyr's sound was a tad warmer, and the mids had a certain smoothness to them. But I think the Asgard had a cleaner and more articulated bass.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped educate me about tubes, balanced systems, resistors, volume pots, and custom mods! It was a great experience and I hope to be able to do it again soon.
(this was my first meet, so I say this with a grain of salt, but our community does seem to have a bit of a diversity issue)

 
Yep, that was mine. And you were listening to the Lyr 2 through the Bifrost, and the Asgard 2 through the iBasso DX90, unless you rerouted some cables.

 And the difference was that slight, I agree. The increased bass from the Asgard might have been from the EQ on the DX90 which I may have forgotten to turn off. The main difference I hear between the two amps is the larger soundstage in the Lyr which is amazing if you've never heard what good tubes do. Other than that the music quality is about the same. Electronics these days are very, very good.
 

  - ZMF Blackwood / MrSpeakers Alpha Prime (sourced & amped by Schiit electronics): I ended up coming away from the meet disappointed by both of these headphones. Not that they were terrible, but it just felt like neither really did anything great, and both still sounded too closed-in for me. Yes I know that they're closed headphones, but they both sounded too much like closed headphones for me to truly appreciate them, at least in the meet environment.

 
I would have to agree with the closed-in assessment of the sound. As I told someone at the meet, putting on the Primes is like shutting the car door on an expensive car. You hear the thump and then get that feeling of quiet isolation. How those cans can have such a nice soundstage and detail and still feel like you're in a closet, I have no idea, but they do.I just need a pair of closed cans at times and these are the nicest sounding ones I've listened to. I climb into my audio closet and listen to them and the closed-in feeling goes away after a few minutes once you get used to it. 

 

 

[john57]

Here is some of my comments on the comments!
 
Beyerdynamic T90
 
Actually I own the T70 and they are keepers. The T70 is not the most neutral headphones but has one of the best isolation in a closed headphone I ever heard. Heard the T1 at RMAF and was told that T90 which came later was similar.
 
Audio Zenith PMx2
 
Great sound and classy OPPO built quality but not the best fit for my ears. The Philips X2 has the better fit for me.
 
Massdrop K7XX
 
These headphones had okay fit but the main problem I had with the AKG line was the fit. Many of the models do not fit my head at all. Either too much pressure on the neck which muffled the sound or too loose clamping pressure. AKG was the first headphones I own long time ago.
 
Koss ESP950
 
Heard these at the RMAF(CamJam)  Very good but the amp that came with it is very cheesy. The next person that tried the Koss the cups fell off from the headband.
 
Audeze EL-8 closed
 
I tried the EL-8 at the Crescendo Fine Audio store in Denver. They carry most of the Audeze line. The EL-8 just sounded more like a typical dynamic rather than the planner sound. Nothing in particular outstanding. The cables to the headphone are held magnetically. It does not take much of a tug to put the cables off the headphones and that may be a good thing in some cases when you are on the go and the cable gets caught on something and the headphones will not fly off your head. 
The store also carry the IFI audio line. At the meet I was using the IFI iDSD micro. I brought the IFI Retro at the store. The Retro is a outstanding six tube transformer coupled speaker/headphone amp and very versatile for turntables, high sensitive speakers, outstanding bluetooth sound, USB, SPDIF and native DSD playback within a Bamboo enclosure!
 
 

 

[AudioCats]

.. Koss ESP950
 
Heard these at the RMAF(CamJam)  Very good but the amp that came with it is very cheesy. The next person that tried the Koss the cups fell off from the headband.
...
 

ESP950 ear cups are detachable. Maybe the release button was accidentally bumped when adjusting the headband.

 

[Asr]

2nd/last set of photos:
 
Tedman's ZMF Blackwood & Senn HD800 w/ self-modded MHDT Havana DAC and DIY SET 45 amp

 
Tedman's Andix HPA-45

 
bixby's HRT Music Streamer II+ w/ Lake People G109 and MrSpeakers Mad Dog

 
Effusion's Elekit TU-8200

 
Effusion's 4 cases of tubes!

 
my setup w/ Schiit Modi 2 Uber, Garage1217 Project Ember 2 w/ 6SN7, and Audio-Technica R70x

 
jexby's setup w/ Schiit Gungnir + Lyr 2 and HE-560

 

[john57]

Once we have a date set for the next meet.  I will try to get CAS to send a group E-mail send out. Hopping we can get more people at the next meet. In the news HiFiMan now has the new HE-400s available for order. Efficiency is now 98dB and   350g. HiFiMan got rid of the screw on connectors for this model.

 

[Asr]

If any locals are still reading this thread, the 2015 Summer Meet #2 has been officially scheduled for 8/22! Updated details are here:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/773039/2015-denver-co-summer-meet-2-8-22
 

Once we have a date set for the next meet.  I will try to get CAS to send a group E-mail send out. Hopping we can get more people at the next meet.

 
No offense to the CAS, but I'd rather not have too many extra people at the meet. Since Meet #2 looks to be running a bit smaller, both in terms of the venue space and number of people, that might actually be a good thing and allow everyone to get some better listening in.