I find the lack of pictures most disturbing.
For starters, many thanks go to Trav to obtaining a most excellent location to hold the meet. We could have had close to twice the attendees present with some room to spare. The only thing that was missing was some comfy couches, and maybe some booze.
As for impressions, I didn't do a whole lot of critical listening at this meet. I got my usual time with Fitz's K1000, which sounded great out of his Bada. One of these days I'm gonna get one of those. The K1000 that is. I also got a fair amount of listening time with a Beta22 that "somebody who's name I can't remember for the life of me" brought along, and I walked away very, very impressed. I could have spend hours on that thing if allowed. I kinda wish I had brought the K1000 over there now that I think about it.
I spent a decent amount of time at Aerosaga's rig, which had a good selection of SACD recordings loaded on it, along with a kickass Foobar setup. This was the first good example of SACD that I've really had a chance to listen to, and it showed me that most of the difference between SACD and regular Redbook is in the mastering, and not the bitrates. Sea Chance and Thriller sounded exceptional. It was almost enough to get me to go to the format, then I remembered that I'm one broke person.
The whole gravity of the meet shifted when Purk brought his giant killer rig, with the notable inclusions of the ATH-L3000 and the Sony R-10. My time with both was pretty short so I can't post any real impressions of them, but a lot of people walked away happy. Hopefully some of them can post some more in-depth impressions. I just want to add that my rig was on the table directly infront of the one Purk used, and I swear my rig moved a few inches back of it's on accord, like it was scared or something.
The listening highlight of the day took place towards the end of the meet at Ingwe's section, where me and a few other attendees received a short "how-to" of sorts on his vinyl project. While most of the lecture went a little bit over my head, the real treat was actually listening to the fruits of the labor. He had a rip of Dark Side of the Moon which was almost like hearing it for the first time. You almost couldn't tell that the recording came off a record; it was a darn near silent background with the music. He also had a needle drop of Lateralus that I wish I could have spent more time with. He hadn't worked his mojo of it yet, but it also sounded fantastic. The whole experience almost made me want to build a vinyl rig, but then I remembered that I am one broke person.
Without getting into too much depth, other notable gear experiences were listening to Elbow on Tomb's mini Millet Max. The man's got good taste in music. I was also a bit surprised at Trav Zero DAC. I've been interested in getting one as a DAC/Amp for computer use, and for around $100 it's pretty hard to beat. I see one of these in my near future. I also found Cyphercomplete's AD-2000 to be a very nice listen.
The real heart of the meet was not the gear however, but the people attending it. While I'm not gonna get into details as to what was discussed, I enjoyed the discussions immensely. Big thanks go once again to Trav for getting this whole thing together. For his first meet, he did one hell of a job. I can't wait for the next one.
Now somebody post some *gosh darn* pictures!!!