Well, this was my first Head-Fi meet (hopefully not my last) and I must say that I had a great time. Ian (en480c4) and myself trekked down from Portsmouth and got to the meet around 3:15. What can I say, we hit traffic, got hungry, slept late (more on that later) etc., etc. After a brief run in with the jewelry show we managed to find the hotel (thanks drp!). Pics to follow brief impressions (right, me brief, who am I kidding).
Impressions:
1. Meeting Tyll in the flesh was pretty much as expected. Great guy and super friendly. Headroom could not have hoped for a better public rep. Headroom's gear collection is downright impressive. Tyll and I had been cooking up a Millett comparison for quite a while and it was fun to do some listening and compare notes. Headroom's Millett sounds great, especially running out of the DAC of the maxed Desktop that they had there. Speaking of said Desktop, that's a heck of a little amp. Completely transportable, looks great, sounds great and is so customizable it makes my head spin. I didn't get a chance to listen to the MAX that the had on hand or any of the micro line. What can I say, I'd need a 3 day meet just to properly sample the Headroom gear, and there were 3 other manufacturers (at least) on hand.
2. Singlepower - oh mama, I've read impressions of the PPX Slam here and so I was interested in giving it a listen. Mikhail walked me through the amp, showed me the board, chatted about design philosophy and was a guy I'd love to talk to more about this stuff. Now, the amp. Simply put, holy poop. I think the most power recommendation that I could give as a DIY amp build would be to say that if I had the money, I'd buy one. For around a grand I simply cannot imagine being able to build a better amp. I was floored. Listening to Eva Cassidey Live (out of a Merriden G08) was like nothing I've ever heard before through my Senn 600s. I also listened to the MPX3 which didn't have the synergy w/ my cans that the Slam did, but was nonetheless a nice peice of gear as well.
I think I'm in love...
3. Ray Samuels - I didn't get to sample much of Ray's stuff outside of a phono preamp (which was amazing) and I have no excuse save to say that his stuff generally had people listening to it and seeing how I can't afford any of it I didn't push the issue. I did spend some time talking with Ray about his amps which was quite interesting and the guy takes no prisoners when it comes to logical layouts driven by an intense desire for perfection. Aesthetically his amps were amazing, so clean, so finished.
4. Everyone else - it was nice to meet some Head-Fi'ers face to face, chat about our shared obsession, I mean "hobby", and show them the gear that I'd brought. I think that I may have done a bad thing though considering that both jar and Icy006 are now considering building PPA's and M3's
. Several folks listened to my M3, which was nice since I was up till the wee hours Friday night getting it cased up and ready for travel (see pic below). It's still not in a permanent home but what can I say, I've been busy. Big thanks go out to Salt Peanuts, drp, and anyone else who had a hand in organizing this meet. Word on the street has it that Headroom is getting serious about attending these things regularly so let's schedule another one some time this winter. I might have the M3 done by then and maybe Ian's PPA will be fixed too?
And with that here are a few pics.
[1] The DIY stack: Top Left is the Millett Hybrid that I'm building for Thaddy. Below that is the M3 (w/ custom wood front panel bling). The stack on the right is Headroom's Millet (top), Desktop (mid) and upgraded power supply (bottom).
[2] Better shot of Headroom's Desktop stack.
[3] Ray's table of goodies.
[4] Headroom Max, price TBD (oh my).
[5] A bunch of happy nerds.