Brooklyn Schiit Show Impressions

[Mullet]

Post your meet impressions here...

So, I'll start off... this was a great inaugural meet in Brooklyn. Location was stellar. We had about 30+ people attend, which was the perfect amount. It was easy to move around and get to hear a lot of the rigs and get to chit chat with everyone. So thanks for coming! Also a very special thanks to Schiit for sponsoring the meet, we couldn't have done it without Jason Stoddard and Co. A few more thx need to go out to our other donors - ZMF for lending the Caldera Open and Closed and their very generous giveaway, the Bokeh. John Grado for his donation of the SR-60X and final to Alan K aka @NaturalMusic for his very generous raffle prizes.

So in terms of impressions... I really enjoyed the Caldera Open. If I could hit the buy button I'd do it right now. They sounded fantastic out of my KSA-5 Klone. They are a very well balanced all arounder. I also enjoyed listening to the Mod House Tungsten. My 5W KSA-5 just doesn't have the voltage swing to drive 'em - oh well. They were a treat to hear tho. I also enjoyed @quawn0418 's HE1000se with his Violectric amp. They are like the laid back cousin of my Arya Organics. I also got to hear after many years hearing about them - @bozebuttons Grado HP-1s. I liked them a lot. At that point, I had listening fatigue, so I feel like I couldn't appreciate them as much I could have. All together I do feel like they are the best Grado I've heard hands down. They were very accurate and had really nice detail especially in the treble.

The tacos were the bomb!

 

[Swagsupply]

I had a great time connecting with other Head-Fiers; everyone was super friendly and helpful. I got to hear the Grado for the first time and was pleasantly surprised by the sound. @bozebuttons HP1 was probably the standout headphone for me today, and I might have to pick one up myself someday. Schiit had some great gear on display as usual, and I’m excited to hear their new offerings coming out. Already looking forward to the next meet!

 

[ESL-1]

Thanks again to Scott, Carl & Schitt for getting this together and and having everything run so smoothly.

Everyone had a great time. There was a very interesting and eclectic assortment of gear to listen to and talk about (and we all did plenty of that. A big thank you for Alan K. who generously contributed some very nice gear for the raffle.
Grado sent their well known and award winning SR60x and ZMF sent their new model the Bokeh. This was the last item to raffle off. You can imagine my surprise and delight to hear my raffle ticket number called out. I stayed up way late to enjoy and acclimate to the new addition to my collection.

 

[quawn0418]

Well spent Saturday if i do say so myself. I had an amazing time. Big thanks to Carl and Schiit for the opportunity to meet some cool guys and enjoy some great gear. The MJ3 and Gumby 2 stack looks and sounds fantastic, super incisive with enough musicality to enjoy both worlds. The timbre on Schiit gear remains top notch. I also really enjoyed @Swagsupply ’s Glenn OTL amp. He had a JAR650 as well and the pairing really made me a believer. Literally couldn’t stop visiting his booth. @atomLI631 had a sick setup as well, that V281 is still on my list of things to grab. All in all, great gear, great people, and some great food too. Can’t wait to do it again some time.

SB: @Swagsupply and another guy who’s name i can’t remember and i feel like crap about it because he was a really cool guy, but they had the best looking atrium and caldera I’ve ever seen. Just outright stunning pieces.

 

[marsmellow]

Big thanks to everyone who came out yesterday. Seeing all the different gear was cool, but meeting everyone and having great conversations was the highlight for me.

I really appreciate Schiit for supporting the community for sponsoring the event and Jason for speaking with us and answering questions during the meet.

Thanks to Zach and Bevin from ZMF for sending the Calderas for demo and the Bokeh Giveaway.

Thanks to John Grado for donating the Sr60x for the raffle.

Thanks to @NaturalMusic for donating the various items for raffle as well.

As for gear, Atrium on the Mjolnir and Gungnir 2 stack brought clarity and detail that wakes the Atriums up. The Glen OTL make atriums even sweeter sounding if that’s possible.

The Caldera Opens and Closed are outstanding.

I didn’t as much time with all the gear, but the time with everyone was well worth it. Really outstanding people in this group.

I hope we can do it again soon!

-Carl

 

[bozebuttons]

Its always great to hangout with like minded people in this hobby,Carl and Scott did a great job setting up the meet.
Thanks to Schitt For all they did in supporting the meet
Thanks to Zmf ,Grado & NaturalMusic for his generous donations to the Raffle it was also great talking to him as well as other members.
I really liked the Glenn OtL amp first time hearing One I also liked Adams Bathy I may pickup one in the near future
Thanks to Adam for driving in to the meet ,we had some interesting conversations on the drive to and from the meet.
It was his first meet & I am glad he really enjoyed it.
For me socialization is the highlight of these meets as I am pretty well set on my gear after all these years in the community.
And yes My Grado Hp1s are one of my favorite headphones I also own Grado Hp2s & Hp3s in my collection As well as Spare Hp1 drivers and cable I bought
From Joe Grado years ago,

 

[ESL-1]

Its always great to hangout with like minded people in this hobby,Carl and Scott did a great job setting up the meet.
Thanks to Schitt For all they did in supporting the meet
Thanks to Zmf ,Grado & NaturalMusic for his generous donations to the Raffle it was also great talking to him as well as other members.
I really liked the Glenn OtL amp first time hearing One I also liked Adams Bathy I may pickup one in the near future
Thanks to Adam for driving in to the meet ,we had some interesting conversations on the drive to and from the meet.
It was his first meet & I am glad he really enjoyed it.
For me socialization is the highlight of these meets as I am pretty well set on my gear after all these years in the community.
And yes My Grado Hp1s are one of my favorite headphones I also own Grado Hp2s & Hp3s in my collection As well as Spare Hp1 drivers and cable I bought
From Joe Grado years ago,

You mean like minded addicts Tom. We are all certifiable in one way or another and ain’t it FUN…..
It was great.

 

[atomLI631]

Huge thanks to @Mullet, @marsmellow and @Jason Stoddard and Schiit for putting this meet together. Also thanks to Grado, ZMF and @NaturalMusic for adding some great gear to the raffle!

I had an absolute blast! It was quite the day and as @bozebuttons warned me...its going to go "like a shot"....and did it ever! At one point I looked at my watch and realized it was 4pm and I literally hadn't eaten anything the entire day! I didn't even finish the bottle of water I walked in with. I was too busy running around like a kid on Christmas morning trying all the amazing gear that I've only had read/watch/ogled over until the meet.

Im a new member to Head-Fi as of this year and relatively new to high-end audio gear. For the last 12+ years all I had was a pair of Sennheiser HD558s that I foam modded to sound more like the 598s. And before that all I had was the Denon AH-D650s. Id plug my headphones right into the back of my PC (or Ipod or walkman) and I was none the wiser. Sometime after Covid hit and going remote, I wanted a new set of headphones....and down the rabbit hole I went... Fast Foward to today and Ive got some decent gear, attended my first ever meet and have already met some great people that I already consider friends. Shoutout to @ESL-1 for giving me the rundown of what to expect at the meet and also being incredibly knowledgeable, always answering my questions and making great recommendations. Thanks Joe!

So on to my impressions....I could probably write a gigantic wall of text with the amount of new stuff I tried yesterday, but Im going to stick to a handful of things that really left a mark.

The day started off with Tom (bozebuttons) immediately handing me his Grado HP1s to take for a spin and I was completely blown away. The clarity, detail and soundstage was absolutely amazing. I did some quick a/b testing with the SR325x I brought and while I love them for the extra low end and warmth...they are not the same! So yeah... the HP1s set an incredibly high bar right out of the gate and remained at the top throughout the day.

Carl (marsmellow) was kind enough to let me grab his Modhouse Tungsten SS so I could try them on my V281 (more than once!). I have a set of these on pre-order that I bought based solely on reviews (sometimes, I cant help myself..Im sucker for hype) so I was happy to get to listen to them before they come in just in case they disappointed me. And I am happy that they definitely did not dissapoint! As I probably told many of you yesterday, I am a huge LCD-X fanboy. Being primarily a metalhead, they are my favorite headphones. I was very happy to hear the Tungstens sounds like a more balanced version of the LCD-X. They have great bass and while they may not dig as deep, they make up for it in detail and staging that the LCD-X is missing. They also weigh a helluva lot less! I found that on the V281 when I had the gain switches set to 0, they distorted pretty quickly as I increased the volume. I then set them to +6db and that made a huge improvement and the V281 was sitting at around the 3-4pm on the volume dial (given the environment I'm assuming in my office I'll be around 1-2..so plenty of headroom). Setting the V281 to +12db at first I thought was introducing distortion again...but when I tried a 2nd time that wasnt the case. They further sounded more open and detailed. I'm looking forward to getting them in and hearing them in my office and having time to dial in the settings to get them just right.

A huge surprise to me was how much I loved @quawn0418 HE1Kse on his Black Ice audio Aries amp. It really seemed like the perfect pairing. Wide, expansive and detailed...and the had a lot more low end than I expected. I was giddy over the Aries having a sub-bass knob right on the amp! It actually worked really well. In case you cant
tell, I like my bass! I'm going to have to add the HE1Kse on my want list.

I was over by @ct06033 table and I saw the Final D8000pros. From reviews and impressions these seemed like a set of headphones that are up my alley. Since I believe someone was sitting at his table trying something, I ran them off my Hiby R4 DAP. They were punchy, energetic and fun. I wish I would've ran them over to my V281 to get a proper listen in..but it was getting later in the day and I still had so much stuff to try out! Im going to need to revisit these as I think these are a contender to add to my collection.

I think the highlight for me was getting to try an electrostatic setup for the first time. I believe it was a Stax 007 headphones on Kerry's Aeras prototype amp. I get it now! There is nothing else Ive tried that is quite like it. Closing my eyes, it truly felt like I was sitting in a venue with a live band playing in front of me. It sounded so natural. Its not just the width of the sound being presented, it was the depth as well. Really quite the experience.

So those are the standouts for me. Tom had recommended that I make a list of things to try and stick to it and to space out the listening..but due to my excitement, I didn't listen to him. Towards the end of the day I could tell my ears were basically blown out. I had just started trying a bunch of stuff for a few minutes here and there just to get it in and I realized that I wasn't doing any of it justice. Lesson learned.

Thanks to all who attended. Everyone was chill and friendly and the vibe was great. Looking forward seeing you all again at CanJam in February. I will be there!

 

[ESL-1]

Huge thanks to @Mullet, @marsmellow and @Jason Stoddard and Schiit for putting this meet together. Also thanks to Grado, ZMF and @NaturalMusic for adding some great gear to the raffle!

I had an absolute blast! It was quite the day and as @bozebuttons warned me...its going to go "like a shot"....and did it ever! At one point I looked at my watch and realized it was 4pm and I literally hadn't eaten anything the entire day! I didn't even finish the bottle of water I walked in with. I was too busy running around like a kid on Christmas morning trying all the amazing gear that I've only had read/watch/ogled over until the meet.

Im a new member to Head-Fi as of this year and relatively new to high-end audio gear. For the last 12+ years all I had was a pair of Sennheiser HD558s that I foam modded to sound more like the 598s. And before that all I had was the Denon AH-D650s. Id plug my headphones right into the back of my PC (or Ipod or walkman) and I was none the wiser. Sometime after Covid hit and going remote, I wanted a new set of headphones....and down the rabbit hole I went... Fast Foward to today and Ive got some decent gear, attended my first ever meet and have already met some great people that I already consider friends. Shoutout to @ESL-1 for giving me the rundown of what to expect at the meet and also being incredibly knowledgeable, always answering my questions and making great recommendations. Thanks Joe!

So on to my impressions....I could probably write a gigantic wall of text with the amount of new stuff I tried yesterday, but Im going to stick to a handful of things that really left a mark.

The day started off with Tom (bozebuttons) immediately handing me his Grado HP1s to take for a spin and I was completely blown away. The clarity, detail and soundstage was absolutely amazing. I did some quick a/b testing with the SR325x I brought and while I love them for the extra low end and warmth...they are not the same! So yeah... the HP1s set an incredibly high bar right out of the gate and remained at the top throughout the day.

Carl (marsmellow) was kind enough to let me grab his Modhouse Tungsten SS so I could try them on my V281 (more than once!). I have a set of these on pre-order that I bought based solely on reviews (sometimes, I cant help myself..Im sucker for hype) so I was happy to get to listen to them before they come in just in case they disappointed me. And I am happy that they definitely did not dissapoint! As I probably told many of you yesterday, I am a huge LCD-X fanboy. Being primarily a metalhead, they are my favorite headphones. I was very happy to hear the Tungstens sounds like a more balanced version of the LCD-X. They have great bass and while they may not dig as deep, they make up for it in detail and staging that the LCD-X is missing. They also weigh a helluva lot less! I found that on the V281 when I had the gain switches set to 0, they distorted pretty quickly as I increased the volume. I then set them to +6db and that made a huge improvement and the V281 was sitting at around the 3-4pm on the volume dial (given the environment I'm assuming in my office I'll be around 1-2..so plenty of headroom). Setting the V281 to +12db at first I thought was introducing distortion again...but when I tried a 2nd time that wasnt the case. They further sounded more open and detailed. I'm looking forward to getting them in and hearing them in my office and having time to dial in the settings to get them just right.

A huge surprise to me was how much I loved @quawn0418 HE1Kse on his Black Ice audio Aries amp. It really seemed like the perfect pairing. Wide, expansive and detailed...and the had a lot more low end than I expected. I was giddy over the Aries having a sub-bass knob right on the amp! It actually worked really well. In case you cant
tell, I like my bass! I'm going to have to add the HE1Kse on my want list.

I was over by @ct06033 table and I saw the Final D8000pros. From reviews and impressions these seemed like a set of headphones that are up my alley. Since I believe someone was sitting at his table trying something, I ran them off my Hiby R4 DAP. They were punchy, energetic and fun. I wish I would've ran them over to my V281 to get a proper listen in..but it was getting later in the day and I still had so much stuff to try out! Im going to need to revisit these as I think these are a contender to add to my collection.

I think the highlight for me was getting to try an electrostatic setup for the first time. I believe it was a Stax 007 headphones on Kerry's T2 prototype amp. I get it now! There is nothing else Ive tried that is quite like it. Closing my eyes, it truly felt like I was sitting in a venue with a live band playing in front of me. It sounded so natural. Its not just the width of the sound being presented, it was the depth as well. Really quite the experience.

So those are the standouts for me. Tom had recommended that I make a list of things to try and stick to it and to space out the listening..but due to my excitement, I didn't listen to him. Towards the end of the day I could tell my ears were basically blown out. I had just started trying a bunch of stuff for a few minutes here and there just to get it in and I realized that I wasn't doing any of it justice. Lesson learned.

Thanks to all who attended. Everyone was chill and friendly and the vibe was great. Looking forward seeing you all again at CanJam in February. I will be there!

Not surprised but happy to see how much you enjoyed the meet. You certainly had a font of knowledge available as you and Tom shared the ride. You had quite a number of visitors to your table enjoying what you brought along. Great to have met in person. You still got to more varied listens than I did. We will both try to do even better. Tom’s Tips certainly were a good template.

 

[Kerry]

It was great seeing everyone at the meet. Brings back fond memories

Thanks to Scott and Carl for pulling this all together and to Schitt for sponsoring!

 

[rw61485]

Gents I had a blast. My first meetup as well and everyone was super cool and I got some proper education and great advice from multiple attendees. Can't wait to do it again and hopefully see you all again in person at NYC CanJam in Feb. Many thanks to @Mullet and @marsmellow for organizing the event. @NaturalMusic , ZMF, Grado for their very generous raffle donations. And of course for Schiit / @Jason Stoddard for sponsoring the event. And of course King David Tacos! When I used to work in NYC we'd order these on Friday's for breakfast. Always delicious. So to get to it, what stood out to me, in no particular order...

ZMF -> I had never listened to any of these before so was very interested in spending as much time as I could with them. I vastly preferred the Caldera's to the Atriums and I think I slightly preferred the Caldera closed to opens. The first word that came to mind when listening to the Caldera closed was resolving. Significantly better clarity, faster and technically superior to the Atriums. TBH, there were a lot of beautiful pairs of Atriums in the room and I really wanted to like them but found the sound almost muddy when I switched back and forth between the Caldera and Atrium

Schiit Gear -> I spent a lot of time comparing the Lyr+/Bifrost 2/64 stack versus the Gungnir 2/Mjolnir 3. The former is a very solid setup and combined price is similar to my own Topping A70PRO/Eversolo Z8 setup I have at home. Not sure if it was the headphones but it left me feeling my current home stack is a little dry/sterile. But the real treat was the Gungnir 2 / Mjolnir 3 stack. With the Caldera Closed it was an immediate impression of "Wow this rocks!!" Huge power on tap, resolving, clear. It just felt musical.

Tubes -> I got to listen to the Bottlehead Mainline (with the DIY headphones @ipetruk made), both Bottlehead Cracks with the assortment of ZMF's and @Swagsupply 's Glenn OTL. Obviously the Glenn is very cool and everything (except the Atriums!) sounded great on it. But two things stood out to me. 1) The two Bottlehad Cracks I actually vastly preferred the sound of the Tung Sol one to the Ray Tube using the same ZMFs. And really what ended up being possibly the star of the show to me was the JAR650s with the Glenn OTL. I picked up the JARs thinking "hmm did his headphones break and he just took the cups off?" and boy did I get a kick when I started listening with them. Holy crap! It sounded absolutely fantastic! Slight bass boost, neutral(ish). But warm and musical. Also, I finally get what I've read multiple times about the HD800/S with tubes..

Susvara/AHB2 Combo -> Listened to it and immediately felt I had to get this setup. And I am half way there having purchased the AHB2 from @NaturalMusic. Now do I first buy the Susvara or the Tungsten DS.. I'm thinking at the moment of working towards buying a tube preamp paired with the AHB2 and Susvara..

LCD X -> Listened to @atomLI631 's LCD-X and it felt like an upgraded version of my Focal Clears. I really like his idea of using it as a neutral comparison headphone to baseline against others. But I really liked it in its own right.

DIY Amps -> Loved the HeadWatt 6DJ8 / Krell KSA-5 Clone A/B switch setup with the Raspberry Pi. As someone who used to play around with building silly things on the Pi the A/B switch seemed like a fun project. Disappointed I didnt get a chance to ask @Mullet more about it!

And sorry, cannot forget what was my last listen and also probably my top choice. @Kerry 's Eksonic Amp paired with the Stax and Audeze electrostatic headphones. I only got to listen to it for about 5 minutes but WOW. Absolutely beautiful design of the amp and that 1bio streams playlist you had on the iPad really showed off what it could do. Give me a few years but expect a message from me at some point in the future about purchasing one...