This meet was so wonderful! Thanks so much to Andy, Mark, and all the folks who donated prizes to the raffle! £1300 for charity! Holy cow! Exclamation points!!!
The highlight of the meet for me was plugging my HD600s into the Icon 8 headphone amp and hearing the size of the soundstage at least double. That amp was probably the star of the show for me just for the marked difference it made on gear I already have. I'll be testing to see if the Feliks Audio Elise matches it with the HD600s as soon as I get a source with a proper line-out. Neither the Geek Out 1000 or the DX50 were able to output properly using a y-split RCA when I got this beauty home. I'll take some pictures later.
Another surprise from the meet for me was that I wasn't into the HD800s. It was the bass signature that didn't do it for me, which I haven't heard anyone else say. I preferred my HD600s which is really good for my wallet. The Epiphany Acoustics O2 tightened up the bass and I found it the best pairing for the HD800s. I listened to two HD800s and felt the same way on both.
I wanted to listen to as many planar magnetics as I could going into the meet, and boy did I ever. I heard both EL8s and preferred the closed (probably because of the loud meet environment, further listening required). I also listened to the LCD2 and LCD-XC at the Audeze table. The LCD-XC was either my favourite headphone, or tied with Raz's HE-6. They are both beautiful. I compared the Alpha Prime, Alpha Dogs, and Mad Dogs and the Prime were easily tops for me. They were clearer and more refined and had tighter bass. The HE-560s are a lovely headphone and were my wife's favourite headphone of the meet. I also listened to the Oppo PM-3. That headphone has gorgeous mids. I could just throw on some vocal tracks and melt into the lush vocal sea. I wish I had a bit of coin to save for a new set of planars, and think the best value ones I heard were the EL8s. The closed headphones have a really impressive soundstage for a closed phone and I love the Audeze signature. When I listened to my KRK KNS-8400 at work after the meet, they sounded so much duller. They are good value headphones, but they can't compete with most of what I was listening to at the meet.
I still can't figure out which Stax I listened to, but it was out of the Blue Hawaii. I thought it was the SR-009, but I can't confirm now. They sounded lovely.
I had the opportunity to test out several of Frank's toxic cables and they do make a difference on sound. Interestingly, they weren't labelled, so I didn't know what I was listening to. I liked the one that looked the cheapest. I even remarked that price doesn't always mean best, until I got home and found out that the most expensive model was the best. Kudos, Frank! That is a beautiful cable. Guess I like gold soundz (great song by Pavement, btw).
I am so glad to have been a part of this celebration of our shared hobby. I met so many generous people. I hope to see you all again soon and hope that I'll be bringing some new fun gear for next time around (c'mon Geek Pulse Xfi, arrive already!). CanJam here we come!