Slipkid's PPX Slam: Very full lush sound, loved it, my type of sound. That is what I walked out looking to buy someday.
Alwayswantmore's K1000, Wadia, Sig 30.2 rig was ridiculously great. No doubts there, it was a beast from another dimension.
Swoon's Stello series was really good, but turns out not to quite be my sound. (happy about saving the money!)
packgrog's monica2 in an altoids tin was awesome to see. Wish I had thought to audition the tomahawk in my little portable shootout.
Drubrew brought some gear that was just flooring. Those refinished Grado PS1s... I'm sure he has a pic, the detail with those out of the transport is still scary.
gates_2's F2 clone was impressive to see... Very bad news there with the bad K1000 driver, good luck to you, you have the skills to pay that bill from what I saw.
The wooaudio 6 didn't disappoint from what I heard, tubes synergise well with the HD650.
I think I should have brough over my portable transport to listen with it.
All of Thrice's gear sounded wonderful. I am super jealous of those ATH-W3000! Thanks for showing me the HD650 balanced. Your Beta22 was very smooth and great sound with the Senns. Very impressive difference in the tone, I will likely go that way someday if finance allows.
In my portable shootout courtesy of Drubrew, I heard from the Pico, iQube, and TTVJ millett hybrid. I used the iMod, vCap, DIY Jumbo Cryo mini, and the UE11 and ALO SR60 for reference (portable phones here).
Though not bad by a long shot, the bass wasn't as tight and full and the imaging wasn't as specific on the Pico compared to the iQube or Millett. It was also noticeably smaller and that DAC gives it an enormous reason to be proud of it.
The iQube was very impressive and a real winner for me. Its imaging astonished me and the sound was not boring neutral, but nothing was even close to overbearing. Nothing there to complain about, its sound was great, bass was tight, the amount of detail for its size was unheard of for me.
The TTVJ millett did have a fuller sound to me with very strong bass and I confirmed with a friend that the music sounded more spread out for a wider sound stage. We also agreed that the iQube won for detail, specific things like the amp feedback on "Saturday Night Special" were easily noticeable and detailed, where the Millett made it noticeably harder to pick this out.
I really wish that I had a few days to compare these amps to give a truly proper review. I could not test the AE-2 due to a dead battery. The LISA III was purposefully left out as I do not consider it in the same league in function because of size. I could probably balance six Pico side by side on its top and it was designed to properly amplify higher impedance phones like the HD650 which it does in spades.
Thanks everyone for such a wonderful time, I just wish it could have been longer. So much knowledge and music I would have liked to continue to share. I wouldn't have been able to further grow in the head-fi community without the cooperation on this meet.