[Eagle_Driver]

First, I got to meet Fred (Tuberoller) again, and then I met Todd (The Vinyl & Headphone Junkie) Green, and finally Sugarfried (from Shure Incorporated). Tuberoller hosted the meet, with Todd and Shure being co-sponsors of this meet. After I set up my portable stuff, Todd immediately put on my stock-cabled Sennheiser HD 600, which was plugged into my Grado RA-1 amp, and immediately proceeded to listen to my three PCDPs. He still stood by the Panasonic SL-CT470, and didn't like the SL-CT790 much - he decided that he even liked the Sony D-EJ2000 more than he did the SL-CT790. The D-EJ2000 had better highs, but the SL-CT470 was more rounded and had better bass.

I also got to meet "jap", who hasn't posted much in these forums. And like other people, he could notice a difference in the sound between the stock-cabled HD600 and the Cardas-cabled HD600.

Afterwards, I tried some of the headphones that were at the show. The AKG K271S was quite good for such pricey closed headphones. It was loud enough from a modern portable player, but sounded much better through the RA-1 amp. The Ultrasone HFI-650 Trackmaster is also quite decent. One unavoidable side effect of the full-sized closed-cup headphones is the somewhat echoey sound that the better ones produce - but then, the only sure-fire way to avoid such echoiness in closed-cup headphones is a really dark, really boomy sound.

I then tried the Shure E2C and E5 and the Ety ER-4P. As I said, I really like the ER-4P, but the Shures aren't too bad. But I had more difficulty putting the Shures into my ears than I did with the Etys. The Ety 4P is the one canalphone to buy if you don't plan to buy an amp for your portable player anytime soon.

I listened to the Sony D66 Eggos and the CD3000 a second time - and both of them sounded better than I had recalled them to have sounded like. Only then did I notice the graininess from my CD2000! The CD2000 sounded grainy in comparison to most of the other headphones at the show, although it had its fans. The CD3000 sounded clearer, although a bit bright. The Eggos sounded balanced, though nothing special - still, this was better than I had previously thought of them.

I then got Todd to listen to LobsterSan's Sony MDR-V6 with the Beyer pads. He liked that 'phone now, though for a different reason than he did the Senn 280 Pro. A little bright, but nothing serious.

The one visitor who actually got to compare the two MD units liked the E10 more than he did the N707, the latter sounded somewhat grainy and noisy.

And finally, the other Shure rep got to listen to my CD setup - and he preferred the Grado 325 with bowl pads best out of the bunch (though he had heard the same 325 with the flat pads).

Please post your thoughts in this thread.
Happy listening,
Eagle_Driver

 

[Hajime]

This was an amazing meet! It was the first meet I've been to and I was amazed at how cool everyone was with eachother. I was somewhat shy in the beginning as I'm new at the meet thing, but everyone was very nice about trying out eachother's equiptment, greeting people, shaking hands, signing treaties - the atmousphere was one of the best parts of the meet! I got to meet a lot of people and see some that I had met previously. Fred (Tuberoller) was cool to meet (I'm helping to turn you into an urban legend, Fred). Ray Samuals is a talented man - he's a photographer, comedian and amplifier designer all in one. Andrew Pielet is a real cool guy too, as is Rey (Reynman) and, well, everyone I met. I'll post my impressions of the equiptment I was able to hear later tonight, for now I'm going to do something more important; eat.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Oh, I did listen to Ray Samuels's new "portable" amp, the XR-7 (I think that's the model number). I couldn't believe how much voltage drive could be extracted from two 9V batteries! And the sound is excellent, maybe better than my RA-1 amp. But then again, the Emmeline portable amp costs $500, versus the $320 that I paid for my RA-1. Oh, well; you get what you pay for.

 

[Trawlerman]

Nice to hear that your meet went so well.

All we need now is some images and we're sorted

 

[Tuberoller]

Sorry about the huge pic but I wanted you guys to get a good look at everybody. Seven more folks that I know about showed up after this pic and about four that I did'nt.

Some eye candy of the Ray Samuels Stealth Preamp with the production boards and elctronics. Cosmetics will be different with Black chassis anodizing and silk screened lettering. The silver one is mine.

More candy

Even more candy- Check out the cool rings.

Rear detail

I had a great time and I hope that all of the attendees did too.

I have so many folks to thank I gotta do it later when I post the other pics.

Note: there were no sponsors for this meet but there were many vendors who loaned gear. I will thank them all in a later post or an edit to this one.


Another group pic with me in it this time. Thanks for the pic Ray and John.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

My bad (about the sponsorship).

 

[Todd]

Hi All,

First I'd like to thank Fred for making this all possible. What a great time. It was a real pleasure meeting everyone. The equipment was as impressive as the people that attended. There were many bright stars but none seemed to shine brighter than the Ray Samuels gear. More on that at a later time. The Meier Audio amps and, of course, the BlockHead were also outstanding.
Fred may have put this together but all the attendees made it THE show!

Todd

 

[eric343]

Sounds like you guys had fun!

 

[LobsterSan]

i just wanted to say that i had a great time meeting the people i had a chance to meet with. i was a tad selfish and found myself lost in the music and equipment for most of the meet, but who could blame me, right? i also wanted to make sure and thank fred again for organizing this meet, and for his graciousness as host and for letting everyone put fingerprints on his pretty pretty gear. as well, hearty thanks go out to everyone (and i do mean everyone) at the meet for sharing their blisses and for providing a friendly environment for all.

hopefully i'll get a chance to put some impressions and pictures up. for now i'll just say that i was quite pleased with the shure canalphones and i am also wanting to pursue electrostatics a bit more closely.

my only wish is to have been there on time to be in that photo. i'll have to photoshop myself in at a later date

 

[Hajime]

Alright, I'll post my impressions now. I had the opportunity to listen to just about everything there. A lot of it sounded just plain incredible (making my setup look a little pale in comparison). I'll just add my comments about what I listened to in no particular order. Please forgive my lack of audiophile terminology.

Two or three of the Corda amplifiers were there. I listened to the HA-1 MKII with the HD600's and cardas cable. I liked this amplifier; it was very smooth and seemed to go well with the HD600's. I also listened to the Prehead. The Prehead was really good. It had the same smooth signature as the HA-1 but with more 'oomph', more power. I used the HD600's and DT880's on the Prehead and, while I like the HD600's more the Prehead seems to go well with the 880's. I had read that the crossfeed effect was subtle. Well, it's even more subtle than subtle and I think it's done very nicely. Andrew and I stood by the Prehead and tried to hear the changes that were taking place as we switched it higher and lower.

Sitting above the Corda Prehead was JMT's PPA. I just listened to the PPA briefly with the DT880's and I felt the Prehead was better. The PPA had plenty of dynamics, but it didn't seem to be as coherant as the Corda. I'd have to spend more time with the PPA to describe it in better detail.

Another setup I tried was the AKG K1000's with a fisher 200 receiver. The AKG's sounded very nice, although it was hard to hear them well over the talk. There are open headphones and then there are K1000's. I wish I could have spent time listening to the K1000's in a quiet room. There was a RKV on the other side of the room but I forgot to listen to it with the K1000's. Ah well, something for next time.

I listened to the AKG 271's through a few different amplifiers using Andrew's Meridian and someone's D-25s CD player. I really liked the 271's. They had a very lively sound and if I had to buy a pair of closed headphones I think these would be them. I listened to the CD3000 after them and, to be honest, I like the 271 a lot better. One thing about the 271s I enjoyed was the bass. It seemed a lot better than the bass on the CD3000's.

Darius had a setup of a NAD/MSB with the Sugden Headmaster and the Audio Technica ATH-A1000's. I thought that this setup sounded very strange. When I compared the ATH-A1000s with the HD600's the ATH-A1000's just sounded off, for some reason. The Sugen was a lot bigger than I expected it to be, which reminds me...

I doubt very many people here realize what sizes these amplifiers really are! The creek OBH-11 was tiny! The Corda amps were also small, as were the Ray Samuals amps (excluding his tube amplifier). I thought they were a lot bigger before I saw them in person.

Speaking of small amplifiers, Rey brought his new Super Micro amp to the meet (made by Xin/Fixup). This thing is insanely small and it sounds good, too. I listened to it with the CD3000's and they really sounded good with this tiny amp. I liked the little thing better than some of the other amplifiers there that were a lot bigger. This looks like the best portable amp for those who want something the size of two triple-a batteries that sounds dang good.

Another person who had driven up (I forgot your name too, despite talking to you for a good half an hour off and on - you know, maybe you people shouldn't trust my memory and impressions... I'm getting old before my time) brought his father's turntable and a Sony 555es CD player. What's even cooler is he had Queen's Night At The Opera on vinyl! I don't know whether I liked the record or the CD better, the record had the usual pops and clicks, but hey! It was Queen! I listened to the Night At The Opera HDCD I had brought after that. I also listened to it on his 555es. The CD player sounded a lot cleaner, and for that reason I enjoyed it more. I don't think I could live with vinyl's hisses and pops.

Now, to Ray Samuels amplifiers. I had never heard any of his amps before today. I was walking by the table where his amps were set up and he handed me a pair of HD600's with cardas cables plugged into his new tube amplifier connected with a Music Hall 5 turntable. Wow. This amplifier was probably my second favorite at the meet. It seemed to go extrordinarily well with the HD600's and I went back to that table more than a few times to listen. I really, really like that amplifier. I also had a chance to listen to his new XP-7 portable amp. To be honest, I didn't like this amplifier at first. However there was one set up next to the D-25s so I put on the AKG 271s and listened for a while. The XP-7 is a winner as far as I'm concerned. Very enjoyable.

Andrew brought some D77 eggos that I thought were pretty cool. I don't know about the D66's, but the D77's have plenty of bass and were fun to listen to. I think they were the best out of the XP-7.

Sugarfield was there with his Shures but I was too freaked out at the idea of putting something in my ear like that to try them. He was a really cool guy, though. We (or at least I) had fun talking about laptops and audio mixing software.

I was able to compare the Cardas, Equinox and Clou red cables today. The equinox sound a lot smoother in comparison to the Cardas. I'm really not sure which I liked the best. I'd have to listen to both in detail to decide. The Clou reds didn't seem as enjoyable as the Cardas or Equinox, though I didn't spend as much time with it.

My favorite setup at the meet was the Blockhead/HD600 combination with the Meridian 608. I swear, I have never heard better sound out of headphones or speakers. I'm going to try very hard to find a Headroom Max I can afford.

Well, those are my impressions. I'm sure I missed something somewhere. Just to follow up, everyone was really cool there. I'm glad I was able to bring something out of the ordinary that people were able to enjoy. It was really fun meeting everyone (and forgetting their names after five minutes) and talking about the music we were hearing. On a side note, I'm the guy to the right in the blue Nike sweatshirt. I'll probably edit and add in what I forgot to include in this post sometime in the future. Have fun everyone.

 

[Ebonyks]

Well, it was great seeing everyone again, and i'd like to thank tuberoller for putting together such a great meeting. Now, onto impressions:

I listened to the shure E5-C's and the E1-C's, the E1's aren't anything special, but the E5's repersented a contrasting sonic flavor to the etys. Not quite as detailed or revealing, but they had a deep and punchy bass. I liked them overall, but i think i perfer the etys.

I don't understand why the sony CD3000's have such a wide fanbase on head-fi. They simply lack any sort of midrange, plain and simple. Decent extended (albiet somewhat bright) highs, and deep and controled bass are overshadowed by the blaitant lack of midrange. Certaintly not my phones

I briefly tried out ray samuel's new tube amplifier and was really pretty impressed by it. I was never a big fan of the original emmiline, but the tube amp just sounded wonderful. Rich with a wide soundstage, and it seemed to control the bass of the HD-600's better than any other amp i've heard them with. It's on the pricy side, but it may be worth it. Alas, my referance cans, the ER-4's were unavaible for testing (explained later)

I listened to the K-1000 RKV combo a bit and i understand why people like it. It didn't blow me away, but it was a decent setup, with a huge soundstage

Sadly, this meet greets me with a loss. I know i mentioned to you all that i apperantly left my etys in the car, however, this was not the case. They seem to have disapeared completely. In retrospect, it seems silly to spend time listening to the headphones of others when i now have nothing myself

 

[Carlos3]

Does the Ray Samuels' Stealth have a parallel single-ended topology?

 

[elrod-tom]

Well, this is an object lesson in typing up something when you're tired from driving for six hours...somethings going to get f-ed up. In my case, I was almost finished with this and accidentally erased it!! Oh well...

Wow!! What a meet!! Thanks thanks thanks to Tuberoller for organizing and hosting this event. Thanks to all the good folks who provided gear and helped in the organization of what was a highly successful event. I really enjoyed meeting all the good folks, but I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to get around to everyone. Oh well...maybe at the NEXT meet.

So the first thing I do after I get home to Grosse Pointe (after unpacking and cracking a Newcastle Brown Ale) is sit down to write up my impressions. I know...get a life.

At any rate...here they are:

My main goal at this meet was to learn something about portable gear. I am a complete knucklehead about this stuff, and wanted to take the opportunity to really check it out. I'm giving strong consideration to replacing my older MAX with a top-end portable of some stripe or another, and I also wanted to find out about the iPod and some other similar products. As such, I ignored most of the other gear altogether...well, maybe not altogether.

The first thing I was met with, upon entering the door, was Ray Samuels. I took me right over and hooked me up with his A-B switch. He had his XP-7 portable and a much more expensive, non-portable headphone amp hooked up to a CARY CD player at the same time. I switched back and forth...wow!! The XP-7 sure held its ground. BTW - The CARY CD player sounded wonderful!! I did this test later on with the PPA, and again felt like the XP-7 was the winner.

I spent a lot of time with this product today, and I'm truly impressed. I listened to it at our Detroit meet, and was stunned at the time at what I was hearing. At that meet, I was listening to it with both Ray's Meridian 508 and the Wadia prototype, so there was not much lacking for sources!! At this meet, I wanted to run some other stuff through it...stuff that I might use with it in it's portable mode. I used both an iPod (more on this below) and a Sony D-25S with it, and a couple of other portables that escape me. I used it with my AKG K501's, my AKG K340's, my Grado SR225's, the Etymotic 4P, and the Shure EC-5. In all cases, it sounded great. I really like what it does for the K340's. This is one of the great vintage headphones out there, but it takes a LOT of power (Meier Corda PreHead makes them SING). The XP-7 really did the job on them, making the highs come alive and putting some thump into the bass. Surprise of the night: someone plugged Gopher's AKG K1000's into it (he has a modded Equinox cable with a standard 1/4" jack)...and it sounded pretty damn good. Don't get me wrong...the K1000 needs tubes, IMHO. Just pretty amazing stuff to me.

In all cases, it really measured up. The ONLY thing that keeps me from buying one RIGHT NOW is no crossfeed. I'm a bit of a crossfeed nut, but I also LOVE this amp!! So I'm fighting with myself about this...stay tuned!! At any rate, this is going to be a HUGE success. Ray has a genuine winner on his hands, and I predict that they will be in very short supply for the forseeable future. If you don't need/want crossfeed, I can't recommend this amp highly enough. Even if you do want crossfeed, you might want to give it an evaluation first...you can always add a Corda Cross later on.

I also listened to some of Rays other stuff, including his Stealth amp. When I heard the prototype of this amp in Detroit, I thought that it was wonderful, but just a bit short on fine detail. Call it the difference between prototype (breadboard) and production quality....it blew me away. Even listening to vinyl (sorry Tuberoller...had to zing you with that one

). This product is both a high-end headphone amp and a preamp, so it represents a great value IMHO. Another winner....

I really wanted to listen to the iPod while I was here. If there is anyone who missed this ship more than me, I don't know who they are. At any rate, between PC magazine and Stereophile, I just had to give it a whirl. I really thought it stood on its own very well, and did particularly well in combination with Ray's killer XP-7!

I should mention that I'm a bit of an MP3 snob. I should say WAS, as what I heard in the iPod really impressed. It had depth and detail that I've not come to expect from MP3's. It also did a fine job with cans straight out of the headphone jack!! The more recent vintage has a dedicated line out, but it must be seated in a cradle to do so. Don't know how this works bagged with an amp, but I'm thinking that it might be a (slight) drawback. I tried the Etymotic 4p's and Shure EC-5's, and several other full sized cans (AKG K271S, AKG K501, Grado SR225, etc...), and all did quite nicely right out of the headphone jack. I'm definately looking forward to getting one of my own.

Speaking of which, there was my foray into the ear canal!!

I liked both the Shure and Etymotic very much. If I had to choose, I'd probably give the thumbs up to the Ety's. Something about my right ear is very hard to fit, and I had a very tough time getting a good seal with the Shure. That said, the Shure is a damn fine product, with good bass extension and presence. Hard to go wrong with either...my right ear seems to be friendlier to the Ety is all.

I also spent even MORE time with the AKG K271S. I was fortunate to be able to use these cans prior to the Detroit show, and liked them a lot. Nothing has happened since then to change my mind. They have a nice sense of openness that other closed cans that I've tried seem to lack somewhat. They are also refined in the midrange, and have nice bass extension.

I revisited the Sony CD3000 as well, and came away somewhat dissatisfied. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad set of cans. I've just been reading all this raving about it, and I don't think quite so much of it as all that. It's a bit too colored for me, and the bass is overemphasized...which tends to wash out the midrange just a bit too much for my taste. When I heard it at the Detroit meet, I was more favorably impressed...here it seemed to be almost a different set of cans. Oh well...

Some limited impressions: I spent a bit of time with Gopher's K1000 and RKV, and liked it very much. It seems like a nice choice for a single amp solution for K1000 and standard dynamic cans. I also loved the Blockhead with john_jcb's Meridian...what a sweet sweet setup!! Maybe if I save all of my money for the next 5 years, I can buy a blockhead, all the cables, and a balanced source of my own...or maybe I'll just take the money and fly around the country and listen to it at Head-Fi meets.

There was a satellite radio set up, and it sounded SWEET!! I also had a chance to listen to the PPA, which I liked...but it struck me as a bit too dry. Probably just my taste...nothing really grabbed me. I listened to what I believe was called a Super Mini (it was about the size of a pack of Juicy Fruit gum) which was, though a bit splashy in the bass, none-the-less and amazing little amp for it's size!!

As I said, there was a TON of stuff that I just never caught up with. This included a Music Hall MF-25, a STAX setup, lots of Meier Audio stuff. All sorts of DVD and CD players that I would have loved to get around to, but just not enough time (especially with my mission to gather portable info). I know...I suck.

Guess we need TWO days next time...

I always enjoy meeting some folks when I attend these things, and this was no exception. Meeting Todd of TTVJ was a treat, especially since we are both long-suffering Detroit Lions fans (Todd - how is it that you never became a Green Bay Packer fan living in the U.P.??). I enjoyed talking to Sugarfried about the Shure products very much, and thanks for all the good info about the iPod. It was nice to meet Gopher, who I put onto a Gear For Sale ad one day re) the AKG K1000. He's hooked.

. Todd R had a nice set up with the iPod, and a really appreciate his taking the time to fill me in on the virtues of the Etymotics. Of course, it was nice to see Tuberoller, Ray Samuels, john_jcb, and reynman again. I've met all of these guys at other (Detroit) meets, and it was nice to come and see them on their home turf for a change. To everyone who I didn't get around to seeing, well...maybe at the next Chicago meet (which I understand is already in the works!) or the next Detroit meet (which is NOT already in the works, but who knows....

).

Again, thanks to Tuberoller for allowing me to represent Detroit. I know that there were others who would have liked to have been there who will be pleased at what a success it was.

BTW - I'm the bumblebee looking guy in the first photo.

 

[Todd R]

Well, this was my second Head-Fi meet and it was even better than the first.
My 12 yr old son Chuck came with me this time (That's me standing behind him). I was afraid he was going to get bored, but he enjoyed himself and heard a lot of things he liked.

I couldn't belive how far some people came for this meet, and I was really surprised to finally meet Todd Green! (Thanks for the shirt & I'll take a 650 please).

Ray Samuels's little amps blew me away. The tube amp was really sweet.

Quote:

Originally posted by elrod-tom I should mention that I'm a bit of an MP3 snob. I should say WAS, as what I heard in the iPod really impressed. It had depth and detail that I've not come to expect from MP3's.

Tom, FYI. The songs on my iPod were encoded in AAC format at 320 kbps. They are a little bit better than MP3, but even when using MP3 the iPod sounds very good. AAC

 

[elrod-tom]

Quote:

Originally posted by Todd R Tom, FYI. The songs on my iPod were encoded in AAC format at 320 kbps. They are a little bit better than MP3, but even when using MP3 the iPod sounds very good. AAC

Todd R,

Thanks for the info. I liked the way those sounded very much, and it's helpful to know that the format is NOT MP3. I also heard Sugarfried's iPod with 256K MP3's, and it sounded very good indeed. I was most pleasantly surprised at what I heard from the iPod, and I will own one very soon.