[The Piper]

FYI- The Headtrip can be ordered with an infinite wiper style volume control in place of the stepped attenuator and can be  also ordered with stepped down output for more efficient headphone designs.

 

[buson160man]

Hats off to Keith for all the work in making chiunify a reality

 

[Roscoeiii]

FYI- The Headtrip can be ordered with an infinite wiper style volume control in place of the stepped attenuator and can be  also ordered with stepped down output for more efficient headphone designs.

That's good to know. Those are my biggest knocks against the Wells. That and the channel imbalance at some low levels.

 

[The Piper]

The channel imbalance is only on the Enigma with the Tocos volume control. We are aware of the imbalance but the performance is so good for the money that we felt it was a valid trade off.

 

[Roscoeiii]

The channel imbalance is only on the Enigma with the Tocos volume control. We are aware of the imbalance but the performance is so good for the money that we felt it was a valid trade off.

We heard a channel imbalance on multiple headphones at lower volumes.

Great sounding amp. But I wished for lower gain and eliminating the channel imbalance. And I was using HE-5LE. Hardly an efficient headphone.

 

[buson160man]

 Thanks adamaley for the music compliment . I was blown away with the raptor hd 800 combo  time to start saving for another headphone .

 

[Roscoeiii]

  The channel imbalance is only on the Enigma with the Tocos volume control. We are aware of the imbalance but the performance is so good for the money that we felt it was a valid trade off.

 
And don't get me wrong, I love your stuff. I drool over the possibility of your amps for my hard to drive speakers.

 

[zach915m]

Hey guys thanks for an awesome time.  Despite the slight volume imbalance on the first three clicks of the Wells amp I was totally blown away with that complete set-up.  Both the Wells and the Cavalli Lau had my jaw on the floor for serious.  The wells with it's complete control over the driver and the Cavalli for it's uncompromising power and treble extension was some serious fun listening.  I'm sure the Chord DAVE had a lot to do with the ultimate liquidity of both amps as well, I just found myself going over to that table over and over again and then forcing my wife to listen to the Omni's on them when she arrived lol!  Was a fun time.
 
Aside from that rediculous experience of awesome, I was also really excited by how great the Shure Electro IEM's sounded, never heard that from an in ear.  Completely agreed that this was one of the most fun meets for me!

 

[aarontyson]

Hi everyone! I just want to say I have a fantastic time. I got to see and hear lots of great gear and got to meet a lot of awesome people. Best part is I got to hear gear I thought I'd never see or hear. Especially the DAVE and the Cavalli Liquid Gold! Thanks Jude! Also really excited to see the HD 800 S since this will be my next headphone purchase especially from the improvement the S brings to an already great headphone. I also finally got to hear the ZMF gear which made me desperate to get a real set of wood cans. Finally, the one piece of gear that made me really giddy was the Cavalli Liquid Gold, it stole the show for me. It just does everything well. It's by far the best headphone amp I've ever heard, I can't wait to get mine. Thank you all again for a great show and great gear. It really was a great day for me. Hopefully I'll see some of you at Axpona in a couple of months. Looking forward to next year's meet.

 

[crashtest33]

Thanks for the photos! Brilliant.

 

[Roscoeiii]

  Hey guys thanks for an awesome time.  Despite the slight volume imbalance on the first three clicks of the Wells amp I was totally blown away with that complete set-up.  Both the Wells and the Cavalli Lau had my jaw on the floor for serious.  The wells with it's complete control over the driver and the Cavalli for it's uncompromising power and treble extension was some serious fun listening.  I'm sure the Chord DAVE had a lot to do with the ultimate liquidity of both amps as well, I just found myself going over to that table over and over again and then forcing my wife to listen to the Omni's on them when she arrived lol!  Was a fun time.
 
Aside from that rediculous experience of awesome, I was also really excited by how great the Shure Electro IEM's sounded, never heard that from an in ear.  Completely agreed that this was one of the most fun meets for me!

 
Yes, the sound of the Wells was very, very impressive. As mentioned above, control over the drivers was excellent. 

 

[adamaley]

   Thanks adamaley for the music compliment . I was blown away with the raptor hd 800 combo  time to start saving for another headphone .

Thanks for the PM also, I have them ordered. The HD-800s would definitely be a great addition and complement your AKGs. Just be sure to get them modded.

 

[FraGGleR]

Thanks again to Keith for setting this up. Was fun to see old friends, meet new ones, and safely ride two ways in a small van with an alarming lack of windows. Heard some great stuff, and was happy to confirm that my gear is good enough for now and if I were to get another set of headphones it would be the HD800s again, though Zach's Cherry Omni was good enough to tempt me.

 

[adamaley]

ZMF lineup
 

Blackwoods hiding in the back
 
 

Violectric and a Decware Taboo employed to showcase the variety of ZMF's great sounding semi-closed headphones
 

Quite the looker
 

 

Blackwoods, hiding in the back.
 

MicroZOTL2 did it's part. It was also very good with the HE1K, but a little too lean for me.
It'll be perfect for LCD3s IMO.
 

The innards
 

 

Stax in the house
 
 

 
 

Ray Samuels The Raptor driven by a Peachtree Decco
 
 

 

 

Beautiful looking system
 
 

One of many Chords in the house. This one's name was Dave.
 
 
 

 

 

 

The future of Head-Fi
 
 

 

Glenn OTL driving HD-800's and a Bottlehead S.E.X driving HE1Ks all sourced by an Yggy.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two heavy hitters in the house:
 

 

Needed to handle these beasts
 
 

 

 

 

Probably my next amp. A joy to listen to and look at.
 

 

[mrstrangeguy]

Amazing photos Adamaley!
 
A few impressions I have of the setups:
 
- ZMF Vibro II w/ Violectric V281 (?): 
 
- ZMF Blackwood w/ Wells Audio Headtrip (?): Treble seems toned down a notch from my Hifimans, not as sibilant, but still have good clarity. Bass in general seems to be more emphasized, with a slight midbass emphasis, tilts slightly warm signature in general, didn't pick up on a lot otherwise.
 
- Sennheiser HD800S w/ Violectric V181 (?):
 
- Hifiman HE1000 with Bottlehead S.E.X: Leave it up to Hifiman to make cables for $3000 headphones that feel near the same as the cables on my HE-400i. Very good detail articulation, even if it's not immediately apparent, and seem to be very balanced through the FR, definitely understand why people call these "soft", they aren't great for those desiring visceral response, and the notes don't have big weight behind them. I'm a big EDM guy so these aren't really for me, but for other genres I could see these being desirable.
 
- Hifiman HE-X w/ AK240 + included Amp (?): 
 
- Audeze LCD-3(F?) w/ Cavalli Liquid Carbon: The thing that stuck out to me the most about this setup was the sub/low freq bass response. In TDK OST's "Why so serious?", around the 3:25, there is a big bass drop which emphasized subbass response. These were great at that point, and extended very well down with texture, speed & impact that my 400i's couldn't manage..
 
- Shure KSE 1500 w/ Chord Mojo: I had my doubts at $3000 IEMs, given I had gone down that IEM road briefly and wasn't fond of it. But listening to music made me feel like what I felt when listening to CK-10s for the 1st time, massive amounts of detail and resolution that I hadn't noticed before in music, especially in this form factor, there were slight problems with insertion that led to sibilance and peakiness, but still an amazing experience.
 
- Hifiman HE-6 w/ Cavalli LAu: In contrast to the HEK's slightly soft note presentation, these things are very visceral and have great impact. Sound sig definitely feels  aggressive to me, bass notes hit hard and fast, treble is well extended and clear, doesn't seem to be too shouty (could be the amp). These feel like a more natural upgrade path in terms of quality for HE-400i than the HEK. (Sidenote: my HE-400i w/ LAu changed the character of the HF significantly, less "hot" than when driven w/ Magnis (home setup), the effects of more power can definitely be felt, more wide open SS and slightly better Bass extension) 
 
Will update with more time, big thanks to Keith for making this event possible!