[Tyll Hertsens]

Touche'

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyrion I can think of a couple of headfiers that would've had a great time at the meet considering there were more females than at any 3 other meets, I've attended. I am sure they know who they are.

Lol. Lemme guess. Ray Samuels is one of them.

 

[Romanee]

There seems to be a headfi meet every hour, lately!

Looks like the cafe was a very friendly space to meet ... and they serve only "Fair Trade Coffees"! Seems that Cincinnati is more progressive than NYC!

Another great headfi congregation and fast post-meet chat!

Tyll... either you are the dynamo of the decade, or you've got 3 clones bouncing around the country!

 

[acs236]

Definitely a great meet.

Tyll's set up was incredible. There were tables full of great gear. And he brought enough headphones to make you sick.

Here's what I learned:

The RS-1 + RA-1 sounded nice, but I wasn't blown away or motiviated to get an RA-1.

The brown leather RS-1s didn't sound any different than my 6 month old RS-1, as best I could tell.

Digitalbill's Cary + R10 setup is about as good as it gets.

The 55 ohm 595s sounded a signficantly better to me than the 120 ohm 595s. (But I may be the only person who thinks so). In fact, I prefered the standard carble 55 ohm 595s over the 120 ohm recabled 595s. Unfortunately, I don't think there was a rebabled 55 ohm pair to try at the meet. Still, however, I'm not crazy about the 595s, but the 55 ohm version makes a hell of a lot more sense to me.

The PS-1s have just a tad too much bass for me. Oh well. Other than that I think they're great.

The new Headroom Desktop is AWESOME. Definitely have to get one of these soon. I A/Bed the Desktop Portable (But being run off of AC)against my Prehead -- the Desktop portable held its own. I can't say that I thought the Prehead sounded better.

The Micro stack sounded very nice too. I don't have much of a use for a portable set up right now, but it sure is a good one.

 

[psyco1]

Damn, I wish I could have come, its' only 2 hours away and I just got a Mister X M3 with 8065's on Saturday. I was still under the impression that it was still on the 27th, guess I need to read the threads more often.

 

[woodcans]

Great meet, thanks Jacob for putting it together!

I was only able to be there for about an hour and a half, but had a blast. Tyll is a great guy to talk shop with.

I enjoyed listening to the broad range of cans available.

I'm still biased towards tubes, as those were my favorites, but all of my impressions are based on very short listening sessions.

Mikey01's DM-1 sounded very good. Not in the same league as the Moth 2a3, but definitely a similar character, which is a good thing. I would like to have more time with this amp.

Best of show definitely goes to digitalbill's sweet setup of musical fidelity v3->Cary 300sei->R10's. Man, that setup is beautiful sounding and beautiful looking. I could have listened to that all day.

A fun comparison was the DAC1 to the headroom desktop portable to the grace 902. They each sounded differently, and I would definitely need more time to compare them, but in brief, the headroom seemed to have a better 'grip' on the cardas cabled 650's than the other two. It's bass was tight and well-defined. It seemed to have a little more prominence in the upper octaves than the grace or dac1. Further detail would require more time with the units. But suffice to say, I think the headroom unit is pretty cool for a combined dac/headamp.

I finally got a chance to listen to some real vinyl through Jacob's ppx, very nice! I was on my way out the door and took a quick listen, but I probably shouldn't have - the last thing I need is to start getting into vinyl!

Overall, great meet, wish I could have been there longer, and I'm looking forward to my next head-fi meet!

 

[EdipisReks]

man, what a great meet! i would like to thank Tyll, and his great company, everyone who attended, and the Rohs Street Cafe who so kindly allowed us to use their space. i have a bunch of pictures, taken by digital bill, to post and a bunch of impressions, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow as i've been freaking busy.

 

[EdipisReks]

ok, i've got some impressions and a bunch of pics. i want to thank headroom, rohs street cafe, and the attendees again. Tyll is a really great, neat, friendly guy, and i spent about as much time talking to him as i did listening. i hope i get to meet him again in the future.

first off, the new headroom line really impressed me. from the top to bottom, these are the best solid state products that i have tried. the microstack (microamp + dac) is something that i'm definitely going to purchase when i have the spare money. the amp is great, especially with etymotics, and the dac really transforms the airport express, which i tried it with. the desktop portable also sounds great, and has a very nice form factor for a transportable rig. the desktop portable is the first amp in the product line that has an integrated DAC, and we tried it against the Grace 902 and the Benchmark DAC-1. i think that Grace and the Desktop Portable were way too close to decide on a brief listen, but i think it was a little unfair for the Benchmark, as i consider it a source first and a headroom amplifier somewhere around 9th.

the Maxed Desktop was amazing. it had everything, the max module, the stepped attenuator and the desktop power supply, and it was attached to a Meridian 588. the Headroom Desktop is great! i A/Bed it vs. the Grace 902 with Senn 650's and Sony CD3000's, and i really think the Desktop is a better amp with these phones. it has effortless power, great top end extension, a warm, round midrange, and a powerful, textured bass. the Grace just sounded somewhat thin and grainy in comparison. i also A/B'ed the internal DAC of the Desktop vs. the Meridian's, and i couldn't hear any difference at all. Headroom has something really special with the DAC's they have built. i didn't really play around with the crossfeed on the Desktop unit, but one feature that is really great is the variable gain. It is especially invaluable with the stepped attenautor, and it made listening to phones of different sensitivity and impedance a joy.

i didn't spend much time with the unbalanced Max, but i did with the Balanced Max. balanced phones are amazing! the balanced 650's are a revelation; it is one of the most speaker like headphone experiences i've ever had. the speed picks way up, the soundstage becomes very natural, the bass becomes fast and solid, and in every way the phones imprive drastically. i love the Balanced Max and the 650 pairing. i also spent some time with the Balanced Grado RS-1's, and i really liked those as well. to me, the RS-1's are a little "weird", and i think the Balanced confguration fixed it. the heavy cable would drive me crazy, though. the Balanced Max was attached to the Wadia player, and boy did it sound good. however, upon switching to the Max's DAC, i think i actually like the top end Headroom DAC a little more, as the treble was slightly more forward. i would need more than a half an hour audition to decide, though. the one thing Wadia needs sto do, though, is relabel the buttons so that you can figure out how to use it when you don't have the remote.

now, on to the other rigs. DigitalBill's Cary+R10+X-Ray CD Player rig was AMAZING. delicate, powerful, detailed, organic, fast and speaker like. i fell in love, and playing a nice recording of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies on it almost brought me to tears. it can't be overstated how great that sounded. the X-Ray CD Player by Musical Fidelity was very, very nice, and it is on my short list of source upgrades for the fairly near future.

Mikey01 had his Eddie Current DM-1, and it was great too! it's pretty dang close to the Moth s2A3 for a lot less money. it was fast, had great bass, a very nice sound stage, and that magical tube sound for a great midrange. i really liked it. the DM-1 went REALLY well with the Sony SA5000's.

Woodcan's Maxed MPX3 was once again great, barring a staticy tube in the right channel, and it was nice hearing the benchmark DAC1. even though i heard it out of yet anothe disparate system, which makes comparisons hard, i think the DAC-1 was my favorite source out of all of them, including the Wadia. it's also on my short list of source upgrades.

in terms of headphones, i got to listen to the AKG K1000's, the Senn 201's, and the Grado 325i's for the first time. man, the K1000's are amazing! it was being powered by a Peter Millet prototype (which was a neat amp!), and it was pretty stunning. there was a little bit of bass roll off, but the sound was so fun, so lifelife, that i couldn't care less. i loved it. along with the Cary/R10 and the Balanced Max/650, the Millet/K1000 was the best combo i heard. i listened to the 201's out of my PPX3, and man is it a great set of phones for $20! i was stunned when Tyll handed them to me and i plugged them in. who would have thought?! sure, they have their issues, but they sounded like real phones! the 325i's were great, and i want to get some more ear time with them. they were fast, sparkled, and had a great midrange. i heard them with the bowl pads, which i heavily favor over the flats.

i also got to hear a decent vinyl rig, courtesy of my friend vern and half of his DJ rig, and vinyl is awesome! i heard some massive attack that i also have on CD, and the vinyl version just sounded...alive. i don't know how else to explain it. i will definitely be looking for a turntable system sometime down the road. now to the pictures!







thanks imageshack!

 

[Jahn]

ARGH! Break your thumbs into 5 thumbs per line! you're killing the page!

 

[EdipisReks]

it's fixed now. you didn't have to scream, Jahn.

 

[EdipisReks]

i that came across as snippy, i apolgize, Jahn.

 

[digitalbill]

Many thanks to Jacob for putting on a great meet! Thanks also to Tyll for going out of his way to visit us in Cincinnati. Tyll really is a down-to-earth guy and a pleasure to talk to. I was amazed at the quantity and quality of the equipment at this meet. Most every dynamic headphone made was there and I got to listen to a lot of cans I've never heard before. I can see now why there's so much talk about balanced headphones. The sound out of Headroom's Max from all of the balanced phones was significantly better than the same phones driven unbalanced. My favorite was the balanced RS-1 - punchy and detailed - very nice. I also had the chance to compare Headroom's Desktop amp/max module/power supply with the Sudgen, Grace 902 and Grado HA1. I listened to each of them for a short time with the A.T. L3000's and based on that short audition, came away very impressed with the Headroom Desktop. I think I ended up spending more time at the meet listening to that Desktop/Meridian combo than everything else combined. Even the R10's, which usually prefer tubes, sounded great. I also liked Mickey01's Eddie Current/DT990 combo - very tubey, relaxing sound. Last but not least, I just want to say that the Rohs Street Cafe makes the best Cafe Mocha I've ever had. With live jazz on the weekends and good coffee, I might need to drop by again.

 

[Mikey01]

[size=x-large]ROH'S STREET CAFE, ROCKS![/size]

I think I heard one of the girls refer to Eddie Rex as the "Stud Muffen". Although I can't be sure. I also wanted to tell everyone about the cigarett box mini "guitar amp" someone had made and was there. Two of them in fact. They had built in speakers no less. I did get a chance to play "Stairway To Heaven" through one of them. Thanks to the gentleman who lent me his "Goya" electric guitar to do so. How cool they were.

 

[bhd812]

[size=xx-large]COFFEE SHOP?????[/size]



where was I?

hey!!!!...Damm My starbucks girl was outdone 10 fold...man,,,,,,lol lol

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdipisReks i that came across as snippy, i apolgize, Jahn.

Sorry about the "ARGH!" but I think you'd laugh at me IRL because I actually did emit a tiny "argh!" when I was trying to read your post before due to the stretched page - sorry, overreaction due to lazy post reading!