First, I want to thank Mikey for the hospitlaity and the food. I was sending thanks last night and my internet went down. I had a great time and I always like to see you.
The highlight of the meet for me was meeting so many truely nice people. I spent far more time talking than listening than I usually do. This meeting had a nice mix of socilaizing and seriousness.
I got a kick out of the surgical precision of Jacob/ Edipisreks comparing op amps in Brians/bg4533 pimeta. Here is someone who took full advantage of the meet to determine his amp preferances. Jacob is a very intellectual guy who tests and retests everything. If I ever have a question on portable gear he and digitalbill would be the first ones I would contact.
I had never met digitalbill before and he is the type of personable fellow who makes you feel like you have known them all your life. I very much enjoyed my ongoing conversation with Bill throughout the meet. I could talk to Bill all day. Actually I think I did.
I hope the ears arent to tired Bill.
You have got to come up to my house for a meet. I insist.
Brian/ rempert arrived later and battled snow and freezing rain to come; talk about dedication to the hobby. I am glad you did Brian, your quiet, polite manner was a welcome addition. Since you and bg4533 live close to me, I want to have you two over for a mini-meet; sometime in the near future.
Brian/ bg4533 had to listen to me for 2.5 hours down and back.
If Bills ears are tired Brian ears must be on the blink.
Brians one of those creative DIY guys and I especially enjoyed our conversations. His knowledgeable advice on cable building during our drive was especially interesting. He brought his very cool Pimeta that everyone(especially Jacob) enjoyed hearing too. Thanks Brian, you can ride with me anytime.
Adam/ acs236 is an old timer from the first Ohio mini-meet. I always like to talk to Adam and it was nice to see my old gilmore v1 has a good home.
I was glad you to see you enjoyed the grado ps-1 so well. Its so much fun when you come away from a meet with good information that will lead to even more enjoyment down the road. To bad that information is so costly though.
You need to come up to my place too; and make sure you bring go_vtec. I missed having Mike at the meet.
I didnt get to talk much with the two friends that accompanied Jacob. These guys were the calm, quiet types and very serious about auditioning the gear. It was clear they enjoyed the 650's and the tube amps. I wager we have a couple new head-fi members soon.
THANKS TO EVERYONE!
Well now on to the gear... I was most interested in hearing Mikey's Moth amp. This amp was just as rich toned and musical as I expected. The only critcism might be the amp is to smooth. But I will take smooth and musical anyday. Using the senn 650's, Allison Kraus sacd on this amp was some of the best sound I heard at the meet. This amp is very heavily built and I probably liked the look more than most. I like seeing all those transformers. The denon source hooked up to the Moth amp certainly did nothing to detract from the presentation and its versatility was extremely useful.
I was surprised to see the Musical Fidelity x-can v3 and x-ray cd player at the meet. This combo had a clean, clear neutral sound more reminiscent of solid state than tubes; but without the fatigue. For the price this v3 is a nice amp. These components have a nice apperance too.
Surprise, the emmeline sr-71 was here too. This unit made a nice setup with an ipod. Personally, I found the sound to be to bright and thin for my taste. I switched to my 650's and this helped. But in the end I dont think I could live with the highs of this amp.
As for headphones.. I listened to the sony cd3000, woodied cd3000, beyer dt880, allesandro ms-2, grado ps-1, senn hd25 and 650, but didnt get to revisit the grado rs-2:
I just dont like the cd3000. I thought it sounded very good(briefly) on Mikeys mpx3, but once the music had some treble energy I was turned off. The woodied cd3000's didnt fare any better witn me. This headphone is not for me. Neither is the senn hd25; I put it on and I didnt like the sound at all.
The dt880 is one of my favorite headphones and today I liked the 880 with the Moth and mpx3. From experience, this headphone sounds very good with the solid state gilmore amp. But I thought these particular tube amps we had made the dt880 less dry sounding and more musical overall. The smooth, neutral character of this headphone was enhanced even further with the tube amps.
The grado ps-1 I tried to avoid
; to expensive. This headphone has the typical grado strenghts and lots and lots of bass. I heard them on the tube amps and they seemed to bloated and slow. I didnt get to hear the ps-1's in a solid state amp but I bet I would prefer them on solid state. The dynamics and bass control were lacking with the tube Moth. The musical fidelity v3 sounded ok with the ps-1 but a little to thin. I would go with some kind of gilmore amp for this headphone myself. From my limited auditions, I actually preferred the better balanced Allessandro ms-2 to the ps-1.
The ms-2's had a nice smooth sound that didnt have the usual grado treble bite. I liked this headphone a lot. I still prefer my senn 650's but I preferred the ms-2 over the excellent dt880. The ms-2 seemed to move easily between the tube and solid state amps and I especially liked the ms-2 on my own mpx3-12sn7. What I liked best about this headphone was its speed and balanced response. The midrange was excellent on the tube amps too.
I set up the two singlepower mpx3's to run off the same source and cables; with one additional cable to Mikey's mpx3-6sn7 through my mpx3-12sn7's loop out. I wanted to hear how close these two amps were in sound quality. Both aamps have the paper-in-oil caps and solen 1 upgrades. To be brief, they sounded nearly identical despite different tube compliments and different build dates that were many months removed from one another. This is noteworthy as the 12sn7 tubes clearly sound as good as 6sn7's; but cost penies on the dollar vs the 6sn7 tubes. Furthermore, despite vague claims or questions regarding the quality control of P2P wired tube amps in general, these amps sound alike. The sound of the mpx3's with the senn 650 headphones was the best here IMO. I brought some good tubes to get the best out of the Moth amp and I still liked the mpx3's better overall.
I had some fun tuberolling the mpx3-12sn7 for the guys to show them how much tube choice can effect a tube amp. The singlepowers in particular react very positively to any tube upgrade. Personal taste is well served if you can audition many different types of tubes in these amps. With the inexpensive prices of 12sn7 tubes this is a joy.
Finally, kudos to digitalbill for the deal he gave Jacob on the Corda amp. That was really nice of you. You could definitley have sold the amp for more.
I hope to have a large meet sometime in June and your ALL invited.
Thanks again everyone. I had a blast.