[Voxata]

Hey All!

Looking forward to this meet! Here's the gear I'll have on hand:

DAC: Chord DAVE

Amps:
----ZMF Pendent SE (currently for sale: https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/price-drop-zmf-pendant-se-headphone-amp.24900/ -- if it sells before the meet, I won't have it, but maybe you could buy it at the meet if you want?)
---RAAL-requisite HSA-1b (not yet posted, but contemplating selling it--again, maybe you could buy it at the meet if you want?)
---CFA3 (Kevin Gilmore design, built by forum member Dukei)

Amp Add-Ons: RAAL-requisite T1-1a Transformer Interface Box

Headphones:
---RAAL-requisite SR1a
---ZMF Verite Closed - Stabilized
---Drop Sennheiser HD 6XX

Oh wow, that is an amazing selection! Can't wait to lay ears on the SR1a.

 

[Hiker816]

Oh wow, that is an amazing selection! Can't wait to lay ears on the SR1a.

Thanks! Yep, I love me my SR1a. I'm excited to put my ears on some new gear at the meet, too. I haven't heard any of your kit before!

 

[timb5881]

I plan on attending. I can bring some various electrostatic gear.

 

[Hiker816]

I plan on attending. I can bring some various electrostatic gear.

That's terrific! I've (sadly) never had ears on any estats, but I'm really looking forward to the opportunity.

 

[tjpdenver]

Question... I'm going to try and make it down for the get together - I'm up in the mountains. I am really happy to share the love and bring down a bunch of headphones. But, to bring DACs/Amps/DDC is a HUGE pain for me to disassemble! So, is there someone bringing their gear that I could "poach" off of? I'd probably bring the Heddphone, Clears, Aeolus, HE6seV2, and Stax L300. I'll gladly bring any of the others that are in my signature if someone has an interest.

 

[Voxata]

Question... I'm going to try and make it down for the get together - I'm up in the mountains. I am really happy to share the love and bring down a bunch of headphones. But, to bring DACs/Amps/DDC is a HUGE pain for me to disassemble! So, is there someone bringing their gear that I could "poach" off of? I'd probably bring the Heddphone, Clears, Aeolus, HE6seV2, and Stax L300. I'll gladly bring any of the others that are in my signature if someone has an interest.

Yes, but can you bring a source? Laptop or the like.

 

[tjpdenver]

Absolutely.

 

[Hiker816]

Question... I'm going to try and make it down for the get together - I'm up in the mountains. I am really happy to share the love and bring down a bunch of headphones. But, to bring DACs/Amps/DDC is a HUGE pain for me to disassemble! So, is there someone bringing their gear that I could "poach" off of? I'd probably bring the Heddphone, Clears, Aeolus, HE6seV2, and Stax L300. I'll gladly bring any of the others that are in my signature if someone has an interest.

As long as you're offering . . . I'd be very curious to hear the Grado. And you're welcome to poach off my DAC & amps!

 

[Hiker816]

Hello Colorado Head-Fi'ers! If you are planning to drive to attend the meet this Saturday, please PM me your name and the time you expect to arrive to unload. (If everyone can arrive around the same time, at say 12:50pm, that would be ideal so I can be waiting when you pull up, but I will work with different schedules too). I will try to request that you have access to the building's underground loading bay to unload your gear. I can also circulate my cell and some photos / maps to help with directions by PM later this week. Thanks!

 

[Hiker816]

Hi All! I haven't received any PMs yet. If you'd like access to the loading bay to unload your gear for the meet, please let me know right away. I need to provide at least a day's advance notice. Thanks.

 

[Voxata]

I want to thank everyone who was able to make it and a big thanks especially to Hiker816 for providing an awesome venue (not to mention sharing his epic audio stack with us all to demo). I've got a couple pictures and am going to flesh out some thoughts and a couple reviews this week for posting next weekend. These smaller meets are awesome and despite having hours I still felt like we didn't have quite enough time. We'll have to do it again down the road, especially for our newest member who rushed out last minute when he heard about the meet.

 

[timb5881]

I had a great time trying all the different headphones and DAC’s. Looking forward to the next meet.

 

[Hiker816]

Thanks, everyone, for attending! It was great to test out so many pieces of kit. @sharktopus 's Bottlehead S.E.X. was incredibly cool (he said it wasn't too hard to build, but somehow I think it's well beyond my capabilities). I was also happy to try @timb5881 's Koss e-stat. I'd been interested in adding an e-stat to the collection before; now it's turned into a lust.

 

[Voxata]

Thanks everyone for coming, the meet turned out incredibly well. I think a huge standout was that every setup has great synergy. It's so often I've gone to shows and meets and there is always a setup that makes you wonder why it was even put together. Not so here! Here are a few of the biggest standouts for me - sorry if I missed anything there was a lot going on!

@sharktopus came prepared with Bottlehead gear, SW51+and a Jotunheim paired with great headphones. The SW51+HD650 is a synergy combo that cannot be overstated. When I noticed the pairing I figured the SEX+HE500 would be an afterthought in my impressions, I was quite wrong. Shark had carefully upgraded the SEX and I was rather surprised it handled the planars so well. Really a fantastic performance across the board at this table. While still enjoyable the Jotunheim 1 & Bottlehead Crack OG couldn't quite keep up - and that is more of a compliment than anything else.

@timb5881 had such a surprising kit with him. The Koss e-stat namely blew me away. Classic gear with a per channel volume knob hooked into a Topping D10 of all things. It sounded full, dynamic, engaging and just flat out good. Next time Drop is dumping some of their Koss e-stat rebrands I'm going to have to jump on board. I was absolutely not expecting the performance those headphones put out. The bass especially was surprising as I had always heard this was a lacking range for e-stats. It had a classic sound and easily showed that modern is definitely not always better.

@Hiker816 Brought in the most interesting rack/gear housing unit I'd ever seen. Complimented by drilled through IKEA cutting boards was the Chord Dave, ZMF Pendant, RAAL HSA and a kitted out CFA3 with golden reference dedicated PSU. Stabilized ZMF's and the SR1a were tested and absolutely didn't disappoint. Definitely the best ZMF I'd ever heard to date. The SR1a blew me away, albeit a bit genre specific they presented detail and a soundstage I can only dream of on other sets. The CFA3 was clean and faster than my previous Dynahi but still retained the nice sound profile. Truly, an endgame rack. I was very impressed by my moded 650's straight from the Dave too. An incredibly solid performance, right up there with my personal presentation preference of the Fifteen on the same pair. A bit more intimate yet still airy as opposed to wide and grand - better stated as a shifted focus that was executed so surprisingly well that something I had less of a preference for suddenly clicked right into place.

Finally I hope you all enjoyed listening to the Aune X1s GT & Questyle CMA comparison stack. I welcome you to post some further impressions and am thankful we were able to get together and share the hobby. Thanks again to @Hiker816 for providing the exceptional venue and I'm looking forward to meeting up with each of you again!

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Thanks everyone for coming, the meet turned out incredibly well. I think a huge standout was that every setup has great synergy. It's so often I've gone to shows and meets and there is always a setup that makes you wonder why it was even put together. Not so here! Here are a few of the biggest standouts for me - sorry if I missed anything there was a lot going on!

@sharktopus came prepared with Bottlehead gear, SW51+and a Jotunheim paired with great headphones. The SW51+HD650 is a synergy combo that cannot be overstated. When I noticed the pairing I figured the SEX+HE500 would be an afterthought in my impressions, I was quite wrong. Shark had carefully upgraded the SEX and I was rather surprised it handled the planars so well. Really a fantastic performance across the board at this table. While still enjoyable the Jotunheim 1 & Bottlehead Crack OG couldn't quite keep up - and that is more of a compliment than anything else.


@timb5881 had such a surprising kit with him. The Koss e-stat namely blew me away. Classic gear with a per channel volume knob hooked into a Topping D10 of all things. It sounded full, dynamic, engaging and just flat out good. Next time Drop is dumping some of their Koss e-stat rebrands I'm going to have to jump on board. I was absolutely not expecting the performance those headphones put out. The bass especially was surprising as I had always heard this was a lacking range for e-stats. It had a classic sound and easily showed that modern is definitely not always better.



@Hiker816 Brought in the most interesting rack/gear housing unit I'd ever seen. Complimented by drilled through IKEA cutting boards was the Chord Dave, ZMF Pendant, RAAL HSA and a kitted out CFA3 with golden reference dedicated PSU. Stabilized ZMF's and the SR1a were tested and absolutely didn't disappoint. Definitely the best ZMF I'd ever heard to date. The SR1a blew me away, albeit a bit genre specific they presented detail and a soundstage I can only dream of on other sets. The CFA3 was clean and faster than my previous Dynahi but still retained the nice sound profile. Truly, an endgame rack. I was very impressed by my moded 650's straight from the Dave too. An incredibly solid performance, right up there with my personal presentation preference of the Fifteen on the same pair. A bit more intimate yet still airy as opposed to wide and grand - better stated as a shifted focus that was executed so surprisingly well that something I had less of a preference for suddenly clicked right into place.




Finally I hope you all enjoyed listening to the Aune X1s GT & Questyle CMA comparison stack. I welcome you to post some further impressions and am thankful we were able to get together and share the hobby. Thanks again to @Hiker816 for providing the exceptional venue and I'm looking forward to meeting up with each of you again!

Nice stuff! Glad to hear this happened eventually.