I was intimidated coming into the meeting because, obviously, I'm the newbie among us and don't yet even have my terminology down. This seems unwaranted, though, as the group was friendly and welcoming. Flumpus did an awesome job of hosting with tables laid out for various set ups and power strips for easy shuffling--he even had snack foods and soda. Our dinner break consisted of us going less than half a mile down the road for Wingstop, which I also found agreeable. There were nine of us total, all white guys, for those keeping track. This included my old coworker, Ben, who is also a friend of Nick Dangerous, who I had indeed met before, Flumpus' two roommates, two very different Stevens and one guy who apparently doesn't come here often. For me, this would have been fun even without the audio stuff. It was nice meeting all of you.
Thanks:
In addition to Flumpus, I'd like to thank Headroom for sending us things to use for the meeting. As always, give Headroom a visit at
www.headroom.com if somehow someone is reading this and doesn't already know about them.
Disclaimers:
As always, there are my opinions. Anything in this post that seems like a fact only seems that way because I'm either an influencial writer or an overbearing *******, depending on your perspective.
Headphones:
Etymotics 4S
This was the big surprise for me. It pains me to admit how good these are because I hate the very idea of shoving things in my ears. It also defies logic and reason to me that these sound so good. They're actually better to me, in every way--awesome seperation, incredible bass, crystal clear highs and imaging like you wouldn't believe. These also seemed to be the most revealing so a part of me still wonders how they perform on exceptionally poor sources but they were excellent with everything I heard them on. Thanks to whoever donated the spare foamies.
AKG K-1000
At the opposite end of the design spectrum, these things don't even touch your head. You can hear everything in the room as if you weren't listening to headphones at all. And yet, the sound was very nice, clean and detailed. These were lacking a little in the bass department but not nearly as much as the 501s. I imagine these would be enjoyable to own if you didn't have a speaker system at all and could afford the amp to drive them. I was really glad to get to hear these.
AKG 501
These were detailed but very lacking in bass and were too laid back. These qualities overshadowed the headphone for me and made them not a consideration. I didn't spend further time with them.
Sennheiser HD600
I brought a pair of these and another pair were there that had the blue clou cable. Additionally there was at least one pair of 580s there. My opinions of the HD600 are reaffirmed. I find them to be sloppy in the bass and unnatural everywhere else, as if they were running through someone else's ideal EQ settings. I know my opinion of these is unpopular and I'm not going to part with mine until I've heard them on a balls out tube amp (working on acquiring one) but it doesn't look like these are for me. As I believe Nick pointed out, though, if you're going to be into this hobby, owning HD600s at some point is almost mandatory because they are such a common point of reference. I concur--I don't regret my purchase but doubt they are for me, long term.
Beyerdynamic DT931
The 931 is practically the sister of the HD600. As someone put it, "It's two versions of the same flavor." The 931s aren't quite as deep in the bass of the HD600 but in my opinion, are better in every other respect. They are natural sounding and have better imaging with a more forward sound than the 831. If these impressions last when I get hold of a real tube amp, I forsee myself selling the HD600 and moving to the 931.
Beyerdynamic DT831
I brought these. As I said before, these are awesome with horns and vocals and overall a great closed headphone. Again, there's not enough bass here and their laid back presentation was brought into directly sunlight when compared to the other headphones present. The vocals, especially, sound recessed compared to the 931s and likely contribute greatly to why I don't prefer them as much for rock. Still, for a closed headphone, which I require for work, they hold their ground and to even be compared with the other headphones here is quite a statement.
Grado 325 and 125
I found the Grados harsh, grating and uncomfortable. This echos my earlier impressions of them. I'm told the 325s were not broke in and normally sound better but I suspect they would not be to my liking regardless. I didn't give them much time and I don't think anyone else did either.
Amps:
Melos SHA-1
I think it was unanimously agreed that this was the overall best amp at our meeting. The Melos is a hybrid tube/solid state amp that seems to have gathered the strengths of both without the weaknesses of either. They drove every headphone present (except the 1000 which required 10 watts--we had to power those from Flumpus' Rotel). The SHA-1 is noisless, accurate, detailed and quick. It doesn't really seem to have a sweet spot, to me, and does everything equally well. It's worth noting that this was my favorite amp there while listening to the Etys, Sennheisers and 931s--I liked it with everything.
MG Head OTL
As many of you know, I bought and sold one of these. It may surprise you then, to hear that I really loved this amp. Though I still find it a bit sluggish for classical and to have a high noise floor, Nick's tube rolling fixed every other flaw I had considered with this amp. I preferred it in the headphone jack in OTL mode. (With the stock tubes, I could not stand OTL mode.) The highs were not so rolled off and the mids were very sweet. I would not begrudge anyone for finding this to be their favorite amp. For those of you just getting one of these, talk to Nick.
Headroom Max
I feel that I owe an apology to Headroom. While I certainly appreciate their genrosity in sending the equipment to sponsor the even, I can't honestly recommend their flagship amp. In the positives, the Max had deep plunging bass that I only wish I could get into other amps. In the negatives, the highs were rolled off in its unfiltered mode and the amp did not have the detail of the other amps present. At $1600, the Max just seems very overpriced to me and I think to everyone else at the meeting--although they may be nice enough to omit this from their impressions. The Max is very nice to look at, however, with an unrivaled build quality.
Cosmic
For half the price of the Max, the Cosmic is dangerously close. The bass isn't quite as plunging as the Max but it's so close that it's still enviable. The obvious benefit of this amp is its portability and Headwired's porta-rig of the Cosmic, Sony EJ01 and Etymotics in a Traveler bag was certainly a nice combination. The Cosmic does share the Max's flaws, however and some of the details disappear on the Cosmic that were present in the other amps, especially in the highs.
Corda HA-1
This was the amp I brought and is largely responsible for the ill will I've given the Max and cosmic. The HA-1 sadly lacks the plunging bass of the Cosmic and Max, presumably due to its small power supply, but beats either of them in every other way. It's more detailed, seems to be more accurate to me (subjective, I know) and has a better crossfeed filter. The HA-1 is just under $300 if you build it yourself and just over $300 if you let an expert do it for you. I honestly hate to give Jan Meier props because he declined to support our gathering, but I suppose that's more forgivable for a Germany company run by an engineer as a hobby to his daytime medical job. Regardless, the HA-1 is an incredible value and that was reaffirmed by this event. I especially liked the HA-1 with the Etymotics as the bass didn't seem as lacking as with the other already bass shy headphones.
Creek OBH-11
I was immediately struck by how small this amp is. It seems to much larger on their web site. Unfortunately, the small amp produced a small sound and I felt as if the amp was constantly straining to provide the music it did. A power supply upgrade is available for this amp and is probably warranted. I suspect it would improve immensely from the power supply and withold further judgment against it. This is also an affordable amp and is relatively inexpensive even with the upgrade, so I certainly wouldn't discount it, especially if you are limited in budget. It lacks a crossfeed filter or any additional features, but a dozen people will swarm me if I don't mention how easy that is to build externally if you prefer crossfeed.
Sources:
Our sources included too broad an array to give individual criticism. My comments thus far are farily unscientific and it would go beyond even me to try to cricize the sources explicitly. I can only say that I was impressed that this never became an issue. Nick's thin Pioneer 440 was easy to use and worked well with the ART DI/O and Headwired's EJ01 relieved concerns I had that anything that thin must have a sucky DAC--it was actually pretty competent. I do like the ergonomics of Flumpus' 555 but ultimately I think I'm just not fond of disc changers. If I find a good deal on a 333, I'm probably all over it.
Side notes:
I sold my Sony D-25S to Headwired previously and brought it to the meeting. No one cared to hear it. I brought my Sony 7506 headphones and no one cared to hear those either. For some reason, I found both of these thoughts amusing.
I hope we get to do this again soon. My Audio Technica W2002s have just arrived and I should have an RKV amp next month. Nick is working on a horn system that I'm dying to hear and I'd be willing to bet almost everyone buys something soon. Flumpus was probably right when he said we buy and sell too much gear to meet even semi-annually. This may have to be a quarterly event. It was nice meeting all of you.
No, it's not as good as the Melos, even with the AKG K501s IMO, but that doesn't make it a bad amp! It does have a very smooth sound, with great bass. If you're into solid state, this is the amp. The Corda was surprisingly good. It's bass was lacking compared to the Max and Cosmic, and it wasn't quite as smooth, but had a sonic signature (open and extended) that I like more. Great amp for the price! So many amps... Oh ya, the JMT-built mint tin cmoy is great (it's mine, but others will agree I think
