The last three DC meets (also the first three DC meets I've been to) have been an enjoyable progression from large to small. This meet was a true mini-meet, and listening was very pleasant therefore.
First an impression of my own gear: I was disappointed that by the time I finally sat down to do some real A-Bing between the Audio-gd DAC 19 NOS and the Metrum Musette, something was going on with the Audio-gd, or going on with what I wasn't seeing, and I couldn't get it to play music. It has worked perfectly since getting it home. In theory this DAC was supposed to be a purchase of necessity that I sold ASAP after AXPONA, but now I'm making excuses to keep it longer and rationalizing spending more than I planned to on a DAC. I think it will end up being sold sometime in June, but I've been having a really good time with it in the meantime. The Stax SR- Lambdas (regular bias) had arrived Thursday, and today I gave my energizer to a guy with plans to convert one output to pro bias, so I haven't had that much time with them, but they're keeping up with my other very nice headphones. Had one of those corny audio moments wearing them and listening to an album while doing something else, and one song just sounded so good that I had to stop what I was doing until it was over. If the pro bias thing works out, I'm definitely getting a pair of Lambda Nova Signature. What's this? A very expensive slope I can slide down
alongside the very expensive audio slope I'm already on? Great!
@gandhisfist's Audio-GD NFB-27H is certainly impressive in its power, and spending a bit more time with it than I did when he brought it by the LTA workshop, listening to HD650s, I appreciated the finesse that went along with its power - with my sibilance-testing track ("Autumn Leaves" by Cannonball Adderley) the treble was natural and didn't hurt, and timbres were accurate. I didn't listen to his HE-500 or HE-560 because I don't want to want anything else and I knew they sounded great from the previous session. Looking forward to when you buy those HE-6s and bring them to the next meet (but not the actual next meet, because that'll be at CAF and I'll be too busy vending to try much of anything).
David's Valhalla 2 was interesting to listen to - I've never actually spent time with Schiit amps. It certainly wasn't warm, and I didn't really enjoy the HD800s out of it, but the HD650s were a better match, and I can imagine other headphones getting along quite well. I didn't realize the Vali was there as well, or I would have tried that too.
Enjoyed all of the conversation, especially about DAC chips, which I have very little knowledge about, and just listening in general. I'm still relatively new to high-end audio, and still experiencing larger jumps in my personal equipment, so differences in sound are quite obvious and I'm not yet attuned to more subtle differences between equipment of similar high quality. These meets have been great for getting experience that's very hard to come by otherwise. And, even at mini-meets, there's never enough time to try everything. Still need to spend time with the Woo WA7
