[jude]

I'm not saying this just because it was hosted at my house, but today's Detroit Meet was the funnest one yet for me. Because most of us had met before at other meets, and those who were newcomers were friendly and outgoing, today's Detroit Head-Fi Meet felt almost as much like a gathering of family/friends as it did a Head-Fi Meet. A lot of great listening time was had by all, even if listening was frequently dotted with fits of laughter and joking.

A huge thanks to elrod-tom for putting this meet together and keeping things organized. Thanks to Tuberoller, john_jcb and Ray Samuels (Ray Samuels Audio) for coming in all the way from Chicago (about a five-hour drive), and to Mikhail (SinglePower) for hitching a flight all the way from Colorado just to attend this one. Also, thanks to HeadRoom, Meier Audio, Divergent/Antique Sound Lab, SinglePower, Ray Samuels Audio, Wadia, and the members who lugged their own rigs, for providing the abundance of gear for this meet. Jeff Brockmole from Wadia shared not just a $19,000+ Wadia 27/270se combo, but also a prototype player that he let us listen to but could say little about yet (more on this one later).

After spending a great day with all of these headphone geeks, I'm going to wind down and watch a DVD movie with my wife right now; but, when the movie's over, I'll post some impressions.

 

[arnett]

I’d like to thank Jude and his lovely wife for hosting the meet. Sorry we wrecked your house, man.

This wasn’t really a head-fi meet. It was a party. And I mean a party out-of-control. In fact, I’m still drunk. By the time I showed up at 12:30PM, the booze was already flowing. And I mean *heavy.* The big ‘surprise’ Tom had for us was a butt-load of strippers. ****! Imagine the HD600/Blockhead combo strapped to your head and a bucked-tooth stripper attached to your jock! After the meet, some of us followed the girls down to the strip club. BTW, it’s full nude in Michigan (juice bar only). It was truly the best meat . . . er . . . meet I’ve yet attended.

Now to my impressions (which, as always, should be taken with a large grain of salt):

It is with great sadness and disappointment that I finally have to admit that the Sony CD3000 doesn’t suck. I heard the CD3000 at the Headroom tour in 2002 and they sucked big time. I never understood why these phones were so hyped. Tonight I heard them with the Singlepower Supra PLUS (higher-powered version of the Supra). They sounded really impressive. Bass seemed a bit sloppy out of the Supra compared to what I’m used to with the Beyer DT-880s. OTOH, the Supra produces some of the most walloping bass I’ve heard. I’m not going to buy a pair of CD3000s – but I can finally see why so many people like these phones.

I also really liked the closed AKG K271 Studio out of the Supra. Now I’m not much of an AKG fan, but these didn’t seem to have the characteristic AKG thinness: the K271s midrange seemed a bit fuller than the K501. Bass on the K271 was quite good as well. Tom said the K271 doesn’t have the treble extension of other AKGs. Maybe that’s why I liked the K271 so much. Looks like the closed headphone camp has a new contender!

Tom’s AKG K1000 / nOrh tube amp / Pioneer Elite combo sounded even better than the last meet. I guess the tubes in the nOth have finally broken in because the sound was very smooth and silky. I was playing the Waltz for Debby SACD and the sound was amazing. Smooth and natural. I’ll have to borrow these from you sometime, Tom.

I also listened to Fred’s analog set-up: the VPI Scout turntable with Emmeline phono stage and Emmeline headphone amp. I used my Beyer DT-880s. I brought a mint (apparently) unplayed copy of ABBA’s Voulez-Vous LP. Of course, everyone laughed when they saw I brought in an ABBA album (surprise, surprise). And they all thought I was nuts when I mentioned that ABBA is an acronym for the first letter of each member’s name (Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anni-Frid). So sad (do you get that reference, fractus2?). Overall, the sound of the TT was good but not unbelievable. I guess I was expecting more. Obviously, the ABBA recording isn’t that good so I put on a used copy of Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark (which IS a decent recording). Again, the sound was good but I guess I was a little let down. Let’s just put it this way: I didn’t hear any more *detail* with the LP than what I’ve heard with the CD. As to whether the LP was less harsh or fatiguing, it was difficult to tell with a quick audition in a noisy room full of drunken bastards

. Also keep in mind that I couldn’t do a direct CD to LP A/B comparison.

The blockhead/HD600 combo was great as usual.

Out of all the amps, the little Singlepower PPX3 (with NOS tubes) absolutely stunned me. Not only because its tiny proportions make it very cute but also because it’s one of the warmest headphone amps I’ve ever heard. The PPX3 doesn’t seem to have the detail of its older brothers but, OTOH, it’s very forgiving of bad sources. If you want a forgiving, warm, smooth tube headphone amp for not a lot of money, contact Mikhail and see if he’ll build you a PPX3.

Finally, it was nice seeing Fred, Jude, Tom, Arnaud, Nightfall, and Mikhail again (not to mention the other familiar faces). And it was cool meeting Ray Samuels. He was really the life of the party.

Looking forward to the next meet (in another 4 months, right?).

 

[Uncledan]

Any picture about the meeting? Also, more review!!

 

[radrd]

Yeah, pictures (of the strippers!

) would be great!

 

[john_jcb]

First of all I would like to thank Jude and his wife for hosting the meet. I think this may have also been the inaugural event for their newly finished basement. Everyone had a great time. Even after the meet was over we spent almost an hour talking in the front yard before we hit the road. I agree with Jude that this meet was a little different than those I have attended in the past, it was more like a gathering of friends both new and old for a day. And a full day it was, the Chicago contingent arrived at 9:30 in the morning to unload the gear we brought and finally left a little after 6 that evening. I think those were the times, I never reset my watch to Eastern time but I think they were close. Once again thank you Jude and Tom for all the work you put into this meet.

My favorites of the meet were the the Wadia prototype and Headrooms Blockhead driving HD-600's with balanced Cardas cables. I think it also was unfair to the other equipment that Jude had a very comfortable couch perfectly situated for listening next to this set up. During the course of the day I listened to Holly Cole, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Sarah Vaughn and an acoustic guitar CD that I need to get the name of. This setup left you wanting for nothing. Everything that the designers and listeners of CD players and amps strive for was embodied in this setup. I found myself on each occasion totally immersed in the music and oblivious to what was going on around me. Wadia has a real winner in this CD player. One comment on the Blockhead, when you get your new Wadia player and call HeadRoom to order a Blockhead get the stepped attenuators. Setting the level for each ear is a little hit or miss without them.

Next on my list was the ASL Twin Head (CES ringer). I have had the opportunity to hear different Twin heads on several occasions and I must confirm that there is something different with this one. It is without a doubt the best amp I have heard from ASL. When we get together in Chicago the covers need to come off in an attempt to find out what is different about this amp. Maybe Joe sprinkled it with Pixie dust before it left China, but it sure sounded good.

I also enjoyed the two vinyl setups very much. Ray Samuels and Tuberoller each brought a table and some records and I had a great time listening to them. These 4 stations consumed most of my day. The remainder was spent listening to Ray's new portable amp, his new tube amp and the Emmeline HR-2 and Mikhail's new amp and the PPX3 that survived Tuberoller's house flooding. I will let others give their impressions of these amps as I spent far to little time with them compared to the others there. I also enjoyed Tom’s AKG K1000 / nOrh tube amp / Pioneer Elite combo.

The one last thing I listened to was a modified Sony 555. To my ears this player lives up to everything that has been written here over the past few months. If you are thinking about it buy now as they will be gone forever very soon.

Thanks again for a great day.

 

[arnaud]

I’ll start with the acknowledgment section, because Tom, Jude and his wife deserve it big time! In fact, I’ll extend my thanks to everybody who participated because the result was such an excellent meet. I am just saying the same thing as others above, but it indeed felt like a (crazy) friends get together. I would suggest that arnett is the craziest of all, actually. Fun time!!

Now for my personal impressions of the gear. It all sucked really bad.

Ok, that’s it for me!

...

No, it did not quite happen this way, c.f. this post title! Actually, my problem was the other way around. I just could not find a dog system at the meet! All the stuff I heard sounded excellent, it was really confusing. Usually, the evaluation is simple when you can say “Oh I liked this one a lot because of this, didn’t like this one because of that...”. But yesterday, I was simply overwhelmed by only good stuff, it was often extremely hard to find minor differences between components. Everybody’s right up there, and a brief listening session in a not so quiet (yeah, you guys are loud!!

) environment made it impossible for me to elect a winner.



Ray Samuel’s tube amp prototype vs. Emmeline HR2 vs. Meier Audio Prehead (LM):


I started with Ray Samuel’s rig. A Meridian 508 hooked up to both his Emmeline HR2 and tube prototype amp. I was eager to listen to this tube amp and was not disappointed. I like the Meridian, owned a 588 for a little while, but sold it because it was not the best synergy in my system (too revealing). With the tube amp driving my stock HD600, I was very pleased. Solid all the way, but not clinical in any way. When I asked Ray about the tubes, I was surprised by his answer... No fancy expensive NOS tubes, all new stock from Russia, affordable ($10-15), but the resulting amp sound was excellent. Plus, this amp looks gorgeous even though it’s still at the prototype stage.
I briefly did an A/B against the HR2 and later on the Prehead (LM version) using a A/B switch that Ray had built, which enabled to make comparisons between amps using the same headphone. I found the HR2 a little less forgiving in the Meridian setup and much preferred the tube prototype. The tube amp had more weight, sounded fuller and richer in the bass region although not a thick sound by any mean. It was still very solid!
The Prehead against the tube amp yielded similar conclusions, solid state amps thus sounded overall thinner compared to the tube prototype. Now, as I said above, differences were really hard to pick up, it was not jumping at you. No way to judge for low level detail so these comparisons are only so good...



SinglePower MPX3 with brand new Hytrons vs. Meier Audio Prehead (LM version):

Next, I went into the world of Mikhail from SinglePower. Arnett had hooked up his MPX3 with new Hytrons tubes to my Jolida CDP. I again used Ray’s A/B switch to compare the MPX3 to my Prehead still using the stock HD600s. Well, with this Jolida source, I was very hard pressed to find differences between the Singlepower and Meier Audio amps although I was switching back and forth between the two instantaneously. This is to me the easiest way to pick up differences between components. But I realized that, once the loudness is matched, it was impossible to assign a color to any of the two amps.
Now, I believe this Jolida CDP is far from revealing. That is the reason why I bought it in the first place actually... I wanted an easy going system that let me enjoy both my good and not so good recordings. The Meridian wanted to be treated with excellent recordings, the Jolida is way more tolerant although way less precise I believe. So, my point is this was probably not the best source to A/B the amps...



Wadia’s high end separate transport / DAC with the latest supercharged SinglePower Supra:

Later on, I had the pleasure to listen to the super duper Supra that Mikhail had brought. At every meet, he brings a new, bigger amp. I am afraid that for the upcoming Chicago meet, his latest amp won’t pass through the doors or will require 4 heavy men to lift it

. This beefed up Supra was hooked to the best of the best of Wadia’s gear and well, it did sound up to the premise... That is the rig that made me smile big time when I threw my CDs at it using the HD600/Equinox cable. Arhhhhhh, it was just sooo good! No description there, just this big smile, pounding heart when you turn the music on. Mikhail modestly told me that the amp simply “amplifies” what it is fed with, no more. Well, I don’t know who was responsible for it but it sounded like what I am looking for (although for less $ $ $

). Those of you out there who are looking for a no compromise source, please check out Wadia’s gear, it’s got to be among the few best in the world!!!



Supercharged SinglePower Supra vs. Meier Audio Prehead (AD version):

When the Headroom Blockhead was switched with the Singlepower amp, I hooked it up to my Jolida CDP. I used Ray’s A/B switch once again to compare the high end Singlepower to Jude’s Prehead (AD version) with some HD600/Equinox. Again, the differences between the two amps were really not dramatic. Somehow, the tube amp sounded a little thick and sloppy in the bass region compared to the Prehead. It was just a slightly bit warmer but not much. The magic I had experienced with the Wadia source was actually gone... So this was probably the confirmation that the Jolida is not really a proper source to benchmark amps!!



Meier Audio Prehead (AD vs. LM version):

The last test I did was to compare the two versions of the Prehead amp (LM vs AD chip) in my rig (Jolida CDP / HD 600). What I found out is that the AD version (Jude’s amp) had this very slightly fuller, richer sound with a little less sparkle than the LM version which I own. And, you may have noticed by now, one of my goals at this meet was to compare my amp to other ones in the hope of finding something just as clean and detailed, but more forgiving at the same time... It turns out that I went back home with Jude’s amp, we switched units at the meet! Thanks again Jude for your offer and please let me know if you feel you made a mistake when trading your AD version, I’ll bring it back to you.




Jude’s ASL Twinhead home rig:

I had a listen to Jude’s home rig, the ASL TwinHead, Sony SACD drive / Bel Canto DAC2. Wow, this was good! At the previous HeadFi meet in Ann Arbor, I had really not been impressed with the ASL TwinHead. I mean it was good, but not up to my level of expectations. Yesterday, I found Jude’s rig excellent. Once again, no much description, you are just enjoying the music, free from all this equipment debate!!! Congratulations Jude, you have a very unique system there!



Headroom Blockhead / Wadia prototype CDP / HD600 with balanced Cardas:

It was very brief, too brief. I had the same feeling as with Jude’s rig. The music is flowing, effortlessly, you just enjoy, point. Unfortunately, I was driven my more down to earth prices, being in the market for a new amp, so I did not spend enough time to judge this awesome rig...



Elrod Tom’s rig: AKG K1000 / Norh (sp.?) integrated tube amp / modded Pioneer unit:

This was also brief. I was afraid of a bright sound, maybe harsh with my CDs. It was not harsh at all. This rig sounds very good, so different from everything else. I guess everybody knows it, but this is the rig for people who get claustrophobic with regular headphones and dig for electrostatic kind of detail and transparency. My guess is that Elrod-Tom put a lot of effort to make a complementary system and it overall sounds very pleasing.



Phillips 963 / Wheatfield Audio HA-1 (or 2?):

This was even more brief... Not that I did not like it, it’s just that my goals were somewhere else. From the 2 minutes I listened to it with stock HD600, it sound fine to me, no striking default.

Well, I think this is about it for me. As you can see, there was just too much equipment at this meet!!! I think Jude’s Air Conditioning also had a hard time keeping up with the heat buildup in the basement

. A wonderful meet!

Arnaud.

 

[elrod-tom]

Well, I have to say that the meet was a success, judging by the what I've seen here so far.

I would agree with Jude's assessment of the character of the meet - it really was like a meeting of old friends. Many of the folks who were there attended our last meet at Wadia, and it was good to see everyone again. Some of the folks I hadn't met before came from as far away as Chicago (Ray Samuels & john_jcb), and were known from Head-Fi. Others were relatively new to this site (malthius & chosen1), and I was glad that they were able to attend.

Now for my impressions of the gear!!

I'd have to say that the overall winner had to be the BlockHeadSennheiser HD600 in combination with the Wadia prototype. I've always liked the BlockHead, as it seems to have an openness and soundstage that really reaches out and grabs you. It's also a dynamic amp. Many amps, when producing a "note", will vary to some extent in the way that the music "decays" as it moves to the next notes. The BlockHead is very quick to react and just as quick to move with the music...no sonic artifacts what-so-ever. It is a splendid piece...thanks to Tyll and Ivy from HeadRoom, and a special thanks to Todd for arranging all of this prior to his departure.

The BlockHead is deserving of an outstanding source. Enter the Wadia prototype. One of the things that I've appreciated about the Wadia equipment since I became familiar with it at the last meet is what a tremendous value it is, even at it's higher price points. Every time that I listen to a favored disk on the Wadia equipment, I always hear things that I've not heard before. One of the things that really jumped out at me with this prototype is the sheer naturalness of the sound. The bass was tight, distinct, and remarkably fluid. I could really hear the difference in the sound as it moved from note to note, the bass distict from the bass drum, with impact. The high end was at the same time sparkling without harshness or digital edge. All I can say is WOW!! Thanks to Jeff from Wadia for providing this and other equipment (see below).

One of the pleasant surprises of the meet was the equipment brought by Ray Samuels. I had heard several good things about his equipment, but I had yet to actually hear it. Now I know what I was missing. I really liked his prototype tube amp, as it was very fluid and natural sounding (although I did have some trouble finding the volume control

). The HR-2 is a nice amp, and represents a solid value. It's got a nice, natural presentation. I found it to be somewhat colored, but in a pleasant way.

The BIG surprise for me was the XP-7 portable amp. I listened to it with Ray's Meridian CD player (a NICE source!!), and was very impressed. I also had the chance to hear it with the Wadia, and was even more impressed. Here was this little portable, battery powered amp, and it handled everything that these two monsters of digital threw at it with style and grace. I was stunned at what I heard. I'm really looking forward to hearing more.

Another big hit was the SinglePower Supra paired with the Wadia 27/270 digital processor. This combination just got out of the way and let the music flow. The Supra seems to be a bit quicker in it's response than the last on that I heard (which I enjoyed a great deal), and I'm not sure whether it's the source or what. I did also have a chance to listen to it prior to the meet (one of the perks of organizing these things

) with my Adcom GCD-575, and I have to admit that it sounded awfully good with a source that, although decent, does not measure up to the Wadia. Thanks to Mikhail for flying out (again!) for our meet, and for providing a very nice addition to our meet.

Of course, I enjoyed Jude's ASL TwinHead. This is just a dynamite product, and I thought it the best I'd heard the last time. Not a lot has happened since then to change my mind. I really enjoyed hearing it with Nightfall's SACD MODS enhanced Sony C555-ES player. I'd would have liked to spend some additional time with this combo...it's difficult with all the gear that we had there to get around to everything.

Some other pleasant surprises: I found babykenny's Arcam Alpha 7-SE to be a very pleasant addition to the meet. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend some time with it in combination with my own rig (nOrh SE9/AKG K1000), and thought that it gave a very nice account of itself. Warm, natural, just a very nice player. I also enjoyed arnaud's Jolida JD100A, which impressed me with it's natural bass response and feel. I wish I would have known at the time that the Jolida has an excellent headphone jack, as I would have liked to give it a listen. I heard the HeadRoom Cosmic and MOHR for the first time, and liked both a great deal (I may have to upgrade my work rig!!).

I must also admit that I'm rethinking my opinion of the Sennheiser HD600. Having now had the opportunity to hear them with both the Cardas and Equinox cables, I find that the mids and highs are more out front than I remember. They have a nice soundstage, and bass bass bass! I've been saying for awhile that I will need to get a pair of these as a benchmark for any reviewing that I do. I'm thinking that I'll have to do it for SURE now. Resistance is futile...

Some of the gear that I wanted to spend more time with, but could not do so: I wish that I'd found more time to spend with the Jolida. By the time that I got around to it, we were close to packing up. Too bad. I also wish that I'd found time to try out arnett's SinglePower MPX3, but every time I went to ask him about it he was busy with the strippers

. There were two Meier Corda PreHead's there (AD & LM chips) that I would have liked to A/B test (thanks to Ray Samuels for bringing the A/B switchbox), but I didn't make it over there. I wanted to spend some more time with Ray Samuels' Meridian 508 as well, as it struck me as a very nice single-box source. It certainly helped make his gear shine. I also wanted to spend more time with the Philips 963SA and tuberoller's Wheatfield HA-2, which was also a very nice combination. I really could have spend several days with all of this gear, as we truly had an embarassment of riches!!

In closing, I want to give special thanks to Jude and his wife, for opening their home to the audio Mongol hordes that was our group. Jude was an excellent host, and the event was a great success due in no small part to his contribution. Our friends at HeadRoom, Ray Samuels Audio, SinglePower, and Wadia cannot be thanked enough, as they provided much of the gear for this event. Finally, a big thanks to everyone who attended and made it a meet to remember. As we were breaking down at the end of the meet, I was asked at least three times when we were going to do this again. My answer is soon, I hope.

 

[KR...]

Sounds like you all had a great time!

Will we be seeing any pics from this meet?

 

[john_jcb]

Several people had cameras, Ray took a couple of rolls of film and plans on having them digitized. Once he does that I will put them somewhere for all to see.

 

[jefemeister]

Hi everyone! This is my first post on head-fi. I had an awesome time at the meeting. I met most everyone before at the Wadia meet. It was also nice to meet some new folks. I definitely want to thank Jude and his wife for a wonderful time and some tasty food.

I have always been an audiophile and work for Wadia making some awesome sources. I've also always liked headphones but never really loved them. After reading a lot of posts, talking with my good friend canman, and attending these 2 meets, I think I've been bit by the bug. I still have to say I'm nowhere near a complete convert. I can't get over the fact that headphones can not provide the "you're in the room" feeling. That's probably what I look for most for when auditioning a stereo setup. More on that problem later.

Anyway, I've recently come across some senn 580s for dirt cheap and I spent most of the meet trying to find the perfect amp for them. I found this to be really difficult. It was not easy to distinguish between different amps even when using Ray's switch box. In most cases i was feeling pretty clueless because I think I usually have a good ear and can distinguish sound pretty well. I can throw out adjectives with the best of them

I think this has a lot to do with the nature of headphone listening. You don't get all the soundstage width and depth, air, a feeling of being there. At least not the way I'm used to it. I think this is what i pick up on most quickly because this is how my ear has developed in the Wadia sound room. elrod-tom assures me that once I get more used to the head-fi sound that all will be good.

So in the end, i think I'm going to get Ray's new portable (xp-7?). It had an awesome sound, can run 31 hours full class A without replacing the batteries, it very small and light (2 9V batteries), you can opamp-roll with it, and you can even add an external PS. Even with the PS it's cheaper than that xr-2! Ray said the xp-7 and xr-2 are identical except for the power thing and that the xp-7 uses a chip output stage instead of a discreet one. I think a chip output might actually make more sense from a device matching perspective.

I also really liked the meier amp. The emmeline sounded a bit more detailed, but that's probably the difference between the jolida and the meridian shining through. I loved Singlepower's little amp. Mikhail said that it was only a prototype though. If it was in production I would buy that in a hearbeat. I believe I read someone else praising this amp too. The super Supra was very nice but I did not like the fact it had a fan.

I can't say much about the headphones. i listened exclusively through hd600s because I was trying to match to my hd 580s that are on their way as we speak.

Thanks for all your kind words on the Wadia gear. Keep your ears to the ground for information regarding that prototype!

Woops! almost forgot. That k1000, norh setup was amazing. I've head canman's pair on a gillmore V2 and was very unimpressed. They seemed to almost have a phase incoherency to me. Yes, the pads were adjusted right. It just had that really thin super-airy sound I associate with out of phase speakers. But man oh man, elrod-tom's setup was sweet. Perfect it it weren't for just a touch of loss in lower frequency dynamics, speed, and extension.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

[Tuberoller]

It was a great to hang with all my Head-fi buddies. Jude is the Man and his wife is even better. Thanks to Jude for hosting such a great meet and welcoming us all into his home. Thanks to Elrod-Tom for setting this meet up and making it a good time. This as indeed a gathering of friends and I have rarely felt as welcomed as I was yesterday.

I have to say that I have never really been a big fan of Wadia digital gear. I have always thought they were guilty of what is commonly referred to as "Hyper-Detail",the kind of detail that leaves you cringing in pain with anything less than perfect recordings. The Wadia prototype seems to take a big step in a different direction,as confirmed by Jeff, and sounded amazing. I could certainly live with that player. I hope the price comes in at a respectable level. Paired with the Blockhead this set-up was far and away my favorite of this meet. My only complaint is that we were using a Blockhead without stepped attenuators,that's a pain and I would never buy one without them. The Blockhead is the only amp that can really lay claim to a "soundstage" in the world of headphone audio. Nothing else really even comes close,there's the Blockhead and everything else......trailing far behind.

I told you guys that I'm not Crazy. Jude's "CES Ringer" Twinhead MKII is clearly superior to every other tube amp that I have heard. In fact, it is superior in every way to any other Twinhead I have ever heard. John_jcb and Ray Samuels both confirmed this after hearing Jude's Twinhead which is the handbuilt prototype unit that I originally heard at CES in Las Vegas back in January. The Ringer Twinhead never fails to impress me and I really wish that all Twinheads sounded this good. I could possibly overlook my strong negative feelings towards Tash Goka and purchase one if this were the case. Jude's is a one-off that will probably never be duplicated and that's a shame.

I liked the new Singlepower amp but I don't know if it is a real improvement over the Supra. I really don't know if it's a real big improvement over the MPX3 but offer the qualification that this amp was not broken in at all and was auditioned with less than 10 hours in total run time. I would certainly have to audition a burned-in unit ,perhaps in direct comparison with a standard Supra,before I could confirm any real impressions. I really did not like the Wadia DAC/Transport combo. I thought it was far too harsh sounding and did little to help my impressions of the new Singlepower amp that it was paired to. The combination of the harsh sounding Wadia and the slight midrange congestion of the Singlepower amp was not favorable to either component. I listened to this with my own HD600/Equinox and the CD3000.


Nightfall's modded 555Es was fantastic and I gotta get one. I never liked the standard 555 and the mods do more than improve the sound,they transform this player into something different.

More thoughts later......

 

[Ray Samuels]

I am short of words as to how to express the joyfull moments, & I call it momemnt becuase thats how it felt, it went so fast, that I had, at a great host with great beautiful wife & as twice as good as he is, in their beautifu home. Jude I did have the best time ever & big thank you for eccepting us as your friends. May His blessings be upon your home & his love always in your heart.

What can I say about elrod-tom, Just a great friend to have. Thank you for inviting us to your meet. I can't imagine the time & effort that you put into preparing such a great gathering. By the way I really really never liked K1000 before, I did not want to even listen to them, But I am glad that I did, It sounded great, the combo, K1000 & Norh were a great match that you can spend good time listening to.
Another great person was a pleasure to meet with, a person who never stoped smiling, I am talking about Jeff, nightfall. I was asked to listen to his 555 moded. I was really trying not to, becuase I had trained my ears on a good source, Meridian 508,
& I know what I want from the sound, So what am I going to tell him if I don't like his source. Specially knowing that he likes my amps. I can't tell him I do like it when I really don't, So I was hoping fo a miracle or a way out of this. But he kept insisting to listen to it. So to be fair to him, I told him I will tell it the way I hear it & I hope it woun't hert him if I don't enjoy it. He eccepted my view. So I took his Sony 555 to my table & next to Meridan I hooked it to my Emmeline II " The Stealth" & installed my CD Holly Cole " Don't smoke in bed" segment five " Tennesee Waltz"
I listen for few seconds & thought that my Meridian was still hooked to my amp, but then I realized that I installed the disk in the Sony player, to my surprise I was shocked to really even try to admit that this was not coming out of my Meridian 508, The sound was sweet & warm with great detail just the way I like it.
Then came the releif thank you Lord, I don't have to dissapoint this happy person. Jeff has a true winner. It is a great source worth more than what it cousts. Hi Markl.
Judes special corner was just out of this world, His twin heads was just great with so many phones that I tried with.
As to pictures, I will take the two films, about 76 pictures, to be developed & digitized on a CD tommorow & John J_C will post them for you very soon.
I had a great time & it was priceless for me. & Jude thank you for the pizza, it was very very GOOOOOOOD MAAAAAANNNNN

Ray Samuels

 

[Carlos3]

Quote:

Originally posted by arnaud I I was very hard pressed to find differences between the Singlepower and Meier Audio amps although I was switching back and forth between the two instantaneously. This is to me the easiest way to pick up differences between components. But I realized that, once the loudness is matched, it was impossible to assign a color to any of the two amps.

Interesting how two amps built around completely different design philosophies would yield identical sound.

 

[andrzejpw]

Quote:

This wasn’t really a head-fi meet. It was a party. And I mean a party out-of-control. In fact, I’m still drunk. By the time I showed up at 12:30PM, the booze was already flowing. And I mean *heavy.* The big ‘surprise’ Tom had for us was a butt-load of strippers. ****! Imagine the HD600/Blockhead combo strapped to your head and a bucked-tooth stripper attached to your jock! After the meet, some of us followed the girls down to the strip club. BTW, it’s full nude in Michigan (juice bar only). It was truly the best meat . . . er . . . meet I’ve yet attended.

You had a blockhead?

Sweet!
I'm finding it very interesting to read the impressions that you guys had with the high-end amps. What was the final consensus on the supra/mxp3 amp? Audio bargain?

 

[arnett]

Quote:

Originally posted by andrzejpw What was the final consensus on the supra/mxp3 amp? Audio bargain?

my MPX3 wasn't quite broken in and the 1954 Hytron tubes Mikhail brought for me were truly NOS and never used. apparently, the Supra plus wasn't broken in either. i have the Hytrons breaking in now and they sound much better now than they did at the meet.

so the only Singlepower amp that WAS actually broken in was the PPX3. man, i loved that little amp. that amp survived tuberoller's flood (it was under 9 feet of water) and still sounded great (albeit a little rusty

). IMO, the PPX3 is a true bargain.

and i didn't get a chance to thank john_jcb for taking the time to talk with me about the Philips 963 and the Corda cross. we were never introduced and i didn't know it was you. you were the tall guy from Illinois, right?

and i guess i forgot to thank Tom for organizing the meet. thanks man.

i'm looking forward to the pictures of the strippers myself.