First and foremost my thanks to Alex for putting forth the time and effort to make this all happen. I had a fantastic time and it was nice to see some familiar faces from the last meet I went to.
The one thing that always bothers me, though, is trying to match the face with the name with the username; I'm horrible about this!
Al: the "something" you heard was my Gilmore V1 (DACT). And for the less than $400 I spent on it, I've been quite impressed with it, too. Barely enough to drive the K340, though.
Speaking of which, I really don't like the K340... to the point that I have no idea what people are hearing. The soundstage sounded completely off to me, and I kept hearing a boxy, closed-in sound that made me think of a cheap pair of closed headphones. There were some good qualities, speed being one of them, but none of the good outweighed the bad for me. Uncomfortable, too, even with the AKG velour pads.
The K1000 was still my favorite of the meet, and it sounded better here than in the last setup I tried, much less harsh out of whatever-the-heck it was plugged into, although still delightfully fatiguing. I'm oddly not that bothered by any lack of bass either; I can hear it, and that's all that matters. I just hope whenever I put my speaker system together it will cure me of my interest in these...
Mark's spiffy-new CDP (what was it? T100 or something?) was very nice, certainly a good bit better than the source I use now. Plus it's just a gorgeous-looking unit.
The Millet Hybrid is just fantastic, I may have to get myself one of these... very detailed and rich, I just wonder if it would be fatiguing over a long period of time. Gave my K271s all kinds of punch.
The Meier Headfive was a good little amp, too. I actually thought it a better match for my K271s than my Gilmore was, even though it isn't as powerful. Neutral character, soundstage was a bit compressed (even with crossfeed off), but a very fun, punchy sound. Made me feel like dancin'.
I expected to be impressed by a lot of stuff... and wasn't, oddly. I was definitely worried about liking the K701. It sounded good with practically everything, but I guess I found it too neutral. There was no uniqueness in its character that made it stand out. What really surprised me was how disappointed I was with the more expensive gear - the Stax setup, the HE60, the upper-eschelon Audio-technicas, none of them blew me away like I was expecting them to. The estats were airy and detailed, yes, but neither had a sound signature my ears could really connect with, and didn't have the kind of dynamics that I prefer. Admittedly, I probably should have spent a bit more time getting acustomed to the sound of each headphone, but it's so hard to critically listen in meet conditions.
Speaking of critically listening, I finally got my first experience with aftermarket cables. I was impressed at not only the extent to which the sound changed, but also
how it changed the sound. My expectations were an increase in detail, soundstage, extension and perhaps dynamics, while keeping fairly steadfast with the headphone's portrayal of sound. What I heard was more akin to a receiver's "surround" function; while I could easily have mistaken this for increased detail and soundstage, what it really did was change the sound in such a way that sounds that were typically more in the background were brought to the forefront. As this changed the way the mix sounded, I thought it had some adverse effects (as an example, the track I was listening to lost some of its dynamic contrast since the sounds that were supposed to be loudest, weren't). So overall, I'm not sold on cables. For the kind of money you have to spend on one, I'd want something that improves the sound of my headphone, not just changes it.
I'm sure I've forgotten some things, but I'm tired of writing.
![[AK]Zip](https://cdn.head-fi.org/avatars/m/20/20281.jpg?1273083491){kind=avatar}
