[Killercrush]

Nice news guys, next meet will be even better!

Impressions

First and foremost, I'd like to say that it was a joy to meet new headphone enthusiasms. Even though we didn't have any specified rules, most of the time, the gear was handled with care and nothing bad happened to our stuff.

So far so good, here's the multiple setups I listened to :

Random laptop > SilverStone EB01 USB DAC > Cavalli CTH DIY amp > AKG K601

This was one of my favorite setup of the whole meet, mainly because of its SQ/$ ratio, that's around a $400 setup (Laptop not included) and it really impressed me. It goes to show that the DIY stuff is where's it's at as far as amp goes.

John's original setup with the 12BH7 in the amp was quite good at capturing the mids and adding a bit of lushness to the overall sound. The Dac was decent enough to extract some background artifacts but frankly the soundstage was a bit blurry and the low deep bass was lacking but it makes up for that by delivering a fair amount of texture.

I enjoyed his K601 for a short period of time, enough to find the pros & cons. The soundstage was quite narrow but gave nice intimacy to the performers, bass was nicely taunt but lacking in tightness, the midrange is their best feature by far, not really neutral but sweet enough to be quite enjoyable, the treble isn't really shining here which helps when having a long term listening session.

Overall a more pleasing pair of headphones than the K701 in my opinion.

(More to come!)

 

[oinkbanana]

man, i can't believe i missed this.
i really should come next year. sounds like it was lots of fun.

 

[papomaster]

BAD NEWS.


I had left all my stuff in the boxes since I came back from the meet, last sunday. Nothing had moved inside the boxes, so I guessed nothing had gone wrong during the transportation. When I set up my TT, I looked closely for marks or scuffs, and I couldn't find any.

However, when I played my first record, I aimed for the beginning of a song on my LP, and ended up playing the middle of the song. Looking at the bottom of my cartridge, I noticed there was a BIG bend in the stylus : there is a sharp 45 degrees bend at the middle of it. AAAAA. Rg.

Disaster. And I thought I was out of problems by buying a new TT.

When I push it gently with the tip of a screwdriver, the whole stylus moves, so it is still pretty rigid, but I just can't figure what could press the stylus on both sides to bend it and not break it. Anyway I didn't take the time to evaluate the sound of it, because I don't know what's the tip's condition, but I will investigate more and take some pics later on.

GOD, why do all the problems happen to me?

 

[krmathis]

^ Sad to hear!
No idea why "all" the problems happen to you, but hopefully the stylus have taken no fatal damage.

 

[Khanate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by papomaster /img/forum/go_quote.gif BAD NEWS. I had left all my stuff in the boxes since I came back from the meet, last sunday. Nothing had moved inside the boxes, so I guessed nothing had gone wrong during the transportation. When I set up my TT, I looked closely for marks or scuffs, and I couldn't find any. However, when I played my first record, I aimed for the beginning of a song on my LP, and ended up playing the middle of the song. Looking at the bottom of my cartridge, I noticed there was a BIG bend in the stylus : there is a sharp 45 degrees bend at the middle of it. AAAAA. Rg. Disaster. And I thought I was out of problems by buying a new TT. When I push it gently with the tip of a screwdriver, the whole stylus moves, so it is still pretty rigid, but I just can't figure what could press the stylus on both sides to bend it and not break it. Anyway I didn't take the time to evaluate the sound of it, because I don't know what's the tip's condition, but I will investigate more and take some pics later on. GOD, why do all the problems happen to me?

Have you gotten it working again?

 

[papomaster]

Enjoythemusic has their first mention of the meet in their show coverage:

Salon Son & Image 2009 Show Report Electronics And Entertainment Canada

 

[xenithon]

Funniest thing I have read thus far this year: An Orpheus tube headphone amplifier was also on display, and that would probably make the ultimate match for the HD800 if it were still in production.

 

[Presently42]

And there I am, listening intently to the HD800, which were thankfully not paired with the HEV90.

 

[xenithon]

Yes, that surely would have been an electrifying experience.

 

[papomaster]

Yeah, surely with the hundreds of volts needed to bias the HE90, that would definately make your brain do some music...

 

[cwxa99]

cool...