Well, here I am, two time zones away and after a hell of a flight to San Franciso and a drive up to Sacramento, I finally managed to find some time to post my thoughts on the meet days. First off, you guys over there in Florida, stay safe and ride out the storm. Good luck, fellas !!
As has been documented and commented in the last 7 pages, the two days of the meet were a blast, and lived up to the standards of previous So Flo meets. It was sad that Matt had to sit this one out with bad health. We certainly missed you, Guru and I should say - Ray !!
Ray is such a fun to have around, particularly with the combination above. Hopefully we will meet soon.
Friday night's GTG at LTBS was wonderful, and I wish I could have spent more time listening to the concert videos. It was great to see many familiar faces after my long hiatus from all things Head-fi. Guys were in great spirits (literally), and every time I listen to Vinyl on Oz's VPI HRX turntable and System Audio speakers in that wonderfully acoustically setup demo room of Oz's, I get goosebumps. Thank you for the privilege, Oz !!
The meet day proper was great, too. For me, the meets are more about meeting and chatting with fellow audio nuts, than it is about listening to great and rare equipment with the intent of forming an objective opinion. As they say, short listening sessions only yield impressions short of much merit. I did my best to listen to some gear that I had a hunch I would like.
1. Guss2's Sony SCD-1 with Wayne's Egmont and MikeG's McAlister amps powering the Senn HE90s, HE60 and Stax Omega-II. This was literally my listening post, as the McAlister amp literally blew me away with the detail and command with which it drove the Senn HE90s, and head-banging rock never sounded better on any headphones, least of all Sennheiser phones!! The Egmont amp was also pretty good too, though my listening impressions of its performance were tainted by some troubles with MikeG's HE90s. Great stuff overall from this combination of gear.
2. Raul's modded Tosh and work-in-progress Dynahi were also pretty good for their price. Raul and I did a comparison test of the Tosh's DAC feeding its RCA outs and the Tosh's digital coax output routed through the Bel Canto DAC2. We used an identical pair of Senn HD-650s with a Zu cable (slightly different cable lengths), but with the same interconnects. The results showed that Bel Canto DAC2's output gave a wider soundstage and better seperation between instruments with a slightly emhasized highs, while the Tosh's internal DAC suffered from slightly compressed soundstage, but a smoother "meatier" sound. The two DACs were however so closely matched that the slight difference in soundstage and separation was very minute in the grand scheme of how good the music sounded.
3. I also listened to the Original CD player powering the HP2s out of a Grado RA-1 amp, and I was frankly underwhelmed with the overall performance. I preferred the sound of the "woodied Grado HF-1s" out of the same setup, as it sounded more musical, while the HP2s sounded too sterile. Perhaps the combination of the equipment and the music was not very synergistic for the HP2s, but I will never know.
4. I also saw and listened to the Grado GS-1000s for the first time, and their sound almost reminded me of electrostatics. It sort of sounded like an RS-1 on steroids, but at the same time not in the league of an Omega-II or an R-10.
5. I also listened to MikeG's Marantz universal player powering the Sony R-10s through a Corda Aria amp and the Bel Canto DAC2. I forgot what interconnects were used, but the setup sounded a bit bright. Once again I would chalk that up to a combination of the synergy of components.
Finally, I am glad that I met all of the old timers after a long time. It's always a pleasure to talk to Gene, Wayne, Stevio and Mike. Gary, Mark (Susnick), Johnny Numbers, Solberg, Vicki and Raul, it was great meeting you. Mark, it was great talking to you.
Oh, BTW, Vicki, though we never "officially" talked to each other, I'd like to say that you are a welcome addition to our group, and you have a fine taste in music.
Finally, I invited a couple of acquaintances from AVS Forums to check out our hobby, and four people showed up. Eric, Yuri, Sunil and Pete have expressed their thanks to our group for the opportunity. Music lovers and musicians in their own merit, I hope I helped plant the seeds of head-philia in them !!
