Head-fi Austin - January 23 2016

[Maxvla]

After a year hiatus, the band is back together again! Texas is coming together on January 23rd, 2016 at the Dropbox office in downtown Austin. There will be ample space for comfortable and quiet gear evaluations. Meet new people and talk shop, renew friendships from the past, hear the gear you've been dying to try! The meeting will begin with setup at 8AM, official start at 9AM and closing at 5PM.

This meet is open to any members, their friends and vendors. Unlike the past two years, we will be able to bring our own snacks and drinks, and there is a dedicated area for these. Please consider bringing something interesting for everyone to munch or sip. We will likely order pizza, sandwiches or something around noon, also. You will need to bring a power strip for your gear. Please also bring a 20-50 foot grounded (3 prong) extension cord with you if possible!

If you are coming from out of town and need to book a hotel, I recommend booking early as many of the downtown hotels are quite spendy. If you are willing to drive a bit (10+ minutes) there are some cheaper alternatives further out.

The meet will be held at the Dropbox office located at 501 Congress Ave (5th floor) in downtown Austin. See below for directions and parking and loading instructions.

Admission is FREE (Thanks Dan! (MonumentSquare)), but please sign up below so I can prepare tags for people and tables!

Sign up form is here: http://goo.gl/forms/NPFkJaZrtq

Spoiler: Directions

Address: 501 Congress Ave 5th Floor. Just West of I-35. Be mindful of the MANY one-way streets!!!

Spoiler: Parking + Entrance Instructions

The entrance to the parking garage (costs money - credit card only) is on 5th street (one way) on the left side. There is an underground passage to the Dropbox building. However you would need to be with MonumentSquare (Dan) to use it. Plan to go to street level and walk around the Dropbox building to the right once you get to Congress. The entrance is on this side. Take an elevator up to the 5th floor where there will be security guards that will have you sign in.

Spoiler: Loading Zone Instructions

Pull up to the building on the left side of 5th (one-way), there is a long loading zone where you can park temporarily to bring up boxes.

Confirmed Vendors:

Cavalli Audio - Liquid Gold, Liquid Crimson, Liquid Carbon, New Portable

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Headamp - GS-X MkII, Blue Hawaii SE, SR-009, SR-007mkI, HE1000, HD800, LCD3f

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Double Helix Cables -

Schiit Ragnarok
Woo WA5 with EML Meshplate tubes
Schiit Yggdrasil DAC
Chord Hugo DAC
PS Audio P3 Powerplant

HD800
LCD4
LCDX
HE1000
Ether
Ether C
Enigmacoustics Dharma
Beyer T1 Gen 2

All DHC flagship cables

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ZMF Headphones

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Austin Audio Works

AAW Sounami HP amplifier, AAW Black Swan phono preamp, Audeze LCD-X, Technics SL-1400MK2 With Denon DL-160, Iconoclast cables.
A new Black Orpheus headphone amp (all current and no feedback) and possibly my new BlackDAC.

Gear List:

Schiit Yggdrassil
Schiit Ragnarok
Sennheiser HD800
Sennheiser HD600
Sony MA900
Koss PortaPro

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WA5-LE v2
PS Audio DirectStream DAC
Aurender X100L
AK380 with Amp
ALO CDM
Abyss AB-1266
HE-1000
LCD-3
HD800
AK T5p

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Lawton Audio LA 900
Burson Conductor SL (1793 chip) Amp/DAC)

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Hifiman HE 500
Hifiman HE 300
V-MODA Crossfade Wireless
ZMF Vibro MKI and MKII
Fostex x Massdrop TH-X00
Schiit Gungnir Multibit
Cavalli Liquid Carbon
VE Zen Earbuds
Voxoa Btunes w/3.5mm plug

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Ray Samuels Audio Apache
Schiit Audio Gungnir and Lyr
HD650 with BTG balanced cable and stock cable
Grado SR60

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Aune T1
Asgard 2
HE-400i

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Sennheiser HD600
Grado SR80i
Bottlehead Crack w/ Speedball and upgrade tubes
Objective2 headphone amplifier
AMB gamma2 DAC
AMB gamma1.5 miniature DAC/amp

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HE 500 with Jerg Mod
Emotiva Mini-X a-100
O2/ODAC

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Amps/DAC: Audio-gd Compass (dac/amp), Oppo HA-2 (dac/amp), maybe my Fubar2 with DYI dual buffered amp.
Phones: Grado HF-1, Grado HF2, Oppo PM-3, KSC-35
Sources: Macbook air, DVD/CD/SACD player,
Vinyl: Technics SL-D1 with Shure M97XE into an ART DJ Pre2 if anyone wants some "entry level, but quite good" vinyl to try.
Minidisc Player

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Sennheiser HD800
Centrance Hi-Fi Mate
Noble U6

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Questyle CMA 800R Headphone Amplifier
LH LABS Geek Pulse DAC
LH LABS Geek Out

HiFiMan HE-500
AKG Q701

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ATH M50x
Q701
DT 880 Pro (250)
Aune T1 MK2

 

[sathyam]

Exciting!

I will be bringing the following:

WA5-LE v2
PS Audio DirectStream DAC
Aurender X100L
AK380 with Amp
ALO CDM

Abyss AB-1266
HE-1000
LCD-3
HD800
AK T5p

 

[goropeza]

Exciting!

I will be bringing the following:

WA5-LE v2
PS Audio DirectStream DAC
Aurender X100L
AK380 with Amp
ALO CDM

Abyss AB-1266
HE-1000
LCD-3
HD800
AK T5p

Nice start! I havent heard a lot of these (Abyss, HE-1000, and LCD-3) so that is already something to look forward to! I filled out the form, and I will be bringing an LA 900 with the Burson Conductor SL 1793 as an amp and DAC. Looking forward to meeting you guys! Yall can call me Gio if you want.

 

[awsanderson]

thinking about my gear list and was wondering if anyone wants me to haul my turntable ( a Project 9.1 something or other with a Sumiko Blackbird Cart running thru a Vincent audio PH8 phono preamp) all the way down there, if there is enough interest I will, have not filled out the form yet because I'm not sure what all I will be bringing but will definitely have
 
Ray Samuels Audio Apache
Schiit Audio Gungnir and Lyr
 
 
HD650 with BTG balanced cable and stock cable
Grado SR60
 
 
not sure what I will do for a source 

 

[ohcrapgorillas]

I'll be bringing:
 
AMB gamma2 DAC
AMB gamma1.5 portable DAC/amp
Bottlehead Crack w/ Speedball and upgraded tubes (Tung-Sol 5998, RCA and Amperex 12AU7s, probably run one input tube for half the day and the other for the other half)
Sennheiser HD600
iBasso DX90
 
I'm also going to try and talk my audiophile buddy into going--he's generally more into vintage speaker amps and turntables/vinyl, but would probably love a meetup like this. He has a pair of DT990 and will hopefully have a completed AMB CKK headphone amp by then. A well-built CKK is a seriously good amp.
 
Also, holy crap, gonna hear the HE1000. I am excite.
 
edit: friend with DT990 is in

 

[sathyam]

I have a Moon Neo 430HAD as part of my work setup. Please let me know if anyone would like to listen to that amp.

 

[gopanthersgo1]

I have been having reservations about going due to it being the GF and I's 2 year anniversary, but I think I talked her into it as long as long as I have no academic contests conflicting as I did this prior years meet. Anyways, if I am able to make it I will bring my Aune T1 MK1, Schiit Asgard 2, and HE-400is.

 

[Maxvla]

There's still the evening you two can do stuff. Meet's over at 5, you can leave earlier if needed.

 

[yoyowiggle]

 

[gopanthersgo1]

Haha, okay, my schedule seems to permit. I'd love to hear the O2, ODAC, and an R2R dac if anyone is thinking about bringing theirs.

 

[Maxvla]

Yggdrassil will be waiting.

 

[Maxvla]

Alex Cavalli will again be there to show his amps. He'll probably be bringing

Liquid Gold
Liquid Crimson
Liquid Carbon
New Portable (!)

 

[b14cx0ut]

Alex Cavalli will again be there to show his amps. He'll probably be bringing

Liquid Gold
Liquid Crimson
Liquid Carbon
New Portable (!)

Oh, snap!

 

[goropeza]

Alex Cavalli will again be there to show his amps. He'll probably be bringing

Liquid Gold
Liquid Crimson
Liquid Carbon
New Portable (!)

Im in the market for a new amp too! What great news! While already having the LA 900, I wanna also get the HD 800 (heard it at a meet, really liked it), but I want one amp that can power both and sonically fit both, which is tricky I would think. Anyways, im really looking forward to this guys. It was looking so dry in Texas for awhile I was thinking of hosting one myself!

 

[Limniscate]

I'm down and will bring the HE500 with Jerg Mod and the Emotiva Mini-x along with 1st gen ODAC/O2.