[Steve999]

Well, as I like to say whenever I post, I have generally quit posting to head-fi to spend more time with my family etc... but...

Yesterday's headphone meet at Hirsch's (in Rockville, MD, near Washington, DC) was really quite exceptional.

We had somewhere around 10 people or more and the most awesome equipment you could imagine. I'll leave it to those more current on such matters to elaborate.

My surprise favorite was the Sony MDR-CD3000. At least on this afternoon on this day, it was my favorite headphone. The AKG
K-1000s were a close second.

We had a new head-fier who is a professional press photographer too, maybe some of his pics will be posted. I know Hirsch took some pics too.

There were many amps and all the top headphones from Sennheiser, Sony, and Grado, as well as the AKG K-1000s, the AT W2002s, and many more I'm sure I don't recall as I'm getting old fast. I brought my bag of cheap heaphones but with Sony R10s et. al. in the house, well, what can you say? Sony R10s with classical are unbelievably real, BTW.

Many thanks to Hirsch for his exceptional hospitality and for setting up the meet and sharing his equipment. Speaking for myself, I had an absolutely great time.

Okay, time for me to go back into posting retirement.....

Best Wishes and Hi to All, Steve

 

[thsu02]

I was lucky enough to attend this meet too, albeit for only a very short time.

First of all thanks again to Hirsch for opening up his home to many enthusiastic strangers. His hospitality and equipment collection are second to none.

Everyone was very nice and it's always fun to start connecting faces with the user names.

There was so much equipment, and I wasn't able to stay very long for serious auditioning.

There was a nice setup to compare the Gilmore V2 vs the Emmeline HR-2. I did some listening with the Sony CD-3000 (which I own). To me both amps are very nice, very detailed and neutral sounding. However, the Gilmore sounded flat and "uninspired" when A/B directly with the Emmeline. The Emmeline exuded warmth, but also added dynamics to the music. Music seemed to have more range and feeling... it was more fun to listen to.

Well, this is just my impression.
There were too many things to listen to. The R-10/Supra combo is very sweet.
Also heard the MPX3 and it was very nice too.

All in all a great time.


When is the next meet anyway?....


-Tim

 

[BDA_ABAT]

Thanks again to Hirsch and all who attended the meet!

The people of this community really are amazing... folks just pack up gear and haul it around so that others can have a chance to hear it. One head-fier drove ~ 3 hours to attend this meet. And the fact that Hirsch regularly opens up his home and offers folks to just try whatever from his vast collection... well, it's remarkable and just pretty darn nifty.

OK, a few impressions from a sleep deprived brain...

R10 + Supra + Creek with accoustic/instrumental/female vocal material is just incredible. It's been said many times, but hearing is believing. Jawdropping good.

Pleasant surprise: Moretto amp + Senn HD 600. Very crisp, clean and detailed. Nice combination....

Another pleasant surprise: The fit and feel of the Sony F1. Sooooo comfy... like not wearing headphones!

Unpleasant surprise: LISTENING to the Sony F1. Not my cup of tea.

Unusual (for me anyway) source: the reel-to-reel through a vintage Marantz sounded very good. Excellent analog sound!!

MPX3 + Arcam + Grado HP2's and RS1's: veerrry nice combo!!!

Thanks again everyone!

Bruce

 

[Uncledan]

Any update news for yesterday meeting?!?!?

 

[Canman]

This was a great meet (my first). There was a lot of different equipment to listen to. I will be posting some mini reviews/impressions, but here are the highlights. It was great to put faces to all these posts.

Memorable Setups:

R10/Supra/Creek CD53with virtual dynamics cabling.
Great reference setup. The Supra amp is very fast, transparent, and lets the music right though to the cans. The BEST classical setup I have heard. It was awesome to enjoy the R10's firsthand.

AKG K1000/Fisher 400/NEC CDR602
My first time with the AKG K1000's and I was very impressed. As Hirsch put it, they aren't just a novelty headphone. They have great balance and are really fun to listen to. It's like being in 2 different spaces at once. You are enveloped into the recording environment but you are still in the room! Even powered by my Gilmore V2 the AKG's produced a great dynamic sound.

Arcam CD72/MPX3 and Carlo modded Melos SHA-1/RS-1's and HP-1's
Very dynamic and involving system. The SHA-1 was very tight and the MPX3 was very similar. Great stuff, convinced me to buy an Arcam player.

Earmax Pro/Senn HD600&Cardas/Parasound DAC & Rotel Transport
The Senns and the Earmax make sweet music! I decided the Senns need tubes to sound their best. Very smooth and not laid back at all!

Gilmore V2/Emmeline HR-2/GradoHPA-1/Sony NS500V with Grado HP-2 and Sony CD3000.
This was the solid state amp shootout and all sounded great although I am partial to my Gilmore. The CD3000's were gigantic and sounded open and dynamic

AT 2002/Wheatfield HA-2/NEC CDR602-w DAC?
Very smooth midrange but I don't think these 'phones were much to my taste

There was even more equipment including EAR HP4, reel to reel tape deck, Sony F1's, Moretto tube amp, Meta42, tons of portables, the miniscule Xin supermini, tons of esoteric interconnects and power cords....

 

[Hirsch]

Here's the first set of pics. A Head-Fier who's a pro will be sending me more, which I'll post when I get them.

The first is the Supra and it's little brother, the MPX-3. The Supra's got the BIG caps.

mkmelt's Ampex reel-to-reel deck and Marantz 1060 receiver showed that LP is not the only analog format that can sound great. There are fewer steps in mastering a tape than an LP.

BDA_ABAT's Philips 963SA and MAD EAR+:

Grahamndotter's SkyFi rig demonstrated that my condo has the worst reception in the Washington area.

The Gilmore V2 and Emmeline HR-2 hooked to Sony NS500V. The Grado HPA-1 was added later.

The EAR HP4 was not being driven by the portable in front of it...

The battle of the mini tube amps. The Moretto HAP-03 faced off with the Earmax Pro. Both amps are connected via Bogden Silver Spirit Reference interconnects.

There were fewer portables than the last meet, but there were some good ones.

 

[Hirsch]

The Fisher 400/AKG K-1000 was being driven directly by the analog outputs of a NEC external CD-ROM drive...and sounded great.

The digital output of the NEC drove a Wheatfield HA-2/ATH W2002 setup.

The digital output had to go through a few hoops to get to the Wheatfield. Monarchy DIP, GW Labs DSP upsampler and ART DI/O processed the signal.

Rotel 955AX drove a Parasound DAC. Analog output from the Rotel drove the Moretto, while digital output went to the Parasound and out to the Earmax Pro.

Creek CD53, with Herbie's Audio Lab grungebuster. Note the Mapleshade Heavyweight. The Creek normally sits on Mapleshade cones, but that doesn't work if you're moving cables around...

Particularly not if the cables are as stiff as the bunch of Virtual Dynamics cables around the R10. The interconnect between the Creek and Supra is a prototype of a new Virtual Dynamics cable, which will be called the Master series. The short story: this is a seriously good cable.

PinkFloyd's X-Feed. While it can sometimes reduce detail, it's the only crossfeed processor I've heard that doesn't destroy the tonal balance of the signal.

The MPX-3 and carlo-modded SHA-1 were driven by CD44hi's Arcam. The Arcam is an impressive player at its price point.

A Head Fier contemplates the Mapleshade Ultimate Conefeet, which improve sound by vibration damping, but it looks like he didn't get the point.

 

[CD44hi]

Concerning this last picture:: I guess I miss this part of the meet, is this some sort of "tweak" to get that extra last drop of synergy out of the R10's ??? One surefoot between index and thumb of right hand, while pocking your eye with the left..... I'll try this with the RS1s and see...... I'll probably need two Surefoots

On a more serious note, I wanted to thank Hirsch for having us over yesterday. It was a lot of fun and as always a LOT of gear. It was very good to meet new friends as it was to see the old ones as well. A great group!

I will post impressions as I deconvolute them and make a coherent post. Hopefully this will happen sometime this week

 

[Hirsch]

Sonic impressions coming as I sort them out.

Wheatfield HA-2 is an impressive amp. It doesn't have the detail of something like the EAR or the Singlepower amps. What it does have is a wonderful tonality you can lose yourself in. Beautifully balanced sound. IMO it works well with the W2002. The weakness of the W2002 is its response to quick percussive effects. Drum or cymbal hits just sound wrong on that headphone, if a fast amp is delivering the sound. However, the Wheatfield isn't passing on that particular information well. So, the softened sound from the Wheatfield seems to relieve the W2002 from one of its vulnerabilities. Hmmm...

The NEC->Fisher->K-1000 was sounding really good. Of note, there was a TDS Passive Audiophile in that signal chain after the NEC. It seemed to really tighten the definition, particularly at the low end. Hmmmm... How did that system get to that point running out of a $15 source?

The MPX-3 didn't sound right early on, but straightened itself out later. Cause is likely to be that it simply needed a longer warmup than originally given. I used a tube set on the Supra that will sound really good with minimal warmup, on the theory that it was going to be turned on and off to change headphones a lot. My current favorite tube set takes two to four hours to hit its stride, and will sound dead until it does (I'm not going to wax poetical on those tubes, or even say what they are, until I've got some backups!)

more later...

 

[SuperMario]

I wish I could have come to this meeting everyone is raving about!!

But I guess the timing was not appropriate for me. Things didn't work out the way I expected...

This is a time for mourning my wife's mother who passed away 26 days ago, and my wife herself is wearing a cast on her right leg (the cherry on top of the cake!)

As you can understand she has been feeling miserable lately, and couldn't cope with the idea of being left behind by her husband because of an event such as an Audio Meeting - especially when involving a 6-hour drive!

By your comments and pictures I can tell this event must have been an awesome gathering of nice people and terrific gear!!!

I can only hope for the next Meet. I'll try to attend Canman's Summer Meet on Sept. 6, in New Jersey.

Anyway, thanks for everything, Hirsch.

Regards to all

 

[williamgoody]

You and your wife have my condolences SM.

 

[Pinny]

What a shame I missed this! I live in Baltimore (Pikesville). I just didnt know about it.

By the way, is there anyone around me who would let me drop by and try out some stuff. The best thing I have ever heard is a PX-200 (unamped outta my near dead PCDP). Would have to be soon though, because I go back to college on

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Pinny By the way, is there anyone around me who would let me drop by and try out some stuff.

Sure. We can set up a mini-meet for people who couldn't make this one (and even for people who could, but want to hear more).

 

[Dave1]

Another awesome DC meet.

Once again, thanks to our generous host Hirsch for opening up both his home, and his collection.

I heard some great stuff. I was very impressed with the Arcam/MPX3 combo. I will admit that at first, the mpx3 was very disappointing to me with driving rock, but something happened, maybe changing sources, and it did end up impressing me.

Hirsch has been working on his Fisher/AKG K1000 setup, and it shows. Easily one of the best setups there.

I am glad that I gave the Gilmore V2 and the HR-2 another chance. I enjoyed both of them, giving a slight edge to the HR-2. I have been listening to nothing but tubes lately, and these amps made me miss my cosmic.

As usual, a great mix of guys to talk about things esoteric and strange. It was great talking with Mkmelt about his passion for reel tapes and older marantz amps, and Hirsch's scientific forays into power cables, digital interconnects, pieces of plastic to put on top of your spinning cds, and of course, brass balancing cones(and matching sets of brass weights).

 

[grahamndodder]

Hirsch-

I mailed a CD out today with all of the raw pix full sized. I also shrunk and toned about a dozen or so for easy posting.

Thanks again for the hosting (pix and meet!)

I bought (for $129) a pair of those ultra-comfy-but-not-too-audiophile phones, just for the feel!

GnD