Too tired to sleep, so some quick impressions:
"Last night I found an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know"
OK, back to the meet.
A special thanks to Headroom for the loan of the Blockhead. Todd forgot to mention whether or not they wanted it back, so maybe I should keep it until they say something
Headroom also provided a variety of headphones, and a Cosmic Travel setup. Alas, the Cosmic itself had a bad ground connection, and was unlistenable. Fortunately, Dave1 brought a Cosmic, so we were able to hear one.
It's almost easier to list the things I didn't get to do than the ones I did. I really wanted to do a good comparison of the Cosmic to the Grado HPA-1. Alas, time didn't permit. Initial impressions had the Cosmic slightly ahead of the Grado, in terms of attack and detail, but the Grado had just made a strong comeback with better detail than first listen, and a very musical presentation, when I had to move to something else. Oh well.
Flat pads. Kerelybonto had a brand spanking new set of flat pads on his HP-2. I have bowl pads, with the rubber cement mod. So, I sat down with the Grado's, HP-1, HP-2, and RS-1, and did some listening (nothing was going to get in the way of this one!). The older Grados responded to the flat pads with a rounder and fuller bass response, but there was a trade-off. Detail and presence seemed a bit dimished. It shocked me, but I realized that I can be perfectly happy without flat pads on the HP-1. The RS-1 is a different story. The flat pads cure the forward high end, and bring the RS-1 much closer to neutrality. Happiness! The RS-1 finally started sounding like a high-end headphone, as opposed to a wraith of one. The RS-1, currently in production, needs these pads! Zanth did a review of this recently, and I concur completely with his findings.
The Creek CD53 ran three amps. Balanced output went to the Blockhead, while single-ended output went to the HP-4, and from there to the RKV. For a while, I sent the balanced output to the HP-4, and am now convinced I need XLR cables.
The Fisher 400 continues to amaze me. Classic tube sound, in all its glory. It was driving the K-1000, while the Melos drove the W2002 for awhile. I didn't get a chance to listen to the W2002 with the Earmax Pro, which somehow didn't get into the pictures. It's so small I probably overlooked it
So, I still haven't heard a tube amp I like with the W2002. The EAR is close, but it's not there. Not with the R10 as an option, anyway.
There was a table full of portable gear. Too much for me, but other will post impressions, I hope.
The Beyer 931 is a very nice headphone. I thought I was going to cut down on my headphone collection. The opposite may be true.
The X-Can/CD-3000 combo sounded good, but the CD3K really shined with the EAR, and with the Fisher 400. I realize some people don't like this headphone, but all I can say is "use the right amp for the job".
The ZOTL was running of the Rotel/Monarchy/GW-Labs/DIO setup I was using before I got the Creek, and was in fine voice. I used it for my pad comparison of the Grado's, and it sounded great with all of them.
I didn't get more than a couple of seconds of RKV time. If I didn't have the ZOTL and the EAR, I would own one of these.
The HP4/R10 combo was simply the best sound present, IMO. Others may think differently, but this combo has locked in for me. The EAR was running without a cover, since the cover won't fit over the tubes in it. I'm actually having a custom tall cover made, but it wasn't done in time for the meet.
The Blockhead is a good amp. However, it just doesn't seem to stir me the way the EAR, RKV or ZOTL do. It's not that it's a bad amp. It's not. It's one of the best solid state amps I've heard. But it doesn't seem to inspire. The musicians sound like they're playing by rote, almost. This would be a strong competitor at about half its price. However, at its full price, IMO is just isn't competetive with some of what's out there. Perhaps part of the problem is the limitation to the modified headphones, in this case the HD-600.
mkmelt brought a vintage Marantz and a vintage Yamaha. The Marantz is a great solid state amp. The Yamaha sounded nice also, but didn't have the clean, effortless presentation of the Marantz. It's scare how good some of the older equipment actually is. We're going to have to progess much faster to wind up right back where we were.
Antness brought an Arcam CD23, and his Gilmore amp. The Arcam is a nice player indeed, with HDCD decoding and a nice build quality. It looks and feels like a better CDP than the Creek. However the Creek is very close sonically, and has those balance outputs that I want to use. Alas, time ran out and I didn't get to pursue this further.
Antness also brought his Gilmore amp. This is an amp I really wanted to hear. Now, I really want to hear more. I think Antness has a winner with this one. Running off of the Arcam, it had possible the best solid state sound I've heard from the R10. The natural comparison would have been to run the Gilmore amp single-ended from the Creek, while the Blockhead was running balanced, and compare HD-600's with Cardas cables. Time ran out, and we didn't do this. So, did I prefer the Gilmore amp or the Blockhead? I don't know...and IMO that's a win for the Gilmore, which sells for around a seventh of the cost of a Blockhead. While it's unfair to compair DIY to a commercial produce based on price, the Gilmore would likely sell for under $1500 if made commercially...and still is competitive with the Blockhead. The only downside is that antness listens louder than I do, and the volume maxed out for me very early in the movement of the volume pot. This amp also fit very well with the W2002. Until I hear that headphone with the Earmax Pro, I'm going to stay convinced that the W2002 comes to life with solid state, not tubes.
Oh yeah, there's a bunch of guys in the last pic