First, this was actually not the first Houston meet: we had one a few years ago--I believe it was 2005; the HD650 was pretty new. Tyll from HeadRoom stopped by on his "around the country" road trip as they had only just released the "Desktop" line of amps and such. I still maintain the best dynamic headphone setup I've ever heard were balanced 650s being fed by Headroom's completely maxed out setup fed by a Wadia.
Anyway, back to this meet...
Everyone was very cool and there was a *ton* of gear there. I haven’t seen that many vacuum tubes in one place since I was a little kid visiting the my dad at work when he worked in a computer room in the early 1970s. Yes, I’m old.
I felt a little like an interloper here, since I don't do much with headphones anymore. I got into Head-Fi when my younger son was born because he was such a light sleeper I didn't want to wake him while working after he went to bed. Well, he's a better sleeper now and we're in a new house which has my study much further from his bedroom, so headphones aren't really a huge concern anymore. I listen occasionally, pretty much only when I want to soak in all the detail, since it seems to me detail is the thing headphones achieve much more easily than speakers (especially per dollar). So I'm not quite as into the scene as I once was (this is reflected in my post count of late). Plus I showed up late, brought the least amount of gear (and the least expensive gear), and won a door prize anyway. So I made out like a bandit but I don’t think I contributed all that much.
That said, this was still fantastic.
If you're going to have a meet, you definitely want to invite Shelly, because she has pretty close to one of everything except Beyers. Senn, Grado, AT, AKG, Denon, Ultrasone... yes, all of those. This was the coolest part of the meet for me, getting the chance to check out all these different cans. So, some thoughts on cans I had never heard before from the perspective of someone who is actually not looking to blow out their wallet on headphones:
Ultrasone 780s: Yuck. I really didn't like these at all. They just sound... wrong, like something really artificial had been inserted into the signal path. Actually, what it sounds like is someone turned on some bad 1990s DSP mode that should better have been left off. I know some people really like these, and that's cool, but I really didn't. To each their own, I say.
Audio Technica AT-AD2000: I liked these a lot, really holds up terrifically well across a wide range of different music; bad at nothing. Yes, not quite as good at some things as others but still very nice all around: as usual for ATs, the mids are a little weaker than the rest of the package--though much better balanced than most of the other ATs I've heard. However, as impressed as I was with these, when I came home and looked them up, I was floored by the price. They’re good, but I don't think they are $750 good.
AKG K701: OK but didn't live up to what I had hoped for them. I'm not sure I could put my finger on what I didn't like about them--they're certainly good, but there was something that seemed to be missing. Also, I really didn't like the fit of these at all; even if they had sounded better to me, I don't think I could wear these for more than about a half an hour at a time anyway.
Denon AH-D2000: I had never heard Denons before so I had no idea what to expect here, and what a pleasant surprise this was! Clear bang-for-the-buck winner in my book from this event. $200 for these is an excellent deal. Again, a very well-balanced can with few weaknesses; I can see why these are popular and I'd love to hear their big brothers the D5000s.
Grado RS1: I am generally not a fan of Grados, they're just too harsh for me; in particular, I've never heard Grados that I thought didn't make violins sound screechy. (I know, I know, Grados aren't really supposed to be for classical anyway.) However, when mated to the Woo tube amp and Paradisea tube DAC, these were actually quite nice--the Woo took just enough of the edge off that I could really enjoy the speed and detail without constantly thinking that my ears were bleeding. Nice synergy there.
And, of course, the Cambridge 840 into the Blue Hawaii sounded absolutely fantastic no matter which electrostatic cans was plugged in; I think I had a very slight preference for the Stax over the Senns but it was close. I really wish it could have been possible to run the 840 through the KGSS so I could have gotten a sense of how much of that was the source, though. The Blue Hawaii obviously had more oomph than the KGSS but I thought the KGSS might have had a smidge more detail. I'm not sure, though, as they both sounded terrific so it was hard to tell. The KGSS also has a single volume control, which is a win. Seriously great stuff, those electrostats... Not like that’s news, of course.
Anyway, a big giant THANK YOU to Orcin for putting this together.
