[joneeboi]

The meet has been moved to the first floor of the Engineering Teaching and Learning Centre!

There was a double booking which I'll investigate, but in case you're wondering why there's an Oxford Seminar meeting, we were double booked. Please head to the Infolink or ask a random student to find out where the ETLC building is.

 

[tamahome77]

My apologies for missing this meet. Went out for some drinks last night and felt like crap the next day. I'll be sure to check for the next meet. Hope you guys had a good time.

 

[ABathingApe]

Great meet guys. There was a huge turn out. Myself and my friends ended up coming a little late but had a great time. Devin definitely has an excellent set up. Those 800's are something else

.

 

[Joelby]

Really enjoyed the meet guys. So much great gear. Devin's HE60s were the highlight for me. Thanks a bunch!

 

[Kayito-san]

It is safe to say that A good time was had by all. Those Senn HD 800s were phenomenal. En plus, I found a new headphone that I'll be looking into possibly buying sometime in the future, with respects to Joelby for letting me try his Audio-Technicas.

Already looking forward to the next meet!

 

[devin_mm]

Yeah it was fun, good to see a bunch of people come out some I've met before some new. Sorry the remote for my transport didn't work but I think we survived

next time I'll make sure. The HF-2's were interesting I didn't get a good feeling of them they are the first metal Grados I've listened to. Thanks a lot guys for the help in moving all my gear next time we should do it in my dorm in Calgary so I don't have to move everything

. I'll update more later as I'm pretty tired right now.

 

[joneeboi]

I too want to say thanks to everyone for coming out. Although there was the switch in location, I think things worked out even better than if we got the room we were supposed to.

The meet helped assure me of my HD650 purchase. I find it funny that after the Calgary meet, I, a Grado man, bought some HD650s and Joelby, a HD650 guy, bought some Alessandros. The HD800 were easily the "Best of Show," while I immensely enjoyed the HF2s on the vinyl rig. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the 800s on the vinyl rig, but the HF2s really did sing on the new format. I think I will have to get myself a cheap vinyl rig. They scared me on Don's French music track with the amount of bass they had. It wasn't anything farty or bloated, just deep and smooth. Absolutely amazing. My modded SR60s really had no chance against them. The metal and the wood were likely responsible for that.

The HE60s were far too analytical for me. I prefer a more involving sound, something fun and engaging. If I were to find a fun 'stat, I think that would make a happy medium. Like devin said, they just destroy bad recordings, and that's what it did to my reference track. I remember seeing the amplitude-time graph of that track, and it was just horribly clipped through and through. Maybe if I tried it on the vinyl rig, it would have sounded a bit different.

It was nice getting to listen to the GS1Ks again as well. While they're not my favourite headphone, a lot of people have compared my SR60s to them. Despite liking the value I get from my 60s, I found that it's hard to replace good aesthetics. Nevertheless, I found them to sound very similar to my headphones at less than a tenth the cost. I feel good about my 'phones.

The K601 also had a really attractive sound to them. Like some said at the Calgary meet, it was very balanced, and it did just about everything well. I think someone said that they don't suck at anything, but they're a good all-arounder. Again, very similar sound to my SR60s. It probably mostly has to do with the separation of the drivers from the head with the big pads.

I can't remember everything, but I gotta head out now. Will add more later.

 

[Robin W.]

thanks to joneeboi for setting up another great meet! I think the room we ended up in was the perfect setting for this type of meet, kind of a fortunate mistake for the double booking. It was great to hear the wide variety of 'phones, like many others, my favorite was the HD800 it sounded good on everything I plugged it into but scaled up and up nicely, rewarding you when used with better sources and amps. It brought out things on my vinyl setup that I haven't heard with the HD650's. I wish I would have gotten a bit more time trying them on the balanced rig, but that was pretty popular (for good reason).

With all of the amazing sources to compare, I think that a better vinyl rig will be in my future, Dons cd setup was quite amazing though and the whole setup really shined with the HF-2's.

It was nice to meet everyone new, and great to see everyone I've met before. Can't wait for the next meet.

 

[devin_mm]

A few new points now that it's not 3 am.

I really liked Joels Koss KC75s on the bithead for the price they had a lot of presence and it was a fun rig.
The Shure 840s produced a crazy amount of bass which is not my thing but impressive in its own right.
The vinyl rig was cool something about a breadboarded phono pre-amp just strikes me as hardcore. The pre-amp may of a had a little noise but overall the HF2's sounded good on that setup.

 

[geetarman49]

Quote:

Originally Posted by devin_mm /img/forum/go_quote.gif A few new points now that it's not 3 am. I really liked Joels Koss KC75s on the bithead for the price they had a lot of presence and it was a fun rig. The Shure 840s produced a crazy amount of bass which is not my thing but impressive in its own right. The vinyl rig was cool something about a breadboarded phono pre-amp just strikes me as hardcore. The pre-amp may of a had a little noise but overall the HF2's sounded good on that setup.

Many thnx Devin for bringing the cool stuff that is the envy of all (800s, Phoenix, etc. etc. etc.). Let me know what u think about the "tracks" when u have a chance to reproduce them properly.

Thnx also to rwaudio (the modded 580/650s were super, imho) & joneeboi & all the others. Looking forward to hearing some beyers, ultrasones, and stax next time. By then, my indeed tube hybrid should be in a slightly modded form.

later,
don

 

[khuculak]

Thanks for bringing your setups. It was very interesting to see the comparisons between a balanced and unbalanced set of HD650s.

I think Don's setup was the craziest of the bunch.

 

[Joelby]

I think what pleased me most about this meet was that I got to listen to the likes of HD800, HE60, etc. and can still enjoy what I have. Those statement phones are great, but so are my KSC75! It's great to realize that I've got all the time in the world to pick up a HD800. I'm going to save it for when I want that extra nth degree of refinement years down the road. I may actually be able to afford it then as well!

 

[joneeboi]

I'm glad so many of you actually came back to the thread to reply. The last few times, we didn't get nearly as many people coming back. Excellent.

I also liked Robin's HD650 cable. It is a fairly lightweight DIY job, but it packs so much punch. I actually heard a difference between stock and recable, and to this point, I didn't fully believe the scores of recable-preachers. Now I do. In general, the meet was a good belief-breaking-and-forming experience for me. I got to hear for myself the sound everyone's been endorsing in the HD800 and HE60, I got to hear why the HD650 were the top dynamic headphones and how the 800 could supersede it so easily, and I had a chance to hear the difference that a high end source makes. But back to my original point, the recabling thing has me excited, and I will no doubt make that one of my first orders of business when my 650s come.

Another nice benefit of the meet was that I could test some of the best headphones against my Carrie amp. I think that's one of the nicest parts for me. I was worried that a gain of 2 might be too low on my source, but it's actually easy to stomach now that I could get a decent level out of my Carrie with the highest impedance headphones; 'stats are out of the question.

But ugh, gotta get that BantamDAC working. Humbug.

Also, Kody, are you the son of Kevin Huculak? If so, your dad taught me in chemistry in high school.

 

[devin_mm]

Well my bloody remote decided to work perfectly now and I didn't even do anything, oh well next time.

 

[geetarman49]

definitely sounds like left-turn signal syndrome. on my way down to the uni, my left turn signal crapped out... nothing wrong with the right signal tho. Then, half-way back home, it started working again... just at the right time too; a copper pulled up alongside while i was entering the turn lane.
working fine now... go figure.

d.

p.s. were u able to get any deal on the hd800 or did u have to pay full cdn list ($1799 cdn i believe)?