[balderon]

Thank you to everyone who attended for making this event fun for all. I wanted to express my appreciation to Craig Uthus of Eddie Current for bringing his fine wares and to Paul Berg, Karen Berg, and Graham Smith, of digiZoid for donating a ZO personal subwoofer for the raffle.
 

---

 
Sid-Fi, Unchain, and Jibbie
 

 
Sid-Fi's rig
 

 
Jibbie's rig
 

 
Jibbie listening to Sid-Fi's rig
 

 
EYEdROP with Karen Berg, and Graham Smith of digiZoid
 

 
digiZoid's next generation prototype.
 

 

 
Eddie Current fine wares.
 

 
The new 2A3. All I can say is wow.
 

 

 
Unchain at Jesusio's table
 

 
Unchain, Kstaken, and Jesusio.
 

 
Fzsrv and ZachCox
 

 
Fzsrv's rig.
 

 
A few of Kstaken's many headphones.
 

 
Sid-Fi's critical listening session at digiZoid's table
 

 
Paul Berg of digiZoid presenting Funch his raffle prize, a ZO personal subwoofer. Congratulations Funch!
 

 
MikeLa comparing LCD-2's.
 

 
MikeLa, Jesusio, Funch, and Kstaken
 

 
MikeLa's table was very popular!
 

 

 

 

 
Funch at his table.
 

 
I wonder if this is the moment when Funch decided he wanted a pair of LCD-2's.
 

 

 

[WarriorAnt]

I did not realize it was a Holiday weekend and was not able to attend.  I had jut gotten my LCD's the night before (my very first pair of cans) and would loved to have brought them.  BTW anyone selling a Violectirc V200?

 

[Jibbie]

It was my first meet, and I thought it was great.  Thanks Balderon for setting the whole thing up.  It was awesome to hear some of the highest end headphones.  It also helped me confirm my happiness with my current setup (for the time being).  I'm looking forward to another meet in the future, hopefully sometime when I have better gear

 

[EYEdROP]

HD800: My favorite high end headphone at the meet. This headphone does it all for me. It was neutral but still natural sounding at the same time, and was fairly musical too. Its bass response was very linear, tight, and went low. The mids were quite detailed and had good timbre, but sounded a little too smoothed out and soft (but not recessed). The highs were great in my opinion, not too much for me. Alot of people say these headphones have too much highs and not enough bass. But really, I think they are just a little too neutral and flat for most people. The soundstage was very big (perhaps a little artificially stretched), but I liked the trick it played. Its amazing that headphones can have a soundstage like that. The imaging was fantastic. I think out of the 800, T1, LCD2, STAX, HE5, STAX, the HD800 was the most faithful to the recording out of all them. I would trust it as a studio monitor. It was quite accurate while not sacrificing too much fun. 
 
LCD2: These headphones sound lovely and are very fun to listen to, made listening to music a blast. Very organic sounding. They sounded much like live music. The bass went ultra low and had impact you can feel, without being too overdone or colored. The bass wasnt exactly neutral but it was close enough. The bass is more natural and organic sounding then the HD800, anh had great texture. But the HD800 bass was more linear and sounded like headphone bass instead of pseudo-loudspeaker bass (like the LCD2). The LCD2 has more bass extension. There was a little too much bass bloat for me (call me crazy), but at the same time I feel like the bass would satisfy both bassheads and neutral types alike. The mids sounded organic, natural, and personal like the musician was playing next to you. The instrument seperation was awesome. It was easy to keep track of all the instruments and the music as a whole. The highs were very grain-free and unfatiguing, very crystal. But slightly recessed for my tastes. If the HD800 has too much treble and not enough bass, the LCD2 has too much bass and not enough treble. I think most people prefer the LCD2 because of this. I think the battle between the two comes down to personal preference. But if your a neutral freak like me, the HD800 wins in that respect. The LCD2 can be more satisfying and natural sounding, but the HD800 is the one that is more "correct" IMO. Overall the LCD2 sounded great but a little too dark. 
  
T1: I didnt get to listen to these much, but I remember them having a great sense of bass impact while being less bloated then the LCD2. The mids had a rich sound with lots of body and impact, and fairly detailed. The highs were very linear and smooth sounding, and not recessed or bright. I dont remember much about the soundstage, but the imaging was very good. Mabey not as pinpoint as the HD800 but had a more realistic soundstage size. All in all a great headphone and IMO a true competitor to the other big 2. I wish I spent more time with it. 
 
H5-LE: I didnt test them with my own music and spent only a few moments with them, so its hard to say. But the impression I got from them was a less refined LCD2 with a similar sound signature. Thats all I can say really. 
  
Beats IEMS: Not my cup of tea. I compared them directly to my Bose IE and while the Dres dont sound terrible at all, they had a similar sound. But my Bose sounded better than them in almost every respect. End of story. 
  
Portapros: The best value for the money headphones Ive ever heard, period. Didnt spend much time but I would compare them to the grado type sound. But much cheaper. I will be suggesting these to friends who want a taste of audiophile high end sound but dont want to spend the money. They are not for the kid who wants subs in his ears. For that I will still suggest the $10 coby CV 200. But if they want actual sound quality for cheap, its all about the portapros.  
 
Sony PFV-R1: I was very suprised with these, I didnt expect them to sound that good. I cant belive these dont get more love on head-fi. The soundstage was very good and had depth. They are detailed and fast in the midrange. They actually sounded fairly neutral across the range, but didnt really have the right timbre, it sounded slightly plastic overall. The midbass had decent slam for being a neutral sounding headphone, but didnt have very good extension down low. The highs were crisp, fun, and unfatiguing but it sounded like there was a weird sheen to them. These headphones are discontinued, but you can find them at around $200. They are unique but good sounding especially at that price. 
 
After the meet was said and done, I still like my DT48 the best overall. It is simply an invaluable headphone that nobody understands. 
 
 
 

 

[funch]

The meet was great. Some old faces from our first meet in September, and some new as well.
 
Craig was there with one of his new 2a3 amps, and I can tell you that most of us were very
impressed. Smooooth doesn't come close to describing this amp. Look for some other new and
exciting things to come from Craig in the near future.
 
The meet started with a bang, so to speak. As Balderon, MikeLa and I were setting up,
the fire alarm in the hotel went off, but stopped after about 5 minutes. It wasn't us, we promise.
I would say that the rest of the meet was uneventful, but with three pairs of LCD-2's, T1's, HD800's,
a Leben amp, Craig's stuff, ad infinitum, and great company in the house, that statement would be anything but true.
 
I would like to thank the great folks at digiZoid for providing the 'personal subwoofer' that I won
in the raffle. I had not heard anything about this product before the meet, but am very impressed
by it. The digiZoid folks at the meet were great to visit with, and provided a wealth of info about
what they do. They had a prototype on display that will cover both the bass frequencies as well
as the treble, and sounded very good. They said that it should be ready for production in about
a year. I know I'll be checking it out when it comes out.
 
Lastly, but certainly not leastly (is that a word?), a great big THANKS to Balderon for setting this
up. I for one certainly appreciate all his hard work. Looking forward to the next event. Let's try
to fill two rooms next time.

 

[Train]

Wish I could have made it to this one, sounds like there was a lot of nice headphones to try out. Bummer.

 

[Garage1217]

I totally spaced the meet, Had the city easter egg hunt with the kids sat morning and was judging the XDC drift event / car show section all saturday afternoon. I am so bummed. Next time... Next time...

 

 

[MizMoxie]

 
Quote:

Thank you to everyone who attended for making this event fun for all. I wanted to express my appreciation to Paul Berg, Karen Berg, and Graham Smith, of digiZoid for donating a ZO personal subwoofer.
 
I have had a family emergency and will post more pictures and impressions when I can.
 
 

balderon,
 
myself and everyone else here at digiZoid want to thank you for your gracious acceptance into your realm, as well as your compatriots we were able to visit with.  It was a real treat for us to mingle with genuine sound enthusiasts, and to try out some of the heavy-hitter gear!  Thank you for your personal effort and sacrifice to make these meets happen, we certainly look forward to more get-togethers in the future!
 

 

[winzzz]

need moar impressions.. how is the cs600 ?

 

[balderon]

I apologize for the delay in posting the pictures.

 

[funch]

I was looking forward to hearing the LCD 2's, and they did not disapoint. Most of us at the meet agreed that they really do need
a speaker amp to sound their best. They sounded good out of my Bijou, as well as out of the 'phone jack on the Leben (which uses
resistors between the the speaker out's and the jack), but they sounded much more authoritative when MikeLa hooked them up to the
speaker out's of his Leben.

 

[jesusio]

I had an excellent time and it was nice to meet all of you. 

 

[balderon]

A Carla Bruni CD belonging to Craig Uthus has been misplaced. Please look through your CD collection to see if you have it. Please let me know if you find it. Thank you.

 

[WarriorAnt]

[size=medium]Deleted[/size]

 

[Bronco628]

totally bummed I missed it.  Looks like a lot of great equipment showed up.  I found the original post months after.