First the important stuff...
Thanks to Grahame for hosting a great time in Marin!
He truly went all out getting a nice space which had plenty of chairs and even a few couches to have very comfortable listening sessions along with a few glasses of scotch! Also provided drinks, snacks, and lunch!
With Mr. and mrs bigguy, thanks the always-welcomed candied pecans and brownies.
And of course Mikeymad (and to Al as well for the bourbon) with his roving selection of scotch. Love the Murray McDavid
Can a meet get any better than that!
Impressions:
Luxman P1:
Not my cup of tea, but I can see how other people could really really like this amp. Very relaxed, smooth sound. However, lacking in dynamics and detail. With the Sony CD3000, there seemed to be really nice synergy. Detail was there, highs seemed to extend well and the midrange wasn't recessed. However, lacked bass quantity. With the Senn 650, overall best, balanced sound. but again, a little too smooth for my tastes. With the grados RS1, not very good. Bass was bloomy, no dynamics, and congested. Impressions could be somewhat source related since it was hooked up to a Onix? cd player and not sure about the performance or sound signature of it. Think Mikeymad planned to listen to it with his marantz, but not sure.
Woo Audio 5 (upgraded) -
Does not get enough attention here. It's consistently one of the best headphone amps that I think you could buy. Every headphone I use it with sounds great! Balanced, thick, plenty of bass, detailed, without any harshness. Plus, drives the k1000s very very well.
Lambda Sig/Pro -
Best bang for the buck in the e-stat world. With the stax amps they were on, it was somewhat hard to differentiate between the two. However, when switching to Mikeymad's ES1, it was not subtle at all. THe Lambda sigs are the better phone...just a richer, thicker sound from the headphone.
Yuin OK1/OK3 (OK2 was broken) -
I was pleasantly surprised as well...first time I've heard these and they definitely do have a full-headphone kind of sound. If I didn't have UE11s, would seriously want to consider these.
Omega 2
Still not a fan...even on the ES1/Marantz. Too dark...think it's just one of those things.
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Just have to say...the best thing about head-fi are the meets.
Anyone who has a chance to go should definitely go!
I've been through alot of gear and am pretty happy with what I have now.
Not shopping for a radical change or anything anymore, but what keeps me coming back are the people, the meets, and occassionally listening to gear that I haven't spent a lot of time with.