Dixie Flatline
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2004
- Posts
- 433
- Likes
- 10
Quote:
Oh yeah! Best meet ever!!!!!!!!! (Um, of the three that I've been to.
)
This one was a whole lot of fun for me. I almost bailed out because my ears have been giving me grief and I didn't want to overstress them with too much listening time, but I'm glad I went anyway. (And I managed to keep my listening to short intervals, which gave me more time to meet and talk to people!) Great to see a lot of new faces, and to have more of a chance to talk with the old hands who I've only met briefly at previous meets. (For reference, I'm the smiling bearded guy on the right side of Thrice's first picture, "A bunch of Head-Fiers".)
A few hardware impressions, although I didn't do much extended listening (and after more than a year here and hearing some amazing gear at meets, I still feel like a newbie when it comes to describing the sound of things):
Ack dAck! v2.0 combined with the Rockhopper M³: Wow. I don't know what each component was contributing, but the end result was warm, smooth (but not too lush), detailed, involving, and above all comfortable, especially with the K501 (but with my A900's as well). This is the sort of sound I could relax and float away on, but without the laid-back, distant quality that I dislike about the Senn HD580/6x0's. Put another way, I felt like the equipment disappeared completely and left me alone with the music.
AKG K501: I like it a lot, and it makes a perfect open complement to my A900's, with warm smooth mids that make voices sound glorious. It also has the qualities I like about my E3c's, but with the high extension that, I confess, they do lack somewhat.
Headamp AE-1(?)/American Eagle: I A/B'd this with my SR-71 (which has around a hundred hours on it) using my A900's and the line-out of my Rio Karma. The sound was very close, with the AE having a lively, dynamic character, and a noticeably larger soundstage than the SR-71. To my ear, the SR-71 was a little more detailed, and did a better job of controlling the A900's bass. I still like my SR-71 better, but it's a matter of taste rather than quality. The AE is a great piece of gear with excellent sound and some impressive features (long-lived rechargeable battery, both RCA and mini inputs) packed into a very neat form factor. Looks like Ray and Xin have some serious competition in the high-end portable market.
I also spent some time with the other portables there, including the Portaphile V2 and the SuperMacro that stevieo brought along (not sure which generation SM it was). Both impressive amps, although I have some user-interface issues with the SuperMacro, considering that it required a lengthy cheat-sheet to identify all the various switches, and I had to fish out my car keys to flip the one closest to the volume knob -- I couldn't get it with my fingers at all. I'm still happiest with the SR-71, though; it has that certain Ray Samuels magic that I'm at a loss to quantify properly.
I didn't spend that much time with the new Sonys that were there (Qualia 010, SA5K, SA1K), but I did feel that although the new generation is extremely impressive for their detail, my heart still belongs to the previous generation (CD3000 and, above all else, the mighty R10).
I finally got my hands on the HD650 -- at previous meets, I always wound up with the 580 and 600, which I just can't bring myself to like. They always sound to me like the music's being played half a block away, and sometime in the middle of last week. The 650 still has some of that quality, but I found that the music was a lot more "present" for me, and I actually liked the sound a lot more than I expected, especially out of the Xiang Sheng and the Radii HAP-03 II. Still not worth their cost for me, but it's nice to finally understand something of what other people like about the Sennheisers.
The mystery phones: Wow. I love the sound, about which others can comment more expertly than I, but ... but ... but ... why couldn't they look more like Audio-Technicas? It's the second coming of the Jecklin Float. (Literally, according to Hirsch.) If you always wanted great-sounding headphones, but were afraid that they might make you look too sexy and/or stylish: this is the headphone for you.
(On the other hand, I really want to see what Headphile can do with the Ergos. I can imagine no greater challenge for Larry's woodworking skills.
)
Ah well. That was a pretty long ramble for someone who didn't spend much time listening.
On the human side, it was great to meet Mikhail and see some of his new gear. Guru, sorry I didn't get more of a chance to chat, but it looks like it's a good thing you got out the door when you did -- the rain was bad enough on the DC Beltway going home, but I didn't realize it was turning into snow farther north. dviswa, johnmatrix, CD44hi, MarkMaxx, and all the other folks hanging around the portable table chatting (afraid I didn't keep track of everyone's names properly) -- it was great to meet you guys and I hope to see you at future meets! Thanks to Hirsch for bringing all his goodies, new and old, for us to play with.
And of course, profound thanks to Thrice and his lovely wife for opening their home to us!
| Originally Posted by Wmcmanus Look like a great meet. Just one question: good time had by all? |
Oh yeah! Best meet ever!!!!!!!!! (Um, of the three that I've been to.
This one was a whole lot of fun for me. I almost bailed out because my ears have been giving me grief and I didn't want to overstress them with too much listening time, but I'm glad I went anyway. (And I managed to keep my listening to short intervals, which gave me more time to meet and talk to people!) Great to see a lot of new faces, and to have more of a chance to talk with the old hands who I've only met briefly at previous meets. (For reference, I'm the smiling bearded guy on the right side of Thrice's first picture, "A bunch of Head-Fiers".)
A few hardware impressions, although I didn't do much extended listening (and after more than a year here and hearing some amazing gear at meets, I still feel like a newbie when it comes to describing the sound of things):
Ack dAck! v2.0 combined with the Rockhopper M³: Wow. I don't know what each component was contributing, but the end result was warm, smooth (but not too lush), detailed, involving, and above all comfortable, especially with the K501 (but with my A900's as well). This is the sort of sound I could relax and float away on, but without the laid-back, distant quality that I dislike about the Senn HD580/6x0's. Put another way, I felt like the equipment disappeared completely and left me alone with the music.
AKG K501: I like it a lot, and it makes a perfect open complement to my A900's, with warm smooth mids that make voices sound glorious. It also has the qualities I like about my E3c's, but with the high extension that, I confess, they do lack somewhat.
Headamp AE-1(?)/American Eagle: I A/B'd this with my SR-71 (which has around a hundred hours on it) using my A900's and the line-out of my Rio Karma. The sound was very close, with the AE having a lively, dynamic character, and a noticeably larger soundstage than the SR-71. To my ear, the SR-71 was a little more detailed, and did a better job of controlling the A900's bass. I still like my SR-71 better, but it's a matter of taste rather than quality. The AE is a great piece of gear with excellent sound and some impressive features (long-lived rechargeable battery, both RCA and mini inputs) packed into a very neat form factor. Looks like Ray and Xin have some serious competition in the high-end portable market.
I also spent some time with the other portables there, including the Portaphile V2 and the SuperMacro that stevieo brought along (not sure which generation SM it was). Both impressive amps, although I have some user-interface issues with the SuperMacro, considering that it required a lengthy cheat-sheet to identify all the various switches, and I had to fish out my car keys to flip the one closest to the volume knob -- I couldn't get it with my fingers at all. I'm still happiest with the SR-71, though; it has that certain Ray Samuels magic that I'm at a loss to quantify properly.
I didn't spend that much time with the new Sonys that were there (Qualia 010, SA5K, SA1K), but I did feel that although the new generation is extremely impressive for their detail, my heart still belongs to the previous generation (CD3000 and, above all else, the mighty R10).
I finally got my hands on the HD650 -- at previous meets, I always wound up with the 580 and 600, which I just can't bring myself to like. They always sound to me like the music's being played half a block away, and sometime in the middle of last week. The 650 still has some of that quality, but I found that the music was a lot more "present" for me, and I actually liked the sound a lot more than I expected, especially out of the Xiang Sheng and the Radii HAP-03 II. Still not worth their cost for me, but it's nice to finally understand something of what other people like about the Sennheisers.
The mystery phones: Wow. I love the sound, about which others can comment more expertly than I, but ... but ... but ... why couldn't they look more like Audio-Technicas? It's the second coming of the Jecklin Float. (Literally, according to Hirsch.) If you always wanted great-sounding headphones, but were afraid that they might make you look too sexy and/or stylish: this is the headphone for you.
(On the other hand, I really want to see what Headphile can do with the Ergos. I can imagine no greater challenge for Larry's woodworking skills.
Ah well. That was a pretty long ramble for someone who didn't spend much time listening.
On the human side, it was great to meet Mikhail and see some of his new gear. Guru, sorry I didn't get more of a chance to chat, but it looks like it's a good thing you got out the door when you did -- the rain was bad enough on the DC Beltway going home, but I didn't realize it was turning into snow farther north. dviswa, johnmatrix, CD44hi, MarkMaxx, and all the other folks hanging around the portable table chatting (afraid I didn't keep track of everyone's names properly) -- it was great to meet you guys and I hope to see you at future meets! Thanks to Hirsch for bringing all his goodies, new and old, for us to play with.
And of course, profound thanks to Thrice and his lovely wife for opening their home to us!
