[tyrion]

I've been back for a few hours now. I finally got all my gear set up again at the house. I have to say I was skeptical about having a meet in downtown Miami, however, I am skeptical no more. With the exception of a certain someone requiring a more assistance than others in finding the venue, it was pain free.

I want to thank Icehawk for hosting the event. His building was beautiful and the room was as well. It was a bit cramped for all the gear but still very comfortable. Thank g-d for the pool table. It made a great electrostat listening area. Thank you to Wayne for coming a long way with his HEV90 in a well cushioned gym bag. The HEV90 was a big surprise for most of us. What a beauty that amp is. Thanks to mikeg and his wife Holly for making the long trip. Mike's McAlister amp was at the opposite end of the looks spectrum from the HEV90 but at $700 it is a bargain. If Peter McAlister put that amp in a nicer case he could sell it for more than double the price. I'm too tired for impressions at the moment but while it wan't as open and airy as the HEV90 it held its own against my KGSS. I think I prefer the KGSS but under mmet conditions it's tough to make absolute decisions on some gear. It was pretty noisy and at times difficult to really hear what you were listening to.

I want to also thank flecom for making the repairs to my KGSS and getting it back to me for the meet. He did a great job and contrary to his statements in the Meet thread, I haven't heard any problems. The gain is way too low which I hope he will have time to address in the near future. To correct this I'm using an RSA Stealth as preamp for the KGSS.

I should also thank jp11801 for picking up lunch for me. Without it, I would have passed out. John, I forgot to eat the flan and you forgot the plantains.

The pics should come tomorrow. There weren't a lot taken.

Oh, I spent a little time with mikeg's Corda Aria. What a bargain at the introductory price (not sure of the price now). Well built, nice looking and sounding amp. I used it with the built in usb dac and my HHF-1's. this amp would make a nice office system.

That's it for the moment.

 

[kartik]

Any impressions on the much cheaper ESP/950 - McAlister EA-4 combo?

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kartik Any impressions on the much cheaper ESP/950 - McAlister EA-4 combo?

I really had a quick listen to the Koss headphone. Unfortunately for it I put it on after hearing the HE90, HE60 and Stax 404 so it wasn't that impressive. However, if it was the only one there I probably would have said, not bad. It probably isn't fair to even comment considering the amount of time spent with it so I would wait for some others that spent more time to chime in.

 

[mikeg]

For now, I prefer to leave it up to the others to comment. But, I plan to bring the ESP/950 and the McAlister to the National Head-Fi Meet in April. So, if you can make it, you can sample this combo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kartik Any impressions on the much cheaper ESP/950 - McAlister EA-4 combo?

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeg For now, I prefer to leave it up to the others to comment. But, I plan to bring the ESP/950 and the McAlister to the National Head-Fi Meet in April. So, if you can make it, you can sample this combo.

That will definately be a combo that i'll be looking forward to hearing in april.

 

[GoRedwings19]

You know what I like about meet threads? You have all these fancy sources, super duper amps and cool sounding phones. You have a nice bunch of headfiers who can chat and listen but damn don't any of you meatsticks have a camera? Not even one of those throwaway ones...

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoRedwings19 You know what I like about meet threads? You have all these fancy sources, super duper amps and cool sounding phones. You have a nice bunch of headfiers who can chat and listen but damn don't any of you meatsticks have a camera? Not even one of those throwaway ones...

Yeah you gotta love comments like this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyrion The pics should come tomorrow. There weren't a lot taken.

 

[Omnis]

Yeah, I'm sorry for not bringing my camera. I totally forgot about it, but, at least, my dad was able to take some pics with his PDA/phone.

Thanks to Wayne and MikeG for my first electrostatic experience. It was great.

Curse these dull, lifeless HD650's on my head right now.

Thanks, Miguel, for bringing your K701's. I think I'll be purchasing the AKGs for my birthday. They were a great listen.

My R10 experience was somewhat ambiguous. I listened to them through Mike's raptor and that big sony source, and they didn't sound too hot, honestly. But, thankfully, MikeG showed me them again through his Marantz source. Wow.

What a difference. What was up with that, though? Mike, is your Raptor bass-deficient or something? They were totally different sounds.

Anyway, both my dad and I enjoyed ourselves, and I now have Orpheitis.

The only part of the day that wasn't so hot was when those K1000's blasted me by accident. Hahaha. I forgot about the volume differences that certain songs loaded into an iPod can have. ...Ouchies.

Thanks again, guys!

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omnis My R10 experience was somewhat ambiguous. I listened to them through Mike's raptor and that big sony source, and they didn't sound too hot, honestly. But, thankfully, MikeG showed me them again through his Marantz source. Wow. What a difference. What was up with that, though? Mike, is your Raptor bass-deficient or something? They were totally different sounds.

I don't know what to say. There hasn't been a headphone I've used through the Raptor that I would ever call bass deficient. That big Sony source is an SCD-1 and one of the bigger bass sources I've heard. You are the first person that I've heard call the Raptor bass deficient.

However, to each his own. I heard the Marantz with a few different headphones yesterday and wasn't impressed after a very short listening experience. It was one of the sources I was interested in hearing due to the reasonable cost that they can be found on audiogon. In particular using the headphone out of the source with the R10's. I thought it was acceptable if that was all you had but not a substitute for any of the many dedicated headphone amps, including the Raptor. I would like to have spent more time with SA-8260 but I ended up spending most of my time with my KGSS and mikeg's McAlister. When I had my K1000's the Raptor produced as much bass as the various integrated amps I paired them with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoRedwings19 You have a nice bunch of headfiers who can chat and listen but damn don't any of you meatsticks have a camera? Not even one of those throwaway ones...

I said above pics were coming. It wasn't my camera although I took most of the pics (or their probably wouldn't have been any). After they are emailed to me and if you behave yourself, you might just get to see a few pics. I think there was more chatting at this meet than listening.

 

[909]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omnis My R10 experience was somewhat ambiguous. I listened to them through Mike's raptor and that big sony source, and they didn't sound too hot, honestly. But, thankfully, MikeG showed me them again through his Marantz source. Wow. What a difference. What was up with that, though? Mike, is your Raptor bass-deficient or something? They were totally different sounds.

I would strongly suspect the bass-deficiency you heard had very little to do with the Raptor itself, if nothing at all, and much more to do with the source. This is a pretty crude explanation, but the source delivers the signal and an amp, for the most part just amplifies it. In my experience the Raptor is a very revealing amplifier and probably what you heard is the Raptor revealing the big Sony's (source) shortcomings or that of the recording.

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 909 or that of the recording.

I would tend to think that would be the case. I've heard mikeg's R10s out of the raptor and didn't think they were bass light at all. The Sony SCD-1 also has some of the best bass of any source i've ever heard. Infact the only amp that I though the R10s sounded a bit lean out of was the dynahi.

 

[tyrion]

I head the R10/Raptor, I believe at the Tampa meet and while I don't recall specifically my conclusions I am pretty certain if I thought there was bass deficiency, I would have remembered. Having said that, if Omnis felt it was bass deficient then for him it was. Whether it was the source, amp, recording or combination, who knows. It was pretty noisy in the room between all the talking (I am guilty) and the a/c unit in certain areas. I will say this, there are few amps that produce deeper or better bass in my opinion. I haven't heard them all but in terms of the ones I've heard.

Joe, thanks for the cable, it definitely so some use. The shame is that myo isn't going to build anymore. He only had 3 orders in the last few months. I don't think Senn owners know what they are missing. myo got this one right for sure. I think he should charge more because of the amount of work that goes into building it. Zu, Moon and Stefan Audio Art charge more and there cables are no better in terms of build quality.

 

[solbergg]

I don't want to discredit Omnis's experience with the R10's at all, but I did want to give my take on it. I didn't know anything about the R10s when I picked them up to try them, and quite honestly I thought that the shape of the wood on them looks rather odd. I didn't try it on the Raptor, so I can't give a comment on that particular combination. I did try it through a lesser source though (ipod) and a cheaper amp (Antique Soundlab MG Head 32, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit). My opinion? The best closed headphone I heard at the meet, which also means ever for me as I don't have a lot of testing experience. It felt like it gave me everything I wanted to hear without any compensation. I'm afraid to find out the price of them, because such a wonderful sound has to be far out of my spending range. Oh well, I can always mooch at meets

As far as the electrostatics are concerned, they absolutely blow you away. I am currently trying to scrub that sound away from my mind so all the equipment I actually do own will sound good again. As far as the McAlister vs. HEV90 is concerned, this was my experience: I tried an HE 90 on the McAlister first, and my first response was "Wow! How can music sound that realistic!?". Then I picked up an HE 90 with the HEV90 amp. I took me a bit to listen to compare the differences. The end result is a cleaner sound from the HEV90, which allowed me to more easily dissect the sounds in the music. I think the McAlister is a steal for it's price, but the HEV90 was the end-all-be-all of any amp I have ever heard.

I also have to give strong props to the Grado PS-1's (No surprise there). I recently picked up a pair of SR-60's, which obviously don't compare to the PS-1's, but gave me a head's up on the Grado sound before hand. Basically it sounded like it was giving me the same type of presentation, but more of it. i know that's being extremely simplistic about it, but that's what I felt, and I loved it. I had a chance to listen to them through the Mapletree Audio amp and the Antique Soundlab. I preferred the Mapletree between the two of them, but I have to give two caveats in that regard. First is that I was running an ipod line-out as a source for the ASL, and the SCD-1 for the Mapletree. Second is that I have heard that Mapletrees are known for having a very good synergy with Grados, so this could be somewhat expected.

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by solbergg I don't want to discredit Omnis's experience with the R10's at all

Just in case anybody could have taken my comments the wrong way, I wasn't trying to discredit his experience either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by solbergg I'm afraid to find out the price of them, because such a wonderful sound has to be far out of my spending range. Oh well, I can always mooch at meets

About $3-4000 (give or take) used depending on the condition and how old they are.

The HE90s are even more.

 

[Guss2]

Just a quick couple of thoughts.The McAlister and the Apollo are absolute steals is their respective catagories(IMO).It's a shame the McAlister had to be matched up against the Orpheus,because it's a damn fine amp,but his was my first listen to the Orpheus combo and it is without a doubt the undisputed king of headphone rigs(IMO),and this was with the Apollo as it's source.I'm not sure you could do much better than the Apollo at $1000,and I'm actually thinking of grabbing one for a second system.

Omnis,I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to bring the SCD-1 over to the pool table(it was packed with equipment) to do some comparisons,but I promise it's not bass deficient.I didn't really listen to the SCD-1/Raptor combo,but I've never gotten that impression from the Raptor in the past,so something must have been going on there.

I liked the 701's,but the conditions favored the HD650's for me.I would like to do some longer listening at home(if possible) to form a better opinion.

Wayne bringing his HEV90 was a blessing and a curse.It allowed me to finally hear what the masses have been saying all along about the pair(for the most part).To me,I really couldn't find a fault with this combo,it just draws you into the music and won't let go.It just makes me crave my Aritaeus all the more,but also helps me realize that Justin's amp has some big shoes to fill.

Big thanks to Jamie for getting the most comtemporary meet room together ever and thanks to all the new Head-Fi members for coming.It was a blast,Gary.