Was awesome to meet you too Jude, and everyone else. Really amazing experience; so glad I made it out (despite Laguardia's best efforts). Hit me up if you're ever in New York!
Ok - my photography skills are about nill, and I saw Charles taking a lot of photos, so alas I do not have good pics to share, but here's my initial brief thoughts (got to leave for my flight in 10 minutes, so more later).
First off, it needs to be said that the Dark Star is a beast. It's ridiculous. The sheer amount of power, and dynamics and control it was capable of with my K1000s was just breathtaking. When Ray put on the 1812 Overture through his Boulder CD player (which was quite possibly the most beautiful source I have ever heard), the cannon shots literally felt like they were hitting you in the chest. It was so real, and so immediate, and yet so effortlessly controlled, and detailed and defined. Running my own first album through it, which having mixed and mastered myself, I know the sound characteristics of very well, it was just right. The tonal balance, the stereo spread, the placement and depth of the sound-stage: everything was as it should be. It's hard to form complete impressions from a single listening session, but the Dark Star may well be the best solid-state headphone amplifier I have ever heard.
The Stax SR-009s, however, were for me the closest thing to headphone perfection I've ever encountered. Immersive, lush, rich, natural - just purely and truly musical phones. I was not aware it was even possible to marry that kind of detail and extension with such a musical, non-fatiguing, engaging presentation. The Woo Electrostat drove them beautifully - but for my money, the combination of the A-10 and SR-009s were simply as good as I can imagine headphone listening ever gets. It's probably a good thing I could never dream of affording either, as I'd lock myself in my room for the rest of my life and do nothing but listen to music
It was also really rewarding to have a chance to finally directly compare the HE-6 to the LCD-2. So much has already been said about both, but I think the general consensus as to their relative strengths and weaknesses is spot on. I went in thinking I would prefer the HE-6 on the basis of that, and think I actually have a slight preference for the LCD-2, despite the fact that the HE-6's strengths appeal more to my general preferences (treble extension and detail). There's something just so relaxing and joyous about listening to the LCD-2s. They're inviting, musical phones.
The real dark horses for me though were Argedee's MB Quart 95-x phones, and Thread's Rudistor RPX-33. I never knew MB Quart even MADE headphones, and they were really surprisingly nice - very open and detailed. And the RPX-33 is an amp that just never really crossed my radar screen, but time and time again every time I'd plug something into it I'd find myself saying out loud "man, this is a REALLY nice amp..." So even keel, and natural sounding. Needless to say my wallet is quivering in fear.
Oh, and last but not least, there are no doubt quite a few photos of the TakeT H2 in Jude's camera that will be used to blackmail me for years to come. Those were, quite literally, the CRAZIEST headphones I've ever seen or heard. They had a very distinctive low-mid resonance (I think everyone who tried them heard it), and this odd kind of distant, spread out sound-stage and imaging, but they were SO open, and so strangely detailed. Straight up weird - but definitely in a good way!
My thanks again to everyone for all they brought and did and shared with me. I'm still riding the high!
I still think I prefer the warm and "fun" sound signature of the LCD2 over the HE6 anyway, but they are both fantastic-sounding phones.
