Late to the impression game here, but wanted to add a few personal listening notes. I am pretty green when it comes to describing headphones so bear with me. This was my first meet and had anxiety about talking with people who were obviously much more knowledgeable than I on headphones. That quickly dissipated upon meeting strid3r and richsvt sitting on either side of me. Everyone was cool as **** and excited to share everything they had.
To open the meet everyone was gathered around trying to figure out vipergeeks "tube" flash drives. Guesses included a pre-amp, some small odd dac, to a analog digital decrappifier (made much more sense as a flash drive).
HE560 - I found ninjapirates 560's to be fairly airy and articulate. I did some A/B ing with my HD650's and found the Senn's to have more mid range, but the 560's to be clearer and faster. While I thought the set was neutral, I find my tastes to be a bit on the darker side. I would also reiterate rynsin's note that these are very hard to drive. I had my Lyr 2 turned up 80% of the way to get normal listening levels. Overall I really liked these and would consider buying them in the future.
HD800 - ninjapirates again (thanks for letting me bug you and try out your killer collection). Anax modded with some added padding on the interior of the headphone cup. Everything that needs to be said about the 800 has been, but for some reason I appreciated the neautral airy sound of the HD800 vastly over the hifiman 560. Maybe it was the extra detail and resolution that swayed me this way? Also, I listened to these balanced on ninjapirates Taurus which I found to be a good match. Next time I might focus a bit on trying out unmodded sets and what people were pairing them with. Skullguises unmodded set with the amp he was using as the talk of the meet.
HE1000 - Brief listen - super clear and articulate, best sound stage I heard all day, but when I took them off I didn't see myself trying to save all my pennies to reach this summit.
GS1000's - rynsin was one of the first people to insist that I try out their setup and I was pumped that I did. I've always liked the look and idea of Grado's. Listening to this on rynsins setup was cool. Good clarity, soundstage, dynamics. Did lots of things very well, didn't take much off the table with glaring weaknesses. But the headphone pads threw me for a loop. I know its grado's signature, but I do not know if I could do extended listening periods with these touching and rubbing up against my ears in an odd fashion.
ZMF lineup (Omni, Blackwood, Vibro) - If you ever get the change to try these out do it. Fun sounding, tuned bass heavy but I didn't find any of them to lack highs or to be super dark. I know strid3r preferred the lowest priced vibro throughout the line up, but I thought the next step up, the blackwood best fit my tastes. General consensus on the omni was too much bass, but I heard Zach say he can tune them to have a bit less low end to peoples preference. I thought the omni has tons of clarity and depth and tons of punch. Ended up bringing home a pair of blackwoods, so my preference is obvious.
Closed Audeze EL8 - long drawn out fart noise.
Lots of equipment I was unfamiliar with (most of the small shop amps, DIY stuff), lots of impressions went unmentioned and would certainly come back next year with a different perspective of how to approach listening to all of the gear. Super informed diverse group of people that like me are just passionate about good music and good gear. You guys rock.
To open the meet everyone was gathered around trying to figure out vipergeeks "tube" flash drives. Guesses included a pre-amp, some small odd dac, to a analog digital decrappifier (made much more sense as a flash drive).
HE560 - I found ninjapirates 560's to be fairly airy and articulate. I did some A/B ing with my HD650's and found the Senn's to have more mid range, but the 560's to be clearer and faster. While I thought the set was neutral, I find my tastes to be a bit on the darker side. I would also reiterate rynsin's note that these are very hard to drive. I had my Lyr 2 turned up 80% of the way to get normal listening levels. Overall I really liked these and would consider buying them in the future.
HD800 - ninjapirates again (thanks for letting me bug you and try out your killer collection). Anax modded with some added padding on the interior of the headphone cup. Everything that needs to be said about the 800 has been, but for some reason I appreciated the neautral airy sound of the HD800 vastly over the hifiman 560. Maybe it was the extra detail and resolution that swayed me this way? Also, I listened to these balanced on ninjapirates Taurus which I found to be a good match. Next time I might focus a bit on trying out unmodded sets and what people were pairing them with. Skullguises unmodded set with the amp he was using as the talk of the meet.
HE1000 - Brief listen - super clear and articulate, best sound stage I heard all day, but when I took them off I didn't see myself trying to save all my pennies to reach this summit.
GS1000's - rynsin was one of the first people to insist that I try out their setup and I was pumped that I did. I've always liked the look and idea of Grado's. Listening to this on rynsins setup was cool. Good clarity, soundstage, dynamics. Did lots of things very well, didn't take much off the table with glaring weaknesses. But the headphone pads threw me for a loop. I know its grado's signature, but I do not know if I could do extended listening periods with these touching and rubbing up against my ears in an odd fashion.
ZMF lineup (Omni, Blackwood, Vibro) - If you ever get the change to try these out do it. Fun sounding, tuned bass heavy but I didn't find any of them to lack highs or to be super dark. I know strid3r preferred the lowest priced vibro throughout the line up, but I thought the next step up, the blackwood best fit my tastes. General consensus on the omni was too much bass, but I heard Zach say he can tune them to have a bit less low end to peoples preference. I thought the omni has tons of clarity and depth and tons of punch. Ended up bringing home a pair of blackwoods, so my preference is obvious.
Closed Audeze EL8 - long drawn out fart noise.
Lots of equipment I was unfamiliar with (most of the small shop amps, DIY stuff), lots of impressions went unmentioned and would certainly come back next year with a different perspective of how to approach listening to all of the gear. Super informed diverse group of people that like me are just passionate about good music and good gear. You guys rock.
