TLDR = Too Long, Didn't Read
Yeah, I won't blame you. But...
HUGE THANKS for everyone coming together,
so many things had to go right for this all to happen as it did.
So many people had to put in a lot. I think we all came away with
even more...
VENDORS
- Ultimate Ears- UE RM in the raffle??? WOW!!! Plus more raffle iems, an Audiologist, Free Impressions, Big Discount...don't need to say more. Ok- THANKS.
- Schiit Audio- postponing their helping move their entire plant/operations to a bigger location just so we could hear the Bifrosts that they had to sneak out of their building (all units are spoken for right now).
- Bottlehead- driving down, providing Roc Aviators for the raffle, and building the "Horde Audio Tribe of the North" to compete with us...look out!
- Todd The Vinyl Junkie (TTVJ)- shipping out <entire> Apex line of amps on a moment's notice (okay, by my request). Great stuff!!
- HeadDirect/HiFiMAN- Trying to get the new EF-6 amp, HE-6 & HE-400 to us in time for us to listen. Reviews seem like EF-6/HE-6 are GREAT. But, it arrived in Mountain View at 3:30pm during our meet. Wish I had let IronDreamer bring his EF-6/HE-6...he says that it is definitely for real. I believe him.
- Donald North Audio (DNA)- Bringing the prototype Stratus 2A3, I can't wait for the versatile production model. Donald, post some teaser pics of the re-designed cases and the versatility of the outputs if you would like to!
- Eddie Current- Craig brought out even better Super 7 and 2A3 amps...meeting him was great since I already love his amps (and bought one).
- V-MODA- Val is the Proprietor and the Product, IMO. He is obviously putting himself into his products/actively testing them. You can hear it- big, but smooth club sound in a comfortable, small-for-the-big-sound phone. He gave us some great prizes for the raffle and I am considering getting some M-80's to impress people with.
- AMB- B24? (That's two more now, innit?) mini^3 new LiPo version with extra board and with hours and hours of run-time for only $150? I need two.
- ThinkSound- Just getting to know us and sent a pair of iems for our raffle. Always thought wood iems were at minimum beautiful...@uzi will have to tell us how they sound.
@uzi will also have to tell us how the
Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors sound to him...when he really understood what had happened and that he had
just won a crazy pair of customs he was shaking.
Yep, that's the correct response...
MEMBERS
shipsupt- from lots of micro-meets to mini-meets to being a HUGE support for the BIG meet and setting up the weekend Suite (yes, I can rap)...Chris was my co-conspirator
all year. We should go into audio-rehab together. (Need Dr. Drew, not Dr. Dre
)
Mkubota1- When Mike wasn't covering the Tokyo beat over the past year, he was building a tube amp, getting a back-up K1000, and dreaming up ways this meet could be better. Head-Fi portable bands for everybody (sorry if we didn't hand one out to you, I wasn't clear enough to Susan that the DHL bag had a TON in there- thanks to Mike and Jude). Mike created the BEST and funniest signage, took photos, and shared his gear as well as Todd's...plus, we're gonna drive project86's gear to Santa Rosa this weekend! (Ummm, I think he wants to talk about how the next meet can be even better...
)
rroseperry- Whoa, Renee picked up
project86's gear and brought it to us Friday night (Berkeley to Santa Rosa to Burlingame and back to Berkeley!), then she brought other Head-Fiers from Berkeley to the meet on Saturday.
Renee, PM me your address so I can just give you my Grado flat pads to use with your new HF-2!
project86- I'm comparing the Violectric DACV800/HPA V200 to the KAO UD2C Series DAC as I write this...I should really try your famous Anedio D1 tomorrow night before I give all back to you! You also shared another DAC and tube amp with us, thank you so much for your loaners and your articles & fantastic reviews! Feel free to post links to the stuff you loaned us.
n3rdling- You drove up last year and I missed the first
legendary Friday night mini-meet. Needed a "do-over". You came up
again and I didn't miss you this time at all- thanks for driving all the way up to risk/share your killer gear. You opened our ears BOTH times and are at least partially responsible for most of us having completely different rigs from the 2011 meet to the 2012 meet (and beyond). Only by hearing the Omega/007/009/HE-9 and amps side-by-side can you tell some of the differences. Thank you for being such a MAJOR part of the meet both times!!
purrin- CSD graphs, headphone modifications, inquiry and participation- it's only going to keep everyone on their game (consumers and manufacturers both, we all have a part in achieving great sound and enjoyment).
SoCal Meet-Man too???
See you again soon.
Anaxilus- riding up with purrin and bringing that Lagavulin. Surprised me because of your sound preferences- that special edition Laga had the "Loudness Button" pressed. Not complaining, mind you!
Shane55- In order to set-up the rig that simultaneously fed the
Apex Peak + Apex Arete + the Apex Butte- I needed another Benchmark DAC that "just happened" to be "lying around". Ah, thanks @Shane55!
Voltron- meant a LOT to meet you, let alone have you
bring out the TTVJ Pinnacle for the Bay Area to hear...Bay Area still owes you for showing us "how to do it".
FrankGuerrero- Originally offering to help with signage, Frank showed up from start-to-end-of-dinner to help with the set-up and pack-up of gear that I showed for Todd. That really helped.
Lurkumaural- Jerry did triple-duty (at least). After putting out a call for someone to bring Clayton SF out (how many tube amps???), he brought Clayton and made sure EpicPie made it too...thank you.
Questhate- offered to help very early on. I asked him to be up early and help all the people get those
big amps loaded into the meet.
It takes a village (getting up early). Many thanks.
Tdogzthmn- somehow, he brought an amp I wanted to audit (clean & linear
erm,
Black
Cube
Linear) and was a
real extra hand to ensure everyone had power (or anything else to keep it all running).
That's community.
EpicPie- Tried to show <almost> the whole Jaben portable family and might have been a "little" overshadowed...but, after winning a raffle prize- he gave Susan a nice little red Jaben portable amp! I'll show her how to use it with her PK3 and RE-272 (RE-272 was a gift from HeadDirect last year).
Jude-
all year you offered your support, but also
totally let us do our own thing. You helped with the portable Head-Fi bands and
flew out to support the community, thank you very much. I know it was a surprise and a treat for so many of us! And, yes- thanks for dinner on top of that!
One question that I've gotten a few times post-meet: What am I interested in now?
Please keep in mind that I was just
spinning and concentrating on everything going well...I now count on
small/micro meets (or loaners amongst friends) to audit gear. But I have had a couple of
special chances to listen <before and after> the meet to a couple things.
Well,
n3rdling's original Omegas were
so nice. Seemed to be great "all-rounders", with good "weight" and "balance". Interesting note from n3rdling after I told him how much I was enjoying these, "many people coming from HD 800 seem to gravitate to the Omegas".
I'm one of them. If I were gonna do a STAX rig, I might just go for these even though
out-of-production. I like
a lot of the STAX, but would probably want to just start there (not hearing all of them, mind you).
However, I think I can roll a pretty great HD 800 system at the moment... One more payment to go on my
pre-order Eddie Current Super 7 (when they are ready to ship) and I've got a killer tube amp. Yep, I'm even more excited after seeing the production model and hearing it. Sounded better than the prototype model that I drove down to SoCal to listen to before plunking down the deposit. The versatility that it will give with
seven tubes should keep me busy for a while.
That and trying to find tubes I am looking for!
Have to admit that I have been <a little> antsy, wanting a good tube amp for my HD 800 (that
Balancing Act is such a great amp) so I've also had my eye on picking up an
Apex Peak. There is something great about having to roll <only one tube> and knowing exactly what each tube does to the presentation. I think the Apex Peak is also a fine amp. Todd was great enough to send his loaners upon very short notice per my request. A lot of us were able to directly A/B with the Arete.
I think more people liked the Arete! (So I guess you could be very happy with either one...please chime in with your experiences if you listened to the set-up.)
I'm still changing/learning as a listener. I am
very lucky to have the chance to hear so much great equipment...and I am figuring out that I have a hard time letting go of a certain amount of treble/clarity. Yet, with
"just the right amount" of treble- the presentation can have
clarity/speed/attack and you can
also have a system that carries "weight" plus a "lushness" that pushes "
all the buttons".
Rigs at the meet prove that.
Okay, so I guess
I want lots of beautiful tube amps (I confess). I finally understand what
@Clayton SF is doing! They are gorgeous to me and they happen to do good things...audible things for my HD 800.
@ironbut brought out the Eddie Current Zana Deux that I have been wanting to listen to for a long while.
Yep, I would like one of those too.
If I couldn't get a hold of a good tube amp, I'd keep working with the
Creatology Foam per the Anaxilus/jazz mods on my HD 800. Maybe put less foam in as I first tried with the foam mod. Out of really transparent DACs/Amps,
even I have to "settle" into the HD 800 sound at times. If the UE RM are neutral (from which I
never get fatigued yet do get clarity), the HD 800 are a bit
bright/etched.
A tube amp will be helping me rock the HD 800. I've heard what they can do...
Listening with my own source/music and comparing to other amps simultaneously shows me the most.
Will help arrange a "tube amp showdown" sometime in the future...how does that sound???
Also: I considered buying the UE 18 because I love my UE RM so much, but I'd rather see if I can give my Dad back
some of his music since he lost a lot of hearing due to Army service. In fact,
I got him to come to the meet and now I'm picking him up some UE RM for an early B-Day present...let's hope he enjoys music again!
I sure am.
Thanks, everyone...
EDIT: Here's the link to the
Meet Thread and list of everyone who particiapated!
