[Bigguy]

Icarium brought the Fostex T50's.
 

 

[gogators]

I had a brief listen to the T50 and not very impressed, probably due to the amp?

 

[IcedTea]

I had a great time at the meet!
 
I want to give a big thanks to cee tee for making the gathering possible and to everyone for coming out with their gear to share
 
Can't wait for next year!!
 
The one thing I came away from the gathering is being able to actually hear the hd800, t1, lcd-2, he-6 and all the other great headphones. The one rig that I enjoyed quite a bit was the liquid fire amp with the he-6. It sounded really good to me.
 
Was also really surprised how light the hd800s were. I think they were by far the most comfortable headphones for me.
 
I should have brought my ipod with me, I couldn't find anyone with jimi hendrix or led zeppelin songs lol

 

[DarknightDK]

Some really great impressions here. keep em coming!

 

[Lurkumaural]

.I should have brought my ipod with me, I couldn't find anyone with jimi hendrix or led zeppelin songs lol

I had three live Jimi albums, albeit on one of the less intriguing rigs.

 

[rroseperry]

I don't think there are any pictures of the freebies at registration.

 

[project86]

Thanks to all who have posted pics so far (and I'm sure more are coming soon). They make me regret all the more that I couldn't attend.
 
When I send about $7k worth of stuff, and Shipsupt has it on a table with easily several grand more worth of gear, yet it doesn't stand out in the least compared to many of the other rigs.... you just know that's a successful turnout. Custom amps galore, high-end Stax everywhere, UE giving free impressions and discounts, a friggen Orpheus.... Hats off to you again Cee Tee, and for everyone who participated. 

 

[daigo]

Quote:

Thanks to all who have posted pics so far (and I'm sure more are coming soon). They make me regret all the more that I couldn't attend.
 
When I send about $7k worth of stuff, and Shipsupt has it on a table with easily several grand more worth of gear, yet it doesn't stand out in the least compared to many of the other rigs.... you just know that's a successful turnout. Custom amps galore, high-end Stax everywhere, UE giving free impressions and discounts, a friggen Orpheus.... Hats off to you again Cee Tee, and for everyone who participated. 

 
Thank you for sending all that gear up with shipsupt.  Made his two tables overflow with great gear. 
 
 

 

[The Monkey]

Looks like a nice time.  Good job, gang.

 

[PANGES]

Aww. I didn't see those!
 
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I don't think there are any pictures of the freebies at registration.

 
 

 

[sachu]

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I actually agree w/ many of Sachu's impressions wrt the 009/LL combo and the Leben.
 
Personal Faves:
 
1-Orpheus.  Best Headphone rig I have ever heard w/ the most strengths and least weaknesses.  All in a technically competent but musical and natural (to my ears and tastes) package I've yet heard in any headphone.  Fixes the two major flaws I have w/ the stock HD800 (treble tonality and bass distortion with gain).  But...sacrifices low bass and impact as a consequence making it a tad soft for more modern genres and material that require a heavier hand in the lower registers.  Audeze still has the best combination of bass impact and clarity when they fire on all cylinders but it's not perfect either and they don't always fire on all cylinders IME.  
 
2-Modded HD800 and Osram PX4 rolled BA.
 
3-009+Cavalli LL.  For me, 009 was always too cold, soulless and lacking in weight and presence from most amps I've heard it paired with.  The Liquid Lightning changed all that.  Warmth, weight, low end presence!  Why third?  Because I believe it could benefit w/ a tube implementation like the BA, BH and HE90 setups.  Until I can hear the 009/LL combo resolve the same ambient micro-detail #1 and #2 can, I won't be sure.  I'll also have to compare HE90 speed versus the 009 as the 009 lost on my speed/separation test when paired w/ the Blue Hawaii compared to the Orpheus.  I know not whether the LL will flip that result without pairing the HE90 and the LL.

 
Heh.. looks like our tastes run pretty similar, except for the HD800 (not sure why, but never liked it much).  
 
As for tubes in the LL, i kinda like it being SS as I have left it running a few times now for over 30 hours straight and haven't had to worry about tube failures.
 
Wish I could have had my source shipped down as well cause that would have been quite the leap over the lowly cambridge DAC and the OPPO (which was quite decent). 
 
For wahtever reason, the Cambridge wasn't receiveing 24/96KHz material when i was playing a fair few material which are 24/96 native.. Don't know if that was a problem on the MacBook pro or on the DAC, but it was stuck at 44.1kHz.
 
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[size=14.0pt]Cee Tee,[/size]
[size=14.0pt]Your meets are like the Olympics: when they are over one can only say "best meet ever" year after year. Thanks for all the work, and for giving us the opportunity to meet so many old (and new) friends: it was fun talking to all of you guys![/size]
 
[size=14.0pt]The quality and quantity of top-notch rigs on display this year was amazing. It was an embarrassment of riches: even the mighty Baby Orpheus/Liquid Lightning pair laid unused for most of the morning (good for me, I had lots of quality time with it).[/size]
 

 
Thanks for letting me share space with you two and for keeping an eye on my rig whenever i stepped out calaf and Vclad. Knowing you guys were there helped ease my mind. 
 
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Liquid Lightning (sachu) & Blue Hawaii (n3rdling): This was the big surprise of the meet for me.  sachu's Liquid Lightning and n3rdling's Blue Hawaii were my favorite amps at the meet.  I'll post a list of thoughts after going between two amps many times.  I compared notes with a few people.  Some agreed with me, others disagreed quite a bit, so listen to both and make up your mind!  I don't think we'll be reading anything definitive anytime soon:
- The Liquid Lightning, despite being a solid-state amp, sounds much more tubey than the BH!  The BH, meanwhile, deserves its reputation for being solid state.  It epitomized all the sound signature qualities I associate with a KG design (no color added, plays exactly what the recording should sound like, very clean percussion, cleanness throughout all the dynamic ranges).
- The SR009 was unremarkable to me on the BH.  I'm convinced the SR009 doesn't require a top-tier amp to drive well, and I did not hear a significant difference going from the GES or the Stax amps I've heard, compared to the SR009 on the BH.
- The O2 shines with the BH.  It's obvious that the 323S and GES does not have enough power to drive the O2 to its full potential.  The three things I immediately noticed were that: (1) the notes were articulated cleaner on the BH than GES, especially during fast passages like metal (2) the bass felt cleaner and better defined and (3) the dynamic range seemed more smoothly rendered.  This is what I wanted the O2 to sound like.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring my MK2, but the MK1 sounded great.  I prefer the O2 signature over the SR009, and the BH is an amazing amp for O2 lovers.
- The SR009 sounded great on the Liquid Lightning.  The bass was full, round, and resonant, dynamics were good, and the soundstage depth felt larger.  The O2 did very well too, but the SR009 sounded like the more vibrant and rich headphone on the LL.
- The LL seems like a great solution for people who don't want to mess with tubes, preamps, or their signal chain too much.  It was being fed with a humble Cambridge Audio DAC and still sounded great.  A lot of people will be able to get a LL and a modest DAC, and be done.  I didn't have a large basis of comparison with the BH, but my hunch is the BH is more ruthless and revealing, and n3rdling has a really nice source, which helped quite a bit.  I don't think it would have done so well with something more modest behind it.
- I think the preference between the BH and LL will come down to one's favorite stat headphone.  Like others, I find the O2 and SR009, while both very Staxey, pretty different in character.  The LL sound was rich, open/expansive, full, and resonant.  The BH was articulate, clean, controlled, and a bit narrower and focused.  I think people will need to listen to both amps with both the O2 and SR009 to make up their minds.
 
It was great meeting many of you, and I hope you all had as much fun at the meet as I did!

Patrick, i was glad i was able to spend some time chatting with you and your girlfriend. Happy you both liked my rig as much as you did despite crashing the macbook with your demo CD
 
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The LL was a surprise because I had certain preconceived expectations of it. It sounded great with the SR509, SR009, and O2mkI.

I am sure you were not the only one Purrin . Was awesome chatting with you dude. I hope to keep in convo with you and axaxilus and look forward to reading your analysis on gear.
 
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• Getting humbled by Sachu's Wharfedale Thunderpants.  That guy with the Audio-gd at full power and low volume was me.  I did find out that the Clementine app (which I had installed just for you guys; usually I just play FLAC through VLC, but its playlist feature is a bit underdesigned) had its volume set low by default, so I'm screaming rematch.  But I see some pretty serious amps also fell short, so we'll see.  Come back next year Sachu!  I wanted to talk orthos with you.

Aah. Well for sure i will try my best to make the next meet. Glad you liked the Wharfies. dBel84 did a great job on them. Needs a little bit more fine tuning in the midrange. But otherwise it is pretty much spot on. I like it a lot. Was a pleasure meeting you.
 
 
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      Quote:

FYI: Frank Cooter's DIY amp specifically voiced for the LCD2/3 running 56 driver and 46 output triodes from the 1920-30s. Sadly, no glowie blue plutonium this year.
 

I never got a chance to listen to this. I saw the TP behind the grill but that rig was engaged constantly. 

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Who brought the original vintage Fostex T50?  Was it modified? 
 
Looks like you guys had a lot of fun, wish I could have come!

Ah man ..whitney..wish you had been able to make it too dude.
 

 

[CEE TEE]

Hi everyone...been recovering and enjoying the post-meet glow!
 
Hopefully tomorrow night I can post some real THANKS and some of my highlights of this dream meet.
 
So many great people, rigs, and contributions to the event made it darn special.
 
I'm especially happy because I think that people will continue to share and keep in touch throughout the year as well.
 
 
HINT: @purrin and I were already talking about him hosting the next one down in LA...our turn to take a drive down there next year!!
 
This community is buzzing, keep it up everyone.  No need to wait, set-up mini-meets and that will also give you experience to help on a larger one...

 
CHEERS, EVERYBODY!!!

 
 
@project86, thanks for sharing some unique and cool gear.  I've got it now and let's arrange for me to try and bring it up to you this weekend (if possible).
 
Quote:

 
When I send about $7k worth of stuff, and Shipsupt has it on a table with easily several grand more worth of gear, yet it doesn't stand out in the least compared to many of the other rigs.... you just know that's a successful turnout.

 

 

[purrin]

       Quote:

HINT: @purrin and I were already talking about him hosting the next one down in LA...our turn to take a drive down there next year!!

As you know, I definitely wanted to help you out - that is before I moved down south. There's some chatter and I assume pent-up desire for a large meet down here in SoCal. I had to turn down a few folks at the Irvine mini-meet last year (with less than a month's notice and even after I expanded it.) A "big one" next Feb, or maybe even in the fall? The usual suspects are available to help out lots too. Maybe I'll post a feeler thread in the next day or two.
 
Finally, I would encourage the attendees up there, should they be interested, to break up into smaller mini-meets. This is where you can really listen to equipment and solidify friendships.
 

 

[bobcn]

Thanks CEE TEE,
 
You host a great party!

 

[bobcn]

Thanks CEE TEE,
 
You host a great party!