[Asr]

I'm pleased to announce that I just sent Jude the donations back from this meet, in the amount of $76. Again, a big thanks to everyone who chipped in either through the raffles or just spontaneously, and an extra special thanks to the Head-Fier who gave extra generously, who shall remain nameless lest I embarass him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zippy2001 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It sounds like I really missed a great meet. I wish I could have made it up there. At least my wallet is better off

Heh yeah, your wallet is safe. Thanks again for donating in those CD box sets btw, they did turn out to be great set of items for the raffle, even if it was a bit complicated raffling them off.

 

[holland]

Thanks for organizing ASR, all those top notch vendors must have been hard to draw. I'm not sure I saw it mentioned, but Ray really struck me as a class act.

Hmm, box sets, Duran Duran go! I wonder if the winner is all decked out in 80s clothing, rocking out to Hungry Like the Wolf.

j/k of course...or am I.

 

[wakeride74]

Quote:

Originally Posted by holland /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for organizing ASR, all those top notch vendors must have been hard to draw. I'm not sure I saw it mentioned, but Ray really struck me as a class act. Hmm, box sets, Duran Duran go! I wonder if the winner is all decked out in 80s clothing, rocking out to Hungry Like the Wolf. j/k of course...or am I.

Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand

 

[Bazile]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wakeride74 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand

Wild Boys. Hmm... seems a bit redundant. This was my first head-fi meet. Thanks to Asr for organizing and to everyone for making it so enjoyable.

Bazile

 

[Asr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by holland /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for organizing ASR, all those top notch vendors must have been hard to draw. I'm not sure I saw it mentioned, but Ray really struck me as a class act.

It wasn't hard at all, usually pretty easy to ask if a vendor can attend.

Ray was a last-minute addition that I hadn't even planned for (he came on his own) but things worked out ok.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazile /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wild Boys. Hmm... seems a bit redundant. This was my first head-fi meet. Thanks to Asr for organizing and to everyone for making it so enjoyable.

Thanks, and glad you had a good time, I forgot to thank you for coming out all that way! You should check out those Texas meets for something closer, those guys have their own serious gear stashes with the likes of swt61 and [AK]Zip!

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wakeride74 /img/forum/go_quote.gif blessingx - I remember you asking me about Lisa III and GS1000 synergy a few weeks back. After going to the meet and listening to the GS1000's on a few different rigs the best I heard them sound (without spending a fortune) was on the Raptor with Tung Sols and a Telefunken. In case you were still on the hunt

The Raptor was the best I heard the GS1Ks sound at the meet too, though I didn't go hog-wild on testing the Grados (as I'm pretty satisfied - even more so since the meet - with the WA6). Course the meet is responsible for the addition on my sig, so I have other requirements now too (which also sounded great with the Raptor).

EDIT: .... and starting page 8.

 

[manhattanproj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wakeride74 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I guess I should have moved that Lisa around a little more, I think a lot of people missed out on hearing it because it was somewhat lost in the mess on that table. I meant to disconnect it and and use it with a DA10 and DAC1 but just didn't get around to it.

that lisa was what i listened to most of the time i was there, along with the m3 on the next table. i didnt even know that was the lisa. i thought it was just some amp. i was like what the heck, it's good enough, since that spot is empty most of the time and the computer has music that i normally listen to, so i can judge the headphones. now that i know it's the lisa and the price tag, now i think it's a fantastic amp.

no seriously, one thing you notice is how loud the lisa drives heaphones. i dont think i ever turned past 7 or 8 o'clock position. and it was plenty loud. next you'll notice the punch, not as punchy as the omega II on the other end, but it was plenty powerful. then you'll notice the soundstage, there was so much air in the music. the music just sort of surrounds you. and i really like that.

i only listen to the setup there so it may be skewed by what it's hooked up to, i think it was a stello, not sure.

so it's not lost, at least to me, even thought i didnt know what it was at the time.

 

[wakeride74]

manhattanproj - I didn't spend any time with the Lisa at the meet since it's mine but at home I found the synergy with the D5000 and Stello to be a bit too bass heavy. I have spent plenty of time with the Lisa and D5000 fed by my iPod and it sounds pretty awesome.

One of the things I noticed right away about the Lisa is how well it isolates instruments in their own space and bring things that were lost in a blended background forward. Everything just comes to life and no effort is required to pick out every instrument or voice in the music.

 

[manhattanproj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wakeride74 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I found the synergy with the D5000 and Stello to be a bit too bass heavy.

who minds a little more bass? but i do agree that it's punchy powerful with the stello setup. i kinda like it actually, especially with kanye west songs that were in the laptop. for other songs, i didnt find it to be too bass heavy.

i also tried it with the gs1000, and i wasnt at all impressed, but that's after short listening.

 

[drp]

I would live with driving this thread to page 12 just to have the opportunity to write that your post made me SOL (spray out loud); caused a reaction that in turn caused light laugh-related moisture to hit my monitor. That image also caused some severe Mad Magazine flashbacks.

Alfred E. Neuman for President.

PS - Now have a hankerin for some Frogresso Soup Hearty Tadpole

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voltron /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the assist drp! I'll have to post up a couple in your thread to keep it fair. Sorry you couldn't make the meet. You could have enjoyed our favorite N. Cal beverage, which Steve had chilled in coolers around the room:

 

[mikeymad]

Wow I started the thread with my pics, and I have not even gotten back with impressions....

Okay...

First off I found it to be a lot of fun. My first get together was the international meet at the same place. And I just brought a couple of cans to that one because of all the vendors. This one I brought most of my stuff (see sig). I setup next to Ray, and it turned out to be a good thing in many ways, I got to listen to a lot of his stuff, and it made for a lot of foot traffic around my equipment.

My best sound (at a high price) was Ray’s B-52 feeding into the Balanced Sony MDR-R10’s from the Meridian 508 source. This just did everything right for me. And for about $10k, I would be happy for a long time with it. And the B-52 just looks awesome… come on…

I was sad that I did not get to hear the ES-1 up and running, or that I got to stay around till 2am and hear the ES-2 (any review coming on this one?).

foo_me you really put together a nice system. I did like the clarity and detail of the open K1000’s, but I found a little more music and Bass out of the closed ones hooked up to the same system. But in any respect it was a great setup. Cheers to that.

The Beta-22 was not doing much for AT-W5000’s, good but nothing to add to my shopping list. I found the same with the KGSS DX and my O2’s, good, but I didn’t find it stomping all over my 006t (especially when I was pushing balanced – back to this in a little bit). Now I must admit right off the bat that the listening session with the KGSS DX was not very isolated (AC running, people talking). So I would still like to really demo it in much better conditions.

The treat of the show as many have said was IronBut’s tape’s (many thanks) running into the Eddy current. I pushed my w5000’s with that rig (to get a little isolation) and got to hear into music that many have not before. I made some live recordings back in my high school days coming out of the mixing board. Vinyl and SACD are the only things that come close.

Thanks for Grahame for the transporter – squeezebox – da10 comparison table. I really liked the sound of the transporter. And it really made up my mind that putting a pile of squeezebox’s around my house for casual listening will be a good thing.

I spent a little time with the apple laptop – DAC (??) – WA6 – W5000. I found this to be FUN for one thing, and the sound was fairly well balanced with a nice bass presentation. It is a setup that would be great for setting up a monster play list and let it play. It did not do anything really wrong. I really liked the sound of that WA6. It makes me think about a maxed out one… hide the PayPal button……

I got to play around with my own system a bit as well. We (me and ??) hooked up the CIAUDIO VDA2/VAC1 DAC system running out of my OPPO optical out. This was fed into the regular RCA inputs on my STAX-006t. This brought out a level of detail (micro dynamics) that I had not heard before, compared to the analog out of the OPPO with the AudioQuest SKY interconnects. This was using the O2’s for listening. Then we took it a step further and ran the cables for hooking up balanced outputs from the CIAUDIO to the STAX. The sound was really close to being the same, but this time it was the dynamics that got a boost. Very interesting. I didn’t spend the time to hear what it did to the soundstage. I did really like the small DAC combo and makes me want to explore the external DAC world a more.

Then Ray fed me a pair of balanced cables from the Meridian 508. I really thought that it was my 006t that was really lacking. But pushing this high of balanced source really made me think about where I might want to be spending my audio money. Leave the 006t alone for a while and work on the source. Most likely a DAC. One thing that I have not done is sit down with my STAX system in my primary analog system (Linn LP12 – Exposure XVII). This might be a fun long weekend ahead.

Apogee vs DAC1. I would pick the Apogee for a DAC/Headamp. Apogee had more dynamics and better control over the GS-1000 that I listened to them with. I don’t know as a stand alone DAC, didn’t try them that way.

Oh I did get a short time with the Edition 9’s (thanks Melos), and all of my dynamic headphones are in trouble. Not a clear winner yet, but WOW….

I did get a chance at the end to listen to Ray’s Rapter with the GS-1000’s as he listened to the STAX O2’s. It was a little on the bright side, but was able to control the 1k’s better than other amps I have heard. It had lots of dynamics without becoming flabby or getting out of control at high volumes. And yes, the Grado’s can be run at high volumes. It really was a pleasure to have Ray there.

So I am back to listening to my simple OPPO->SKY->006t->O2’s, and I am happy….. for now. J

Cheers,

 

[Icarium]

The ES-2 was also down. But Mikhail supposedly shipped it out Wednesday so perhaps this weekend or by early next week Neil will have impressions

 

[Asr]

I should've checked out that Beta 22, starting to get more and more interested in it. Ah well, gonna have to be next time. It's discrete, right? Anyone know how it compares to Dynalo or Dynahi?

 

[jude]

I just noticed a PayPal payment from Asr for a very generous $76.00, from the excess funds collected for the Meet costs. Thanks to all of you for your parts in that, for the very generous support.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asr /img/forum/go_quote.gif I should've checked out that Beta 22, starting to get more and more interested in it. Ah well, gonna have to be next time. It's discrete, right? Anyone know how it compares to Dynalo or Dynahi?

It's all discrete, and more similar to the Dynahi due to their higher levels of class-A bias relative to the Dynalo. The Beta22 does dissipate a bit less waste heat than the Dynahi and (IMO) sounds a bit better. It also has a superior default power supply (KG himself has said as much) but the Theta power supply could also theoretically be used with the Dynahi.