Here are my impressions, as always let me start off by saying thanks to Voltron, and all the other members who made this a success. The whole thing was organized well and it was easy to identify people and get to know some members by name.
First off I was very impressed with the Little Dot MK VI. This was probably one of the best I've heard the HD650's sound, and the amp really had great control and there was absolutely no veil and laid back sort of sound signature at all that I was familiar with. Great stuff
The Shanling CD player at the next table was awesome. Very good looking player, and the sound was clean and neat. But I must say I was quite a bit dissapointed with the W1000 and W5000. But I guess this would be heavily dependent on what type of music you listen to. For one thing, both of them arent great rock or metal HP's. The bass on the W1000 is even lesser than the W5000, which was making bass sounds, but lacked foundation and presence. They had a phenomenally detailed mid range, with superb clarity on individual hits and notes, but some peaks can sound well...peaky. Also had a slight tendency to sound a bit hollow, and closed with female vocals, very apparent on Diana Krall. I'd say W5000 is certainly the can to get, W1000 didnt seem to do all that much better than the A900's other than having wooden cups.
The Beyer T1 was superb. It was really smooth and my preference would be the T1 since it seemed more forgiving to all recordings, and sounded smooth and great with all types of music and gear. The HD800's tend to favor some rigs over others and while they can truly sound phenomenal in some setups, its kinda specific and the T1's are certainly better all rounders IMO.
Then there was Franks amps with the HE 5 and K1000. This has always been a treat and they didnt dissapoint this time as well. Listening to Cowboy Junkies on the K1000's was quite a lovely experience.
I was one person who wasnt really impressed with the SPL auditor all that much. I felt the GS-1 did an overall better or atleast equivalent job and I didnt go wow with the Auditors. But the HE-5's were great. Think overall smoothness and fullness like Beyers and the mid range clarity of AT's higher end HP's. They were very interesting cans and did a great job with all types of music.
I would like to personally thank Kurt for letting me try his Rega P3. This was one of the highlights of the meet for me, the P3 with rewired arm, upgraded platter and sub-platter and maybe other upgrades that I dont know of (I lost track after the first few
) sounded stunning. Jimi Hendrix on the L3000's from the P3 was to die for. I have never heard his voice sound this good, with so much air and definition, it was like he was performing in front of me where I was monitoring in the studio. Amazing stuff. The L3000's to me are a whole different level compared to the W5000. W5000's have a very distinct peculiar sound signature which can go well with some forms of music and sound pretty honky and weird on others. The L3000's were much more balanced and sounded better overall IMO.
Another personal thanks to blessingx for letting me try his GS-1 on my rig to compare directly with the Gilmore Lite. I'm going to post a more detailed comparison on the amps forum since I'm sure some other people might like this comparison, but in short, the GS-1 is clearly superior and you dont really have to try that hard to pick the differences. The Gilmore Lite (without DPS) sounds slightly anemic and slightly uncontrolled whereas the GS-1 was in complete control and provided a stunning foundation on which to present the music. DT990/600's really sing on the GS-1, and I personally felt this was the best I've heard "Chitlins Con Carne" sound.
Now onto some points about the meet as such. I'd like to mention a few things that can be worked on.
First the sound, it was noisy as hell. Now I know its one room and there are lots of people around, but it shouldnt be that hard to keep it down a bit. I'd like for everyone to be a bit more conscious and help keep the overall levels down so listening to gear isnt as hard.
Secondly, there were quite a few ppl completely hogging gear for very long periods of time. This is again just a matter of being aware that there are others who might want to try stuff out, and while I'm all for taking time to really understand the gear better, couple of songs should be the limit.
Third, after all the etiquette talk there were still some issues with ppl leaving cd's around without putting them back, someone left the tray of my CDP open, and I noticed some werent handling some very expensive cans with much care. Its not nice to police people around with such things, but the last thing someone wants is to have a knicked 1000/2000$ HP, please be careful people.
But overall, I had a great time, met some very nice people, and will surely attend the next one as well. I hope to meet all of you again.
Cheers
Oh, and I took some pics, will post them sometime later today or tomorrow.
