[mrarroyo]

Some great looking gear you all had there, hope you had a great time.

 

[Barry]

And thanks to all of us at the meet. It was a great time. I learned a lot and just plain enjoyed the company of youse guys.

I should have taken notes of my listening. I do know that I just loved the HF-2 phones and hope that there could still be one more for me. I also very much liked the Woo Audio amps. The 22 and the 5 (two chassis unit - I forgot the letters after the five. Maybe ES?) Anyhow great stuff and I wish that the 6 was there - closer to my budget.

The HD800 and the B52 was a wonderful combination.

I also listened a bit to Fang's portable player. Those of you who are heavy duty portable audiophiles - you know who you are. You carry an iriver or an imod and a killer amp. Anyhow, you should seriously audition the Head-Direct player. It was simply wonderful driving the HD580s. Yep - the 580s.

For those of you portable loving folks who want to carry something smaller, but still pretty good, I suggest that you listen to the Creative Zen. Very small and really very good driving the PK1s with no additional amp. Who woulda thunk.

I liked the DACmagic - may be one in my future and wish that I hsd listened more to the Little Dot VI - I forget which - sorry. Wonder how they sound on Grados.

I went back and forth (figuratively thinking) on the GS1000s. On the one hand I very much liked the relaxed and wide presentation. In some ways a very natural phone. I did think that it lacked a bit of body. Or something. I think that I need to listen longer to make up my mind. Usually, I know what I like pretty quickly - not so with these. I wonder what the newer version sounds like.

By no means does this exhaust the simply marvelous setups. I just forgot to take notes.

Thats all for now.

 

[decur]

well i came to this meet to finally listen to the senns hd-800!
these phones are all about airiness and 3d!!!
the midrange is wonderfull,about a 1/2 notch below my sony r10s,but still,excellent mids for sure! i felt the treble was ever so slightly tipped up on the bright side,but not harsh at all! these phones imo are very source and amp dependent!be carefull with matching! the hd-800s are the most speaker like headphone experience i have ever had,and i can see a pair of these in my near future!
i also really enjoyed listening to the cary 303/300 tube output cd player!
this player was exceptional,and the most analog sounding cd player ive heard!
it was great to see david(vcoheda) and really enjoyed listening to his b52/go8/hd-800 combo wow!what great sound and synergy from this combo!

 

[vcoheda]

^^ thanks. glad you could make it. always fun chatting.

 

[jellojoe]

Thanks to Larry to getting the ample space for this meet. I think there was only 1 table by the entrance which was not packed.

Of the setups I listened to the ones I enjoyed the most were:

1) My single-ended AKG K340 from the WA22. These phones really opened up on the WA22. I usually listen to them on a Baby Sophia clone.

2) Larry's balanced AKG K240DF on his amp. This setup took the K240DF to another level although it was still a bit bass-shy. I listened to Larry's balanced Beyers on this amp too, and I thought both of those were too bright for me.

I was curious regarding the HD800 and initially listened to it on the B-52. I couldn't make any judgement of the HD800 on the B-52 because there were only 2 steps on the attenuator that were close to my listening levels. The first was a little too quiet and the second was way too loud for me. I did listen to vinylspinner's pair on his amp with proper volume control. While they are a step above the HD650, I think the hype is too much for this pair of headphones.

I'm doing quite a bit of international traveling for work these days, and I have been looking for a suitable hotel rig. Therefore, I spent quite a bit of time with the HiFiMan music player. From its headphone jack, the HD580 sounded surprisingly good. Compared to the HD580 from the EF2/Meridian 508.20 combo, the treble was rolled-off a bit and the bass was not as deep or impactful, but still enjoyable. With a pair of IEM's that Fang had, the two setups were much closer in quality. The amp module of the HiFiMan is rollable for those who like to fiddle.

Looking forward to next year's event.

 

[KingStyles]

I am wondering how that wa5 compared to the b52, wa22, and the other big amps?

 

[IPodPJ]

It looks like you guys had a really good time. Very nice venue and pictures!

Quote:

Originally Posted by vcoheda /img/forum/go_quote.gif * my B52 + Bal 800 (stock cable) was my favorite meet at the rig.

Favorite meet at the rig? Really?

 

[vcoheda]

^^ ha ha.

that's funny. i'm surprised i didn't catch that. some strange form of dyslexia maybe. guess i'll fix it now.

 

[jinp6301]

Short Impressions:

O2 + WES = very very good
800 + balanced m3 = very good
800 + b52 = very good
hifiman dap = very very good
hifiman iem (re-3?) = very very good
hifiman dap + iem = very very very good
hf-2 = very good

uhh thats it

 

[soloz2]

Thanks for having me everyone, it was great meeting all of you. Maybe I can spend some more time next year (hopefully) and bring some gear as well.

I really wanted to give both the HD800 and HP2 a listen and I was not disappointed with either. The HP2 are great sounding cans for the money and they look great. I must admit I'm a bit torn on this headphone mostly because I didn't order a pair and now new ones are no longer available. Yes, they are a can that I would love to have, but I'm ok with the fact that I don't have a pair coming.
The HD800's are very good. I probably enjoyed them the most of any other headphone at the meet. I listened to them driven by I believe it was the WA22. Honestly, if I listened to headphones more frequently I would be seriously considering getting a pair in the near future. As it is, I could live with them, but just not sure I could swallow the price.
I mostly just brought my HD580's around to different rigs focusing primarily on single ended amps instead of the few balanced amps with a single ended output. Of the amps at the meet I enjoyed the WA5 the most. It's a great amp and is a bit better than my current amp especially in the low frequency where it has more weight and accuracy. I would have liked to do a side-by-side comparison. Unfortunately, it is quite a bit more expensive than I have invested in my current amp, but if I ever sell my inefficient speakers for something a bit easier to drive I might have to get one just to de-clutter and use as both a speaker and headphone amp.

 

[Jahn]

Oh man I missed a great meet! I woulda loved to have heard the HD800 and the HF2, rats. Well, family matters prevailed as usual, oh well. I'll try to catch the next one!

 

[MD1032]

All right, here's my take on the equipment:

1) The HD800 admittedly is very, very good. It sounds more "electrostatic" than any dynamic I've ever heard before (in a good way. I'm suggesting the details are way better than any dynamic I've ever heard before), and the bass it produces is really quite impressive. Certainly, this headphone is much better than the HD650...whether it's $1400 good is certainly up in the air, I have to say. Like someone mentioned to me before they handed them over to me, "these don't sound nearly as different from the HD600's as I imagined they would." I can't make a full judgement on the 800's because the meet was noisy and they're really open (think Grado open), but I'll say they're a little brighter than I would prefer, and in my opinion, they're more like $1000 good, not $1400. Also, these headphones sounded way better on vpivinylspinner's rig than anyone else's, so don't go thinking you can plug these in to anything. My personal guess would be that these will sound best with a high-end Headroom setup since they specialize in Sennheisers.

2) HiFiMAN HM-801: What's wrong with this stupid thing? It's a freaking MP3 player... you shouldn't be able to just plug HD580's into them and hear amazing sound, yet you certainly do. I listened to this thing for more than an hour and made a hardcore comparison to my iAudio X5L, which I'll post in the portables forum. My overall impression is that it stomps my iAudio flat, and my iAudio was already basically the best thing around until this guy came along. Anyone interested in a serious MP3 player (that also acts as a DAC with USB!!) should check this guy out. The DAC part alone is really, really nice.

3) HiFiMAN EF2: Fang's latest amp is a different design from the EF1 and it's not an upgrade, rather, it's a sidestep to a more affordable option, plus it adds one ridiculously sweet feature... a built in DAC with USB. It uses two smaller tubes (6J1) as opposed to one dual-triode tube (12AU7). I was really quite, quite impressed with this amp. I normally run an EMU 0404 USB to Head-Direct EF1 setup, so the total for that rig is $500. This little guy, at $189, is at least 80% of my setup in terms of sound quality. The EF1 definitely has more detailed, open highs, and is more precise, but the EF2 clearly has more bass, which makes it more fun to listen to at times. Overall, I was basically floored by this amp. I'm going to have a hard time recommending my setup now because this is just so, so close, and it's 40% of the price. Did I mention that it has USB??? What a great little device, period.

In regards to the last two, Fang had me listen to the HM-801 DAC into the EF2, then the EF2's DAC by itself. There was clearly a difference, but I couldn't tell which was better.

4) Ethan (Yikes) has the most ridiculous electrostatic setup I've ever heard. I've never been much of an electrostatic person because they lack the raw, visceral feeling you get from dynamics, especially in the bass department. He had a Woo Audio GES with a HeAudio Jade and a Music Hall 25.2 DAC with some random CDP transport. Anyway, this was the best electrostatic setup I've ever heard, period. The bass was just utterly, utterly ridiculous (deep + copious amounts), and the highs were ultra-detailed like you'd expect, but so, so smooooooth. Ugh, this was the electrostatic setup, at least for me (I've never heard anything like it). Then again, it probably topped $5k total. Still, why did it sound so good? It was electrostatic. I was baffled. Still am.

5) Grado HF-2's. Good news for HF-1 lovers! These tell the same story as the HF-1's, but much better! I always preferred the HF-1's to the other prestige headphones, especially once you "fix" them by putting flats on them instead of bowls, but the problem with flats is that they really arrest the highs and the soundstage. The HF-2's bring up the bass nearly to the level of the HF-1's with flats, but have really, really nice open highs with great detail and a soundstage that improve on the HF-1's a lot. Overall, I'm glad I bought these and am looking forward to doing a full comparison against the 1's, although I was a little startled by just how similar they sound! Cosmetically, I didn't get a good look at these (or any headphone for that matter... as soon as I distinguish right from left, they're on my head), but what I saw, I liked. The lettering was a little odd-looking, but the aluminum enclosure is really nicely put together. Cosmetically, they really are a large upgrade from the HF-1's, even if the sound isn't necessarily $300 better.

6) Ari's little custom tube amp really blew me away. It sounded better with my HF-1's than the Melos. I had to ask him whether it was all right to like the custom one better than the Melos and he said it was perfectly fine, so I'm glad that I'm not nuts. The Melos-HP1000 combo is still completely unbeatable, in my opinion, and was the best rig at the meet.

7) Fang had a new prototype headphone that'll likely go for $1000 that is of "orthodynamic" design, that is, it's a planar driver between two magnets. It was really interesting, and ultra-detailed, but needed more bass (others agreed). He affirmed this and said that the production model would have a lot more because that was the main problem.

8) Tube testers are awesome. I need to get one.

9) DT880's still blow me away with pipe organ music, subsequently disappoint me with everything else. What a confusing headphone.

That's all for now. Thanks everyone for bringing all of their stuff, and thanks again to Larry for getting us the hotel! These meets are always eye-opening and this was even moreso than others. I could go on and on, but otherwise nobody will read this!

 

[The Monkey]

Well done, NJ Crew. Looks like a really nice meet.

 

[Benaiir]

Quote:

Originally Posted by immtbiker /img/forum/go_quote.gif So, just to clarify, they let you out on a day pass in order to attend this event? Most inpatient facilities only let patients out for family emergencies

I lied.

 

[bozebuttons]

First off Thanks to Larry & John for setting up the meet.

I don't have to much as impressions go,Got to the meet around 5pm after spending 4 hours in traffic,took 2-1/2 hours on the way home.
I was so burnt after working in the morning & getting there at 5pm I never unloaded the gear I brought.
It was great to hang out with everyone at dinner & the few hours I spent at the meet.