NoVa/DC area meet 2/20/11 impressions
Feb 21, 2011 at 9:17 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 41
drewfus420

drewfus420

500+ Head-Fier
Joined
Jul 1, 2009
Posts
519
Likes
17
Post your impressions, pictures and general musings here.
 
I think the meet was great and I had a good time meeting some local Head-Fiers and heard some incredible gear.
Can-wise my two favorites were AmanGeorges rig driving his LCD2's and his Stax Lambdas.
Amp-wise Peters DIY amp was super impressive sounding and cool looking to boot.
 
Drew
 
Feb 22, 2011 at 7:58 AM Post #3 of 41
Feb 22, 2011 at 10:27 AM Post #4 of 41
Again, I thought it was a good meet - it was also the first type of event like this I've ever attended.  I've never even listened to other high-end phones before.  I purchased my Grado's so I wouldn't have to worry about amp-ing - and here I am $1000 in amps later. 
 
I was worried about all the talk of how you need to pick your sound and how some phones just wont work for you because of personal preferences and I bought my grado's without ever even seeing a set before - but here I learned, for me, that this wasn't a huge issue,  I enjoyed the LCD-2, the HD650's (and even though I will never admit to being a re-cable fan, the recabled HD650's were incredible), the
beyer dynamics, and the ps-1000's.  So all very different headphones and I would have been happy with them all.  Granted these were all expensive sets but that's not the point.  Though I did notice I wasn't too happy with the ATH-m50's which is good to find out because I was thinking about them as a 2nd headphone.
 
I also thought Peter's set up was a good learning point.  First, it sounded fantastic.  But then you realize his source was a $20 CD player (which therefor had a $5 DAC), he had no fancy cables and I could have listened to that all day.  Which, I'm guessing is good, since he is trying to sell his line of amps.
 
I was surprised to find out how far people drove to get there too.  Esp for a last minute, planned on the spot, lets just pick a venue and see if anyone shows up type of event that this was.  I heard July mentioned a couple of times - if there is real intent on having another meet in July then the next one should be even better.  Everyone was also very nice and helpful.
 
I brought 2 amps, 2 DACs and my computer this time - and many people brought much more gear - but I think next time I'm going to bring my primary amp and a CD player.

 
Feb 22, 2011 at 10:30 AM Post #5 of 41
 
Gary Gill of Capital Audiofest talking about having a setup in July:

"What I can do is offer you guys a room at my cost since you guys are hobbyists but if there are retailers involved then we would have to change it around. Total cost would likely be $100/day for the room which would be smack dab in the middle of the listening rooms. The room by the way is not a full blown listening room but a sleeping room so would have a bed and chairs etc."

 

We can also get vendors to come out if they are willing to pay for a room. $70-90 he says. Anybody interested in pitching in so we can have a setup there? I think we would want a minimum of 15 people to have a decent sized setup. 

 
Feb 22, 2011 at 11:38 AM Post #6 of 41
I enjoyed peter's and amangeorge's dynamic amps a lot.  The ps1000s were a little bit uncomfortable on my ears, maybe if I had a bit more time with them I could get used to it but what I heard was decent.  That other pair of grados though were so incredibly light, are those made out of feathers and balsa wood or what?  Unfortunately I still am not a fan of those ear pads :frowning2:
 
The collection of older headphones was nice to listen to but some of those old ear pads made so much noise when I moved my head.  Not entirely sure what can be done about that at this point though.  The old lambdas were pretty good too but I still prefer the LCD-2 so I'm not sure if I would really use them if I bought them.
 
Sorry for the gain on the b22, it's definitely too high... I intend to reduce it when I re-case the damned thing but I did want to try it with an HE-6 or K1000 before I did that.  Not sure that is ever really going to happen.  C'est la vie.
 
Was there some kind of grounding issue with the asgard?  I was hearing a humming noise of sorts from the amp as I turned the volume up, but only while the dac was connected (with the volume of dac at nothing). 
 
Feb 22, 2011 at 11:58 AM Post #7 of 41
It is normal for the Asgard to hum . The trick is to get the DAC turned up high but not too high for it buzzes as well. If I had the DAC turned up between 12 and 2 and the Asgard around 12 then it would have been fine. I could have fixed it if you had mentioned it. I had to have the DAC turned down with the SM3's so they wouldn't explode upon plugging them in. The Asgard hums due to the transformer contacting the chassis, I believe, but if you have the knobs set "optimally" it is no problem. 
 
Feb 22, 2011 at 12:06 PM Post #8 of 41
Ahh I meant I heard it through the headphone not the device itself physically humming.  But maybe I heard wrong?  Unplugging the dac stopped the humming noise so I just assumed it was a grounding issue of some sort.  One of my portable dacs does something similar when being powered over usb instead of batteries.
 
Feb 22, 2011 at 12:13 PM Post #9 of 41
That's what I meant too. I have experience the same thing. I assume you were using your LCD-2's to try it out? That would explain it since you need to crank the volume knob to get enough drive. It stopped buzzing without the DAC since it was not getting any signal, I believe. Also my laptop (not really mine but whatever) was being finicky. The USB port died halfway through the meet, as in it gave a high pitched scream through the left channel but this was fixed after changing ports. Next time I'll pull and Aman George and bring my desktop to avoid any unforeseen issues. XD
 
Feb 22, 2011 at 12:38 PM Post #12 of 41
As far as I know, my Asgard doesn't hum with an EMU 0404 USB as the DAC.  I've never plugged in low impedance headphones though so there could be some hum that I don't hear with vintage orthos.
 
Feb 22, 2011 at 12:40 PM Post #14 of 41
Fair enough, if you never go that far on the volume knob anyhow it shouldn't be a problem.  I was just curious if this is common to all asgards or if the problem was elsewhere somehow?  I don't really listen all that loud and it wasn't really a problem while I was listening to music, just while I was fooling around when I first plugged them in and the dac output was set to nothing.  I had some hum issues with the b22 while building it that were almost entirely wiring / ground related, but they drove me nuts.
 
I don't really use the single ended plug on it at the moment because the ground return contaminates the gnd of all 4 amp boards, but since I am recasing it anyhow I was way too lazy to change the interconnect between the amp and psu to fix this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top