Here comes a long post, prepare yourselves!
This meet was my third and certainly the most enjoyable one I've ever been to. The national meet last year was awesome, but I didn't get to hear the GS-1000's and other headphones I was interested in as much at that meet since there was such an overwhelming amount of equipment.
First, the impressions, then the pictures, which I have an even 39 (oh wait...) of. 56k'ers watch the heck out!!
All right, well, number one, Jahn:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jahn /img/forum/go_quote.gif
"RUNNER-UP FOR SURPRISE OF THE MEET."
No I don't know what any of this stuff is. Is that the MisterX amp? The HF-1 had flat pads, the music library was on a wireless external HD i think, and the soundcard was called Ergo or something? How he had the idea to put all this together I have no idea, but i better start hanging out at the Computer-as-Source forums more often - I could totally listen to this rig and be Done - I'm serious! Serious PRaT and Bass, but never broke up, great separation of note, not shouty in the highs, very very impressed.
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That is my rig. I have a T60 laptop with a 200 GB Maxtor USB 2.0 hard drive on which I store all of my music. I only wish the hard drive was wireless. The source is the Echo Indigo, which, while certainly not quite as good as my EMU 0404 here at home, is a very decent and very worthwhile upgrade over onboard sound. I purchased it for $55 shipped here! The amp was custom built for me by tpg on the Klipsch forums (his screen name here is ktpg) and he's built a lot of headphone amps since he's an Electrical Engineering major I believe, but for this one he told me he based it on the Meta42 design and made a few mods/improvements. Bottom line, though, it's an exciting (moreso than Ray's Hornet on some tracks, though I hate to say it), slightly bright amp, which synergizes well with my system and my HF-1's with flat pads (the HF-1's with flat pads impressed a lot of people... I'm hoping the trend will catch on because they are better balanced imho with the flats). Anyway, tpg only charged me for parts, so the amp was $60. Bottom line, that whole system minus the laptop is a grand total of $315 and I'd challenge anyone to find a system that sounds that good in that price range!
Anyway, this is a meet, there's bigger fish to fry here!!
The DT880's once again impressed the hell out of me. They almost sound like a hybrid between the HD650's and the Grado sound. They have that great, open soundstage with resonance and deep bass and extended highs which really sound great with my organ music, and then they can also sound great with some material such as Led Zeppelin, although to be honest, they're no Grado when it comes to rock. Still, this is a formidable phone and I'm glad I got to listen to them again.
nikongod's HP-2's were absolutely my favorite phone at the meet. The sound was completely unlike any John Grado in existence and, to my ears, basically perfection! The soundstage is much bigger than John Grado phones and they're also much warmer. The bass goes deep but isn't as overpowering as the PS-1's. The midrange warmth is amazing and overall, they just have such a full sound that is amazes me. No frequency range or aspect of the phone seems like it could be improved upon! These are truly a pair of headphones that has to be heard, and now that I've heard them, I'll probably never get that sound out of my head again. haha.
nikingod's SR-200's were also great. I remember hearing them at the national meet last year under a different owner, but they're still a great headphone. They have a real unique sound and like the HP-2's, sound a lot warmer and fuller than most John Grado phones. Their only flaw was probably the lack of high-end resolution that so many John Grado phones have. The highs just sounded a little garbled with cymbals, for example. Otherwise, though, they compare to many much more expensive phones.
Yuin showed up once again and impressed everyone with their PK1 and PK2 earbuds. I've never heard an earbud in my life that has sounded that good, and probably will never again. They truly are a formidable, reference-sound phone, and scarily, also a plastic earbud!!
I got to try a lot more electrostats at this meet and the Omega II's hooked up to the Gilmore reference took the cake in my honest opinion. I didn't get to hear them hooked up to the Singlepower ES1, but they were still amazing on the Gilmore Electrostat. They had exceptional,
unbelievable resolution and outstanding bass without getting that kind of muffled upper-bass lower-mid sound I disliked in the Lambdas. They couldn't quite rock like the higher-end Grados, of course, but with Jazz, they had that hyper-detail that was important without any of the harshness that would accompany it in a dynamic headphone.
Unfortunately, the most underwhelming phone of the meet was easily the HE90 plugged into the ES1. Everyone raves about this combination, but it left me wanting a lot. The sound is just completely flat, in fact, it almost feels recessed in the bass. The bass is actually the main problem. The resolution was, of course, the best of anything that was there, but the bass was simply missing from the equation, and as a result, most of my music was left sounding pretty boring.
But anyway, on to the best stuff of the meet:
I am totally convinced at this point that Ray Samuels's amps are the best at this point. Not even joking. His balanced PS-1's through his B52 amp and Meridian CD player was easily one of the best setups at the meet, if not THE best. The PS-1's have incredible bass, almost too much at some points, and as I listened to them more, I was convinced more and more of what Ray remarked to me, that the PS-1's truly are John Grado's masterpiece headphone. They sounded equally phenomenal out of the Raptor, which I am now convinced is in my future at some point. At any rate, the balanced GS-1000's were a underwhelming from the Gilmore Reference amp. The highs were just too harsh to bear, not something I had heard at the national meet last year, and the bass was really boomy. In addition, the mids just sounded sucked out. Hooking it up to Ray's B52 COMPLETELY changed the headphone. I am not even kidding. The highs were bearable, the bass was deep, the soundstage was huge, and everything just sounded incredible. I later tried them on the Singlepower amp and the highs returned to how they sounded on the Gilmore, I'm convinced you pretty much need Ray's B52 to do them justice, it was an incredible amp.
Now, the SHOCK OF THE MEET was the original GS-1000 prototype headphones Bosebuttons brought with him (which read simply "Grado Reference Headphones"). THIS is the sound we all heard at the national meet, and this is the reason why people ordered the GS-1000 and posted impressions we who had been at the national meet could not believe. The prototypes are significantly different from the production model. The production model has boomy bass, over-strident highs, and sucked out mids which are not present on the pre-production model. The prototype sounded so much better than the production model, it scared me. It still had the production model's characteristics of the big soundstage, accentuated highs and bass, etc, but it refined them so much more. I don't know what to say on this matter, but we had a conversation about it and Mikhail, owner of Singlepower (who is a really nice guy in person just like Ray), knows John Grado, and basically we came to the conclusion that sadly, there's nothing that can be done about this situation, and those who got the pre-production models should just consider themselves pretty lucky! In the meantime I would still recommend the GS-1000, but I have to say, I do not like them as much as the PS-1's or the RS-1's as of right now, though I'll have to make an extended comparison and conclusions at the next meet I go to. They are quite an amazing headphone, though, regardless of their flaws. Completely unlike any Grado (or headphone for that matter) that I've heard before.
We had some great moments at the meet. Jahn brought in guitar hero and another member brought a huge Dell monitor and the result, when combined with headphones, was the best guitar hero session ever. Jahn posted a picture, in fact, of me playing. I'm terrible, only played a few times at most, but compared to eh.... some members? I think I have some kind of edge being a college student and a musician. Regardless, a good time was had by all.
DEFINITELY the best moment of the meet was Ray Samuels pulling the Ace and winning the PK1's. Had to be there, he told me and everyone else he had never won anything in his life before and, in fact, after he had won and gotten over the surprise, said the quote of the day, "What did I win?" and then gave away the PK1's to one of the nice ladies there. HILARIOUS moment, it was an absolute pleasure to have Ray there at the meet.
But anyway, IT'S TIME FOR PICTURES!! (captions are below some images)
We arrive and unpack...
Ray, in a rare moment of weakness... with glasses on!
Fine-tuning...
My rig took about 5 minutes to set up.
Loads of boxes!
Ray's table, where I spent most of my time. Here I am holding the R10's. I wish I had been able to spend more time with them.
Yes, there are female Head-Fi'ers!
Singlepower's table.
Jahn's idea to bring guitar hero was AMAZING.
Great picture of Ray and the tea conniseur, Grbwitt.
Yuin's setup.
Asr diggin' the PS-1's.
88sound brought some great stuff, including the Gilmore Reference amps. He had quite a setup!
The man himself! Special thanks again to Aaron for kicking ass in putting together this meet.
Bidding!
