[erikzen]

I can't believe I'm the first person to post on today's "mini-meet" at immtbiker's. If there's another thread then mods please remove this one.

Two thumbs up to Telica (oh yeah, and I guess Aaron, too) for organizing a great event. When I arrived at 1:00 PM Telicia was cooking and continued doing so for the next hour or two. About 3:00 she was finally ready to listen to some music. Aaron did a great job of playing host, organizing all of the gear into it's proper rooms, and running the VPI Aires and Final Tool turntables. Those are some sweet vinyl setups. My only regret was that I had to leave early so I couldn't enjoy the delicious dinner, although I am glad that Aaron was kind enough to open the single malt before I had to leave.

I hate to get into any kind of bragging contest, but I would venture to say that this "mini-meet" rivaled many other "full sized" meets. Not only that but I also got a lovely parting gift. Thanks again.

Some pictures and impressions to follow.

 

[bozebuttons]

First off Thanks to Aaron & his lovely wife Telica also their son & daughter who helped with the gear unloading & invasion of their room with my gear.
Telica cooked for a army,the food was great as well as the deserts.
Thanks for the Tshirt & mouse pad we all got at the end of the meet.

For a mini meet the gear was enough for a full blown meet.I always enjoy
hanging out with fellow Headfi members.

I am beat some impressions will come later. 2 things I will tell you is I have to get my ass in gear & setup my scout after listening to Aarons vinyl setups,& the 010s are definately in my future.Time to get some ZZZs.

 

[Jahn]

Telicia and Aaron, thanks for opening your home to us, the mini meet was awesome! Your kids were troopers too with all of us charging around the house! And the food was above and beyond the call of duty - Telicia whips up one killer meal! I had cheesecake for dessert - I must admit I stuffed myself too full to try the brownies and the Philly Fluff or whatever that was!

The Dared Monoblocks to the K1000 sounded awesome.

The Headroom Overture was sending sweet sweet signal - to both my amps, the SR71 and the Solo. The coda was a bit solid state sizzly on top, but with burn in maybe that will smooth out.

the HD-1 was not as clear as my KSC-35, nor as bassy. KSC-35 still wins for best portable can imho - but HD-1 has isolation, which is key for some on the go.

The k501 hates my Solo, but the SR200 loves it.

The K501 loves the Earmax.

The SA5000 is agressive and bassy, yet retains alot of the good detailed quality of the Qualia - sort of a nice mix between the grado sound and the sony sound.

I never knew vinyl could sound so good.

Aaron, show more love for that dusty Super Chet in the corner.

I missed the Stax, rats.

I actually preferred the bassy nature of the baby orpheus over the daddy orpheus.

The PS-1 through the Cary was a juicy meaty delight.

The portaphile v2 with the K501 was a big eye opener in a good way.

The flute did ok with the SA5000, but was sounding wonky with the K501.

That sonic T amp definitely had the volume, but not the subtle dynamics of the dared monoblocks, when used with the K1000.

the Ant Amber was ultra agressive and actually made a good match for the K501 - but the lower bass seemed dropped out - soundstage was great.

that's it for the hits that stuck in my tired brain for now - if you want more details later let me know, in the meantime it's sleep time then more cogent thoughts later.

aaron's son took some pretty embarassing pics of me - let's hope they don't surface. caught on tape with the k1000s on argh!

 

[Romanee]

Thank-Cubed, Aaron & Telica! Thanks to all who attended for creating great memories of a warm gathering of good friends and of great sounding music.

Teaser: I'll post notes tomorrow, but I will say that a few of us answered (for ourselves) a lot of questions about a goodly number of portables and transportables. Soon to come will be the WNA MkII and (hopefully) Gilmore Light -- to include in the Portables/Transportables study at a followup mini-meet soon. The followup will be needed anyway since some of the review samples I received are fresh off the production line and despite my best effort in less than a week, they still need a lot more burn-in time to demonstrate their full potential.

I thought I was tired from lugging my 75-pound suitcase full of portables, power supplies & cables + my laptop + a bunch of vinyl ... BUT I just weighed the loaded suitcase itself and it's almost 100 pounds! (plus the other stuff...). Thanks Jahn for helping carry it up & down stairs! Never would have thought a bunch of portables and ancillary parts could be that heavy!

I unpacked and set up my laptop and cables ... and stopped there.

I can sleep well having finally gotten a good listen in a quiet, comfortable room to the Orpheus, Omega IIs, Baby Orpheus, R10 and Qualia 010 -- all together, and shared with only one other person -- and later the "Baby Qualia" SA5000. Ahhhhh ....... Funnnnnnnnnn ...... Haaaaaaapppppyyyyyy ....... zzzzzzzzzz.

Good night!

{isn't there a master icon artist out there who can create some new smile icons for the great phones not yet represented: Quaila 010, OmegaII, K501, R10, SA5000, Baby Orpheus, etc.?}

 

[Hirsch]

Thanks to Telica and Aaron for hosting us! I'm not even going to try and post impressions yet, except for one:

Brownies. Yum.

 

[stevieo]

well, well, well. a damn fine mini-meet thanks to immtbiker & his lovely wife teleca & the kids who gave up their house & their rooms for a bunch of strangers from starange places. i wonder what immtbiker promised them if they would be cool.

the meet venue size & eqipment mix ratio worked out very well.

the poratable setup in the kitchen answered a lot of my questions.

hirsch was unable to attend but his equipment was in attendance so we really did not need him. but by surpirse -- he hopped a shuttle from washington & dispelled all rumours floating around that he really had no further intersest in head-fi.

the meet was small and focused. the group in attendance danny sans denise, meech, jhan, lan, romanee, bozebuttons, canman, hirsch, erickzen, were all in attendance plus a another name or 2. cordiality, opinion & really good listening comparisons were the rule of the day followed by a very serious chow down.

more impresions later & pics will be posted in a day or two.

i for one was honored to be be among such a crowd of fun folks taking the time to explain the finer points of head-fi to me. serious listening & discussion of the finer points of the equipment in attendance was enlightning.

it was not only a really fun meet for me but it was small enough to listen & discuss. i hope the immtbiker family can apreciate what a wonderful job they pulled off which was instrumental in making the meet something special.

later, i will post impressions about some of the portables a couple of amps & sources & in particular on one very important piece of accessory equipment -- The KILLER Moon Audio Black Dragon Sony Qualia replacemet cable supplied on loan from moon audio's one & only drew baird.

pics should be up in a few days so check back. i'll be back.

 

[agile_one]

Wow! You guys know how to party.

This little soiree sure had some great gear and people in attendance - looking forward to more reports.

 

[dannyandelyse]

WOW..

Much thanks to Telica....talk about making a group of headphone geeks feel welcome into ones house...and the food...the food....the food!
Aaron.....you are da man. Your kids are super nice and the setup was excellent. Made a lot of new friends and heard a bunch of great setups.
Did find one SECRET match for Senn 650s...and I ain't talking cause I got a bead on one!!!
thanks everyone......wonderful day
Dan

 

[erikzen]

Once again thanks to Aaron, Telicia and family for opening up their home to us. A wonderful time was had by all.

Thanks to all the Head-Fiers who dragged their equipment to Aaron's house, without which, there would have been no meet at all. It was great to hang out with all of you.

Unfortunately, the battery in my camera died and the backup was not fully charged so I was not able to take many pictures and of the ones I did take many were not very good. However, I will post a few just to give everyone a taste of the meet.

This is my fourth meet and I still can't get over the "kid in the candy store" feeling. I planned to try on concentrating on listening to a few things but as always happens, I got pulled in multiple directions. I will post a few impressions of things that stuck with me - nothing in too great detail.

I arrived at 1:00 and a few guys were there setting up. Here's meech and stevieo setting up meech's Dared MonoBlock/AKG 1000 setup.

As you can see, there was no shortage of quality cans, with the R10 and HD650 with Silver Dragons waiting on the bench.

I traveled light on Sunday, so as soon as there was a source, an amp and some headphones, I jumped right into listening. Bozebuttons brought his Theta, AckDack, Krell setup, which was conveniently located next to Aaron's comfy love seat.

Also nearby, were the R10s and the SA5000 (Baby Qualias). I popped a cd in the Theta and began listening. I had plenty of time to form an impression and I must say the R10s did not fail to impress. I noticed a full, warm, balanced sound with generous soundstage. Yummy! Certainly, no lack of bass here. It doesn't get any better than this. Well, figuratively speaking, anyway. I must say that I was a bit let down when I tried the SA5000 on this rig. All of a sudden the soundstage completely dropped out and I was left with a boxy, distant sound, although one with plenty of detail. This is an unfair comparison, R10 vs. SA5000, but I must say the SA5000 redeemed themselves later on when paired with the high gain SR71.

Next I got a good listen to the Qualias. While everyone was getting organized I took the opportunity to listen to one of Aaron's outstanding vinyl treasures - an all star Latin Jazz orchestra - through his Aires 2 and the SinglePower Maestro.

Qualias + Nice Vinyl Rig = rich, enveloping, musical tones. I can see why Aaron gave up his Omega IIs for the Qualias.

Also on that rack was Jahn's Solo plugged into a Pioneer player through some kind of $2000 interconnects. I can say that I finally "got" the Solo and when Jahn played me his Carpenters CD throught the Solo with the Qualias, I was greeted by sweet vocal saturation, oozing with detail. Of course, I'm not quite sure if I was listening to the Qualias, the amp or the high end interconnects, but nevertheless the combo worked.

After that, I moved into the kitchen, where the portables section was. I guess you could call it a "moveable feast" for the ears, set to a backdrop of Telica making some kind of sushi/salmon/california roll appetizer. (That's right folks, it wasn't just brownies!)

Romanee really went the extra mile on the portables. He contacted quite a few vendors, dedicating his own time and money to transporting literally dozens of amps, sources, cables, everything! They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this one doesn't do the setup justice. There are amps, Sonicas, CD players and whatnot, not even visible in the picture, hidden behind the frontline gear.

I came in on the tail end of the shootout between the Flute and the Overture. According to lan, Romanee and Jahn, the Overture won out. Then it was on to a comparison of the high and low gain SR71 and some more intense listening to the SA5000 and AKG 501. Also in the mix during my listening sessions were the SuperMacro and PortaPhile prototype amp. There were quite a few other amps on the table, but I personally didn't get a chance to hear them in any great detail.

Incidently, most of the portable listening was done with the Toshiba 3950 with full "Vinny Mods" from the digital out into the Overture.

1. I enjoyed the AKG 501 - it's my cup of tea. I like the detail, clarity and soundstage. It may be a suitable replacement for my DT931, which does a lot of things well but doesn't get the high end right. Still not a good rock can, though.
2. Even with low impedence cans, the high gain SR71 sounded better than the normal gain. This was most evident with the SA5000.
3. The SA5000 needs a proper setup to get the most out of it. For example, with the low gain SR71, I found the sound disjointed with an unnatural separation between high and low frequencies. With the high gain SR71, Overture and modded 3950, it sounded full and detailed.
4. The SR71 is a better portable amp than the SuperMacro and PortaCorda II - unfortunately for my wallet. The PortaPhile prototype gets honorable mention in the best portable amp category. It had a lot more in common with the SR71 than the SuperMacro. The SM is not a bad amp, it is just a bit upfront and bright.
5. I don't need to hear "Back in Black" again for a long time

I was very impressed with Aaron's son's interest and aptitude in audio. He's a chip off the old block.

Fittingly, I ended my listening on Aaron's bedroom rig, the Final Tool

He turned me on to some rare vinyl pressing of some Japanese jazz artist, Yamamoto. At least I think it was the name of the artist. Anyway, it was sweet, warm and detailed. Someday, I will get myself a nice vinyl rig, probably when the kids finish college. Until then I'll have to be satisified with my modest equiment and meeting up with all of the great Head-Fiers out there when the opportunity presents itself.

Thanks again one and all!

 

[lan]

The meet was long in the planning and when the day finally came, it couldn't have been more pleasureable. Unfortunately jpelg couldn't be there and Sovkiller's car broke down. Do not worry jpelg, you didn't miss much with the Qualias.

Sovkiller maybe next time. I wish it would've lasted longer. Now that it is lunch time here, I wish I could've brought home leftovers of that wonderful food but I had too much gear to carry. Compliments to the chef! That's some supurb food and my mouth is watering remembering it now.

I'd like to thank our gracious hosts whole family. It must be weird having people coming into your room. I was amazed by Aaron's son. He was very eager to hear things and wanted us to try gear out. Like father like son? HAHA. Aaron's wife was having a great time with some tunes, we didn't want to disturb her by changing tracks/CDs. She was truly in the zone. Aaron what are your wife, son, and daughters, fav setups? It's great to see you have an understanding family regarding this stuff.

Thanks to all those who brought gear. It was amazing as usual.

Thanks to bozebuttons and hirsch for giving me some tube selection guidance. It is just amazing what you can do with tube rolling!

Gear impression later. Must do some work now.

 

[Jahn]

Two replies to Eric's comments -

1)I don't know why I didn't think of hooking to Solo into the Esoteric source sitting right next to it, instead relying on the vinnie-modded pioneer source. But I'm glad the Solo showed that the Qualia does shine with solid state in spades.

2)The low gain SR71 (mine!) did seem to sound a bit odd with the baby qualias, but cleaned right up with the high gain (same volume lvl of course). But with my Koss clips and grados, i couldnt tell the diff. Chalk it up to synergy.

and a third commentary -

3)You can never have enough Back in Black. Yes folks, even the Orpheus had to withstand the assault of AC/DC, I made sure of that.

 

[meech]

BIG THANKS TO Aaron and your wonderful family for having us. This was truly a meet to remember. Telica,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,your cooking was a 10 !!!
Thanks so much. Thanks to Aarons kids also for giving up there room for their dad's crazy friends,,,,,,,,,,,we did appreciate it.

I had a blast as usual. I could honestly go to a meet once a month.
I'll post some impressions once I get home from work but for now, I just wanted to thank the host. You're a class act !

 

[philodox]

Could someone post more detailed information on the AOS Flute vs. Headroom Overture comparison that was done?

I am curious as to how they were set up. The only setup that would be an actual comparison between the DAC in each would be the following:

both driven from battery power -> same source -> optical connection -> Flute [with volume maxed out] / Overture -> same amp -> same headphones

Is this how it was done? If so what quality made the Overture stand out as the winner?

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox Could someone post more detailed information on the AOS Flute vs. Headroom Overture comparison that was done? I am curious as to how they were set up. The only setup that would be an actual comparison between the DAC in each would be the following: both driven from battery power -> same source -> optical connection -> Flute [with volume maxed out] / Overture -> same amp -> same headphones Is this how it was done? If so what quality made the Overture stand out as the winner?

1)Both were not driven from battery power. The flute was hooked into the power strip - we didn't have an external battery pack for it. The Overture ran from rechargeables.

2)Both had the same source- from the modded 3950 coax out to a coax to optical box, and that box had two optical outs, one went to the flute, one to the overture, so that seems to meet your criteria. Optical cables? Hmm one was lan's jobby, the other was a rat shack, so i'd call that a wash.

3)Does the flute even have a line out? We just used the headphone out to headphones. We didn't think of using the headphone out as a line out by turning the volume all the way up then threading it to an amp - that would have the internal amp in the chain anyhow, and would add another cable to the equation. We let the flute stand on its own merit- a dac/amp all in one combo. The overture ran from quite a few different amps, all of which seemed to do better than the flute's internal amp. SR71 low and high gain, and the Coda were some examples.

4)Same headphones - yep. Tho we had to swap (disconnect from overture's amp, reconnect into flute, vice versa) quickly before our musical memory faded - we didn't have a switchbox or anything that we could just flip back and forth and just hook up the cans to it. Usually two people were listening at the same time - like me on the flute with the K501, lan on the overture/amp with the baby qualias, then we'd switch by both of us disconnecting cans and swapping amps.

 

[stevieo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannyandelyse WOW.. Did find one SECRET match for Senn 650s...and I ain't talking cause I got a bead on one!!! Dan

that was fast! i hope it pans out.