This meet was an eye-opener for me, thanks to all who made it possible. I've gained some serious perspective listening to all the different set-ups, demo'ing my own headphones on different gear and having some great conversations. It was a blast.
I started my Head-fi journey with some HD650s not too long ago, and while I was satisfied with the sound I was getting from my Audio-GD entry level amp/DAC I wasn't exactly thrilled. One of the main reasons I wanted to come to this meet was to get the 650s to really sing. Oh yeah, and I brought the K701s I bought used last week along too, just for kicks.
Well about five hours into the meet and after demo'ing the 650s with the Mieir Corda Concerto, Schit Lyr, Woo Audio WA6SE, and Woo Audio WA22 I was seriously underwhelmed. I don't think I could have thrown much more at them, and they still underwhelmed with them. Every can I heard today impressed me more than my 650s did. One of them happened to be the K701s I'd brought along as an after thought. My main gripe with the K701s isn't the usual one: lack of bass (I find it adequate on 95% of songs), it's a strange thin-ness to the vocals they have, finding an amp that solved that problem was something I wanted to accomplish.
Well Leesure's WA6SE was up to the task and more, it was haunting with the K701s. The Woo Audio WA22 was also upto the task, even more amazing with the K701s, the HD800s, and almost anything you plug into it. Braswell and a few others agreed with my impressions. While we were floored with how good the K701s were for the price, we also agreed the HD650s were probably the most disappointing (of all the cans on the table w/ the WA22 at the time: K701s / Stax MK I / T1 / HD800 / LCD2s / HE-6). My HD650s will be on sale very soon. I'll be using the funds towards a tube amp for the K701s. Overall very helpful meet.
Here are my thoughts on some of the high ends I cannot afford anytime soon:
The most underwhelming of the bunch to me was the LCD-2s. While they sounded best off Red Wine Audio's Isabellina, and pretty darn good out of the Lyr, I still prefer most of the other flagships over them. The HD800s have very impressive technical prowess, I tried them with two of NikonGod's DIY amps and Headroom's Balanced Desktop but I felt they sounded most magical off of the Woo WA22. The T1 was a bit too bright for my tastes. I also found the HE-6 a bit bright. My first encounter with the K-1000s (bass heavy) was a positive one, I was taken aback. The Sony MDR-R10s (bass heavy) just disappeared, this is all they did, they have a disappearing sound signature. I don't think you can ask for much more from headphones. The Sony Qualias are just as impressive, both were run off Warp08's RSA Apache. Both these headphones are my benchmarks. Audio nirvana is a very casual and frequent thing with them. Unfortunately, didn't have a chance to listen to the MDR-R10s off of the Woo Audio WA22.
Thank you all. Leesure, great pictures, thanks for lugging all your gear out from Pennsylvania, especially that Woo! Warp08, thanks for taking the time out to take me through all your incredible headphones. Everyone else, it was a pleasure hanging out with all.