[MrJoshua]

My Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjoshu...7602778245798/

 

[JohnerH]

Quote:

Originally Posted by senny-ftw /img/forum/go_quote.gif Me neither - but look on the bright side: now we've all got 10 megapixel pictures of our headphones being stretched to ****!

Do you honestly think I forced any of the headphones in to place in those pictures?

I may be naive when it comes to taking pictures and judging headphones but I'm certainly not -STUPID-...

They look like they're on the upright, and I've seen head that are bigger then that stand...

I remember being careful with all of them, even the one Doug said had to be slided in to place because if it was stretched the band would break...

But hey you live and learn... oh don't worry about it being 10mpx, I'll convert them down to about 100byte pictures and sort you all out...

J

 

[Progenitor]

JohnerH: Those Darth Beyers do look stretched on those photos. I think the other headphones were alright, but you can't argue that the Beyers looked painful.

Jules650: That was my quote You missed out on a quiet period in the afternoon at around 3:30 to 4:30 where Duggeh's magic room was pretty empty. I have a feeling however that there will be a few more K1000 in the UK by this time next year

MrJoshua: That picture of me was so pro! If you have agencies asking to buy it off you, I demand a 10% cut! Just seeing those pictures wished we had 2-3 days instead of just the one day.

 

[Nuwidol]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Progenitor /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just seeing those pictures wished we had 2-3 days instead of just the one day.

So true.

FWIW i thought the headphone pics looked fine John.

 

[MarkyMark]

Hi all,

Well, what a great meet! It exceeded my expectations in all areas. Much respect to Mr Joshua for organizing such a successful event.

Some highlights:

- Stax Omega/SRM717. Would like to have heard these with my own equipment but I heard enough to impress me. Extremely natural and non-veiled sound quality.

- Grado RS2's. Didn't think I'd like these but they had plenty of clarity and separation, allied to real snap and PRAT. Not harsh or bright either. Just wish I could have heard some RS1's or GS1000's as I expect I will get something Grado when in the US at Christmas!

- Darth Beyer's. Like strapping a subwoofer to the side of the head. Indiced silly grins all-round when playing pumped-up jungle basslines. Senny-ftw made a good decision with these.

- Looking like Henry VIII when strapping on a pair of Jecklin Floats/Electrostats..

- Meridian G08 (we also used the coaxial out to simulataneously feed my DAC1). Beautiful machine.

Need to hear more:

- K1000: Couldn't get angle right and a bit "hard" sounding. Would like to hear driven with a meaty power amp and better source.

- MDR-R10: Potential for greatness but will need careful matching I think. Didn't spend enough time with them (but thanks to Fing for bring these, plus his dazzling array of other equipment

).

Disappointments:

- L3000. Beautiful to look at but SQ didn't do anything for me.

- Lack of balanced HD650's. Want to find out whether the buzz is justified as I have balanced o/p's on DAC1. May order a cable anyways and give this a try.

See you next time...

 

[philodox]

Sounds like you guys had a great meet.

 

[subfocus]

Fantastic meet , a big thanks to Josh for taking this on and getting everything organised.. Just a select few of the many highlights for me included the K1000 (surpassed my already high expectations). The HE60 ( I swear that I would never wish for another headphone if I owned these , the Baby 'O' sounded effortlessly beautiful ). The Woo Audio4 (Really impressive.....to my ears, easily surpassed any of the extensive range of amps on show: especially driving the HD650). And of course Duggeh's theremin......the last thing I was expecting to see but a welcome 15 mins respite from all that headphone listening ! Great to get the chance to meet and have a chat with everyone... Finally... a shout out to the guys who took the time + effort to post some great pics of the event and all the audio goodies as well....Cheers !!

 

[krmathis]

Wow! Lots of great impressions, and pictures.
Looks like you guys had a really nice time as well. I am envious!

 

[Duggeh]

I did some listening comparing sources with the Omega 2s as the headphone. I compared the Audigy 2 ZS with a Cyrus CD player and later with the Meridian G08.

IT wasn't that there was no difference in them, the Cyrus was a little better than the Audigy and the Meridian better still, but once I compensated for the fact that both CD players were putting out a louder signal than the soundcard these differences diminished in their prominence.

Better extension at both ends, better clarity at both ends, better instrument separation, better ability to stay with the music during complex passages, better delivery of resonance and decay in instruments and voice.

All of these aspects of the sound were identifiable, however, you had to actually go looking for them in the first place. The difference was utterly insignificant compared to the difference in sound between a cheap headphone and a TOTL model. The same applies for amplification.

I think that a lot of the power behind the source first movement may still be hangover from the old analogue days, where getting good sound out of a record really did require more money and effort.

I am now firmly convinced that ones priority should be to aquire the best transducer possible, then to amp it as well as they can, then to feed it the best signal that they can. This is of course on the proviso that in the meantime the signal being fed is at least half decent. Im not saying plug a K1000 into a cmoy out of a tape player, then upgrade the cmoy to a pass labs then sort the source.

The Audigy is lacking, and the two areas where it lacks most are in separational clarity and the frequency extremes. However it isn't the utter load of bollocks that the hi-fi world pish poshes it as being. Id rather have the Audigy and a set of electrostatics than a Meridian and a set of HD650s as far as the sound being produced is concerned.

£25 for the Audigy
£2500 for the Meridian
vs
£25 for a PX100
£2500 for an R-10 and a K1000

I know where my money would go.

--


Hoping to see the remainder of peoples pictures being uploaded and then posted in the thread.

If you need hosting for the images, I will do it.

 

[spritzer]

So I take it your not going to want my G08 when I upgrade...

In my experience it takes a while for the sources true ability to come though like with the very best cables so I would give it about a week of listening with a few hours each day. The source first theory has a lot going for it but it has been taken to ridicules highs and indeed lows in the last few years as the crappy sound of the last 20 years was blamed squarely on the CD.

What cables did you use with the Meridian as it is quite picky, especially with the power cord as it has a switcher in there.

 

[Duggeh]

The power cord looked like it came off whatever kettle it is they use in the Meridian staff room, the interconnect was IIRC a QED reference RCA.

It is entirely possible, and indeed it was a concept I gave much thought too during my listening gaps, that with sources is very much a case of downgrading readily sounding inferior while upgrading is less obvious. If I had lived with the G08 for a month and went back to the Audigy then perhaps my ability to discern the differences would have been greater. However I'm sceptical of that too. There were other source comparisons I made during the meet which while not as grand as the Audigy/G08 shoot-out in their scale all had the same outcome.

The price of the Meridian buys a very seriously large pile of decently recorded/mastered music for listening to on a cheap player. I'm glad that I had this educational experience because I had planned for a Quad CDP-2 to be my next upgrade. As it stands now, with my belief in the importance of the transducer now cemented as it is. I might go for a speaker upgrade. ESL57 or ESL63.

Lots of time to think about it while I save up anyway.

 

[piotr z]

yes spitzer You are right - cables do make a difference - and I would say that sometimes it is more resonable to spend money on IC than on source upgrade - just because all the cables are so different sounding and come much cheaper than sources ( decent ones ) - few weeks back I've auditioned abbey road ref. rca IC and can say that this IC with my cd player would put to shame meridian with any cheap IC

 

[spritzer]

The cables play a huge role with any of the high end players and especially the PC as there is a crummy switching PSU in there. You can get a used player that will do most of the things the G08 can do for a lower price and the rest you can spend on extra music. I can use some of my less expensive sources for a few hours but after a while the flaws become to apparent and I have to fire up one of the better ones I have lying around.

Still I'm going to upgrade yet again but I'm going for a simpler approach that is more down to earth.

 

[milkpowder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by piotr z /img/forum/go_quote.gif yes spitzer You are right - cables do make a difference - and I would say that sometimes it is more resonable to spend money on IC than on source upgrade - just because all the cables are so different sounding and come much cheaper than sources ( decent ones ) - few weeks back I've auditioned abbey road ref. rca IC and can say that this IC with my cd player would put to shame meridian with any cheap IC

The Abbey Road Reference ICs are very nice though! My dad uses the balanced versions and they appear to allow the signal to flow through without changing it much. This was comparing it to the much cheaper Chord Chameleon Silver Plus and Blue Jeans LC-1. Maybe comparing balanced to SE cables out of a balanced source may not be the fairest test ever contrived

Thanks to Spritzer, I have restored the HE60 myself! Completely disassembled the stators, cleaned them up and stuck the grilles firmly back on. I could not be happier

I'm glad it was well received. The Raytheons really worked their magic on Saturday. I bet you would've thought different of them if I used stock tubes or the RCA Cleartops.

I didn't get a chance to hear the theremin! I'm sure Duggeh can give me a private showing in the near future

Two days later, I'm still pretty much in awe about the R10 and K1000. I heard something truly special with the R10 and would like to get to know it better. Hopefully mint pairs will still be available when I can afford a pair (at least half a decade away

). I can't believe the pair at the meet was Fing's throw around pair though. Despite its cosmetics issues, the sound was still very pleasing to the ear.

 

[Duggeh]

I'm using the Wharfedale DVD-750 with CDs now and it does sound a little better than the Audigy, closer to the Cyrus than the Audigy anyway. I wasn't able to tell any differences whatsoever with it and one of the DACs at the meet and its a DVD player that was only sold in Tesco Supermarket and cost £180 7 or 8 years ago. Its got an occasionally dodgy right channel though.

Part of the appeal of the Quad player for me was that it is both a CD player, which I want, and functions as an external DAC, which I want for my computer source. I really cannot understand why manufacturers do not just stick a digital input onto their CD players these days. Its stupid for a £2500 player not to have that £1 function.