My first meet! I'm no longer a virgin! My impressions:
Head Fi'ers are NICE! Every single person I met was friendly, knowledgeable, polite, and down to earth. Not a drop of snobbishness, and considering some of the equipment I saw and heard, they could afford to be a little snobby! There was lots of laughter and friendly discussion, and even more fantastic equipment. It was truly great to meet all of you!
I really like the Craig Uthus amps. Absorbine's Zana Deux and Aura's Moth EC 2A3 amps were just great! Articulate, clean, clear, detailed, and of course the tubey warmth, no matter what you plugged in. The Moth sounded unbelievable driving a pair of AKG K1000's. The Zana Deux was revealing of everything you plugged in; but not quite enough juice to drive the K1000's, which Absorbine had told me up front. It was a little thin sounding without much bass. The Grado RS1 sounded just superb. Both were just beautiful to look at, looking all retro/modern, their tubes all aglow! These might have been the highlight of the event for me, because of their great sound, and the fact that they are so rare, I could never have a chance to hear them if it weren't for this event!
Stax Lambda and Lambda Pro's really do sound different. I plugged in Germania's Lambda and my Lambda Pros into my SRM-1 Mk2 Pro and the comparison was very interesting. The Lambdas were smoother, sweeter and cleaner, very nice in the mids. The Lambda Pros had stronger bass and more detail, but was a bit harsher. Headphone Addict and BillinKansas had told me this would be the case, but it becomes more real when you hear it with your own ears! I liked both, though, and I can see why one might choose to own both. I wish there were a pair of Nova Signatures to hear but I guess you can't have it all!
Head-Direct's tube amp sounded very nice at $400. I can't recall the model number, sorry. I haven't heard a lot of the mid-priced Chinese amps, but I thought it compared well to a Little Dot Mark IV SE I have heard in the past. Maybe not as wide of a soundstage, but very smooth and detailed, esp for the price. Fung was very nice and helpful, thanks!
Ray Samuels is just a fun, pleasant guy, what a character! He was complimentary to all the other designers and DIYers and I overheard him talking shop and giving out helpful suggestions all day. He didn't bring any of his high-end tube stuff, which I'd love to hear. I know, I know he had a fabulous gathering at his place after the event, and he told me it would be his honor to have me there. But I had those concert tickets that my wife bought me for our anniversary, and I do value my marriage. I want a full report from the members who made it to Ray’s! His yet to be released super portable sounded nice for their unbelievably tiny size and price!
I tended to like the CD player based system over the computer based systems. But I may be biased on that. The Meridians in particular all sounded extremely good.
One notable exception to my ears was RDK845’s computer based Frankenstein monster of a system, which sounded way better via his Lambdas than I would have ever guessed. He came even later than I did, and started quietly unpacking this gigantic beast of an amp, giant tubes sticking out all over the place, tape placed under the power switch to keep it turned on, his laptop music sent over wifi to a Squeezebox, then to this plain looking white box which he said he and his friend made, which turned out to be his DIY DAC. I was scared. He had a pair of AKG K1000, so I was excited to hear those, but that was also beaten up, and only the left channel worked! I was ready to politely move on, but then I put on his Lambdas, which if I remember right, was also powered by a non-descript little white box which he made himself, and boy, the skies opened and that bad boy sounded great! I wish I could tell you the technical aspects of his system, because it really did sound good. But all I could get was that the anp was bought then modified, and everything else but the Squeezebox was the same deal. You’ll have to ask him what the heck it was; but I’ll say it again, this thing was scary and this thing was good.
Absorbine’s sig-o was so nice. She stayed for hours, saying she was sort of interested and listened a fair amount. She said she brought a book, just in case, but I didn’t see her read any of it. She pointed at RDK845’s Frankenstein, and said, ‘is THAT what you want to do with your system eventually?’ Absorbine said, ‘yeah, kind of’. She did NOT pass out or need to leave the room! My wife is great for letting me go and watching the kids, but when I told her someone brought his sig-o, and asked if she’d like to come next year, she laughed out loud, then caught herself and politely said no thanks.
I listened briefly to TTVJ’s new monster tube amp upstairs, but he was having technical difficulties. His recabled balance AKG K701 lost its left channel. Really a bummer for him – sorry man! But that was the only casualty I heard about all day. I know there were tons of people there earlier to hear it. How did it sound?
Anyway, enough blabbering from me, I hope to hear about others’ experience. Me, I had a great time, and can’t wait for next year! It was great to see the faces behind the names!
Thanks Billy for planning it!
