[Planar_head]

Hey guys, looks like you made it to Steve's blog on CNet.
 
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20023502-47.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheAudiophiliac

 

[erikzen]

Quote:

Well Erik, you've done it again! Another highly successful & enjoyable NY meet. Man, I know all the effort you put into these things, but you still make it look easy, AND are the most gracious of hosts on the day. Don't know how you do it. Thanks for all your hard work, buddy. Hope you had as good a time as we all did.

You guys lay the praise on thick, and certainly it's very much appreciated. But honestly, everyone is so great, as I've always said "the member make the meet".  In other words, all I really need to do is find a place that will let us in and tell you guys to show up.  You take care of the rest.
 

 

[GeorgeGoodman]

I would definitely be in for a mini meet. After meeting Vinnie and hearing the Isabellina I am pretty excited. To tell the truth I didn't really get to hear the LCD-2s and the Isabellina that well because it was kind of noisy in the room, so I could not hear the level of detail and resolution I know they are capable of. A quieter place to try them out along side my system would be fun.
 
 
Quote:

 
As always with these meets, it is hard to do "critical listening" because we all like to socialize as well as listen, so the noise floor goes up - but the fun goes up with it (hopefully most feel this way) and there is a lot of excitement.  Maybe we need to have a meet at an office environment that has those sound-treated cubicle walls or something

.    But you guys in NY, NJ, CT, or anywhere else can always contact me and make an appointment to visit RWA here in CT and visit my listening room for home audio, which has comfy leather chairs for headphone listening as well, or both.  Bring your own gear, make comparisons, and have fun here (this isn't a hi-fi store, so we don't need no stinkin' rules - just have fun and listen).  It will be best to set this up in the new year, because I'm backlogged into January and with the holidays and all, it's crazy.
 
 
 
Thanks again, everyone!
 
Vinnie

 

 

[Asr]

There are plenty more people that attended the meet who haven't yet posted impressions. This meet was packed, there should be lots of impressions here by now!

 
view of half of the meet room

Kerry's self-built KGTT

someone's stash of MFSL CDs

the table with the auction items

inside the RWA Isabellina

warrior05's Beyer DT990 Manufaktur in red w/ self-built wooden creations

Yikes running the auction

David Chesky (most notably of HDTracks.com)

Dinner at the diner: daveDerek, erikzen, Yikes, immtbiker, immtbiker's son (of the people facing the camera)

Dinner at the diner: unknown, Brownie Lady (immtbiker's SO), unknown, me, Ray Samuels, erikzen, El_Doug, revolink24 (of the people facing the camera)

 

[revolink24]

Nice pictures! That diner trip was interesting, pretty incredible that they managed to cram us all in on such short notice.  Although if you look closely in the lower picture, you can see Jude and Fang in the corner by themselves.

 

[Yikes]

It was a GREAT Meet! I'd like to thank EriK for an amazing job of organizing and hosting the meet, MOT's and others (Especially InnerSound (Jim)) for their generous donations for the "Not So Silent Auction", and Vinnie (RWA) for springing for lunch.
 
I'm not in the market for any Audio gear, so my listening was self limited. I wanted to compare the LCD-2 and HE-6 to my HE-5LE Headphones. On the RWA Amp/DAC system the HE-6 was stunning. I was surprised that the LCD-2 wasn't better, something about its presentation rubbed me the wrong way. I preferred my HE-5LE's to the LCD-2's on the RWA system.
 
What I was very pleased to discover was that on my system (Schiit Audio Asgard driven by an Exemplar SACD-3000 and Siltech cabling) I preferred the HE-5LE to the HE-6, LCD-2 and Beyer T1's. I suppose that the Asgard really likes my HE-5LE's; there's a synergy that at least to my ears is something special. I know that with other (Read Much more expensive) amps that the HE-6's and T1's are better than with the Asgard, but for the money the Asgard HE-5LE system (With a good source, got to have a good-great source) is stupid good!
 
And I Apologize for my over exuberance in ah.... some of my other discussions. It can not be said that I am not passionate about certain subjects, too much so at times. Friends can disagree, can't they?

 

[erikzen]

Quote:

Nice pictures! That diner trip was interesting, pretty incredible that they managed to cram us all in on such short notice.  Although if you look closely in the lower picture, you can see Jude and Fang in the corner by themselves.

Look even more closely and you can see Larry and Charles too.  That was actually the power table. 

 

[Scottsmrnyc]

Sorry that it took so long for me to respond about the Headfi NY Metro meet in White Plains.  It was indeed a good time.  It was great to see all my old friends and make some new ones as well.  I enjoyed listening to all of the equipment there.  The hotel in which is was located was just great and we should use it again specially if someone, other than me, wants to take a little intiative for a CanJam 2011 in NY.  I might want to help out but I would never want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member- as Groucho Marx once said.  Again thanks for the good time.

 

[Yikes]

 I'm surprised, not one comment on this photo? Tom, Ray, Jude and me (Ethan), all standing.
 

 

[daveDerek]

Quote:

 I'm surprised, not one comment on this photo? Tom, Ray, Jude and me (Ethan), all standing.

yeah, you'd think that at least one of you would have been on the floor by the end of the day or evening! 

 

[revolink24]

Quote:

 
And I Apologize for my over exuberance in ah.... some of my other discussions. It can not be said that I am not passionate about certain subjects, too much so at times. Friends can disagree, can't they?

No harm done, after all we needed some light dinner conversation! 

 It was a pleasure all the same.

 

[ralphp@optonline]

Sorry for the delay in posting my meet impressions and I have no even remotely valid excuse other than sheer laziness!
 
First off the “thank you”s:
 
Erik - organizer extraordinaire for a very smoothly run event.
 
Vinnie - for lunch
 
Ray, Peter, Vinnie, Fang & Brittany – what would we do without the support and dedication of these wonderful vendors.
 
Everyone who donated items to the auction and to Yikes for making the auction so much fun.
 
DaveDerek – for reminding me of what a great group of people made up the Head-fi community (he send me a PM personally asking me to attend the meet).
 
Impressions:
 
As stated by several people before me while the meets are lots of fun there are a few things which stand in the way of doing any really critical listening, namely noise, which cannot be helped since without the noise the meets won't be much fun, and chatting with old and new friends.
 
However in spite of the less than listening conditions I did manage to accomplish what I had hoped to do which was to give a listen to some of the new (at least to me) flagship headphones from various manufacturers. The Sennheiser HD800 is truly spectacular – clear, wide and deep! The Beyerdynamic T1 is also quite good and very comfortable (as are most Beyer 'phones). Both the HD800 and T1 work great with my Headroom Desktop amp, as does the Beyerdynamic T5P, the closed back, “portable” version of the T1. Speaking of the T5P it sounded incredible through bozebuttons' Cary amp, truly a perfect match. I also liked the sound of the HE-6s but aside from being difficult to drive they are also a bit heavy.
 
I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of high resolution sources at the meet. I know that bozebuttons had an SACD player with several choice SACDs and I had my Squeezebox Touch with some 24-bit/96kHz files loaded on it but other than that there didn't seem to be much in the way of hi-rez listening.
 
All in all it was an excellent meet and I had a blast seeing some old friends and making some new friends. I hadn't been to Head-fi meet since coming back from the Netherlands two years ago (I did go to a meet while in the Netherlands, which was very well run and very well attended) and now that I've taken the plunge I will of course be back for more! I'm already looking forward to seeing everyone at the NYC spring meet.

 

[bozebuttons]

Quote:

 
 
However in spite of the less than listening conditions I did manage to accomplish what I had hoped to do which was to give a listen to some of the new (at least to me) flagship headphones from various manufacturers. The Sennheiser HD800 is truly spectacular – clear, wide and deep! The Beyerdynamic T1 is also quite good and very comfortable (as are most Beyer 'phones). Both the HD800 and T1 work great with my Headroom Desktop amp, as does the Beyerdynamic T5P, the closed back, “portable” version of the T1. Speaking of the T5P it sounded incredible through bozebuttons' Cary amp, truly a perfect match. I also liked the sound of the HE-6s but aside from being difficult to drive they are also a bit heavy.
 
 

I  also thought the T5p was great out of the Cary,I tried to compare the T1 on the Cary as well but the noise level at the meet was to loud when I tried the T1,(which I know also works well with tubes).
The isolation of the T5p completely blocked out the meet noise letting the T5p strut its stuff.
To bad beyer didn't offer a preorder discount like they did on the T1.The T5p are definately on my Radar for future purchase,as I no longer have a closed can in my stable after selling my ED9s.
 
The Avenson Amp that ASR brought to the meet seemed like agood deal for the price ,& should be on members list in the $750 range.

 

[revolink24]

Quote:

Sorry for the delay in posting my meet impressions and I have no even remotely valid excuse other than sheer laziness!
 
First off the “thank you”s:
 
Erik - organizer extraordinaire for a very smoothly run event.
 
Vinnie - for lunch
 
Ray, Peter, Vinnie, Fang & Brittany – what would we do without the support and dedication of these wonderful vendors.
 
Everyone who donated items to the auction and to Yikes for making the auction so much fun.
 
DaveDerek – for reminding me of what a great group of people made up the Head-fi community (he send me a PM personally asking me to attend the meet).
 
Impressions:
 
As stated by several people before me while the meets are lots of fun there are a few things which stand in the way of doing any really critical listening, namely noise, which cannot be helped since without the noise the meets won't be much fun, and chatting with old and new friends.
 
However in spite of the less than listening conditions I did manage to accomplish what I had hoped to do which was to give a listen to some of the new (at least to me) flagship headphones from various manufacturers. The Sennheiser HD800 is truly spectacular – clear, wide and deep! The Beyerdynamic T1 is also quite good and very comfortable (as are most Beyer 'phones). Both the HD800 and T1 work great with my Headroom Desktop amp, as does the Beyerdynamic T5P, the closed back, “portable” version of the T1. Speaking of the T5P it sounded incredible through bozebuttons' Cary amp, truly a perfect match. I also liked the sound of the HE-6s but aside from being difficult to drive they are also a bit heavy.
 
I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of high resolution sources at the meet. I know that bozebuttons had an SACD player with several choice SACDs and I had my Squeezebox Touch with some 24-bit/96kHz files loaded on it but other than that there didn't seem to be much in the way of hi-rez listening.
 
All in all it was an excellent meet and I had a blast seeing some old friends and making some new friends. I hadn't been to Head-fi meet since coming back from the Netherlands two years ago (I did go to a meet while in the Netherlands, which was very well run and very well attended) and now that I've taken the plunge I will of course be back for more! I'm already looking forward to seeing everyone at the NYC spring meet.

You did see vcoheda's and Yikes's sources, right?

 

[Yikes]

I had my Exemplar SACD Player there. In the past I've brought my Exemplar (OPPO) BDP-83SE and an assortment of 24/192 DVD-A discs along with my PS Audio PWD and I found very little interest in anyone wanting to listen to my 24/192 titles. Aaron had his Exemplar (Oppo) BDP-83 that would play SACD and DVD-A. There's usually a few computer based rigs that can do up to 24/96, but since they tend to be USB based I tend to ignore them. (I'm not a USB fan).
 
I am in the process of ripping my Classic Records HDAD 24/192 and 24/96 DVD-A discs to my 4 TB music server. Unfortunately there is no chance of my hauling a 60 lb. server along with the necessary ancillaries and the PWD to a meet, I did it once a couple years ago and people ignored the system.