Who could ask for anything more? A beautiful blue sky, birds singing, type of spring day. Where new life is blooming all around us, and the air smells fresh and clean. A day which also contained an event whose origins sprouted from a deeply rooted hobby that most of us spend inordinate hours/amounts of precious personal time, basking us in joy and solitude.
I’m sure that most of us audio enthusiasts will agree, that the day after a Head-Fi Meet we feel gobs of satiation, satisfaction and yes, we feel whole once again, and our dusty wallets need a refill. Good times with good friends. Precious memories.
A meet is nothing without the attendees and most of all, a wonderfully talented, well balanced host. We couldn’t get either of those things, so we settled for us, and Tom (Bozebuttons)! Well, we can always hope for next year
Also, equally as important, I send a special shout out and thanks to Jude and his wonderfully handsome moderating crew, for the small fact that without Jude and his “from whence it came” vision and forum aptly named “Head-Fi”, we would never be here having some much gosh dern fun. We should never forget that.
I walked in with wife (BrownieLady) and son (Jazz) in tow and entering the hall was like seeing a glowing light and walking into the gates of heaven. There was a tube-like glow at the doorway, and the smell of burning silicon in the air. An enthusiast walks into a meet, like a kid entering a candy store, not knowing which candy to try first, or which friend to kick tires and tell tales with. Everytime I go to a meet, I have a master plan on how I am going to start my plan of attack, but it never quite works out that way, because “like being in the Mafia” you get sucked back in and do your best to hold on for the ride, traversing the waves until the ocean of audio spews you out on the shoreline when it is finished with you, or the clock says it’s time to leave. “Please mom, can’t I just stay a little more? I’ll be good, I promise”
So I went in and walked right over to the Inner Sanctum table and the gang from “Turdy Turd and Turd” in Brooklyn. Fuhgettiboutit!
They had a wonderful lineup of headphone products, most of which I’ve touched previously, but there was a pair of Master & Dynamic circumaural headphones that caught my eye. I listened to Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” because I love to compare Stevie Nicks’ howling in the last 1/3
rd of the song to evaluate a components soundstage potential. The headphone was $399 and sounded good. I had one nitpick about it, that the bass was a little dark and congested, but I don’t know how many hours it had on it. That usually goes away in 200 hours on a properly made headphone.
Next, I walked over to my good friends and helpful audiophiles Andre (AOmega X) and Jamal (Herueyes). AOmega X is a true Head-Fier and he had a string of delicacies that were all banded together and I dare try to explain the setup. I can say that I listened to Andre’s Oppo HA-1 and then the same passage on his highly modded Decware Zen TorII MkIII (sp?) amp and then never looked back. They are $500 apart from each other, but AOmega X has a keeper on his hands (after 25 more attempts at passionate modding, of course
).
I spy with my eye, Vinnie Rossi and his lovely wife over at the Red Wine Audio table. Vinnie was exhibiting his latest vision and creation, the RWA Lio. You have to realize that Vinnie’s full time job is not an amp builder, he does that to pay the bills. His full time job is to be a genius and visionary, creating new paths for future generations of amp builders to follow. He sees things that us mere mortals can even possibly conceive of, and puts them into metals and components. He has always been on the leading edge track of building components that run off the grid and, he has taken that to infinity and beyond with the Lio. One listen will have you say, “now I know what he is talking about…wow”. I paired them with the very impressive Mr. Speakers “Ether” Planar Magnetic headphones, and they proved to be a pleasant match. I’m sure that there will be many write-ups about the Ethers in all of the meet threads, so I digress.
I will continue with part 2 later (I want to go out and enjoy that beautiful spring air that I was talking about), but I feel compelled to end with commenting on “Hail, the Almighty Kerry” and his latest creation.
Kerry is my favorite mad scientist, EVAHHH! He surely comes from another planet, one that is filled with minds that we will never understand. He is on a constant road, which perpetually challenges his own intellect to build it smaller, better, and cooler. For those who don’t know my buddy Kerry, he is a Manhattan-ite who builds his own one-off amps on his Manhattan apartment terrace and a small room that was once known as “his wife’s dining room table”. Besides a table and a fire extinguisher, Kerry has an awesome array of jigs and lathes and new world ideas that Elan at Tesla wishes he had. Kerry has been working with Dr. Gilmore’s designs building off-shoots of the Blue Hawaii and T2 and KGSS. Everyone has been different and better and more innovative. This is a hobby for him, he does not wish to sell his amps.
I listen to Kerry’s latest project (which was finished 15 minutes before leaving for the meet, as are all of his iterations). This was a single box version of the KGST with chassis completely milled and assembled by him, much to his wife’s dismay. Very low heat dissipation and butter soft sound that is as smooth as Barbra Streisand’s legs “Like buttah”! I listened to the “Big Phat Band”, Sing Sang Sung, on his Stax O2’s which are too bleh! for me and am looking forward to sticking an SR-009 on that puppy. Great album by the way. Great amp. No ifs, ands, and or buts! He is one person that you never really say "Keep your day job", to. It is an honor to share ideas and napkin drawn schematics with.
Pics to follow and a lot more 0’s and 1’s-
Everything is IMHO and YMMV, of course…
) but seriously I appreciate it. I can't wait to see you all next meet!
