[gsferrari]

LOL...

I am still in Tampa - you guys have a good time. Dont eat too much Pizza and barf on all the nice gear. Keep an eye out for Wayne...he throws his R10's around so if anyone catches it - you get to keep it

Dang...I could have mailed the Rudistor for you guys to check out...or sent it in with Wayne...

I hate last minute changes - but I guess I already said that...whatever

Remember me

Lemme in on the good deals that *may* come through...

After all - I am participating in spirit...

Cant wait for the meet reports - better make LOTS of pics

 

[emelius]

for those that decided to go the HE 2004 show you can go to the gingko audio booth & try to win me one of these...thanks

...i could really use one...

 

[kartik]

Double post!
See Below.

 

[kartik]

Firstly, There was no pizza.
Only the most amazing gear on the planet.
A KGSS, An orpheus, (And a baby orpheus), Several outstanding Cary amps, A ridiculously modded Maestrobater, A couple of PS-1s, an R-10, Several HP-1000s, and the entire line up of Singlepower monsters, Emmelines and part of the headroom lineup (which included, a very interesting wireless solution from Grado and Freedream). The lineup also included several Meridian, Cary, Theta and Esoteric digital sources which sounded fabulous, not to mention a variety of cables and other assorted tweaks.
Thanks to Bozebuttons for making the meet possible. Also thanks for everyone who showed up and made it such a ripping experience.
More later.

 

[tom hankins]

Any thoughts on some of the gear you heard?

 

[kartik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins Any thoughts on some of the gear you heard?

Its interesting how synergies are so important in what you hear. IMHO the best sound I heard in this meet was the R10 on my phillyaudio amp. But this is probably because I was listening to a track which I was more familiar with than those I heard on the other gear. Strangely the PS-1 had a strong synergy with the other-worldly Melos but was not that far from the HP-1000. I also liked the Orpheus much more than either the Stax Omega II or the Baby Orph. This was being driven by the KGSS. Among the other more "real" cans, I liked the RS-1s in combination with the Singlepower Supra and also enjoyed listening to the Sennheiser HD650 with the RKV. The HD-600 is quite another story. It sounded very mediocre in comparison to the 650s. Surprisingly, the HD-580 driven by one of the Cary amp/ Meitner combo sounded much better than even the HD650-RKV combo but this is really a difficult comparison to make.
The most interesting rig was a Meitner modded SACD with an EMM DAC6 and the KGSS going out to the Orpheus. Unfortunately I was not familiar with the music so I really would find it very hard to make any objective calls on it. I will say this, that it sounded very nice indeed. Lan really liked the SACD1000-Maestrobater HP1000 combination but I found it fairly unexciting. I did have a great time with my own rig, trying out several new headphones including the PS-1, the HP-1000s, the R-10.
I didn't really like the W3000 or the Ultrasone - "whatever-uber-model" on any of the rigs I heard them on. IMO, all the source on display were excellent but the Meitner SACD 1000 is definitely top of the heap.
I did listen to tracks I was familiar with on the MPX-3, the PPX-3 and the Supra using RS-1 and a CD3000 but I wasn't really thrilled by any of them. Its not like I didn't like them but with boze's gear sitting around it's hard to get excited about anything. I didn't get to really try out either of the Mastros or the HR-2/stealths. I also want to make it very clear I really didn't enjoy the CD3000s a all and found them very artificial sounding.
My ranking overall would be:
Headphones:
1. R10
2. Orpheus
3. PS-1
4. HD 580

Amplifier
1. KGSS
2. Cary 300b amp
3. Melos "crazy-ass" maestrobater amp

Source
1. SACD 1000/ Meitner combo
2. SACD 1000
3. Cary

 

[bifcake]

What a fantastic meet!!! I had a ball!!!

It was great to see some of the old faces and meet some new folks as well. They seemed like a great bunch of guys (their musical tastes not withstanding

Bozebuttons has done it again! Thanks for organizing this. You da man!

To me, the HE90's driven by the modded Gilmore amp coming off the Meitner DAC was the ultimate ultimate. The Cary 300SEI feeding the HD580's with Silver Dragon cable was a very close second and the same phones with Equinox cables were a very close third.

There were some very interesting discoveries made vis-a-vis cables. I'll be posting my impressions on the cable forum. I also did a comparison of the HD580/equinox driven by the Cary SLP-88 and the same rig driven by the Cary 300SEI. I'll be posting my impressions with that regard as well.

BTW, the SinglePower PPX3 is out of this world!!! It's the most musical amp I've heard in the price range. Simply wonderful.

The Stealth amp seems really nice too, but I didn't get a chance to spend any kind of quality time with it.

In any event, I walked away from this meet very, very happy.

 

[bozebuttons]

Guys best to post further Impressions of the meet in the members lounge ,a thread has already been started there.