Here are few pictures from the meet!
Here is the picture of Moth in listening station 0 (powered by Denon DVD/combo player). I think I was actually drooling while I was listening. It sounded so fluid and refined, I wish I had a big enough checking balance to order one (plus a very forgiving wife for letting me buy such expensive toy
)
Picture of the listening station 1, you can see Sony MDR-CD3000, Grado RS-2, Audio Technica ATH-W1000, and Sony MDR-SA5000. Apple G4 labtop was hooked up via Airport express to power station 2.
Here is a picture of listening station 2, where PPX3 was powering up various equipment. You can also see Impedanzer for RKV MKII.
Now, this is for all you Singlepower fans out there. I think most of in the meeting currently owned one or more Singlepower amp (myself included). I didn't bother to bring my 6sn7 MP3 to the meeting. If I did, it would be like bringing in a peanut butter jelly sandwich to a hotel buffet. I personally don't think anyone would care to listening a stock MPX3 in this mini-meet (may be we are spoiled???). Here is the picture of listening station 3. From the top, MPX3 Slam, PPX3 Slam, Modified Sony SCD-C555ES SACD/CD player, 12 volt version of MPX3 (you can see the external power supply next to PPX3), and the bottom shelf was occupied by 2nd Sony C555ES. This station was rigged so that you can power two Singlepower amps with one source for quick A/Bing. I was using Senn HD650 to A/B between various Singlepower amps. There were like 5-6 pairs of HD650 in this meeting, 4 pairs were SACD_LOVER's. Anyways, as far as I can tell, SLAM PPX3 hit very hard. High extention was good on PPX3, but SLAM MPX3 was slightly more refined and sounded more fuller. Overall, SLAM MPX3 was my price dependent choice of amps in the meeting.
Here is a picture of listening station 4, where you can see silver GS-1, RKV MKII and Prehead.
Intially, we had some issues with GS-1 playing only one side (left channel only). Later we sort of resolved it, but GS-1 was producing audible hums. Overall, I felt GS-1 was quite nice. GS-1 sounded little warmer compare to Prehead (both 0 ohm and 120 ohm outputs). When I was comparing these two solid state amps, I think Prehead has slightly larger soundstage (both width and depth) and Prehead sounded slightly colder than GS-1. Overall, I favored Prehead due to its absolute blackness (no noise what-so-ever), extra high extension and more details. It is possible production GS-1 is just as capable as Prehead, but the particular sample I heard had little too much noise. We were using loopout of GS-1 to power Prehead, but Prehead was dead silent.
Here are pictures of some of headphones, DT-990, follwed by SA5K and W1K. DT990 was a pleasant surprise. It sounded somewhere inbetween Senn HD650 and Beyer DT-880. Bass was par to HD650, but DT990 has better high extension. Perhaps, Mikey01's recable did the wonders to DT990's sound?
I found SA5K to be quite a performer, but not superior to CD3K. I probably wouldn't rush out to get one. SA5K sounds slightly recessed in highs and little less damped in bass than CD3K. Overall, SA5K sounds fuller than CD3K by tiny margin, but I prefer CD3K's overall comfort. I do dig SA5K's look... perhaps when I visit Japan in few weeks, I got to pick myself up a pair?
Finally overview of station 3, 2 and 1.
Overall, I really liked Moth (price independent), but it was little out of my price range. Slam MPX3 is a significant improved MPX3 for those who prefer hard hitting bass. I briefly tried Slam MPX3 with RS-2 and it was awesome. Wish I can take one home with me, but it was a loaner. Anyways, thanks from bottom of my heart to SACD_LOVER for hosting another awesome mini-meet.
