[Hellenback]

First, as others already have, I want to thank Ryan and all the people involved with putting this meet together. I had a great time and heard most of the headphones I have been coveting since I got back into using them. It will make me much more confident when I finally decide on the ones I buy.
I met some of the friendliest people ever and hope to develop some ongoing friendships with at least some of the people I met. Although new to headfi I have to say I felt like anything but a stranger and wish I could have stayed for the after party. Maybe next time.
The sheer amount of gear to audition made it impossible to really listen to everything so I picked out some unattainable (for me) setups just to hear what can be achieved with today's technology, along with some more modest setups I might consider buying.
As I imagined, Ray Samuels' gear was astounding and along with Jay's (philodox) setup put me in audio heaven for too short a time. I now know for sure what l will spend my money on when I win the lottery!

I wish I could remember the names of everyone I met but the fact that everyone had two makes it even harder for an old man like me with ADD!
I do remember Ryan (Glendale V), Jay (philodox), Brian (Canuck 57), Jason (setup next to my dinky stuff) James from Practical devices (great little amp!) and a couple of faces that I will remember the names to a soon as I post!
The people mentioned and remembered made it an especially great day and made me feel like a real member of headfi although I've only just joined.
The gear was great, the people greater. Thanks again to everyone for a day I will remember and a short course in headphones and headamps. I am looking forward to learning more and working towards the best setup I can afford!

Best regards to everyone, Tony (Hellenback)

P.S. Thanks for the great pictures and links. Like that Massive Attack! (the music). Is it Jay's gear that has the same name?

 

[The_Duke_Of_Eli]

We NEED to set another date now. Not even 24 hours after this meet had ended, Mr. Peanut has offered to open up his house to us for another late summer meet. And yes, for those of you who joined the dinner brigade, I did secure just today a pair of Red beauties, and now Mr. Peanut is throwing a meet. :Red Magic HD595:.

P.S.: C'est qui qui rit maintenant laurent?

 

[rlanger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Duke_Of_Eli /img/forum/go_quote.gif We NEED to set another date now. Not even 24 hours after this meet had ended, Mr. Peanut has offered to open up his house to us for another late summer meet. And yes, for those of you who joined the dinner brigade, I did secure just today a pair of Red beauties, and now Mr. Peanut is throwing a meet. :Red Magic HD595:. P.S.: C'est qui qui rit maintenant laurent?

Another summer meet would be awesome.

I'm really bummed that I couldn't make it becuase it looks like it was a great time had by all. I was hopping I'd at least be able to stop by for an hour or two, but in the end I just couldn't get away from home yesterday.

 

[pbalcer]

Hi everybody,

I would like join others thanking Ryan, Nick and Micah for organizing yesterday's meet. It was an excellent meet and I really enjoyed it. It was well organized and a great chance to listen to plenty of equipment.

But what was the most important, it was a chance of meeting other people sharing the same hobby. I had a great time chatting with Ray Samuels and Peter McAlister about their amps. I would like to thank them for comming to the meet! It was really a pleasure talking to you gentlemen.

The equipment highlights (my very subjective point of view

):

1) Ray Samuel's B52 tube amplifier - AMAZING piece of equipment! The quasi-military look is great. The amp looks better than in the pictures. It is literally built like a tank (Ray stopped us from performing drop-to-the-floor test, though

) and uses only high quality components. But the biggest thing about this amp is its sound. I have never heard a tube amp sounding like B52. The bass was very strong and controlled, the mids and highs were silky smooth. It was a great pleasure listening to this amp.

And I kept comming back there several times during the meet.

2) Ray's headphones Sony R10 - I was often wondering about these headphones when reading posts on Head-Fi. Yesterday I had a chance to listen to them. I must admit I quite liked them. In fact, I liked them a lot.

Unlike new Sony's "reference" headphones (Qualias = garbage) that I also had a chance to listen to, the R10 experience was very pleasing.

3) Ray's CD player Meridian 508 - I love this CD player! It is a small, inconspicuous looking machine but it is a great audio source.

Thanks to Ray's kind permission I had a chance to listen to it also through my own amps so I could compare it with my Shanling CD player. The Meridian rocked!
I and Oriel also compared his excellent DAC (better than DAC in my Shanling) with the audio output of the Meridian using Ray's flagship solid state amp. Well, Meridian definitely had more dynamic range, the sound was smoother and more "3D" with better imaging. Although Oriel could hear the difference, he didn't think it was that big - but he was using GS1000 and, besides, my music recordings were better than his.

4) Peter McAlister's tube amp with electrostatic headphones - this combo sounded "weird" (but not in the bad sense). What I mean is that I only had known dynamic headphones. This was the first time in my life I heard electrostat headphones.

Electrostats were considerably faster and lighter than dynamic headphones I listen to on daily basis (HD650, K701, RS1). But they still had very nice bass. Overall I was impressed by the speed, level of detail, balance, overal smoothness and "lighteness" of the sound. I would really like to be able to affod a pair of nice electrostat headphones with good tube amp... Maybe one day...

5) Peter McAlister's tube amp with turntable as the source - let me just say this: analog vinyl and tubes are far superior to CD players and solid state amps when it comes to the sound quality. Everybody knows that the 44.1kHz sampling rate was a product of compromise between sound quality and the state of technology _decades_ ago and it is woefully inadequate for providing high resolution signal at higher frequncies (samples compression when approaching half of the sampling frequency; Nyquist criteria). And this is precisely the reason why string instruments, cymbals, etc. will never sound natural out of standard CD. Period. With vinyl, on the other hand, the recordings are unhindered and sound the way they were recorded from the bottom to the top of the frequency range.

6) Renato's DIY tube amp - that thing really souded amazing. Renato told me it was based on Aikido circuit but he did few modifications to it. I think this is the type of sound signature I will be aiming at achieving with my next DIY headphone tube amp project. I was really enjoying the music through this amp. Renato, I think you should really put that thing into a nice case so the next time people won't be mistaking it for a bomb.

7) PPX3 - finally I had a chance to listen to it.

It sounds great. Not as great as B52 (nothing does sound that great, BTW) and the sound is slightly weaker (less power?) than Renato's "bomb". But the detail was there, the smoothness was there, etc. Very nice amp indeed and I really enjoyed listening to music through it.


Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think that the funniest comment came from pbalcer who had just finished listening to HD650+B52+Meridian and then came over to hear the K340+Massive Attack+LessLoss+Eastsound. He said that I need to upgrade my source to a Meridian as it was clearly better... ummm, what about the headphones and the amp Peter!?!? Besides, who could trust the opinion of a Sennheiser fanboy?

And that is what you get for just trying to be polite...

(just kidding

)

Cheers!
Peter

Edit: The Ray Samuel's flagship solid state amp I mentioned was the Apache. But I still prefer tube amps.

 

[GlendaleViper]

Well everyone, that's another meet in the bag! I'm glad that, despite some hiccups in the morning (

) it seems like everyone had fun, which is of course the point.

I'll start out with some snaps:



The Melos/Grado table in partial glory. Only showing about half of what was there!




A little of the sexy, black and shiny stuff.




1) RedLeader (Micah) falling into some K340s (Think those are Jay's?) 2) FallenAngel (Pavel) wondering where the fun went with those MS Pros

3) The perennial double decker shot, courtesy of Canuck57 (Brian) 4) Larryminator (Laurent) with the Qualias





Ray Samuels' Apache, B-52 & Raptor




looser101's (Renato) Aikido amp and a longtime sweetheart of mine. I didn't have the heart to tell her how much weight she's put on since I last saw her.

The McAlister Massive attack, with swt61's amazing woodwork and Pixel Pusher's (Kevin) McAlister amp with custom case.




Some shots At the tables.




The Annapurnas Beyer Manufaktur DT880s and a beautiful set of Headphile HHF-1s.




Canuck57's Heed Canamp and Pixel Pusher's Stax system and Raysonic CD player.




Ray and Sam (siicom)

 

[cooperpwc]

Fantastic meet, everyone. My first but not my last.

The B-52 rocks.

 

[Mr_Penut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Duke_Of_Eli /img/forum/go_quote.gif We NEED to set another date now. Not even 24 hours after this meet had ended, Mr. Peanut has offered to open up his house to us for another late summer meet. And yes, for those of you who joined the dinner brigade, I did secure just today a pair of Red beauties, and now Mr. Peanut is throwing a meet. :Red Magic HD595:. P.S.: C'est qui qui rit maintenant laurent?

mother of ****

you found them

this will have to be a mini meat, my parents backyard isn't very big

 

[Killercrush]

Wow !!! What a nice first meet. Kudos to Ryan for taking all it's free time to make this meet a complete success, for hosting me and Laurent in his nice apt. and for repairing the Mapletree ( Wich broke again and that Redleader was kind enough to repair it DIY style, on the floor ) and the Ariston phono cable. I'm really pleased that I meet him

He's the best !

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Duke_Of_Eli Me and Ray Samuels had the same opinion of the "3"s, although that's a dumb name, so they're just the UM3s to me. They're simply the best universal fit IEM ever made. Although me and omedelovitz came to the same conclusion that they probably will benefit from burn-in.

This pair had enough hours on them... burn-in, yeah right ?! It's the prototype version that has been made in May, didn't you see the tag on the wire ? Anyway, haha, I tried them at the very last hour of the meet and I must say I was really impressed with the 7-8 mins I spent with them... more to come later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omendelovitz I took such a beating for my support of my GS 1000's [...] Finally, a cheers to Laurent and Julien from la belle province, who endured us anglophones for nearly 12 hours! I really appreciated those SR 100's - time to build a custom Al housing for them

When I borrowed them from you for like 15-20 mins , the room was really quiet (i.e raffle time) so I had the chance to really embrace their flavor and I must say that on the Melos DVT + Melos Sha-Gold, they were really really sexy... more impressions later !

Yeah, It's been a great ride for us, pretty long and too much of a straight line road. Sure, I must ask Rhydon for the customs SR-100's housings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philodox The Quebec SR100's. Not sure who's pair I listened to, but they were excellent out of the Melos CD player [gorgeous unit] and the Melos amp. It is too bad we didn't have an HP-2 on hand to do a comparison. Jason getting schooled on Melos + Grado synergy

It was my pair that I lend you. Do you have further comments about how you liked them ? It would have been so nice to A/B them with some HP-2 but we didn't have the pleasure to do so, maybe next time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larryminator I'm back in Quebec! Woke up at 5:00AM this morning because Julien was working at 12:00. Damn almost got an accident 2 times because I was sleeping/driving.

Yeah, it was dangerous !!! We were like so fricking tired ! We only slept for 6-7 hours in 2 days. Anyway, Thank you very much Laurent for driving me back to my place just in time ! I was at work at 11:59

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by purgatos I think that I might get a pair of AKG 501s sometime down the road.

Me too, did you tried the recabled one on the Phillips/unknown amp ?



It was one of my favorites rigs out there, I wasn't expecting that it would be that great, who owns this setup ? I really liked the amp too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Renato It was nice to see the Montreal boys make the long trip to Toronto for the meet. Really nice guys and it was great fun to talk to them about their vintage Grados. I'm hoping we'll see them again in the future.

For sure, It was nice to meet you to ! Unfortunately, I didn't take the time to listen to your amp so we just might meet again sometime soon. Maybe you could mod my Melos

too.

It's nice to finally put some faces on name tags and I must say that I really enjoyed talking to Ray and Peter. I'm so glad they could make it. : )

Also, I got a lot of mini-reviews coming soon and all sort of stuff like that.

Julien

 

[GlendaleViper]

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who attended and contributed generously by allowing others to listen to their beloved rigs. I think it's safe to say that our goal to provide a central focus on home equipment was a resounding success (ahem, unlike the split-room idea). There was so much truly drool-worthy gear ready to sample it would have been difficult to hear it all for more than a fleeting moment (even across the marathon 11 hours)!

To Peter & Igor, I'm glad we got to introduce you to the... unique format of a Toronto Head-Fi meet. It was a pleasure meeting you both and an absolute trip at the same time (folks, this duo is as much a wisecracking tour de force as they are builders of some wonderful tube amps)!

The Stax Gamma Pro and EA-6 combo was truly amazing and (along with Kevin's Stax setup), my first taste of a full-blooded electrostatic headphone). I can state with confidence that the myth of 'stats being incapable of strong bass is just that. Their airy, but somehow also dark presentation was a very different flavour compared to dynamics. Pleasing, but curious. I can definitely see myself buying a modest electrostatic setup in the future to compliment my main dynamic rig.

I spent a good amount of time marveling with Igor at how great my (up until that point, disappointing) Pro-Ject Debut III turntable could sound, playing through the new McAlister ML-33(?) phono-/line-stage. We both agree that the true power of the vinyl media is best reproduced through speakers but just the same, my previously unlistenable-through-cans analogue rig was amazingly sweet and musical. I have too much invested in redbook to say this with total seriousness, but this masterful amplifier could inspire a complete abandonment of digital media altogether. Seriously.

Ray, I want to thank you for making the long trip from Skokie to be with us yesterday. Your dedication to help make this a great meet is truly indicative of your passion for this hobby and it wouldn't have been the same without you. The Raptor and B52 are truly wonderful sounding amplifiers and that Meridian is just as smooth as silk...

...but that Apache. My god what a wonderful piece of kit! It sounds like I'm in league with Oriel on this one because that thing was just butter. No, butter with gravy. I think I might have spoiled myself a little by starting out with those R10s though. That Meridian pumping out one of Ray's incredible A Capella recordings through The Apache and into those monster wooden cups was a revelation I completely unexpected; and for which I was unprepared. If I could ever get my system anywhere close to what I heard there, I would be a very happy man indeed. Thankfully, with one of my own recordings and through the RS-1, I still managed to foot-tap and grin like an idiot from start to finish. I really can't say I expected to like this system more than the B52 (also wonderful, by the way), let alone as much as I did.

Sam (marcopolo.ca), thank you for everything. You were instrumental in securing a pair of Westone 3s (among many others) and of course, for turning Peter McAlister on to the meet. Your generosity is much appreciated and I hope you had a good time meeting with everyone, especially as a fellow enthusiast.

Renato, thanks for the DAC loaner. I'll be giving it a run over the next few days. Those MS Pros definitely left me happy with the RS-1 but they're really quite nice, despite a much more pronounced difference between its Grado cousin than I had been expecting. My analogy remains that there are a number of subtle changes that add up to a fairly significant signature change.

Of course, the "bomb" (thanks Peter

), a few times now a focal point of my listening, was sounding better than ever. I do think you could have gone with some bigger caps... *koff* ...but I look forward to hearing it in a quieter environment, where those (and the many other) refinements can be better appreciated. Until then.

A special thanks to Nick (The_Duke_Of_Eli) and Micah (RedLeader) for all their help in organizing, and also to Kevin (Pixel Pusher), Jay (philodox), Renato (looser101) and Oriel (omendelovtz) for essentially acting as moderators for the event - and without my prompting, might I add. You may not know it, but your experience and friendliness to other Head-Fiers goes a long way to help keep me from running around anymore than I have to.

Oriel and Peter, the KICAS headamp is a great sounding little unit and definitely set to be a competitor. It was a very different flavour than my little Eddie Current but certainly sounded as competent. Despite the differences, it still suited the RS-1 well, I thought. Congratulations!

Laurent (Larryminator) and Julien (Killercrush), I hope you had a pleasant stay in my tiny, gear-stuffed apartment. Despite the heat, noise and lack of sleep, it was great having you (and drooling all over those Melos and Joe G. vintages) and I'll be enjoying those Belle Gueules over the next few days. You guys are true fanatics with a great collection going and I'm glad you had a great time at your first meet here in Toronto.

I'm going to pack it in for now... it's about a thousand degrees in my apartment and I've had about 6 hours of sleep since Friday. I've most certainly forgotten to comment on a million different things, but I'll post those as they come to me.

For now, goodnight, and to everyone in attendance,

[size=large]Thank You![/size]

 

[GlendaleViper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Killercrush /img/forum/go_quote.gif Me too, did you tried the recabled one on the Phillips/unknown amp ? It was one of my favorites rigs out there, I wasn't expecting that it would be that great, who owns this setup ? I really liked the amp too.

Wow! Make sure you let him know that then - those were provided by Rasonho (Andrew, from Hong Kong) and were made by a mainland Chinese DIYer. Bold impressions indeed!

 

[GlendaleViper]

Damn, I knew I'd forget something! To the lovely wives of Ray, Jacob and Joe, thank you for supporting your husbands' insane hobbies. And, (all three coming in on long trips from the 'States,) defying the stereotype that the condition known as audiofever is an ailment best treated apart from the significant other.

Perhaps next time around, we can provide some kind of entertainment while the boys geek out, like an IKEA style ball-room and playground.

 

[doxaman]

Hey! Just kicking off this thread, I'll post impressions later.
I had a great time, many thanks to all those involved with setting it up! There was an amazing amount of gear.
I think the best session I had was with with Ray's wooden Sonys and the Apache, a whole level of sound I know I will never be able to reproduce without winning the lottery!
The heat was getting to me around 3:00

but I had to sitck around for a while longer since my Tomahawk and E500s were getting played with

I'm glad I did stick around though I finally got to hear some vinyl & tubes, too bad the turntable wasn't stable, it was fun hearing Pink Floyd again (I wish I hadn't thrown that album out!)
Now it's started, I just upgraded to AKG 701s and I'm tempted to throw my "now officially Awful sounding" HD570s out my 12th story window

 

[immtbiker]

It looks like you guys had a great time and had some awesome equipment that hasn't been showcased too much anywhere before.

Wish I was there.

Meets are a large part of what makes Head-Fi so great!

 

[chesebert]

ah..finally have some time to sit down and write my impressions. First thing first, I want to thank Glendale Viper and all the organizers whom I want to thank but the thread is about impressions so I will just forgo the formalities

I arrived late and after I was all set up on top of looser101's Musical Hall CDP. It was like 3:00PM when I finally settled down and had a chance to do some comparisons.

Since I was situated right next to Ray, well, Ray's gear would be the 1st to get judged

Before I go into impressions, I just want to point out that I used my own headphone (K701) and CDs (jazz vocal, violin, symphony, jazz piano) so I can at least control some of the variables in my comparisons.

Meridian 508->Apache->K701
I listened to the jazz vocal and symphony with the combo. The first impression was extremely smooth sound. The tone of the instruments were mostly correct. Soundstage is good. Instrument separation was great, although I find there is less depth to the music, especially on the symphony disc. I like the coherent nature of the amp wrt frequencies, there isn't a section of frequency that stands out. During the heavy passages the amp resolved the bass fairly well, and was overall a pleasure to listen to. Couple criticisms however: 1. The amp lack the last bit of transparency, it is mostly apparent during the jazz vocal and also violin solo. The midrange is where the problem lies, rather than problem, I guess it really is not transparent enough (like a veil/haze separating me from the artist).


Meridian 508->Apache->R10
Same verdict as with K701, great on everything except lacking that midrange transparency.

Meridian 508->B52->K701
Oh..what can I say, K701 sounds thin, and cold with this amp. B52 is so accurate, so precise, so flat, K701 is just not a good match with it. Yes there is sibilance. I have to say I never liked B52 with K701; the last time I heard B52 was at the Detroit meet, it was billy's balanced K701 out of B52. Just not my coup of tea. OTOH, HD600 matches extremely well with B52; I was extremely impressed with the balanced HD600 as I was equally impressed with Billy's setup at the Detroit meet - also a balanced HD600. But, yes the big but, HD600 is not 100% transparent in the mid, not the fault of the amp, but just merely the flavor of the headphone.

Meridian 508->B52->R10
ah..this combo is excellent. I was strongly insisted by Ray to listen to some extremely sibilant stuff with this combo, needless to say, I was impressed by how well B52 extended that high frequency to make the sibilance almost disappear with R10. Since I didn't get a chance to listen to my own material with this combo, I would have listen to them again at the next meet.

Presonus CS -> DV 332 -> R10
oh yes..I was lucky enough to have R10 all to myself driven from my own setup for a good 20-30 min

Before I give any impressions, I like to point out my amp was semi broken at the meet. At least one of the output tubes went bad and I was having a hard time driving my K701 with it. The reason I didn't post anything til now is because when I got back home 1AM, there was that pair of new output tubes I bought; put the tubes in and my amp came back to life...and I listened til .....to late..or early, and was pretty much dead today

enough about that, on with the impressions! Let's just say after spending good chunk of time with R10 and DV332, I was sold on R10 being the only headphone I would ever need. DV 332, even in its semi broken state, drove R10 so well, that I was actually enjoying music. R10 did everything right. R10's bass is arguably one of its best assets; it's articulate, deep, slamming when needed, it has all the merits of the K701 + HD650 bass and none of their shortcomings. The mid range, oh..my...I can reach out and touch the singer, touch the violinist, just simply touch stuff (I don't actually touch performers in real life

The treble, was smooth, extended with lots of textures, on one of the violin pieces, which I believe was played on a Strat, the high notes is just full of texture and the sound of wood was portrait beautifully. I had a chance to listen to a real strat (in possession of one of my friends) 10in in front of me, so I really know what those godly instruments sounds like

- better than anything I have heard out of any system, period.

My final conclusion is - time to start a R10 fund

Ray warned me it will take me 10 years to get one....we'll see about that

Another amp that was extremely impressed with was Aikado by looser101. It is simply an amazing amp. I think it probably is one of the best amp I have heard at the meet. I must spent atleast half an hour with that amp at the wee hour of the meet - I even unpacked my K701 just so I can hear it with my own headphone. The amp did almost everything right, and nothing wrong. I do like to point of that the bass could use some improvements (quantity) as with the mid-range (more transparent than apache, but not 100% transparent..more like 92%

. Yes I am nitpicking here.

Go around the table, the next amp/can on the chopping block is the Massive Attack and K340. I used my own music so at least I am very very familiar with the recording. I like the combo with some reservations. The mid was about 85% transparent, and high was excellent, the problem with the combo is IMO clearly in its bass presentation. The bass has this odd frequency anomaly in the 35-45hz range where I feel there is small amount of distortion. The overall bass lacked definition, and was not as articulate as I would have liked. Not quite my coup of tea I am afraid.

And finally SP PPX. I have wanted to hear this amp for a long time. I was not thrilled, but figuring this is the 'worst' amp SP has to offer, I certain have alot to look forward to with the Supra and SDS. PPX lacked almost every area of the hi-fi parameter. Not bad, but not great either; could be the source though.

Couple fly-by impressions of EC/SS, great with RS-1, could have used a STEPS

well worth the asking price, you can even call it a bargain if you plan to mate it with Grado.

Mapletree, I like it, didn't spend much time with it, but it drove my K701 very well, and I can see I could be happy with one of their higher lines.

Alas, I didn't really find an amp that I wanted buy, although I tried to make an offer for a HD650, but was refused clearly and outright

Thank you all for let me listen to your gears. I stayed til the end and hated myself for not coming earlier.

 

[rasonho]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Me too, did you tried the recabled one on the Phillips/unknown amp ? It was one of my favorites rigs out there, I wasn't expecting that it would be that great, who owns this setup ? I really liked the amp too. Julien

Thanks for your audition, and which amp you like better, 2 amps have different characters, the small one sounds warmmer and thicker while the big one more analytical.

By the way, thanks to Ryan for all his effort and let us had a really great time.