This meet was kinda surreal for me. Getting on the road 4AM. Stopping at a Bigfoot Truckstop on the way to PDX. Going to VooDoo Doughnuts. Where do you PDX'ers eat before 830 am? Eater and Yelp did not help. Finally finding Mapleleaf cafe. A block from the venue. Steak and eggs for 10 bucks, very awesome. Eating with musiqboi and grizz was cool, little premeet festivities.
Finally getting to the meet, seeing a few faces I have met before. Ken from ALO next to me, Seth from Bradley Engineering, And in infamous Head-fier @sachu, That Bum Made an appearance...lol. Before I knew it, it was almost a mini Seattle meet. We did bring some great gear. @labrown with his odessey amp rig, @Muziqboy with his very tweaked rig, @Soundsgoodtome with his rig, @miceblue with stax, Even Travis came. It is always great to see @Doc B. and Queen Eileen,( took over his office a week before). Hammy (@HamSandwich) is a PDX'er but he has been coming to Seattle meets for years. Really used to seeing this people. In PDX was nice a change of scenery.
Was pleasantly surprised how many peeps wanted to audition my rig. Hotel California just works as a audition track. The face everyone made with the drum kicked them in the face. Everybody did it.
My rig is not magical. Just did 100's of hours of homework, and tried stuff along the way. With all the Seattle meets, am able to run ideas between head-fiers and hear what works and what doesn't. Anyway back to the meet.
Was cool seeing an exclusive portable gear table, been a long time for me. Listening to torques tuneable headphones. I want that mod on all my headphones.... Really! Very cool tweek. Was nice talking to the PDX'ers. Great to experience some new thought's. @grizzlybeast out did himself with 5 boxes of VooDoo Doughnuts. Yeah us Seattle Head-fiers love us some VooDoo Doughnuts. Just like PDX'ers love going to Seattle Breweries.
Props to Zac for putting this together. Word of the day "Carpet" maybe next time? @zach915m You will have to come to a Seattle meet. We eat good and really have a good time at these meets, we even eat and have a few adult beverages afterwards.
It was great to see Noble, and the campfire table. Really afraid to get back into portable gear, just to easy to listen to.
If we can get PDX'ers excited for another "Meet in the Middle" I can make it happen easy. Did it once already. Great MOT venue. Next Seattle meet in July.
Just a few thoughts
@BIG POPPA I got a new breakfast spot thanks to you. Seattle aint supposed to come and show us our own town lol. Ill be up to seattle let me know the next meet. Im glad you guys came down. my post is finished, really looking forward to some pics!!! and like @sbradley02 said next year... if I am still here that is!
Wish more people had stopped by to try my portable gear. The big draw was desktop gear. Can't say I was too surprised, but I'm more portable focused so I was hoping you know.
So grizzlybeast: It's Mt. Scott Community Center, not Mt. Hood Comm. College. My kids take swim lessons there, so I've got the name down after a few years
I think I said it already, but please check Campfire Audio Andromeda, Lee. That was easily the standout to me as a portable focused headfi'er. Fantastic IEM!
My takeaway was that many of the people prefer brighter setups than I do. Man alive, some of the setups that others just loved seemed to drill piercing holes in my eardrums. Again, a good example of how differently we all hear things and how much personal preference reigns.
Wish more people had stopped by to try my portable gear. The big draw was desktop gear. Can't say I was too surprised, but I'm more portable focused so I was hoping you know.
So @grizzlybeast: It's Mt. Scott Community Center, not Mt. Hood Comm. College. My kids take swim lessons there, so I've got the name down after a few years
I think I said it already, but please check Campfire Audio Andromeda, Lee. That was easily the standout to me as a portable focused headfi'er. Fantastic IEM!
My takeaway was that many of the people prefer brighter setups than I do. Man alive, some of the setups that others just loved seemed to drill piercing holes in my eardrums. Again, a good example of how differently we all hear things and how much personal preference reigns.
Well I hope you heard the HD650 there... if you didn't then you missed out. Specially on the Teton. oh I forgot to mention Fleasbaby's headphones. lemme go back and fix that too.
Well I hope you heard the HD650 there... if you didn't then you missed out. Specially on the Teton. oh I forgot to mention Fleasbaby's headphones. lemme go back and fix that too.
I agree that little Stax 252S driving the SR-009 sure sounded pleasant. Surprisingly so.
The bass on the SR-009 fleshes out a lot more on a Kevin Gilmore level amp as opposed to the entry level Stax unit. Also a little digital parametric EQ does wonders to tap down a slight presence region hot spot on the 009. I use a -1.5dB @ 1400hz with a Q=4 with Audrivana 2.5 on my Mac Mini to good effect.
Well I hope you heard the HD650 there... if you didn't then you missed out. Specially on the Teton. oh I forgot to mention Fleasbaby's headphones. lemme go back and fix that too.
Just wanted to add that the bottlehead Crack a two sounded awesome. It was next to a fully tweeked out bottlehead crack and sounded just as good if not better stock. Cheaper than making out a bottlehead crack yet just as good. It was pretty fast sounding with good clarity. To me it sounded like an exceptional value!
I enjoyed the meet very much, and like a few others, it was my first time at one of these. I heard a bunch of things I hadn't before, such as Ether, Ether C, HE-10000, HE-560, HD800S, and more. I loved putting faces with names, as you really never know who is on the other side of forum postings!
Fantastic to meet Zach from ZMF. Not only do I really enjoy his headphones, but I love knowing that my money is going to help support such a gracious and professional (and like Grizzly said, Goofy) individual. May he continue his enterprise long into the future!
The most enjoyable listen, and the biggest surprise for me at the event, was Oregonian's vintage amp and HE-6 combo. I have never heard that headphone before, and I was transported by the experience. Plenty of resolution and detail for me, but with a visceral feel that I haven't yet experienced in this great hobby. Thanks, Oregonian, for letting me spend so much time at your table and learning about how I might proceed with a similar rig.
The only disappointment was that Oregonian looks nothing like his avatar....
I look forward to the next meet, and perhaps I'll have something worthy to show by then!
Shout out to Zach of ZMF for setting this up as well as Lee (Grizzlybeast) for also being well involved and those donuts... the sweet glorious donuts. The first one I picked up I thought was maple only to find out it was peanut butter, that threw my mind for a tiny blunder when I took a bite. Shoutout as well as to anyone else who helped plan and execute this meet! Had a great time getting down there, carpooled with @labrown from Oly which was about 45 mins away from my home minus a car on fire on I5 on the way there that delayed me in Tacoma, and the rest of the drive down took about 2hrs or so. Man it is noticeably warmer in Portland than it is in Seattle with only just a 3hr drive difference!
It's great to finally meet Grizz and nmatheis, both who I've been in contact with on the threads but never met in person. Grizz thought I was an old gray haired man only to find a short Asian dude say what's up to him at the meet haha. Turned this dude to R2R DACs and there's no going back (I think). Nice to meet Zach and he greeted just about everyone early on in the meet personally and of course the admission fee (which IMO is brilliant as it doesn't let lurkers in but very partly supports the organization and booking of future meets). I know there could be 2 sides to that but looking from the outside of the headphone world, it's more than worth it to pay a small price of admission to listen to world class setups. Next time let's have this at a bar and charge $20 at the door and get half of the bar orders. Then have the auction after everyone is good and sauced. But for sure carpet next time so we're not getting the hall experience.
Unfortunately my laptop decided to have an off day or don't plug anything into me day because it wasn't having my DAC or Mutec 3 DDC. Luckily I brought my Fiio X3-ii and it's coax cord so I was still able to feed the DAC with a digital signal. All this troubleshooting cut into my listening and checking other people's gear out time.
Oooookay, I finally got some time to sit down and write out my thoughts.
First of all, a biiiiig thank you to zach915m and grizzlybeast for getting this meet together! This was the first Oregon meet I've been to, and it was a super chillax one.
As soon as I walked into the room, there were 4 or 5 boxes of Voodoo doughnuts lined up on tables along the wall. For those who don't know about Voodoo doughnuts, they're a doughnut shop in the Portland area...and they make some craaaaazy flavours of doughnuts!
I didn't have much of a breakfast that day, so I decided to get this Cap'n Crunch Berries doughnut.
^ Yes, that is literally Captain Crunch cereal on a doughnut; mind = blown
I really liked this meet because I've had interactions with some of the Oregon folks through PMs, tour units, and Head-Fi threads in general (Oregonian, nmatheis, and grizzlybeast in particular), but it was cool to finally be able to meet them in-person. Likewise, it was awesome to meet some of the people from vendors like zach915m of ZMF Headphones and bangkokkid of Noble Audio, both of whom had tour units in the Seattle area at some point in time.
Anyway, as for impressions, I was really curious to hear the high-end STAX headphones on the entry-level SRM-252S amplifier, the HD800S, and the Electrostaz technology in the VeriSonix headphones. My mind was pretty blown with most of them, hahaha.
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I had no idea what to expect of the high-end STAX headphones (including the recently released SR-L700) on the entry-level amplifier. I had only previously read from one user that the SR-009 actually sounds all right from the amplifier until you need higher volume levels. No one speaks of pairing the high-end STAX headphones with the entry-level amplifiers, ever. XD
Thank you again to Jones Bob for coming to the meet and bringing all of the STAX headphones anyone can imagine save for the Sigma series ones! It was fun talking to you and getting to know how you got into this audio hobby.
SR-007 MKII
^ SR-207 (left), SR-L700 (right)
^ SR-009 (back-left), SR-007 MKII (front-right); it's cool to see the SR-007's honeycomb stators(?)
^ SR-009 (left), SR-207 (right)
From the SRM-252S, I was surprised at what I heard through the SR-009. I had previously heard the 009 through the Eddie Current Electra and I wasn't a big fan of its sound since it was too bright for me; similarly for a DIY Kevin Gilmore amplifier that made the 009 sound too warm. The HeadAmp Blue Hawaii SE was pretty impressive in terms of rendering the soundstage depth and having good bass impact, but I wasn't too impressed with its speed as it seemed a bit slow to me. The SRM-252S wasn't perfect either, but it had a Goldilocks and the Three Bears "in the middle" kind of sound; it wasn't too bright, it wasn't too warm, the soundstage size wasn't too big, the speed wasn't too fast nor too slow. It did still sound a little bright to me in frequency response compared to the Lambda headphones, but it retained the typical "effortless" and grain-free treble that electrostats are known to have, perhaps even more so than the Lambda series headphones that I'm used to hearing. The soundstage was definitely larger than that of the Lambda series headphones, which are known to have a fairly small soundstage, and the instrument separation was particularly noteworthy to me since all of the instruments seemed well-spaced from one another. Like the SR-207 for me, I can seemingly crank up the volume level and I won't hear any breakup of the sound. It's one trait of electrostats that I really like and it lets me get into the music more so compared to other headphone technologies.
The SR-007 MKII sounded less spectacular to me. It had an odd warm timbre, rolled-off bass extension, and the upper-midrange lacked some energy to my ears.
Lastly, the SR-L700 was surprising for me to hear. In one of Jude's videos, he mentioned that it approaches the sound quality of the SR-009. While I would say that's true, it still doesn't match the performance of the SR-009. Compared to the SR-009 or even the SR-207, the treble seemed a bit grainy-sounding to me, which is odd to hear from an electrostat and I thought it sounded more like a dynamic driver headphone in this regard. The lower-midrange and bass were richer and had more presence to what I'm used to hearing in the SR-207 though, so that's a welcome change since I tend to give the SR-207 a slight bass boost EQ. Similar but not quite up to par with the SR-009, the sense of the soundstage and instrument separation were greater than the SR-207.
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The HD800S....I typically don't like the HD800's sound, so I wasn't sure what to expect of the S variant. I was pretty skeptical of its sound; S is for Suckers some people say.
In a nutshell: it was simply phenomenal to my ears on zach915m's rig! Its sound is a bit slower compared to what I remember with the HD800, and the lower-midrange is a bit thicker-sounding, bringing in some warmth, but the upper-midrange sharpness is vastly decreased and the treble is smoothed over in comparison. Compared to what I remember with the HD800's soundstage, the HD800S has a more rounded, and smaller, soundstage, which I like since I always found the HD800's soundstage to sound too large. Bringing all of this together made for a very enjoyable listening experience for me with the HD800S. I can see how some would like the HD800 more as it seems more "hi-fi" to me overall in terms of speed, detail retrieval, and openness. However, for me, I would rather have a listenable frequency response than one that constantly bites at my ears.
On the LH Labs Pulse X Infinity, the sound was more or less the same, but with a bit more brightness and less warmth in the midrange. I still liked it more than the HD800 on the same setup though since it was much more listenable for my preferences.
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Next up, the VeriSonix N501 featuring a hybrid driver system: dynamic for the lows, electret [permanently charged electrostatic driver that doesn't need the external high voltage bias applied to it] for the mids and highs. Like the HD800S, I had no idea what to expect from this headphone since I've never heard a hybrid driver [full-sided] headphone before. Thanks to grizzlybeast for letting me give them a try!
Also F.Y.I., VeriSonix isn't the only company to use the hybrid driver system. Collectively the system is called ELECTROSTATZ, which was developed and trademarked by In2uit Inc. Ltd.
http://www.electrostatzheadphones.com/?page_id=1044
http://www.electrostatzheadphones.com/?page_id=1125
Well this was an interesting headphone. If their crossover numbers are accurate at 1-2 kHz, the frequency response seemed disjointed to me. The bass and lower-mids for certain seemed pretty woolly and boosted, but the upper-midrange and treble seemed rather quick, similar to a typical electrostatic headphone. I did like the bass presence for bassier tracks, and I think it would work well for outdoor/noisy environments, but it just seemed muddy overall. It was so weird hearing that in stark comparison to the clear treble relatively speaking. Perhaps it was due to the speedy treble, or the ELECTROSTATZ technology, but for a closed back headphone I thought this sounded pretty spacious and open.
Other than the sound, and the $499 MSRP price tag, I had no problems with the rest of the headphone. It looks simple and gorgeous with the wood; the metal bales and folding earcups were a nice addition; and the headband and earpads were well-padded and comfortable on the head.
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MrSpeakers' Ether and Ether C made an appearance at the meet. I wasn't expecting them, but I gave them a listen since I've read a lot of good things about the Ether headphones.
I definitely think the Ether and Ether C are MrSpeakers' best headphones to date, hands down. They have the openness and clarity one would expect from a planar magnetic headphone. I have no idea how he did it, but MrSpeakers did a great job at trying to get the Ether sound inside of the Ether C despite being a closed-back headphone. They sound pretty similar in frequency response overall having a well-extended bass, warm midrange, slightly shouty yet subdued upper-midrange, and a polite treble with a slight peak at around 9-10 kHz for sparkle. The upper-midrange and treble areas weren't really to my liking on the other hand, which detracted from the listening experience since it sounded a bit out of place and off-timbre from the otherwise fantastic bass and lower-midrange (which I liked for some songs more than I do on the STAX rig).
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I listened to grizzlybeast's HE1000 on this monstrous rig.
^ that was next to the DAC/amp stack but I didn't get a chance to listen to it unfortunately
Of the systems I have heard the HE1000 on, I think this one sounded among the best. It seemed to have smoothed out the unevenness of the HE1000's frequency response, but I still wasn't too fond of the diffused-sounding imaging.
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Last but not least for impressions...I don't even. I tried to A/B them with a regular XLR to TRS adaptor, but they were different volume levels when I switched them and I attempted to volume-match, so take my thoughts with a cement truck of salt, or two.
For me, the sticks increased the instrument separation and soundstage size a bit, similar to adding a clean power supply into your audio chain, or switching from unbalanced to balanced outputs. That's about it though.
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zach915m's beautiful rig
bangkokkid's Noble's K10U with the new machined shell. It looks better in-person than in photos.
Portable media players...
...including the Mojo...
...and Liquid Carbon! Both of which I didn't get a chance to hear though.
Oregonian's wicked custom HE-400 and HE-6 grilles
nmatheis's impressive display of all things portable. I think he had the coolest-looking table display at the meet!
That was the TTVJ loaner he1000 and Teton ( which is an OTL said to be one of the best amplifiers with the HD800). The dac amp was the cayin gear they sent for the meet.
Totally agree about the verisonix.
Thanks for the impressions!!! Awesome pics too!!!
Also if anyone is interested the Kennerton Vali Arrived late but there is a tour now. You can sign up for it to hear it.
So I kinda figured out a few things about meets as that was my first real meet.
1. I don't need to bring all those headphones and gear. A lot of people won't listen to them anyway.
2. Meet conditions don't really provide enough time etc for me to pick apart gear etc but I can get a good idea of if it is for me or not fairly quickly.
Personal highlights of the day:
Eating breakfast with @Musicboy and @BIG POPPA. Meeting Zach for the first time. That dude is cool as heck in person and goofy too like me!. Listening to music with @HamSandwich. Talking with @Doc B. about transformer coils and being schooled by him on how it all works. Meeting @Soundsgoodtome in person. Putting the fan on when I was sweating like mad because I was in a frenzy trying to set up. Meeting @TorqueAudio who is a Mega cool dude. Really everyone was nice to me and I felt free to be myself and comment on gear.
Personal Regrets:
Not really sitting down with the HE-6 on @Oregonians rig and catching up with him. Not getting a good listen to the Ether C and Ether. Not comparing my Nuprime to the Liquid Carbon cause I really wanted to do that. I think my Nuprime bangs the buck pretty hard. Not hearing campfire iems or Nikolaus' portable gear. ughghghg time flys.
Insipirations:
I will go to Alo Audio with my headphones and hear their Six!!! Ken says it is one of the best amps out there for the HD800's.
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IMPRESSIONS
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The ZMF Sonnare AMP
The amp had a good balance and while not super spacious really made my HD800S pop in depth and fullness of tonality. It made them very musical. On the ZMF headphones there were some bass texture issues and as a prototype it is most definitely not done but the balance was really good there as well. I didn't listen for long though so I can't give much. I just know that had I not had my trafomatic I would be on the lookout for the Sonnare release for my HD800S but he is tuning them for the ZMF line up so it may sound different later on. I really liked the wood aesthetic on the front for a face plate.
Continental Dual Mono by Alo
After talking w/ @KB . I began listening to the HE1000 through this DAC/ AMP combo. It sounds really magical with the HE1000. I didn't know portable gear could sound that good. The mids treble and bass were all very clear, controlled yet musical. The HE1000 matched better with that portable DAC / Amp than my Trafomatic Head2 because it had tighter bass for driving the HE1K and overall was a more precise sound though less spacious and dynamic but a little more forward. Desktop sound for your pocket with an instantly agreeable tonality that I couldn't fault anywhere. More than enough power for the HE1K.
Apex Teton
The Teton is magical with the HD800S. It sounded more spacious than anything I plugged the HD800 into, and even smoothed some of the treble up top. It is not aggressive but very technical. The highest light of the day was probably plugging in @HamSandwich's HD650 into the Teton for me. It made that headphone sound way more expensive than it is. I could still hear the treble grain but it was as if it gained a lot of sound stage and the tonality in the mid range was awesome. I missed out on hearing the Ether C but this made up for it. So when I first compared it to my Trafomatic head 2 Amp I was really sad about my own amp. The separation and definition of the african stringed instruments on Ben Harpers "Blessed to be a Witness" were much more distinguishable and realistic in timbre (during home listening... not really fair) but the voices became a little more flat and less projected in the upper mids. I put the stock tubes in the APEX and it was still better on the HD800S but my remorse had lessened and they became closer to eachother. I didn't want to try any orthos with it and still haven't but it is the most spacious and natural sounding amp I have heard for the HD800S.
CAYIN IHA6
Another Amp I have had at home but got a better idea of its sound compared to other amps at the meet. Fast, clean, bright, controlled, kind of neutral sounding with a soft but airy treble. Tons of Power on tap w/ 7wtts into 32 ohms and priced very sensibly for its performance at 999 usd.
Cayin IDAC 6
Again like the previously mentioned this is a very nuetral and unbiased sounding amp that you can almost pair with anything. I had it paired up with the Teton and it practically did it justice. I am sure the YGGY would have exploited the Tetons potential but the Cayin is capably solid in performance.
HOTEL CALIFORNIA ON BIG POPPAS SET UP OF HD700, KIKO STICKS, MYTEK DAC, AND DECKED OUT TUBE AMP
I sat and listened for a while and was very impressed. I have heard the recording several times but never really listen to it on my own gear since I have some personal qualms with the song. But there were a few things that stood out. The timbre was very smooth, the bass was a lot more than the HD700 that I used to have (which was modded) the separation was very good as well as the soundstage, and the highs seemed a lot less sibilant than even the modded pair. I think it was the recording itself but I remember the vocals sounding a bit muted or something like a lot of the older recording do. I was impressed though. I really liked it.
MR Speakers Ether
Shoot me if you like but this headphone was really not my cup of tea. There was a lot of clarity and transparency happening with that headphone that was flagship level. The mids seemed fine as well and I didn't get a really long listen but it seemed to lack a foundation and sound stage for me. Very open sounding though and seemed a little bright but with good treble texture.
HiFiMan HE1000
Definitely the best Planar I have hear. I could want for a little more weight down low and a slightly smoother top end but I preferred it over the Ether by a whole lot. It's not enough to make me want to sell the HD800S for it like I thought I would end up doing but it is clear, has very good texture, deep bass that while isn't that punchy is firm and detailed. I love the sound stage on it and its basically what I wanted the HEX to sound like technically. A bit over priced but does feel premium in build. I know that sending these back to @Todd is gonna leave a hole in me.
STAX SR-009
Best sounding headphone of the day for sure. I was not expecting it to be and I can't really say it is for me but the clarity and separation that it gave me was pretty much unbeatable. I heard sounds pan out to their appropriate sides effortlessly with a hyper detailed sound. It was kind of bright but not as bright as Big Sound 2015 at innerfidelity made them out to be. The only problem was the bass impact. It was the weirdest bass slam I have ever heard. It hit and I actually felt the vibration around my ears more than most cans but it was missing solidity and density. I can definitely see the appeal of electrostats
NOBLE AUDIO KAISER 10U
Call me stupid but I would actually love to have this headphone almost over the he1k. After really listening to the he1k I can't say this sounds better but this being the first TOTL iem I have heard I was really impressed. It had a good balance, speed, enough bass, clear highs that weren't dark or way too bright, and good separation. I didn't hear a huge sound stage though and really don't know what to expect in terms of sound stage with iems but that would have been my only gripe from a first listen. Really liked it.
64AUDIO TOTL 12
The presentation of these sounded good but were a little overpriced for me to be honest. I didn't feel they sounded as good as the Noble 10u. They had an agreeable balance but there was some bass and treble roll off. I felt like I heard a good 50 hz but that was a long shot guess at a frequency mark of where the roll off was. The mids were warm though and it wasn't bad sounding at all to me. But again I don't know what to expect from iem's and their respective price points. Since I would use some in ears at a gig for monitors I would definitely appreciate the way these are tuned though. They have a very good focus around the midrange and nice balance.
Torque Audio full sized Prototypes
This is where I believe I had a solid example of how differently we hear. I was the only one apparently that preferred the consumer version over the flat/neutral version. I kept trying my hardest to explain that it wasn't only because of the balance but that the instruments didn't have any attack on the neutral version, even with the aggression tuned higher. The other version had midbass bleed into the mids and the sound stage suffered because of the balance but it sounded more true to life in musicality albeit while being tuned more like beats. I exclaimed that the bassy versions midrange didn't seem too sucked out even compared to the flat one but even the flat version had a weird mid range. Yasu is such a cool guy and I haaatttee disagreeing with someone so humble, down to earth, and passionate about their gear but I really didn't like the sound. The design, build, and comfort though is pretty flawless. They look sick.
BTW @nmatheis what happed to @MezeTeam sending the classics? I really wanted to compare them to the Torques.
Paradox Slants
First time hearing them and was very surprised that they sound so good in with the original enclosure. I prefer them to the Alpha dogs by quite a bit. They even had a good soundstage and bass. I kinda prefer the upper midrange of the Omnis but they were closer to the Omni in technicalities than I thought they would be. I really liked them a lot. Especially since they were speaker tapped by LaBrowns Cyclopse amp which totally made a great pairing for the Omni as well. I think they would have sounded great on the Cayin IHA6.
HD650
classic for a reason.
Voodoo Donuts
Very sweet and tasty. They only take cash though... wtheck!! oh and paypal. I may put a FS add up for some donuts!
Echo audio didn't show up due to some issues that made them space us. Wanted to hear the LCD4 as did many others. Also I barely received the Kennerton Vali today and it sounds great if anyone wants to have a mini meet in the near future to hear it I am down...be on the look out for the tour unit. For now picture an HD650 with a wider soundstage, deeper bass, less grain, stronger treble peak.
MT Scott Community College
GREAT spot with tons of outlets, tables and natural lighting. Even if it didn't have carpet I think Zach picked an excellent spot. Not bad for an 'out-of-towner'. Good host too. he managed to check his amp out with the HD800S, make sure most of us paid, listen to other gear, answer questions, and great most everyone that came in. Good Job ZMF!
Forgot a few things...lol
MicroZotl 2.0
I could hear it as a pairing with the Omnis for those who wanted a flatter sound but it wasn't really for me. I preferred the Decware Taboo MKIII to it by like a whole yard. It was a little bland sounding to me with a slight treble something or other that I couldn't nail down. I do have much respect for what I heard though. Just not a good idea to AB it against the Taboo MKIII.
Taboo MKIII
Really natural and full bodied sound coming out of the yggy. It was instantly agreeable and it paired better with the Omni than any tube amp I have heard them with including my own. I have the same type of impression with the ZMF amp that I do with my Own and that is that it they played good with the Omni but really well with the HD800S. Well in context, one would think that tube amps then are not for orthos until they hear the Taboo MKIII which was made to match the 50ohm LCD2s when they had less resistance than the current runs. Lovely amp. Heck I may want to skip out on the Black widow if it takes to long and just get the Taboo MKIII. Really liked it.
Fleasbaby's headphone
Well this was pretty much the biggest scare of the day. I picked them up and the cup fell off lmbo lolol. But I finally got a hold of them to listen on my set up and heard a very technically capable headphone with speed, precision, dynamics, and clarity. It has a sound that is a bit bright for me but not nearly as bright as the other grado looking headphone he sent with the sony headband. I liked those headphones though and think he did a good job tuning them.
...sorry to hear about the snafu with my cans...sounds like you liked the Magnum V6 build in Burmese Blackwood cups. These two cans are actually my personal builds I keep for myself. I find the two contrast nicely. Next time I send something to a meet, it won't be my daily beaters I guess . LMAO
Glad you enjoyed them though. Hopefully they made a positive contribution to the meet.
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