Post-Impressions Western NC SchiitMeet 23 April 2023
Apr 24, 2023 at 11:12 AM Post #2 of 26
Sorry, I should have wrote down my impression, I got a peanut brain. But, now I know to do that for the next meet! From memory, my favorite items in the meet was the @golfbravobravo Schiit folkvangr (sorry if I got the name confuse) and @mjstealey ZMF Verite Closed. I can’t tell exactly what I liked from the ZMF Verite Closed, but things sounded “right” in that headphone. The timbre on the Verite Closed was very impressive in my short listening session. Even though it’s a closed back, the soundstage was pretty big and even bigger than some open back like the Sennheiser HD600 for example. Verite resolution compared to the Caldera and D8000 Pro LE from memory is pretty lacking compare to them, but honestly I think with the right equipment, it could get near those big boys pretty easily.

For the Schiit Folkvangr, it was cleaner than I would expect from a tube amp. Didn’t experience any hiss or hum on my Onkyo A800 and that’s a sensitive headphone with 30 ohm. My experience from tube amps around the 1K-2K range was owning the Cayin HA-3A. I do remember vocals sing with the 6v6 tubes, but I think the Schiit Folkvangr resolution was better. Compare to other Schiit amps, the Folkvangr had the cleanest sound, but again it was just 1 test sound.

All my listening was short, like a 1-2 minute and my test song was Metallica “Ride the Lightning”. The other test song is Woongsan “Street Life”. Even though it was short, I don’t know how 4 hours pass so quickly lol. I guess time really do fly when you are having fun. I got to take notes to give any useful sound impressions, will try to remember to do that next meet. If we have a next meet and if I am able to attend it, I want to share everyone the sound of 45 tubes! 45 tubes is known to have the best tone for tubes and gives music a more “realistic” sound.

Took pics, but forgot to take pics on the speaker setup:

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Bonus food and live music pics from Sparta, NC:

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Apr 24, 2023 at 10:26 PM Post #3 of 26
This was a really nice place to have this event. I had no idea what to expect as it was my first one.

To put it mildly, Cliff was busier than a one legged man in a a$$ kicking contest. Especially since my wife Elissa and I sat in the restaurant section eating on the delicious country food. Plus, listening to a very good group of musicians. I texted him and he said come on back when i was finished, very calmly.

Well, I calmly arrived in the back. He and the house audio expert were working on WiFi / internet issues of connectivity. Anyone reading here I assume have experienced the on again / off again saga can relate - many times over. They fought this for a long time. I went off and worked on 2 channel setup. and helped with any thing else, if anyone asked.

This was a exceptional event with exceptional people, equipment, and food.

We had some unexpected, I believe, college students from Marshall University and Appalachian State University in attendance. I talked to them on a couple of times. This made my day. Seeing these students into this great hobby. Some of these students said they have even been to other shows.

So if all of you could please PM Cliff or myself with your names and Head-Fi user names, it would be appreciated. Nice to have for future info. Or respond with your comments about this event.

Cliff thought I knew them but I did not.

Thanks for everyone talking and teaching me valuable information. I only wish it could have been all attendees! Hopefully Raleigh-Durham.

And last but not least, Jason and Schiit Audio for the support of equipment and money to have this event.
 
Apr 25, 2023 at 7:27 AM Post #4 of 26
Whenever I setup a rig at home, I take my time and enjoy the process, routing the cables just so, fiddling with speaker toe in, mixing and matching amps and transducers. But when you are working on ten rigs at once, even with help you simply don't have the luxury of time. Without going into too much detail, let's just say I learned a lot of lessons from hosting my first audio event.

On With the Show
But we got through it and I believe a good time was had by all. Schiit made sure that everyone was well fed and watered, and @Jason Stoddard was gracious enough to take time out of his Sunday to speak with the group and answer any questions we had.

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From our chat with him we learned:
  • Urd is still on track for a May/June release (fingers crossed)
  • Mjolnir 3 is also on track as a limited edition and should be coming out at roughly the same time
  • Syn has been a successful release and is crying out for a companion 5 channel amp - watch this space
  • Mike Moffat and team are working hard to break through their supply chain challenges by introducing an FPGA based DAC (code named Singularity). Maybe early 2024?
  • The tortoises are awake again in Cali, and ever the contrarian, Jason was drinking a Texas white while sitting in California











Loads of Cool Stuff
The SchiitKit included the speaker amps listed below, plus Vali 2++, Jotunheim 2, Lyr +, Asgard, and Modius, along with six iPads loaded with music. To supplement, @Cliffh93 brought his Valhalla 2/Bifrost 2/64 combo, Chord Qutest DAC, and a Geshelli Labs J2. All very cool, but then @golfbravobravo walks in with his Folkvangr. Once our jaws were returned from the floor, everyone followed him like bees to the flower garden. For headphones, we had all of the cool brands and models - In fact, ZMF could have co-sponsored this event!

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New Blood
Perhaps the best outcome of the event was that we weren't only preaching to the converted citizen's of Head-Fi, but we also had collegiate guests, including three students from nearby Appalachian State, plus two from Marshall University in Huntington, WV, which is a bit of a haul from the Blue Ridge. Our WV contingent only setup one rig, but they brought enough headphones to supply the entire town of Sparta!

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First Time Ever? Speaker Rig at SchiitMeet
When I requested some speaker amps from Denise at Schiit she asked, 'Uhh, what are you going to do with those?' But she went along when I explained it was going to be a Bring Your Own Transducers (BYOT) event. We had a Rekkr there, plus my personal Gjallarhorn and an Aegir. For speakers we had a set of Triangle Borea BR03, KEF Q150s and of course @Paladin79 hand made mini-radials. @DennisLL expertly setup the rig table so that we could easily swap out speakers and amps and compare the differences, all running through an iPad source, Modius E DAC, and Saga + Pre-Amp. SPL differences were immediately apparent and the Triangles (in my opinion) stole the show. The Aegir is sooo smooth, and for us did not run hot at all (it was a cool day in the mountains).










Prizes! Prizes!
As I said to the group on Sunday, @Paladin79 is the finest gentleman I have ever met on the web. To support our event he generously donated several items, all handmade by him. The drawing was the most anticipated part of the day and our winners are below. Since I was consumed in cable and wi-fi hell at critical parts of the day, I was unable to capture all of our participants names but I hope that they will see this post and allow me to get them updated for you:
  • Short RCA Interconnect - Andrew
  • Long RCA Interconnect - ASU Student #1
  • Speaker Cables - Josh from Marshall University, Huntington, WV @Melineous
  • Mini-Radial Speakers - @Saberpunch
  • Headphone Stand - @DennisLL , who then gave it to @Cliffh93 for hosting the event - Thanks Dennis!
Wrap Up
I want to thank everyone that came out, meeting all of the avatars and getting to know the people around them was a huge reward for the work put in. I can't say enough how pleased I was that we had our college guys come out - The future of the hobby is in fine shape. And of course thanks again to Jason, Denise, and Schiit Audio for making this possible.
 
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Apr 25, 2023 at 11:29 PM Post #8 of 26
A huge thank you to @Cliffh93 for organizing this meet, to Muddy Creek Cafe & Music Hall for hosting us, and to @Jason Stoddard, et.al. & Schiit for sponsoring this craziness that we are all afflicted by!

Background:
This was the first audio-centric meet that I've had a chance to attend and I really had no idea what to expect.
All I knew is that it was local-ish and the announcement stated that "If you plan on attending, please reply here with the gear you plan on bringing". So I made a post, packed up my Schiit, and hit the road!

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The SchiitMeet:
I arrived about 30 minutes prior to the official start and it was a hive of activity! There were cables going every which way, Apple's interconnect was being mentioned in conjunction with some colorful adjectives, and "Hey! what's the WiFi password?" quickly followed by "why is it connecting me directly to the router admin page?".
But folks had their DAPs preloaded with FLAC files, the iPads were now connecting, things were coming online, the multibit DACs were getting settled in, the tubes were glowing, and it was game time!

Before you knew it we were all treated by the sound of the mini radials kindly provided by @Paladin79 being driven by an Aegir. We then moved on to the Q150's and finally on to a pair of Triangle BR03's. Was it "critical listening", nah ... Was it "fun"? Oh yeah!

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The music and conversations were now flowing freely. Playlists were being swiped through and shared, and I'm now hearing new music with an understanding of why it's important to the person standing next to me. The Head-Fi avatars are being replaced by the people and their stories behind them, exchanges of ideas are being had, and the hobby that brought us all together is vigorously coursing through our veins with every click of the play button.

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Call with Jason:
How cool is it to get to spend some time with Jason and discuss anything and everything Schiit!
Here we are, this relatively random group of enthusiasts out in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains, getting Jason's full attention for a good chunk of time on a Sunday afternoon. Cliff already covered the highlights in a previous post, but my respect for Jason shot up a whole bunch after he took the time to field our questions and even work through some of the connection issues we had that day.

Following the call with Jason was the lottery for the hand crafted cables, speakers and headphone stand that Tom had put together for the meet. It's a rare treat to witness someone willing to donate their time and handiwork to an event like this.

SchiitMeet Debrief:
The biggest goal for me was meeting the folks behind the Head-Fi avatars and having a better appreciation for who they are as people. But yeah, I also went for the gear, for the Schiit, and for the love of the audio world as a whole.

Personal highlights:
- Folkvangr - @golfbravobravo brought his, I listened, I want to listen more ...
- Aegir - had never heard it in person before and even in a non-optimal listening space it's character was evident
- Onkyo A800 headphones - @Saberpunch brought these with him. He was my table-mate for the event and I learned an incredible amount from him
- Lyr+ - I now want to tube roll this ... I use a Valhalla 2 daily and want to spend some time with the Lyr+ and V2 side-by-side
- ZMF Auteur Classic - The WV contingent brought "all the headphones" with them, I'm already a ZMF fan and ... now I want this one too

I wanted to get my ears on the Rekkr, but it wasn't meant to be that day, perhaps the next time around :)

Hope to see you all again at the RDU area meet!
 
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Apr 26, 2023 at 1:23 PM Post #9 of 26
A huge thank you to @Cliffh93 for organizing this meet, to Muddy Creek Cafe & Music Hall for hosting us, and to @Jason Stoddard, et.al. & Schiit for sponsoring this craziness that we are all afflicted by!

Background:
This was the first audio-centric meet that I've had a chance to attend and I really had no idea what to expect.
All I knew is that it was local-ish and the announcement stated that "If you plan on attending, please reply here with the gear you plan on bringing". So I made a post, packed up my Schiit, and hit the road!

load-em-up.jpg

The SchiitMeet:
I arrived about 30 minutes prior to the official start and it was a hive of activity! There were cables going every which way, Apple's interconnect was being mentioned in conjunction with some colorful adjectives, and "Hey! what's the WiFi password?" quickly followed by "why is it connecting me directly to the router admin page?".
But folks had their DAPs preloaded with FLAC files, the iPads were now connecting, things were coming online, the multibit DACs were getting settled in, the tubes were glowing, and it was game time!

Before you knew it we were all treated by the sound of the mini radials kindly provided by @Paladin79 being driven by an Aegir. We then moved on to the Q150's and finally on to a pair of Triangle BR03's. Was it "critical listening", nah ... Was it "fun"? Oh yeah!

2-channel-table.jpg

The music and conversations were now flowing freely. Playlists were being swiped through and shared, and I'm now hearing new music with an understanding of why it's important to the person standing next to me. The Head-Fi avatars are being replaced by the people and their stories behind them, exchanges of ideas are being had, and the hobby that brought us all together is vigorously coursing through our veins with every click of the play button.

shared-music.jpg
shared-music-2.jpg

Call with Jason:
How cool is it to get to spend some time with Jason and discuss anything and everything Schiit!
Here we are, this relatively random group of enthusiasts out in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains, getting Jason's full attention for a good chunk of time on a Sunday afternoon. Cliff already covered the highlights in a previous post, but my respect for Jason shot up a whole bunch after he took the time to field our questions and even work through some of the connection issues we had that day.

Following the call with Jason was the lottery for the hand crafted cables, speakers and headphone stand that Tom had put together for the meet. It's a rare treat to witness someone willing to donate their time and handiwork to an event like this.

SchiitMeet Debrief:
The biggest goal for me was meeting the folks behind the Head-Fi avatars and having a better appreciation for who they are as people. But yeah, I also went for the gear, for the Schiit, and for the love of the audio world as a whole.

Personal highlights:
- Folkvangr - @golfbravobravo brought his, I listened, I want to listen more ...
- Aegir - had never heard it in person before and even in a non-optimal listening space it's character was evident
- Onkyo A800 headphones - @Saberpunch brought these with him. He was my table-mate for the event and I learned an incredible amount from him
- Lyr+ - I now want to tube roll this ... I use a Valhalla 2 daily and want to spend some time with the Lyr+ and V2 side-by-side
- ZMF Auteur Classic - The WV contingent brought "all the headphones" with them, I'm already a ZMF fan and ... now I want this one too

I wanted to get my ears on the Rekkr, but it wasn't meant to be that day, perhaps the next time around :)

Hope to see you all again at the RDU area meet!
If I have enough notice I will see what I can put together for the RDU meet. Cables are easy and headphone stands are fun to build so I am sure I can come up with something. A custom made VU meter box might be a welcome addition to someone who attends. Nothing as elaborate as this one mind you.F911D71E-C86E-4A6D-A987-4D93D6FAA1D3.jpegC67FBB2C-CB49-46AD-A997-D035B5A547A9.jpeg
 
Apr 28, 2023 at 2:06 AM Post #11 of 26
I was one of the App State students (wearing the sweater with the big “A”), and I was so glad everyone there was welcoming to me and my friends. As someone who has just gotten into the hobby over the last year or so, it was incredible that people older than us were thrilled to have us and we’re willing to answer all my questions.

This was my first audio meet up and I already can’t wait for the next one. Being able to hear what different components to a setup sound like was a huge learning experience, and very informative for my next buying decisions (magnius & modius).

I am currently studying industrial design at App State, which made the call with @Jason Stoddard a really cool experience for me. Hearing about all the different types of product development, project management, inventory surplus and shortages, and technical details was very valuable to my education. It’s not often you get to sit down and casually talk with the CEO of a pretty big company and hear about what happens on the inside. Hearing Jason’s passion for what he does and how meticulous he is in every last detail of product development was very inspiring. I also loved seeing a large portion of the Schiit line come together to create all these stacks. I am a huge fan of their design language and the fact that it is done in such a simple yet elegant production process.

I love that Schiit sponsors events like this for people in the hobby of all levels to gather and share a similar passion, and thanks to @Cliffh93 for putting on such a great event and answering some of my pretty novice questions.

I already can’t wait for the next meet in the triangle area!
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Apr 28, 2023 at 2:30 PM Post #12 of 26
Nice! Come do one up my neck of the woods and bring some BBQ, any BBQ, with you! :)
 
Apr 28, 2023 at 8:20 PM Post #13 of 26
I was one of the App State students (wearing the sweater with the big “A”), and I was so glad everyone there was welcoming to me and my friends. As someone who has just gotten into the hobby over the last year or so, it was incredible that people older than us were thrilled to have us and we’re willing to answer all my questions.

This was my first audio meet up and I already can’t wait for the next one. Being able to hear what different components to a setup sound like was a huge learning experience, and very informative for my next buying decisions (magnius & modius).

I am currently studying industrial design at App State, which made the call with @Jason Stoddard a really cool experience for me. Hearing about all the different types of product development, project management, inventory surplus and shortages, and technical details was very valuable to my education. It’s not often you get to sit down and casually talk with the CEO of a pretty big company and hear about what happens on the inside. Hearing Jason’s passion for what he does and how meticulous he is in every last detail of product development was very inspiring. I also loved seeing a large portion of the Schiit line come together to create all these stacks. I am a huge fan of their design language and the fact that it is done in such a simple yet elegant production process.

I love that Schiit sponsors events like this for people in the hobby of all levels to gather and share a similar passion, and thanks to @Cliffh93 for putting on such a great event and answering some of my pretty novice questions.

I already can’t wait for the next meet in the triangle area!IMG_1594.jpegIMG_1587.jpegIMG_1589.jpeg
Awesome that you could go to the meet! And howdy from an ASU alumni a few generations ago (1980, BSBA). :slight_smile:
 
Apr 29, 2023 at 8:21 AM Post #14 of 26
Awesome that you could go to the meet! And howdy from an ASU alumni a few generations ago (1980, BSBA). :slight_smile:
You are an alumnus, unless you were graduated with a mouse in your pocket.🤪🤪
 
Apr 29, 2023 at 10:49 AM Post #15 of 26
You are an alumnus, unless you were graduated with a mouse in your pocket.🤪🤪
Well, crap. I tested and placed out of English so I never had to take any classes in college. Guess I shouldn't have cheated on the test?

But spending the day on the slopes at Sugar or Beech Mountain was way better than sitting in an English class, so there's that. :laughing:
 

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