Now that the pictures are up, I feel like I can post my impressions of the meet (duty before pleasure)…
I pretty much concur with everyone's impressions, but I’ll add my own two cents.
I concur with the consensus here--great meeting. It was a pleasure to meet all of you guys and to sample some of that (slobber) gear.
Amp Impressions:
The Sugden was just a very transparent, dynamic, and pleasing amp that outshined the Corda in richness and blackness; it was a fairly close call IMO, which is pretty impressive given the price difference in the two amps, but the Sugden was clearly more energetic. Although both were driven by portables (which made my Corda sound particularly anemic), the Sugden was driven by a better portable. Would have liked to AB them with the same source—next time.
The Cary was a very musical amp. At first, it sounded a little boring—beautiful midrange, but treble rolled off a bit. But after some time listening, the Cary’s sound settled nicely for me: I didn’t miss that high treble as much, and the amp was absolutely not fatiguing. Nicely paired with the senn 580/equinox.
The Max was very nice. Articulate, engaging—not as smooth as the Cary, but certainly very inviting in its own way. I liked it a bit more than the blockhead, which I assume might have been due to the fact that the Max was probably better paired with its source.
I really liked the RVK as well, but the three I listed were my personal favorites. By the way, I used my Senn580/Equinox combo on all of them.
Headphone Impressions:
I was pleased to find that I preferred my Senn580/Equinox over all other combinations of 580 and aftermarket cables. I found the equinox to be the most musical and neutral of the bunch. The others either added a little harshness, or a strangely extended treble to my ears—the equinox just lifted the veil off the Senns without altering their sound much.
I thought that the 580/Equinox combination sounded as good as the 600—a bit different, but as good. The stock 580 was bested by the stock 600. The 600 did open up a bit more with the equinox, but the 580 really gained a lot from the equinox. IOW, the 580 benefited greatly from the equinox; the 600 benefited, but not as much. With the 580/Equinox vs the 600/stock, a couple of us were hard pressed to pick a favorite.
The Grado 225’s were sweet. The pair I tried did not have the upper treble push that I find difficult to tolerate in the grado line. I was very pleased with these phones. I didn’t get to try the 325s though.
AT W2002: I was disappointed. I thought that I’d love them, but I didn’t. They sounded a bit constricted. Now, trying them on tube amps was a total disappointment, but on solid state, they sounded MUCH better. They were incredibly articulate and fast, but I found the upper registers to sound somewhat constricted, and I found the bass to be somewhat more impact than tone. By contrast, I did like those little clip-on ones (EM7), but they were a bit “midrangy” for my tastes.
As for the Grado speakers, my opinion was that they were divine. That high end push of the grado line was totally dissipated by the air, leaving only a really pleasant and musical, airy sound with super fast transients and a wonderful sense of depth and control. The only flaw I could find with them was that on rock (he played Zepellin on them at the beginning of the meet), they sounded almost too clean, too fast. But there was a lot of talking going on then, so if I had a chance to sit longer with them with rock on, I suspect my opinion might soften on that issue. And with the Ella recording he chose, the piano seemed a bit recessed in the mix, but as I recall from having that recording in the past, I think that is in the mix, not in the speaker. In general, oh my…fantastic
