Raleigh/Durham NC Triangle Social Event / Listening Party - Sunday, December 14th, 2014 - 1PM-9PM

[KmanChu]

  I plan on being there from 1pm - 9pm so maybe you can make it for a quick listen of my AURALiC stack?  Bring your cans or use my Alpha's and take a quick listen.  

I live in Wilmington and we have some social commitments. If it were just me then 4 hours of driving for this wouldn't be a hurdle at all. But this close to Christmas I've got domestic duties and obligations. Maybe there will be a full-on meet sometime in the next few months?

 

[jtwrace]

  I live in Wilmington and we have some social commitments. If it were just me then 4 hours of driving for this wouldn't be a hurdle at all. But this close to Christmas I've got domestic duties and obligations. Maybe there will be a full-on meet sometime in the next few months?

Gotcha.  I'm sure there will be another whether it's there or in CLT.  

 

[Lestat]

Lol.  play is only part of that time but you know how this goes - theres dinner and hanging out and all that so it becomes a whole "thing".
 
Definitely up for the next one though!

 

[tmac7balla]

Been waiting for this event for a while! I will be driving up from Jacksonville, NC with two of my good friends. As stated by other members earlier Shane is an amazing guy who will make you feel like family and not a customer. His customer service is leagues above the rest. It is all about the experience and enjoying what he loves (audio) with others. I'm still fairly new to the headphone community, and Shane spent hours working with me so I could understand the fundamentals of Hi-fi audio. I will be bringing my LCD-3f along with my IDSD micro and my macbook with some dsd files as well, hopefully that will help a little bit. I'm excited to try out some of the other gear! I will be bringing a flash drive and external if anyone would like to exchange some audio

 

[NightDayAudio]

Quick updates:
 
As is typical for me, I'm up late doing things at the last minute... A certain 2 year old wasn't really in favor of Daddy spending time while he was awake today doing stereo stuff (other than to turn on the music so he could listen with me hehe)
 
- I've had a couple hard drive failures tonight mucking around with trying to have an audio PC setup at each station.... not sure I'm going to have things repaired and drives re-built in time for all stations...  will do my best.
 
- parking when you get here.... if everyone shows up that has firm RSVP'ed, it's well over 40 people now and close to 50.... since there are some that are only coming early and some that are only coming late, it should be well spaced, I think.... I do have tentatives from at least 30 others... soooo, a couple things to keep in mind....  my neighborhood has a lot of "no parking" signs up to discourage residents from leaving cars parked out on the street in front of their homes.  For the purposes of this event, you can ignore those signs.  You won't be towed unless you block things up so bad that cars can't even drive down the street.  If there is no spot open on my main street, keep into the neighborhood and use any of the other streets of my neighborhood.  My apologies on not having a lot more spaces available.  If you are at all unsure of your parking spot, please just ask me when you arrive and I will help you figure it out.
 
Again, if there are any last minute questions or issues, or if you are just finding this thread at the last minute and want to attend, please just PM, email or call and I'll be happy to help as best i can.... I'm going to be running around last minute and once things ramp up and get going it's likely to be busy... but I will do my best to keep an eye on emails and answer all calls I can to assist folks... so just let me know if you need anything.  Thanks and see some of you in 13 hours

 

[TheChillburger]

I had a lot of fun today, thanks for the awesome meeting today!

 

[jtwrace]

What can I say?!  Shane is the shizz at hosting these events.  20+ people in his house swapping gear and listening to each others systems non stop.  People asking questions and tugging at him in every direction.  Look forward to the next one wherever that may be.  
**Shout out to his wife too as she's super patient with all of us.  Thanks M!  

 

 

[tmac7balla]

This event was an absolute blast! It was good to meet more faces as well as learn a little more. Looking forward to the next event!

 

[Xoen]

I had a great time, too,  First time for me to actually come to something like this and I've heard about meetings throughout the years since I joined Head-Fi several years ago.  Really glad to have a chance to audition the HD800's and the Audeze LCD series which was something I thought I'd never get a chance to do before blowing out lots of cash for either one.  =)  Thanks a bunch everyone who was here that I've spoken to and special thanks to Shane and his family for hosting this event.  
 

 

 

 

[NightDayAudio]

I'm glad you all enjoyed yourself.  Even though it felt like sometimes I was running around like a chicken with its head chopped off (all the computer issues at the last minute sure didn't make my life easier ugh!), I had an absolute blast!  I got to meet some new folks, talk audio all day long (woohooo!!) and I got to hear some gear I was wanting to hear myself (you all saved me the expense of buying it and bringing it in to evaluate on my own... so thank you very much!!).
 
My only regret is that I totally missed hearing Xoen's system setup!  Just ran out of time.  I also really want to spend a few more minutes with my own music on the Woo Audio unit.  Tonally it was right up my alley.... but there was something going on with soundstage compression and blurring together at louder volumes during the 10 minutes I got to listen....  it's a great looking piece though.... wow is that nice design....
 
Jason,  You are the man for bringing all that Auralic, computers, power conditioners, cables, etc. etc. etc. stuff along, including your own display table, tablecloth, etc... that was freakin' awesome, man!  Thanks so much!  Sorry about the network issues... I'm glad we were able to get it all working though....  I really like the Auralic streamer and the neutrality of the gear was crazy good.  Very good value there....  and seeing how much I love the klutz design headphone stands already given I carry them, the Gemini headphone stand had me wanting to melt my credit card ordering some of them
 
Thanks everyone!  I can't wait to do this again! (although my better half might have something to say about it if I try to do another one in 3 weeks time hahaha... might have to be a couple months break... which should give me enough time to work on those surprises that didn't materialize in time for yesterday!)
 
Edited to add:  Sol was mentioning as he was leaving that he might look into hosting the next one by renting out his neighborhood's community clubhouse.  Apparently it's a pretty large space that would allow us to setup a bunch of different stuff and have more room to breathe if we wanted to up the ante on number of setups and increase the number of attendees.  So if he decides to move forward with that one, I'll get him to open a thread here.

 

[LNCPapa]

Thanks Shane - this was an awesome event for me and as mentioned before please give my thanks to your family for putting up with and even taking care of us.  I think I figured out the issues with the WA7 as it was the first time that app had been used on that machine and no configuration has been done on it yet.  In fact, when I listened after you it was not great sounding to me either.  I think some settings need to be adjusted but when I switched back to the other application the music sounded great again.  Maybe next time we meet I'll have all that worked out and perhaps have even sprung for the tube power supply... I still need to spend some time with that Bakoon anyway.
 
I met a bunch of great guys there and as I said I suck with names but you guys know who you are  Wish everyone was local so I'd actually have friends around who don't think this is a sickness like all my friends around here do.  Hope to see you guys again at another meet one day!
 
P.S. - If I was acting strange some of that time please forgive me... I was on some meds that affect my mood/behavior that day

 

[jtwrace]

This thread might help us too.  http://www.head-fi.org/t/746501/where-do-you-north-carolina-head-fi-members-live

 

[NightDayAudio]

  Thanks Shane - this was an awesome event for me and as mentioned before please give my thanks to your family for putting up with and even taking care of us.  I think I figured out the issues with the WA7 as it was the first time that app had been used on that machine and no configuration has been done on it yet.  In fact, when I listened after you it was not great sounding to me either.  I think some settings need to be adjusted but when I switched back to the other application the music sounded great again.  Maybe next time we meet I'll have all that worked out and perhaps have even sprung for the tube power supply... I still need to spend some time with that Bakoon anyway.
 
I met a bunch of great guys there and as I said I suck with names but you guys know who you are  Wish everyone was local so I'd actually have friends around who don't think this is a sickness like all my friends around here do.  Hope to see you guys again at another meet one day!
 
P.S. - If I was acting strange some of that time please forgive me... I was on some meds that affect my mood/behavior that day

 
You're quite welcome... anytime  I'm glad you had such a good time...  Just let me know what Saturday afternoon works for you to come back and listen to the Bakoon stuff...  I'm usually here for Ryan's nap time anyways listening to music and piddling around on the computer... I would love to listen to the Woo WA7 again... based on all the other Woo stuff I've heard in the past (which was freakin' awesome, btw), I figured there was just something about the setup or music or ?????? that was not quite set right... I wanted to try it on known variables to make sure of that but just didn't have time there at the end... sorry if I implied or outright said otherwise with my comment.  You've got a great combo of gear there with your machine, headphones, and DAC/amp combo.  As if I didn't have enough stuff already, between you and Jason, I want to spend some more money right now  I have a hard time finding time to listen to all the different combos I have here right now... but between the Unison SH and more Woo, I'd have that tonal tube subjective preference covered.... and some more headphones and the auralic would certainly satisfy that crazy neutral side of things as well... The Auralic reminds me a lot of the Sennheiser HDVD 800 and B.M.C. PureDAC, just on a bit of steroids for its utter neutrality... that can be pretty inticing....
 
so much gear, so little money and time to play it all....  tough life, I tell you

 

[bluecollar]

Ditto all the rave reviews for the meet and Shane for making it happen. Anytime I can combine motorcycling, listening to stellar headphone gear and chatting with like-minded hi-fi enthusiasts in the same day is a good thing.    

 

[tmac7balla]

  I'm glad you all enjoyed yourself.  Even though it felt like sometimes I was running around like a chicken with its head chopped off (all the computer issues at the last minute sure didn't make my life easier ugh!), I had an absolute blast!  I got to meet some new folks, talk audio all day long (woohooo!!) and I got to hear some gear I was wanting to hear myself (you all saved me the expense of buying it and bringing it in to evaluate on my own... so thank you very much!!).
 
My only regret is that I totally missed hearing Xoen's system setup!  Just ran out of time.  I also really want to spend a few more minutes with my own music on the Woo Audio unit.  Tonally it was right up my alley.... but there was something going on with soundstage compression and blurring together at louder volumes during the 10 minutes I got to listen....  it's a great looking piece though.... wow is that nice design....
 
Jason,  You are the man for bringing all that Auralic, computers, power conditioners, cables, etc. etc. etc. stuff along, including your own display table, tablecloth, etc... that was freakin' awesome, man!  Thanks so much!  Sorry about the network issues... I'm glad we were able to get it all working though....  I really like the Auralic streamer and the neutrality of the gear was crazy good.  Very good value there....  and seeing how much I love the klutz design headphone stands already given I carry them, the Gemini headphone stand had me wanting to melt my credit card ordering some of them
 
Thanks everyone!  I can't wait to do this again! (although my better half might have something to say about it if I try to do another one in 3 weeks time hahaha... might have to be a couple months break... which should give me enough time to work on those surprises that didn't materialize in time for yesterday!)
 
Edited to add:  Sol was mentioning as he was leaving that he might look into hosting the next one by renting out his neighborhood's community clubhouse.  Apparently it's a pretty large space that would allow us to setup a bunch of different stuff and have more room to breathe if we wanted to up the ante on number of setups and increase the number of attendees.  So if he decides to move forward with that one, I'll get him to open a thread here.

Hopefully we can do something before January! just keeping my hopes alive lol.
 

  Thanks Shane - this was an awesome event for me and as mentioned before please give my thanks to your family for putting up with and even taking care of us.  I think I figured out the issues with the WA7 as it was the first time that app had been used on that machine and no configuration has been done on it yet.  In fact, when I listened after you it was not great sounding to me either.  I think some settings need to be adjusted but when I switched back to the other application the music sounded great again.  Maybe next time we meet I'll have all that worked out and perhaps have even sprung for the tube power supply... I still need to spend some time with that Bakoon anyway.
 
I met a bunch of great guys there and as I said I suck with names but you guys know who you are  Wish everyone was local so I'd actually have friends around who don't think this is a sickness like all my friends around here do.  Hope to see you guys again at another meet one day!
 
P.S. - If I was acting strange some of that time please forgive me... I was on some meds that affect my mood/behavior that day

How are you liking the software? The WA7 after you went back to your software sounded breath taking. It blended so well with Marvin Gaye's voice.
 

   
You're quite welcome... anytime  I'm glad you had such a good time...  Just let me know what Saturday afternoon works for you to come back and listen to the Bakoon stuff...  I'm usually here for Ryan's nap time anyways listening to music and piddling around on the computer... I would love to listen to the Woo WA7 again... based on all the other Woo stuff I've heard in the past (which was freakin' awesome, btw), I figured there was just something about the setup or music or ?????? that was not quite set right... I wanted to try it on known variables to make sure of that but just didn't have time there at the end... sorry if I implied or outright said otherwise with my comment.  You've got a great combo of gear there with your machine, headphones, and DAC/amp combo.  As if I didn't have enough stuff already, between you and Jason, I want to spend some more money right now  I have a hard time finding time to listen to all the different combos I have here right now... but between the Unison SH and more Woo, I'd have that tonal tube subjective preference covered.... and some more headphones and the auralic would certainly satisfy that crazy neutral side of things as well... The Auralic reminds me a lot of the Sennheiser HDVD 800 and B.M.C. PureDAC, just on a bit of steroids for its utter neutrality... that can be pretty inticing....
 
so much gear, so little money and time to play it all....  tough life, I tell you

If you don't mind I would like to set up a time to drive back up and give the Unison SH another listen this time from laptop. Still working on convincing the wife but from the looks of it I hope to be one of your first buyers for it. I havn't shut up about it to my wife since I have been home lol. Unfortunatly I've searched high and low with little success on finding information about it. Would you happen to have the specs for it?