I guess I better finally write down my impression before I forget what I heard. Nearly all of these are at the Singlepower booth and are mainly just different combos from what I listed above although I did bring my AKG K271 Studio headphones with replacement cable to leave at the Singlepower booth for the day and got to listen to that set with various amps and sources. I stopped by the Bottlehead room briefly, too.
Bottlehead S.E.X.: They were demoing the amp with Senn HD497s but somebody had left a set of HD600s there with what looked to me like a Cardas cable although it had no markings. Apparently we were suppossed to sit there for a few minutes with the HD497s on until the demo guy said to switch, although I found that out after I had already switched. I knew the HD497s were not going to allow me to hear much of what the amp could do since they aren't particularly sensitive to what is powering them so after about a minute I switched to the HD600s. An Amperex reel-to-reel with modified Seduction line stage was the source. The amp sounded pleasant overall with a warm tonality but was a bit thick and slow sounding. It is transformer-coupled and is capable of 2 watts of output, although they didn't say into what load that rating was for. Not bad for $349, and probably fun to put together, but just not to my tastes.
Singlepower Supra and Arcam CD72 with AKG K271: I seem to be one of the few who really likes my K271 and thinks that it is more responsive to different amplification than Senn HD600s. The K271s simply sounded awesome out of the Supra. Very deep and well-controlled bass, superb vocal handling, excellent imaging, and a wide soundstage. And it could handle any music I tried with it quite well, from slower stuff to fast-paced electronic. I may have spent 20 to 30 minutes with this combo.
Supra and Arcam with Grado HP1000: Another combo I absolutely loved. The HP1000s are a very different beast than the K271s, to say the least. They did have a good, although not particularly wide, soundstage with nice imaging. The bass was fuller and richer than the K271s and never got overbearing like the HD650 did. The midrange was not as forward as the K271 and more forward than the HD650 and was detailed but not analytical sounding. The treble was kept in proportion and never got bright at all. I really liked the HP1000 and IMHO they are better than the RS-1.
Supra and Arcam with Senn HD650: This was with stock cable. The HD650s with stock cable are much better than the HD600s with stock cable and don't seem to improve quite as dramatically with an upgrade cable as the HD600s. The Supra kept the HD650's bass under better control than the PPX3 that I also briefly tried these on, but it still got to be a bit much at times. The soundstage was better and imaging was better compared to on the PPX3, they still sounded a bit distant. I briefly heard the HD650 with Silver Dragon on here and it helped the soundstage and imaging a little bit but upper-end Senns just seem to be going for a more speaker-like sound.
Sony CD3000 with PPX3 and Supra: I didn't take too long to hear these on both amps, but long enough to get some impressions of them. They still sound a bit analytical as I had heard them at the Denver meet a year ago but I like them more now than back then. The bass is punchy, the soundstage wide although imaging is slightly artificial sometimes, and midrange is decent, although the hyped up treble bugged me a little bit. After hearing them in a PPX3 with a trio of RCA cleartops I realized why Mikhail liked that trio so much, it really had a unique synergy with the CD3000s. I had brought along a GE blackplate that Mikhail allowed me to put as the driver in one of the PPX3s with RCA cleartops there and the Sony's did well out of that too and I liked it better than with 3 cleartops. I would probably prefer them to the HD650 or HD600 by a slight margin and really can't say they are bad. They are second only to the R10s in comfort.
I tried not to listen to the R10/Maestro/Meridian setup too much since I didn't want to spoil my ears too much, but I did get in a few minutes of listening time. It is just an incredible setup and is hard to put into words just how good it sounds.
At least at the end of the day I still had no desire to replace my K271s. If an HP1000 becomes available at a decent price when I can afford one (hell will likely freeze over first) then I certainly would like one. The R10 is amazing but I'd never be able to afford both it and the supporting equipment it deserves so it's not even on my list. The K271s continued to impress me with how well they did out of quite a few amps, and of course I learned just how picky they are about synergy with the right tube sets and amps, and I am so glad that I followed Todd the Vinyl Junkie's advice back in May to get them since they have brought and continue to bring so much enjoyment to me.
Mikhail and his wife are really nice people to talk to, also, and I really enjoyed hanging around their booth. It was neat seeing people coming over and hearing how good headphone audio could sound. It was the only setup dedicated to just allowing people to stop by and listen to a variety of headphone amps, sources, and headphones at the show and I really hope Singlepower is at the show next year, and I hope more headphone amp manufacturers and dealers can put up something there as well since headphone audio needs to be pushed more into the mainstream of audiophiledom.
