[MorbidToaster]

Damn. Todd brought the thunder this year. A K-01? Sheesh. 

 

[longbowbbs]

I like seeing over $30K in electronics and I have not plugged in the HP's yet!

 

[Lee Harvey]

Quote:

 
Here's another pic I took of her that does her absolutely no justice.

What, you guys thought I went around taking pics of only vendors and their gear?

 

 
 
What?  No pictures of Becki the Booth Babe at the Audeze booth?

 

[Asr]

More Gear Impressions + Pics

Fosgate's table: I forgot which headphones Fosgate had, I think the LCD-3. The only reason I sat down at their table was because they had a turntable source, the Clearaudio Concept, and I wanted to hear some vinyl - and they happened to have the MFSL version of Alison Krauss' So Long So Wrong, an album I'm familiar with. It sounded really good - there wasn't anything specific I could pinpoint between the vinyl and CD, but it did seem like a more-realistic sound in terms of the instruments' sonic textures.

HiFiMan HE-6: There were a couple of HE-6 headphones at the show actually, one at HiFiMan's table and another at Moon Audio's table, and I checked them both out. Nothing bad, but nothing that was that awesome either. It was just a quick listen though, would need another listen to comment further. Didn't really sound like a headphone that I wanted to buy though.

HiFiMan HE-500: I checked this one out too, forgot which table. Also not bad, and it was fairly average-sounding. Good clarity & bass were my immediate thoughts.

Beyerdynamic T1: I previously owned a pair of these headphones and wanted to check them out again at Moon Audio's table on the Cary SEI 300 to see if the amp would change my opinion of them, but it didn't. Not that I think the T1 is bad, it's just not that awesome IMO, and at best it's "above-average" to me, but closer to "average". Decently balanced-sounding headphones but not a whole lot of mid-range or bass. I have a written review of them here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/511201/review-beyerdynamic-t1-vs-sennheiser-hd800

Final Audio Design Muramasa, Audeze closed headphones, Fostex TH600, Sennheiser Momentum, etc: I completely missed seeing these headphones despite the number of times I walked around the room. If I'd known about them before, I would've listened, but I didn't know about them until after the show. Doh!
 
Ultimate Ears UE4000/UE6000/UE9000: Now these I knew about before RMAF, but when I asked about them at UE's table, I was told they didn't have the headphones at the show. Another doh!
 
Even more impressions & pics to come later!
 
(6 first pics @ Famous Dave's Restaurant - dinner on Friday 10/12)
Doug of JH Audio, formerly of Westone

 
Left to right: Darrell (Moon Audio), Jerry Harvey, Drew Baird (Moon Audio), Steve Thomas, Mike Dias (Ultimate Ears), Jaime Harvey-Penrod

 
One of the sauces for the chips

 
Appetizer

 
The main course - we ordered 3 of these for the entire 11-person group

 
A very large moose head

 
Val Kolton of V-Moda

 
Unique Melody PP6

 
Unique Melody

 
Westone's table

 
Ultimate Ears' table (w/ Mike Dias standing)

 
um.....

 
TTVJ's custom beer glasses

 
These two girls showed up together from out of nowhere and after they left, someone said "Hey who let the girls go?!"

 
Val & naamanf (DIY amp-builder extraordinaire)

 
Sitting on the couch at RMAF, watching the baseball game

 
naamanf's friend (er, forgot his name) + Tyll (InnerFidelity)

 
Caught in the act by Tyll!

 
Val's cool shoes

 
Alex (Audeze) + unknown ALO Audio guy

 
Alex (Audeze) + unknown Audeze guy

 
The Audeze team (Sankar on far right)

 

[Moosecraft]

Did nobody here acually listen to the TH600?

 

[swifttal]

Quote:

More Gear Impressions + Pics
...
 
Unique Melody PP6

 
...

 
I saw you got a good snapshot of the PP6 - did you also happen to listen to them?

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

It seems that Fosgate's Signature headphone amp finally made its debut at this year's RMAF. Has Asr, HeadphoneAddict, or anyone else who's been there listened to it?
http://www.kenwest.com/data/photos/700_1kenwestphotography_product_fosgate_ha_0050.jpg

 
Last year I tried the Fostex amp and liked the HP-P1 better, so I didn't bother with it this year when there was only time to try 60% of the stuff there.

 

[wormsdriver]

Quote:

 
naamanf's friend (er, forgot his name) + Tyll (InnerFidelity)

Lars Ulrich? 

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

I left off a few impressions because I didn't really spend a lot of time with them, but wanted to throw this out.
 
I tried the Burson amp at TTVJ and assume it was the HA-160, and with HD600 and CablePro Freedom cable it was pretty nice sounding, although slightly bland sounding with my APS V3 cable.  Cable didn't make a big difference, but there was a certain "je ne se quoi" about the HD600 with Freedom cable that woke them up a little.  Nothing bad stood out for me, but I preferred the APEX Pinnacle at their table, although I only tried that with re-cabled HE-500, so apple to oranges there.
 
On Sunday I went back and used the Westone 4R some more with my TWag V2 balanced cable and RSA SR-71b amp, and fell in love again with these with the balanced setup.  Basically from upgraded cable and amp I'm sure.  The W4R are on my to do list, even though I have the original W4.
 
The HM-901 sounded great with their new RE-600, but also with my HE-500 and silver dragon cable.  It had a lot better drive for my HE-500 than my HM-801, and could actually play the HE-6 at a little above conversation levels which was better than my HM-801 with the HE-500.  I wouldn't use it for HE-6 personally, but it's possible.
 
There was a pair of Beyer Dynamic closed monitor phones at Moon Audio's table, which had an adjustable vent on the bottom of each ear cup.  Drew had an upgraded cable of some sort with them.  They didn't suck or offend in any particular way, but were average sounding to me (Note - on my scale the HD600 are slightly above average, and an HE-500 are further above average with an upgrade in speed, detail, and bass impact (with similar transparency, although HD600 soundstage is bigger).  They did have some isolation, but also a little bit of that closed phone coloration.
 
The Fostex HP-P1 at the JHA table was actually pretty nice with IEM, and I liked being able to plug the digital dock cable right into the iPads there.  Should work fine with a lightning cable.  It's a lot more compact than the CLAS + ALO Rx Mk3 too.  I thought it sounded a bit better than the Qables amp with LOD at the same table - just more open and spacious, and not because of the new Freqphase Waveguide in the new JHA customs.
 
I picked up a set of the V-MODA Vibrato IEM at the show, and these are a fun sounding kind of IEM in the flavor of the Westone 3 (with silicone tips), or maybe more like Monster Turbine Pro Gold but with more treble.  I like that they have an iPhone mic and button.  I'll spend more time with them and post my thoughts later, but I think they are worth the $129 new, even though I bought the used demo's on sunday for 20% off with no box.
 
I still haven't opened my new V-MODA M-80 to burn them in, and my time with the demos was too brief to give much thought about them, other than I was fairly sure I liked the demos a little more than the similarly priced Senn HD25-1 II.  They may be just as uncomfortable as the HD25-1 II but less aggressive or grado-like than the HD25, and imaging is still better than the wall of sound I get from the HD25, although it wasn't nearly as spacious as the M-100.
 
Beyer T1 - it was okay but seemed a little lifeless to me, or lacking soul.  I tried them balanced on the HiFi-M8 and single ended on the April Music Eximus.  Maybe the right amp would do them justice, but I didn't try since I'm not in the market.
 
LCD-2 R2 - don't recall where I heard these, but do recall thinking they sound closer to the LCD-3 than my Rev1 do.  I made a note to myself to pick up an LCD-2 R2 since the LCD-3 is still more than I want to spend while I have a kid in college.

 

[wormsdriver]

^I know BTG Audio can mod your Westone 4's to be used with removable cables. LINK (scroll down on the page)

 

[songmic]

Quote:

 
Last year I tried the Fostex amp and liked the HP-P1 better, so I didn't bother with it this year when there was only time to try 60% of the stuff there.

 
 
Umm, aren't you confusing Fosgate with Fostex? The HP-P1 is made by Fostex, not Fosgate.
 
I was talking about this
http://www.musicalsurroundings.com/fozgateheadphamp.html

 

[p0wderh0und23]

Quote:

 
Here's another pic I took of her that does her absolutely no justice.

What, you guys thought I went around taking pics of only vendors and their gear?

 

That is Bri. She used to help out JHAudio in their booth as well. She's awesome to work with.

 

[Arcamera]

Quote:

Did nobody here acually listen to the TH600?

 
Thanks for all the impressions...I was wondering about the TH600 too.

 

[Audio-Omega]

Was the entire show on a single floor ?

 

[Maxvla]

The headphone gear is all in one room. The rest of the show is on multiple floors spanning dozens of rooms.