Borat
Headphoneus Supremus
I just wanted to thank Beau (bobeau) for hosting the meet as well as providing the nice location and snacks/refreshments. You did a great job hosting your first meet. I also wanted to say thanks to the others who came out and brought along their fine gear. The turnout was relatively small, but I had a great time and I hope everyone else did, too.
Gear impressions:
E-MU 1212m (feoteng) » HeadAmp Gilmore Lite (asmox) » Grado HF-1
There is some great synergy going on here IMO. Very impressive for a relatively inexpensive setup. The 1212m is not coloring the sound much and just getting out of the way to let the Lite + Grado do its thing. In my setup, my old HF-1's sounded a little too round/warm and not as crisp/sharp as I thought the Grados should sound. But through this setup, they were sounding really great.
STAX Classic II System (SR-303/SRM313) (canloader,matt)
My first taste of electrostats and it did not disappoint. Nice, exciting sound. The front to back imaging is really good on this setup. I think this rig can do rock/pop and classical equally well. I enjoyed this a lot. And we had two of them at the meet. Thanks canloader and matt.
HE60/HEV70 Baby Orpheus system (canloader)
This was technically the most impressive can I heard at the meet. It was resolving detail, had an incredibly wide and deep soundstage, and presented everything in speaker-like form. And supposedly, this is not even the best amp for these cans? But I couldn't really spot any immediate deficiencies.
Chaintech AV710 » Theta TLC » Ack! Dack! 2.0 w/ Hi-Rez caps » Grover UR4 » SinglePower PPX3 Slam » Audio Technica L3000 (bobeau)
The headphones were not fully burned in, but they had a very lush, soothing and unfatiguing sound. Some might consider this signature boring, and I can understand that. But if you are a fan of the Sennheiser flagship dynamic sound (580/600/650), this can is sure to please you as well. It's sort of the next step you can take (a very expensive next step
) from the Senns. But it shares the same warm, laidback, and liquid midrange sound, just everything is better. Instrument separation and placement were very impressive. I think you can sit back and listen to this setup for hours on end without ever getting fatigued. Audio Technica makes some beautiful cans with great build quality.
Sennheiser HD580 (Benjamin's)- This is the first time I've heard these headphones and it does remind me very much of my HD600's when I had the stock cable on them. The HD580/600/650 comparisons have been repeated ad nauseum on this forum so I wil spare you from even more.
MHDT Lab Dialogue II DAC (bobeau) - This DAC is really cool looking. Although the empty slots on the sides were kind of strange, the acrylic chassis is very attractive. Though it does show fingerprints like crazy. It is very difficult to gauge the sound of DAC's at a meet with brief listening. But I thought it had a nice, musical sound.
Beyerdynamic DT880 (canloader) - I believe these need a nice tube amp or a tube sounding solid state amp to fill out the midrange. I think a traditionally solid state sounding amp makes them sound too dry and sometimes too bright.
Musical Fidelity A3 24 (bobeau) - Nobody was a fan of this DAC at the meet. I think after everyone heard how great the Ack! 2.0 sounded, every other source paled in comparison. So I didn't really get a chance to hear this for very long.
I didn't get around to trying a couple of things like the Woo Audio3, SuperMacro, and Audio Technica EC7 earbuds. But I was pleased with just about everything I heard at the meet.
Hope to see everyone again soon!
Gear impressions:
E-MU 1212m (feoteng) » HeadAmp Gilmore Lite (asmox) » Grado HF-1
There is some great synergy going on here IMO. Very impressive for a relatively inexpensive setup. The 1212m is not coloring the sound much and just getting out of the way to let the Lite + Grado do its thing. In my setup, my old HF-1's sounded a little too round/warm and not as crisp/sharp as I thought the Grados should sound. But through this setup, they were sounding really great.
STAX Classic II System (SR-303/SRM313) (canloader,matt)
My first taste of electrostats and it did not disappoint. Nice, exciting sound. The front to back imaging is really good on this setup. I think this rig can do rock/pop and classical equally well. I enjoyed this a lot. And we had two of them at the meet. Thanks canloader and matt.
HE60/HEV70 Baby Orpheus system (canloader)
This was technically the most impressive can I heard at the meet. It was resolving detail, had an incredibly wide and deep soundstage, and presented everything in speaker-like form. And supposedly, this is not even the best amp for these cans? But I couldn't really spot any immediate deficiencies.
Chaintech AV710 » Theta TLC » Ack! Dack! 2.0 w/ Hi-Rez caps » Grover UR4 » SinglePower PPX3 Slam » Audio Technica L3000 (bobeau)
The headphones were not fully burned in, but they had a very lush, soothing and unfatiguing sound. Some might consider this signature boring, and I can understand that. But if you are a fan of the Sennheiser flagship dynamic sound (580/600/650), this can is sure to please you as well. It's sort of the next step you can take (a very expensive next step
Sennheiser HD580 (Benjamin's)- This is the first time I've heard these headphones and it does remind me very much of my HD600's when I had the stock cable on them. The HD580/600/650 comparisons have been repeated ad nauseum on this forum so I wil spare you from even more.
MHDT Lab Dialogue II DAC (bobeau) - This DAC is really cool looking. Although the empty slots on the sides were kind of strange, the acrylic chassis is very attractive. Though it does show fingerprints like crazy. It is very difficult to gauge the sound of DAC's at a meet with brief listening. But I thought it had a nice, musical sound.
Beyerdynamic DT880 (canloader) - I believe these need a nice tube amp or a tube sounding solid state amp to fill out the midrange. I think a traditionally solid state sounding amp makes them sound too dry and sometimes too bright.
Musical Fidelity A3 24 (bobeau) - Nobody was a fan of this DAC at the meet. I think after everyone heard how great the Ack! 2.0 sounded, every other source paled in comparison. So I didn't really get a chance to hear this for very long.
I didn't get around to trying a couple of things like the Woo Audio3, SuperMacro, and Audio Technica EC7 earbuds. But I was pleased with just about everything I heard at the meet.
Hope to see everyone again soon!