This sign was found in the restroom at the restaurant where a group of us had dinner. ayt999 dubbed it the "Do Not Stand on the K701" sign. As good an explanation as any for such a weird sign, and certainly appropriate for the evening.
I only managed to listen to a few headphones and setups while setting up and dealing with my own gear, setting up the vinyl rig with Crimson Tear and Ori, and then talking way too much. Here are some random thoughts from a rather enjoyable but random meet experience:
Vinyl is Cool. We had a good time setting up the old-school QuadraFlex TT with the very nouveau XR-10B phono stage and the ultra-mod closet-full of HT electronics. Very ecclectic. Anyway, we tried some really high-end audiophile vinyl at first, but quickly went for the tried-and-true Dire Straits and Cream. Both sounded good, but when we switched from Ori's incredibly long RCAs to my Crystal Cable XLRs and fed the amps more directly, we did hear a pretty big improvement. In either case, if anyone ever tries to tell you vinyl can't produce low end or top end extension they haven't heard a real vinyl setup. I would have liked to strip down the rig to a more true 2-channel setup and definitely have been kicking myself that we didn't hook it up to JCD's diy speakers, but it was a fun side-show to the headphone focus.
K701 vs. K601. Sorry that I can't offer any great insights on this debate, but the overall consensus with the new copies of each was that the K601 is much more comfortable and the the sound difference is very minimal. However, I only heard the stock K701 for about 2 minutes compared to my K601 that I have not logged a lot of hours on my head. The sound was not dramatically different, but my guess is the K701 has greater transparency and a broader range. I am a firm believer in the power of burn-in, and plenty of people I respect have said the K701 needs a lot of it to open up its potential. Ripley said his had about 100 hours on them, and my K601 have only about 50-60 hours, so neither was sufficiently broken in for me to make big judgments.
HD650s Gone Wild. They were everywhere, and in many configs with cables, and woodies, and foams or not foams, but I am waiting to hear more comparisons and discussions. I had a few people try out RnB180's Grace 52 prototype cable, but in all the fray I did not hear reactions other than PFKMan who agreed with my take that the production model is a huge improvement and a much better direction for Myo to have taken. Good choice Myo!
I did not hear blessingx's new deep-dish woodies, but I hope to soon when we get together so I can hear the EC-01 and NX-01 some more. [The brief moments with the EC-01 were encouraging for such a low priced amp, but I am really jealous of the Cinnci folks with that gorgeous ZanaDeux. I really want to hear Craig's stuff and it was a shame he was sick and couldn't make it up with some gear. Next time I hope, and I have to assume he will be at the National.]
ayt999's Mini-Mini Collection. This was the sole focused listening effort I managed all day. I told Alex I would give them all a listen as compared to some of my other cables. I used utep10's iPod and Turbo Dock II (which itself compared favorably to my PocketDock) into my SMv3 and Super.Fi 5 Pros. The conclusion? Excellent work on all three I heard, all of which had distinct sound signatures.
One was solid copper cable and was the warmest and most laid-back of the bunch. I really liked the way it worked with the Jane Monheit I used as a reference track. Very clear and clean sound. The other end of the spectrum was his all-silver cable that I also heard last fall. It is the brightest and most up-front of the bunch, but it is very clean and transparent as opposed to "bad" bright. Very live and exciting sound. Last was my probably favorite and it fell more in the middle of the two. It was a thicker copper cable (braided or stranded?) with chunky connectors. Anyway, it had a very pleasing sound that was brighter than the solid copper but not as much in-your-grill as the silver. It also delivered a bigger headstage--more air and more room presence in the vocals. Really good work on all of these cables, and I am hoping ayt999 opens a little shop in Mall-Fi one of these days!
Wakked1's Striped, Ported HP3000--Awesome Cans. These are the best work I have personally heard from Headphile. Wakked1 said he worked with Larry to get the sound he wanted and Larry really delivered the goods. They are very distinctive with the striped woods and screened ports, and the sound is really special even compared to the other HP3000 I have heard (and that Wakked1 owned previously). Radiohead really rocked on these cans, through my Prehead prototype but especially on my maxxed MPX3. Really great work on these cans.
King of the World. The Orpheus system was the best, most natural, and engaging system I have ever heard. Obviously, I am not the first or the last to utter such words, but it happens to be true. And I'm with Clarke, that volume nob alone is utterly cool! The HE60 vs. HE90 comparison was funny because the little baby sounds really great through the Orpheus but the Big Daddy just whipped his ass without even breaking a sweat. I failed to listen to the BH sitting right next door, but JCD and I started with the HE60 and HE90 plugged in but quickly turned to both HE90s in the Orpheus. Muddy Waters, Folk Singer made me weepish, and then JCD kept going back and getting different tunes and muttering "That's just not fair" over and over as he tossed aside his own cans. King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man sounded pretty darn amazing. I'm gonna have to make some excuse to drop by Neil's a LOT in the coming months....
Talk about jealousy, that ES-1 at the NJ meet makes me sad that they were snowed out awhile back because Mikhail might have been convinced to make an appearance for a head-to-head with the Big O. Now that would be something. National meet maybe?
The Future. That is what new Head-Fier Grahame's rig was all about. I will not go into detail because I simply don't understand it all, but he had a laptop working in slim server mode to control his own internet portal which in turn allowed him to stream 300 Gigs (over a Terabyte at home, this was just for going walkies) to, oh, 15-20 different end points using Squeezebox to distribute it all. I know I have screwed that up from a technical standpoint, but basically it meant that you can listen through the Squeezebox itself with its headphone jack or through RCA or digital outputs, and/or you can send a stream to the Rio on a docking station so you can either program it or you can output through RCA outs, etc. etc. etc. When streamed over to a reasonable connection to a good DAC and either headphone or speaker setup this system would be incredible. But the best part of all was the Nokia remote wireless controller, which was UNDOUDBTEDLY THE COOLEST, MOST AMAZING, MOST JAMES BOND-LIKE toy I have ever. I couldn't even tell you half of what it does but it can do a lot through its touch screen and you can even plug in headphones to its mini-jack and listen to anything in that Terabyte of FLAC tunes. Cool, cool stuff. Welcome to Head-Fi Grahame, and sorry that we may have convinced you to buy a better DAC and amp. Oops. It's what we do best...
So, all in all I didn't make that much progress on the path of seeking greater headphone knowledge given how much there was available to learn. Like blessingx, I felt like this meet seemed people-focused and I had a great time seeing people I have met previously and making some new friends. Neil had a great setup for us and he should be commended for the effort and the expense of renting tables, chairs, etc. Thanks again man, and when can I come over again?
