I had a great time at the get together Saturday, and really enjoyed meeting lots of people from head-fi. There was some awesome equipment, and a lot of opportunity to check things out and talk with individual owners.
First off, I wanted to thank Neil for providing the venue, and taking the time to set things up. I don't think a meet like this could be run better, and it was amazing how accessible the equipment was, and how easy it was to talk with people, even in the midst of all the gear. Neil, aside from the generous use of the house, thanks for setting up the killer Orpheus system and making it available to listen! I also wanted to thank Tom from TTVJ for the cool T-Shirt - that was a nice surprise, and I'm always psyched to hear Beatle's trivia questions. Sorry there was such a poor showing on the Cubs question, but I was inspired to do some googling and get some Cub's history:
The Chicago Cubs
I didn't get a chance to hear everything, I actually ended up talking with people a lot, and time just flew by. With so many interesting and rarely seen headphones and amps I hardly knew where to start. I did listen to a fair number of headphones though, and was able to hear some equipment I've wanted to check out for a long time - the Orpheus system, the Grado PS-1s, Senn 650s, and AKG K1000s. There were a few things I missed - I wanted to hear the Omega IIs and the beautiful electrostatic rigs sitting nearby, as well as the Sony MDR R-10s, but there's always next time - like I said, time went by too fast!
I checked out Raif's set of PS-1s, and they sounded great through his DAC1 setup - I thought they were awesome, so much that I'll be keeping an eye out in the future, although at this point, I'm not holding out much hope - and they'll probably break the bank anyway... I have some RS-1s which I think are great as well, but the PS-1s sounded much better to me. My only complaint on the RS-1s is the brightness, sometimes that over the top liveliness is just want the doctor ordered, but they can sound a little overdone to me - a little too much upper mids/treble perhaps. The PS-1s had none of that overly bright feeling, they kept the liveliness and punch of the RS-1s, but were warmer and smoother.
One thing I noticed - the PS-1s didn't sound quite right through the Headroom Micro Amp setup (desktop module) as they did through the DAC1 - the bass was a bit indistinct and murky through the Micro. I don't blame this on the PS-1s at all, as their bass was warm and tight through the DAC1 system. Also, I don't want to assume the Micro is completely to blame here either - in general I am incredibly impressed with the Micro (I bought one recently after hearing my friend's for the day, and have not regretted it - the Micro drives the RS-1s very well (truly a fantastic match), and also drives my HP-2s fine as well as Senn 580s - so it is possible the input source I was using wasn't feeding the Micro Amp what it needed on the front end so it could sufficiently drive the PS-1s (an iPod 4G with the Red Wine mod, which sounds great, but doesn't put out a lot of voltage, so the Micro might want the full monty from a source component when you stick PS-1s on the other end).
Or perhaps the Micro finally met its match in something that needed to draw a bit more than it could give, and it's just the unfortunate case that the Micro doesn't work with the PS-1s for whatever mysterious reasons cause these kind of things. I almost hesitate to mention this, since there were so many variables involved. With a hotter input driving the Micro, it could be a completely different story. And as I said, the PS-1s were killer through the DAC1. Just killer. On the topic of Grados, I alternate between the pros and cons of my HP-2s, but usually end up back with the RS-1s after each HP-2 fling. I like the midrange and smooth yet detailed sound of the HP-2s, but always feel they are a bit tight in the bass. They have enough bass, but it seems to be overdamped, maybe a bit too controlled. On the other hand, they do so many other things so right. Anyway, I couldn't help but feel that the PS-1s are like the best qualities of the RS-1 and HP-2 combined.
I was digging on Raif's tunes too, lots of material I knew (which made it nice to audition them), plus some good stuff I hadn't heard before. Between some choices from Raif's playlist and some recs from NeilPeart, I've got some good new music to listen to (plus a killer Wooten/Steve Smith video for the iPod from Google video). Thanks for bringing the PS-1s and all the source material - definitely choice stuff.
I listened to some AKG-K1000s through a gorgeous Cary amplifier. I didn't catch the name of the owner, but thanks for letting me spend some time with that setup! I was amazed at how incredibly cool the Cary amp looks (but Cary equipment always looks incredible), and also pleasantly surprised at the size of the headphones - much smaller than I expected from pictures, I expected something gigantic, but they are actually a very reasonable size, and I found them comfortable.
I wasn't able to get a complete impression of the AKG-K1000s, as there was a lot of activity and discussion in the room, something you wouldn't notice as much with closed in cans, but with the AKGs sitting off the ears, a lot of sound was bleeding in. I've been on the fence about getting a pair of these, though, and I heard enough to be convinced to check them out if I can still find a pair online - I like the idea of a headphone that isn't blasting directly into your ears, I think these could be a great complement to full on headphone listening, and some of the cuts I listened to sounded awesome. I might have missed the boat on these, and will probably need to sell the 701s I haven't even received yet to justify a purchase if I find them (not to mention getting an amp for the K1000s, hopefully a Super T Amp will be up to it).
And the Orpheus. Oh man. Pretty mighty. I actually heard these somewhere between 10 and 15 years ago at a Stereophile show up in SF, and they were mind blowing. First off, that amp is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Talk about art. Whoa. And the headphones sound killer too. I would have liked to check out the Omegas back to back with them, and also compared the 60s with the 90s, but the 90s just sounded so good, I was digging listening to them too much to try and do any comparisons. The 90s were everything I remembered, smooth and lively at the same time. I was lucky that Clarke68 has a great CD to use - some Miles, Monk, Beethoven and Crystal Method - what an awesome mix, and thanks for letting me keep the CD in when I was checking out the cans! A killer variety of different music to get a good perspective on the headphones. Given how much I like Stax Lambdas, and the reputation of the Orpheus, it's probably not a surprise to hear me say the Orpheus system sounded fantastic.
I was psyched to run into LAMark (who I actually know from the real world, having worked together years ago). Mark, the Senn 650s sounded pretty sweet through your rig, and that is an awesome Ray Charles CD you brought along. I hadn't heard the Senn 650s before, and they are everything I expected, smooth and warm, and lots of detail. Senns really seem to nail the soundstage, and although I'm not a dedicated Senn guy, I definitely see the appeal, and they really have some magic with placement of instruments far from the head too. Hearing some of Ray Charle's singing was a highlight too, and that CD definitely showed off the Senn's strengths.
Another highlight was looking at many of the amps people brought in. There was some pretty incredible looking gear. I didn't get to hear a lot of amps, concentrating mostly on headphones (and using whatever amp they were plugged into for the most part), but there was some nice stuff sitting on those tables! I was struck by the incredibly clean internals of the amb amps, I loved the blue lights under the tubes, and the designs looked very slick. The electrostatic rigs looked very impressive as well, I've just got a Stax 313 driving my stats, and at some point I'll be very interested in checking out some of the big amps for them.
On top of all the audio equipment, I'm glad there was a chance to meet some new people and chat about audio, gear, and other related topics. It was great to hang with Mark and Oli and talk about CPU stuff for a while - I hardly ever get to think about that stuff, even though it's probably my favorite tech. Not that I don't love writing code (my day gig), but CPU design is just too cool. Also, enjoyed hanging out with Raif and NeilPeart and talking bands and drummers (I went and checked out Dennis Chambers on dummerworld.com and he's a monster). Hope to run into everyone again at some point!
Thanks again to everyone who was involved helping set things up and bringing their gear, it was a great day. It was also very nice to put some faces (and real names) to the head-fi avatars.
