Meets are definitely not the best way to sample gear, but here are my quick impressions anyways.
Firstly, thanks to Neilvg for hosting the meet. Great host. I also finally had the oppotunity to meet the NorCal and some of the SoCal crowd. Looking forward to see you guys and gals again.
HE90/HEV90 Orpheus System -- The best headphone system on the planet. Period. Not too cold, not too warm -- just right. Understandably the holy grail of headphone listening. Neilvg is one lucky headfier.
HE90/Blue Hawaii -- The Meridian G08 drove the Blue Hawaii on XLRs and the HEV90 on RCAs at the same time for some side by side comparisons. The BH seems a touch crisper and livelier than the HEV90. The HEV90 is definitely the warmer of the two. I thought the HEV90 is the better match to the HE90 as it is more "musical" (whatever that means these days), but two other head-fiers doing the same comparison picked the BH as the winner. If you have an HE90, try to get an HEV90 if you can
AT L3000, W11, W5000 -- I love the darker and bassier presentation of the L3000 compared to the W11 and W5000. The W11 and W5000 sounded like bad Sony R10 wannabes. However, as much as I like the L3000 sound, I find the AT pads pressing on my ears uncomfortable. I guess this is something that I can get used to.
Sony R10 -- I loved this headphone before but it didn't do it for me today. I listened to the R10 with the HR-2 using the Meridian G08 and couldn't detect the supposed R10/HR-2 synergy today. Perhaps it was a mistake to listen to the Orpheus system first.
K701 -- I can see why some HD600/HD650 lovers are switching to this. To me, it sounded like the HD650 with a touch more high end extension, a touch less bass, and a touch thinner sound. Almost like an HD650 with Zu Mobius but not quite. Need to spend more time with this headphone. I can sense the potential.
M3 -- I was really impressed with the M3 and actually preferred it to the Dynahi using a Qulia 010. I love the smooth top end and black background. Sounds very similar to my low gain HR-2.
K1000/Cary SLI -- Love this combo. The K1000 didn't exhibit any brightness or harshness at all. Warm without being syrupy.
Oritek X-1 v. Grover UR4. System was Meridian G08/HR-2/Qualia 010. The X-1 is smoother with more bottom end extension, while the UR4 is more airy and detailed. To my ears anyways.
Balanced Dynahi/Balanced Qualia 010 -- The Qualia doesn't seem to scale much when driven balanced. I really love the sound to begin with but I expected it to scale like an HD650. I was somewhat disappointed it didn't. There is some improvement in soundstage but not a dramatic change.
---Pat