[taylor]

I just got home, surprised that no one else started the thread.

 

[taylor]

Some impressions -

Qualia -
I don't understand how Sony can get away with taking a crappy version of the SA5000, painting it black, and marking it up $2000.

HE90 -
They sound very good, when both channels work.

SA5000 - I thought they were pretty good. They look funny but are very comfy. They sound pretty similar to the CD3000s, more towards the bright side.

HD600 - I liked them. imo the SA5ks are slightly better but the HD600 have a lot of bang for the buck.

HD650 - Similar to the HD600, but imo not worth the extra money. Several people found them to sound worse than the HD600s.

ER-6 - They sounded pretty good, but I did not like the feel of them. It felt like my ears were underwater.

HE60 - Mmmmmm.... electrostatic goodness. I liked these cans a lot. If I could afford them, I would buy them. While the HE90s were better (when both channels worked) I think the HE60s have a lot better price:sound ratio.

DT770 - I liked them. When I first heard them a month ago I didn't care too much for them, but doing a direct comparison to similarly priced cans they certainly hold their own.

PS-1 - While they are a fine headphone, the aluminum enclosures are so heavy and the radioshack pads so thin I found them to be very uncomfortable. I find that my SR-60s with comfies and the headband bent out are very comfy, but I did not want to bend the headband on such an expensive headphone. They sounded good, but not $700 more than the RS-1 good.

RS-1 - I liked them. I didn't give them too critical of a listen because they'll be way out of my budget for a long time.

HF-1 - They sounded pretty good, but I was somewhat biased against them because I already have the SR-60s. They both have the Grado house sound, so I focused more on checking out stuff from other brands that I don't get to listen to every day. I wish they had made the whole thing out of wood though, kind of like a mix between RS-2 and SR-225. Having a regular plastic enclosure with just a wood button looked weird.

K1000 - These are really cool. I find the headband to be tight but the sound is very good, they sound like speakers.

K340 - I really dig these bad boys.

Headroom Micro DAC - This thing is very versatile and sounds good.

RSA Hornet - Whoa, how can you fit so much headphone amp and a 9v battery into such a small box?

IPod nano - Whoa, how can you fit so much mp3 player into such a small box? With the ER-6, it's something that fits in a shirt pocket with room to spare and brings hi-fi anywhere.

My "Good Shepard Church" name tag - Brian was right, it didn't help me get babes at the cheese steak place.

My cheese steak - It rivaled the HE90 in terms of enjoyment, although the HE90 is probably healthier. Just as long as I don't eat two, it's fine

 

[Canman]

Great meet today. Mrdon did one heck of job getting the meet together and providing a great space.

Ray can hardly move after eating two cheese steak sandwiches but we are having fun comparing the Hornet and SR-71 right now. The Hornet is a killer little amp. The huge sound belies its dimunitive size. I'm glad I placed an order on the hornet thread already.

A couple of things I'll go into more detail tomorrow, but I mostly I rediscovered the Sennheiser HD-600 and found that it kicks my HD-650's butt.

Also, my Sennheiser HE-60 definitely likes the Stax 007t much better than the KGSS. There is a big difference in midrance tonality.

The Raptor sounded much better than the last time I heard it. I still don't think it does well with the Sony R-10, but it sounds fantastic with the Sennheisers. Great stuff.

The new Headroom desktop also sounds really good, especially with the Max module in it. The internal DAC option is a no brainer for the $250 (the Meridian G08 is better as expected). Also the Beyer DT-880 balanced into the Max was very impressive. I don't ever remember hearing that headphone perform like that.

There was a good showing from an MPX3 Slam w/ Plitron transformer that sounded really nice with the R10, the HE-90 from the Stax 007t, L3000/Raptor, and the Beyer DT-770 out of an ASL MG Head Mk3.

One other thing that shocked me is how good the Creek CD53 is.

The collection of gear was unbelievable. More tomorrow.

 

[thrice]

Just got back into town.

mrdon, thanks for hosting the meet, it was great meeting you and I'm sure we'll chat again very soon

.....oh wait, do we have an angel emoticon, that would be more appropriate me thinks.

As always it was great seeing old and new faces. Ray and Tyll are great fun to hang out with and chat about headphoniana....and dancing girls

There was a young head-fier with a mohawk at the meet....I thought it was hilarious how the headphone band would smash down his spikes and he'd fix them after removing the cans.....go team PUNK-FI!!!!!!!

Some great gear, I'll post more later when I'm awake.

 

[Trogdor]

mrdon: Thanks so much for hosting the meet. I think it was a fantastic success.

It was really cool to meet a bunch of fellow Head-Fiers. Btw, if you awan to guaruntee an interesting meet, invite Hirsch! That's all I got to say.

taylor:
It seems the Qualia got beat up by a lot of folks. I keep on saying this but its hard to demo these without getting fitted, plan and simple. The Qualias NEED to have a seal on your ears, they are built around this concept of forming a sealed chamber to create a magnificent soundstage (think 5000 detail but way bigger soundstage). The Qualias that were demoed were fitted for Hirsch - they barely fit me and as such sounded good and bad demanding on how I angled them. I say this because I've listened to them fitted for about 50 minutes and I still feel this is the most accurate dynamic headphone made on the planet. Of course YMMV as it seems these cans have had a love hate relantionship with the HeadFi community.

My quick initial impressions:

HE-90 Orpheus: Fantastic speed and soundstage. Everything was huge and it really attacks the music. Nothing phases it and there were no frequency rolloffs or dips across the spectrum. Accurate, fast, and big. Very impressive, but your wallet hurts.

ATH-L3000: One word, BASS. These cans do BASS very well, slightly boomy for me, but very nice indeed. They have a very smooth sound with a nice soundstage to them. We did a comparison with the Orpheus on the same track and I thought though the Orpheus had an even bigger soundstage, the L3000 had more bass or at least made the bass stand out more but wasn't as tight as the Orpheus.

R10: If you are a Senn man, this your headphone. To me, they were like the 600's but smoother, bigger, and more accurate. These are the type of cans you can listen to all day and not get fatigued. Vocals REALLY shine with these cans. They are naturally very tube like.

PS-1's: Ugggh, not for me. Yes, they do bass better but the Grado magic seems to have been totally removed out of these cans. I prefer the RS-1 sound completely.

AKG K1000: Yea, I get to hear them finally. Tons and tons of detail. Not enough bass. The bass is defined, tight, but not prominent when it should be in my opinion. What I really liked about this cans is their imaging (which can change by just postitioning the monitors on an angle).

SA5000's: Baby Qualias. As my friend said, "These are cold as ice like the Qualia's but lack teh soundstage." That's it in my opinion. You get a lot of what the Qualia offers for a fantastic price. To go back to my previous Qualia comment, because the 5000's are adjustable, you can get a clean fit with anyone's pair. Furthermore, by adjusting them incorrectly, they sound as bad the Qualia's do. Again, both cans rely on a tight fit. Anyway, I enjoyed these can's alot with the HeadRoom stuff. Very synergistic.

HeadRoom MAX Balanced: Not with Grados. Great with the Qualia's, 5000's (Desktop w/MAX module) and Senn's. I can see why HeadRoom prefers Senn's over Grado's. They just work better. What took the show (hopefully somebody will post pics) is how HUGE this amp is. I don't think the HeadRoom pics really do it justice on how much real estate this amp takes. HeadRoom amps are very fast in my opinion. Cans that need a fast reacting dynamic amp, really shine with HeadRoom.

Raptor: Lovely with my RS-1's, not so with the 5000's/Qualia's. Very nice with the L3000's, probably one of my favorite combos of the meet. Smooth, defined, and sweet. The Raptor is one of the few tube setups that I enjoyed.

The Hornet: A very nice portable amp. Small, battery powered, and seems to be able to drive any can you can think of (maybe minus the K1000). I thought the Hornet and HR-2 were very close with the HR-2 having a better slightly more pronounced bass. If you are in the portable amp market, you must demo the Hornet.

The theme throughout this meet was, "Damn, I really like the 600's over the 650's....", almost everyone who compared them side by side liked the 600's better. I many thought the 650's were slightly more accurate particularly in the mid range but more tonally recessed compared to the 650's. While I was driving home, my buddy said, the "600's or 650's would definitely sound better in the Carribean (Corona should consider talking to Sennheiser to feature the phones in the beer commercials!).

Anyway, again, I had a great time and really enjoyed meeting everyone.

Trogdor

 

[raisin]

Man-o-man- did anyone else hit that incredible rain on the way Home? I haven't driven thru such rain in thirty years! At one point there were five cars hydro-planed off of 78 in a half mile stretch! It was so harrowing, I exited, and took surface roads the last twenty miles. (couldn't stop, HAD to get home)
When I checked the radar loop on the WC, it showed that I had traversed a band of RED intensity, and locations incurred 10 inchs of rain! Whiteknuckles for two hours.
Anyway, obligation settled, victuals, then out like a light on the sofa! I'm switching to the sheets now, will post tommorow. Hope everyone is home and safe.

 

[Trogdor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raisin Man-o-man- did anyone else hit that incredible rain on the way Home? I haven't driven thru such rain in thirty years! At one point there were five cars hydro-planed off of 78 in a half mile stretch! It was so harrowing, I exited, and took surface roads the last twenty miles. (couldn't stop, HAD to get home) When I checked the radar loop on the WC, it showed that I had traversed a band of RED intensity, and locations incurred 10 inchs of rain! Whiteknuckles for two hours. Anyway, obligation settled, victuals, then out like a light on the sofa! I'm switching to the sheets now, will post tommorow. Hope everyone is home and safe.

Dude. we hit loads of run on 202 and then it got real intense on 322 right when we got on the Turnpike. With that said, I got home in about an hour and half.

Again, thanks for bringing the L3000. That was a real unexpected treat.

Trogdor

 

[Febs]

It was a great meet, and I have to say it once again, MrDon did a spectacular job getting it organized. Driving to and from the meet (especially from) in the torrential rain was a real hassle, but MrDon's church was an excellent facility for the meet.

Special thanks also to Tyll, who spent a lot of time talking with me about portable amp options.

Since I had to get there late and leave early, I spent most of my time trying out amps and comparatively little time listening to the wide variety of cans that were there. We'll have to have another meet soon ...

 

[taylor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raisin Man-o-man- did anyone else hit that incredible rain on the way Home? I haven't driven thru such rain in thirty years! At one point there were five cars hydro-planed off of 78 in a half mile stretch! It was so harrowing, I exited, and took surface roads the last twenty miles. (couldn't stop, HAD to get home) When I checked the radar loop on the WC, it showed that I had traversed a band of RED intensity, and locations incurred 10 inchs of rain! Whiteknuckles for two hours. Anyway, obligation settled, victuals, then out like a light on the sofa! I'm switching to the sheets now, will post tommorow. Hope everyone is home and safe.

Rain was crazy, especially on the schuykill. By the time we made it into Philly, the roads were flooded. The parking lot at the cheese steak place looked like a lake, and it was under an overhang!
After crossing the bridge back into south jersey, the regular road was completely flooded and we had to take a detour to get to Cherry Hill.

 

[RaYSaMueLsSoN]

Hey everybody here are all the pics my dad took from the Philly meet some of them are pretty funny lol

THIS IS ONLY PART OF THE PICS... ILL BE POSTING MORE A LIL LATER

 

[fr4c]

haha you wore them the wrong way buddy

 

[raisin]

Gotta thank a few people- Mr.Don for puttin together a great meet, Tyll and Ray for bringing their wares, knowledge, and humour, and especially Hersh- who braved three hours of bad weather and traffic to show up with his bag of treasure.These are the people that make these meetings the EVENTS they are.
This meet I learned the importance of synergy and component matching. Although it's known that the Qualia's are a difficult match up, I was surprised to hear the 010's sound plebeian in certain rigs. It was even possible to hollow out the L3k's prodigious bass with some systems.
Sennheiser shootout favored the 600's (which had better balance, less veiled), but they were equipped with the Cardas cable, while the 650 was stock IIRC.
As mentioned, Hersh brought his NEW 90's, and had them setup in an alcove, with the 60's and the 010 for comparison. Unfortunately, this was under the rooftop AC compressor, whose resonance was difficult for the electrostats to cut through. The bass on the l3k was immense on the Singlepower amp here, almost un-natural in comparison to those three other phones.
Ray brought another set of tubes for my Raptor, and I was initiated to the joys and labour of tuberolling. Good work for those winter evenings ahead.
Finally, comment must be made on how well Ray matches all his amps for a consistant SS. Blind A/B testing between any of his units (allbeit under meet conditions) reveals no readily apparent differences! I really want one of those switches!

(Thrice, that mohawk belonged to Xilron- who brought Jack[the chainsneezer])

 

[immtbiker]

I wanted to come to this meet, but I had to work Saturday night.

I kind of find it very ironic, that the spring meet in Maryland at Thrice's house(in which I passed through Philly to ride the rest of the way with Canman) had the same cyclone type rain. It took me 7 hours to do a 4 1/2 hour ride, and besides white knuckles, I had a sour stomach and migraine, by the time I got there.

Not to toot or anything...but I have been saying for a year, that the 600's are a much better sounding can, than the 650's.

As far as the DT880's and Tyll's Max...people who say that cabling and balanced output don't make a difference, all I can say is this. My wife loved the 880's so much at the Boston meet, I bought them for her (a small price to pay for my own purchases). The difference with the stock unbalanced cable is astounding. Of course Headroom's top-o-the-line amp, played a huge role.

Glad you guys had a good time.

 

[Trogdor]

My lord I do look happy and shocked listening to raisin's L3000 on my setup.

That was straight out of the Apogee. As everybody can see, I had fun....

Trogdor

 

[RaYSaMueLsSoN]

hey u guys here are the rest of the pics.....

THERE ARE STIL MORE PICS TO COME! lol MY DAD TOOK A WHOLE LOT!