Ah, didn't see this thread earlier.
A big thank you to
BIG POPPA for organising the meet.
Another big thank you to
Doc B. for being such an awesome host.
One last big thank you to
Achyllis for providing a ride to the venue from the ferry terminal and back.
I had a lot of fun in
Achyllis's car waiting at the ferry terminal in Seattle to board the ferry. We talked about audio in general and had a pre-meet listening session between everyone's gear.
Achyllis was really rocking it out with the K 701, hahaha! I was surprised to hear the Grado SR-60i for the first time. The treble is pretty crunchy and lacking in detail, but it wasn't as problematic as the Sony MDR-V6 or MDR-7506, which I found to be pretty rough and fatiguing. They're not bad for ~$60.
Ah, such a beautiful day to ride the ferry.
I did record some video footage of the different rooms and rigs during the meet, but I was unintentionally holding my iPhone vertically and the video's aspect ratio would look just plain awkward on YouTube, unfortunately.
Upstairs,
Doc B.'s HD800 and AKG K1000 rigs were incredible! I love the sound coming out from that HD800 setup. Although I don't think it has the same level of detail as on other amplifiers, the Mainline sounded pretty dang enjoyable. Even more impressive was the K1000 on the BeePre. With the K1000's "wings" wide open...oh man that was such a great listening experience. They really did seem like a speaker setup to me. With the "wings" closed, I didn't care for its sound too much. I believe this model of the K1000 is the bass-heavy version, so that might be why I didn't like it. At the Front Panel Express meet, I recall someone else had a K1000 and I liked that one more because it sounded more balanced to me compared to the rig at this meet. But, I do have to say that this rig sounded more speaker-like to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sound it output.
Listening to the K 701 on the S.E.X. 2.1 was a real treat. I'm not sure which impedance setting it was on, but it really made me just sit back, relax, and listen to the music. It was a nice pairing to my ears. They lost some of the details I'm used to hearing, but in exchange they gained a nice lush and warm sound to it while improving bass presence. Compared to the HE-500 on the Mainline amp, I actually preferred the K 701 on the S.E.X. 2.1; it was simply superb-sounding to my ears.
In the lab,
dude_500's hand-made electrostatic rig was quite impressive being all custom-built, including the amplifier. It was so cool to be able to see right through the driver. I do have to wonder how the diaphragm is driven though since electrostatic speakers require the charged plates on both sides of the diaphragm. I'm still fairly new to electrostatic headphones though, so I guess it's all part of the learning process. I need to get my hands on that Vanessa Mae album, hahaha. I have her
Choreography album and I absolutely love it.
On
4nradio's rig, I tried the iBasso DX100 with the V-MODA Crossfade M-100 that I'm quite familiar with. The DX100 has a pretty large soundstage relative to the Sansa Clip Zip that I usually use with the M-100 and it had a much weightier and warmer sound to it. The Clip Zip on the other hand sounds more congested and analytical. Using unfamiliar music may have been a factor for these observations though. As for the user-interface, I find the UI in Rockbox to be much more responsive compared to that of the DX100. Transitioning between portrait and landscape orientations on the DX100 took quite a bit of time to me and it was kind of annoying to toggle. As much as I liked its sound with the M-100, I think I'll stick to my miniature, relatively speaking, Clip Zip for a portable media player.
^ I liked that song with the M-100 and DX100
Back in the main lobby, my gear was set-up next to the awesome-looking Blumenstein speakers.
I didn't really give
atomicbob's Beyerdynamic T90 a good listen, but after listening to a few songs in Chesky's binaural+ album, I decided that its sound isn't for me. To my ears, the treble sounded tinny and a bit tizzy.
On a different note, I still can't get over how beautiful the Woo Audio WA7 is.
curbfeeler's music selection wasn't anything I was familiar with, and likewise when he tried my rig, but I did get to try his HD650 on my own rig. I still quite like the HD650 for rock music. There is just something about its treble response that goes really well with rock music to my ears. The overall laid back presentation makes rock music relaxing to listen to and although it's not the most engaging nor detailed headphone for me, I think it's a headphone that goes well with just sitting back and enjoying the music. I've tried the HD650 on other people's rigs in the past and didn't quite like them, but on my Objective 2 amp with my own music, I really enjoyed it!
On the topic of rock music though, I tried
Equus's LCD-2 on the Objective 2 again since I read that rock music sounds great through the LCD-2. I did like the LCD-2 with vocals, but I don't think its treble response, nor soundstage were suitable for rock music in my opinion. I still find the LCD-2's rather congested soundstage a problem for my listening pleasures as I like a well-spaced sound with clearly-defined instruments. I find the LCD-2 to have great imaging, but the lack of space between instruments, somewhat closed-in soundstage, and kind of aggressive treble kind of ruins it for me unfortunately. If I were to describe the LCD-2 in one word, it would be "thick."
Still at my station, I did a brief listen between
palmfish's HD800 on the Objective 2 and my basic STAX rig (SR-207 + SRM-252S). I think they are both really great headphones for different purposes. I'll need to spend more time with my own STAX setup since I literally just got them on Tuesday, opened the box on Thursday, and gave them about 1 hour of head-time before the meet. From my brief listen though, the HD800 seems to have a more 1D soundstage similar to that of the K 701 where it has great width but limited depth. The basic STAX on the other hand has a more 2D soundstage with decent width and decent depth. I can't say this for certain, but I think the HD800 has a grainier and more spiky treble compared to that of the basic STAX and it was a bit brighter to my ears. The basic STAX in comparison sounded a bit more smooth, but the timbre seemed off to me.
I didn't get around to listening to any of the headphones in the "summit-fi room" apart from the Fostex TH-900 on
m2man's rig. I had the chance to listen to the TH-900 at the last meet, but it was with music I wasn't familiar with. This time around, with my handy-dandy thumb drive, I was able to give it a try with my own music. I was pleasantly surprised by its sound. It had a nice warm sound to it with some good weight for cellos and bassier music genres and the soundstage was pretty spacious for a closed-back headphone. On the other hand, I heard a weird timbre somewhere in the upper-midrange and/or treble range...I can't quite pinpoint it, but string instruments such as the erhu sounded a bit off to me. Likewise, Seal's unique airy voice had a weird timbre to it that didn't quite sound right to me. The TH-900 was fairly comfortable on my head but for being a closed-back headphone, it didn't have very much noise isolation; I could still understand the people talking around me even while listening to my own music. >_<''
^ Yay for good 'ol blurry cell phone photos!
Last but not least, the ferry ride back to Seattle was enjoyable too, despite the chilly weather on the outside deck.
^ Beautiful
