Once again, time well spent. Did not have the mental energy to focus much on listening to various set ups as I did not hit the pillow until 2 am the night before and had to shovel snow off of 75 feet of driveway the next morning just to get out and on the clear pavement before packing up...I was wiped, but it was good to see everyone again and to extend welcomes to the new faces. So my apologies to some of you who might have wanted to yak it up with me only to find me a bit too serious looking....had no intention of being rude....
Big Poppa and the Front Panel Team really do deserve all the accolades and thanks extended and then some. The cool vibes kept me smiling. I also appreciate the thorough professionalism and passion the MOTs brought to the event...
Quick impressions: I was taken aback by the very nice sound produced through the tiny, yet powerful, amp PB made and would like to get my hands on one. I also quite liked the tube amp that Scott Bradley made (really good for those cold winter months, too...
).
As for headphones, I was mostly listening to closed cans because at the levels I listen to,
open-cans emanate too much sound, as Equus well knows. I did not want to be a bother....will just find an opportunity to listen more closely to amp synergies with the LCD-2/HE-XXX cans some other way. So having said that, I enjoyed the 40th Anniversary AT-5000Ws very much, given that the AD-2000 is my go to unit for acoustic and female jazz, however a bit bright and 2 dimensional on some recordings...compared thereto the closed-back 5kW's sort of reined in the treble and made it more laid back/natural sounding...but at its price point, I think there are better cans out there, however open-backed....choices, choices...aaah....If they go down in price and I have the moolah to sneak past that velvet hammer.....
I also appreciated the price-performance ratio of the Fisher's that Sentient brought...lovely to look at and very nice sounding, though I only spent a couple of minutes with it. However, it seems to have been built for people who have small heads/long faces..but it was brand new almost so perhaps the headband did not get enough flex, much like a new shoe needs some walking to feel right.
As for the Sansui 9090 that Big P brought...I don't know if anyone cares here, but vintage integrated amps/receivers put alot of today's builds to shame. The Sansui is one of those and was built before quite a few of the attendees were even in fate's line of sight to be born into this hobby.
Once again, thanks for this kind of thing....and the friendliness all around. I was happy to go home knowing that my K702s and ATHs were not damaged, as I had been told was the case. Turns out my beloved Pioneer SX-1250 may have need for some internal repair, so a Marantz 2275 is doing backup for it while I figure out what to do next.