I sure Enjoyed the Show althought i did not get to hear the latest creek it is so small and solid built. Belive it or not a power supply for it was not available and i all others were in use, In fact i think every outlet was also taken. Anyway if the creek sounds as well as it looks Killer! Tim also brought a Wood Box grado Amp But Sorry after seing radio shack RCA jacks rather than at least thay could have used the Low cost cardas that i use for Prototyping. It scares me to think what the innerds were like. The power supply Connector Being a Multi-pin locking type was impressive although a power supply was also not available for it.
Moving along to stuff i did hear The Tube Hybird Gillmore amp throught erics sen's sounded almost as good as i have heard Electrostatics get. The Tube sound did predoninate the presentation but Electrostatics have a different feeling than dynamic can's and must be Judged acordingly. If i remember correctly Eric's solid state amp driving his Electrostatic sen's sounded more detailed but that was in a more quiet setting and I had to turn the Volume up louder than i normaly listen at to compensate for the noise in the room so rather than the music fade into a black background of silence it blended into the noise level of the Meet. if any inner detail was present is was masked.
Moving to Solid state stuff that I was sure glad to Auidition Ray samuals Amp of wilson's. It is of an impressive Build quality with apperently a pair of Metal can output transistors acting as a discreet component Buffer. The Separate power supply Idea is a tried and tested method of obtaining Ultra low noise Reference quality Reproduction in High end equipment. remember all those early Threshold, Mark levensonsand the Like offering seaparate power supplys of Every preamp above $5,0000 USD. I love this concept it is a tried and proven method that works really well. I can't belive than folks are wanting a one Box design in there home headphone and Line level Equipment. This amp sounded slightly dark but not slugis at all The Amps tonal balance was more inline with Grado's But i was using HD-600's and HD-580's with this amp. Only two pairs of High end Grados were Available and both were in constant use. Even the Sony's were in use (All 3 Pair) so i get stuck listening to a dark Amp with HD-580/600. I realised this and bypassed that part and concentrated my listening to other qualities. One quality of ray's amp is Punch and dynamics This amp has it as Much as My own designs. Clarity. This my tired old ears demand. excess silbelence and grain make my listening short lived and so if i can get through one or two selections it is a darn Cleen Reproduction. I listened to this amp with ether 580's or 600's for most of the time so it gets my vote as an amp you can do extended listening to and i did indeed. On Electronic Music the quickness is easaly heard on the Sen's and Imaging was as good. Althought the Ambient room noise made that less apparent than normal But at times the Music i was listening to blended with the outside Room Ambience to transport the musical image outside of the Head and blend with the room noise to the point that one is momentarly fooled into thinking the image came from somone elces listening session great effect I liked it alot. Anyone Looking For reference quality In a headphone Amp Do Put Ray's amp on your short list.
Up next i listened to the sugden and it was only powered for about 30 min and my first listen was through a Creative Zen Juke Box. The Reproduction was thin with no bass and treble extention. Ok but not High end more of somthing I would expect out of a portable so i switched sources to eric's CD player what ever Kind that was and this greatly improved the sound i then listened for one selection with this source and switched Amps to rays amp and one of the available PPA's. this gives me three Amps to compaire using one source and cans for all three Oh least we forget the garden hose size Power cable and these short Ridiged cables he cames are flat up into the GHz. range or somthing. needless to say i felt comfident I was getting plenty of Power and signal to see how these Amps sounded on HD-600's with the Optional cable ( See Eric) and stock cable on another another Pair. The optional cable really brightes up HD-600's and i used this pair to do all my amp comparrisons. The Added Brightness of the optional cable was not a problem with any of the amps so that is what i stuck with so to keep everything constant in this somewhat imformal listening setup. To sum up the Sugden I liked rays amp alot better the sugden has alot of midrange detail and imaging but this is frequency dependent and gets worse as frequency goses up or down. quite a uninvolving expearence at least with the sen's Dynamics was also lacking compaired to rays amp. so we have an All in one Box Amp That looks cooler than **** and sounds! Well, just like everything elce noticeable tone colorations and wandering imaging. and is real heavy imparting a quality build. I noticed no engraving or lettering of anykind on the Front Pannel and this looks real cleen to me . The Big lettering on top is a Putoff reminds me of car stereo Amps. Overall as far as this Meet is concerened and using the HD-600's with optional cable and Eric's 1 plus GHz interconects and some Mounsterious power cable Ray's amp sounds more to my liking that the Sugden. The Headmaster left me with the same impression as the Headroom max did that i heard at another Meet Fine World Class sound but not all that as involving in the detail and perfect tonality department as i think a reference quality amp should do. Now not saying the Headmaster is grossly colored but it did sound somewhat hollow compaired to Ray's. The Headroom Max if my memory is correct has none of this hollowness. However amps that do are numerious like the Corda, headroom cosmic and the META42 on it's best coinfiguration.
I was sorry that the real nicely exicuted Gilmore Hybird had a falure i was hoping to compaire electrostatic headphones more But Eric was for sure hoging the Omega's. Eric You should have Brought Your Solod state gilmore for comparisons then we could have made everyone quiet momentarly as we indulged into the finer aspects of the Electrostatic world. My previous exposure was from stax and there matching amp and Koss ESP-9 with its Energizer box connected to a 20 watt Loudspeaker amp A Quality 20 watt Loudspeaker Amp. I must say that the qualities i have come to expect out of electrostatics was present in the Hybird i heard at this meet. I hope you get it up and running as i am sure you miss listening to it, I would. As far as the coment upon sloppy layout Ya right answer late them hand lay out a pc board and actualy take somthing from schematic to an actual working unit all by your self. Hope you could also arange for credit at school for your efforts. Good Job indeed I was/am still impressed. Althought I still have my Bias as we talked about at the Meet about Hybirds, but still You Done Kevin Proud on His Blue.
Mabe Wilson will consider a short term trade He can Listen to a PPA under his listening situations and I can Listen to Rays Amp more under my own terms. Remember we are headphone geeks, only not wilson yet, he has loudspeakers and is i suspect yet to be Asimilated.
Nevertheless, it's pretty darn cool to be able to have an amp's manufacturer tweak his product specially for your tastes and system's needs. 
