September 27 Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley mini-meet
Sep 27, 2014 at 12:33 PM Post #76 of 90
On my way
 
Sep 27, 2014 at 10:22 PM Post #79 of 90
I would like to first thank Mike for graciously holding a mini-meet at his home.  The weather was beautiful, no worries regarding inside temperature, and the pizza was scrumptious as well!
 
Thanks to all of the gracious Head-Fi members and lurkers for coming out to the mini-meet as well!  It was great to listen to some nice desktop amps and headphones, and just have a good ol' conversation regarding audio.  Glad I made the drive!
 
Here is some of what was there at the meet (I won't put the pics in a spoiler because I think I'm the only one that took pictures):
 
This is what I brought:
 
Shure SE530 with Assorted Tips and 2 stock Shure SE846 cables (46" and 64"):

 
Shure SE846 w/ HL Silver Litz Cable:

 
Sensaphonics Custom Sleeves (to show and talk about):

 
iPhone 6 (Space Gray, 128 GB):

 

 

 

 

 

 
Here is what members and lurkers brought:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I had an awesome time, and hope to see more people at the next one! 
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Sep 28, 2014 at 12:58 AM Post #80 of 90
  Well, I finally made it official!  First post!
 
I hope this meet is still happening in September because I would really like to attend.
 
I'm actually working on a new headphone stand design and I would love to bring a couple of my prototypes with me and try them out with some the different headphones that will be there.
 
I'm still tweaking the design and would love to get some feedback from you guys.

The headphone stands were really nice!  Nice, quality wood, and worth the price if anyone chooses to purchase one (or more).  Bravo!  
size]
 (root beer in my glass).
 
Sep 28, 2014 at 12:59 AM Post #81 of 90
Firstly, I'd like to thank Mike as well. I had a great time, although I was a bit late. It was really cool to listen to the different setups in a quiet environment at such a low noise level. A welcome change. I could easily discern differences in the headphones and chain by listening only 30-45 seconds of a song and switching immediately. This is just not possible at any of the larger and noisier meets. It was a great time, and next time you have one, I will definitely try to work my schedule around to make it right at the very beginning. Thanks again. 
 
Also, moedawg, really nice job documenting everything. It was nice meeting you....and...I was really surprised how much louder the HE-6 sounded straight from the iPhone 6 vs the iPhone 5. It was a noticeable difference. 
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Sep 28, 2014 at 1:21 AM Post #82 of 90
  Firstly, I'd like to thank Mike as well. I had a great time, although I was a bit late. It was really cool to listen to the different setups in a quiet environment at such a low noise level. A welcome change. I could easily discern differences in the headphones and chain by listening only 30-45 seconds of a song and switching immediately. This is just not possible at any of the larger and noisier meets. It was a great time, and next time you have one, I will definitely try to work my schedule around to make it right at the very beginning. Thanks again. 
 
Also, moedawg, really nice job documenting everything. It was nice meeting you....and...I was really surprised how much louder the HE-6 sounded straight from the iPhone 6 vs the iPhone 5. It was a noticeable difference. 
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Nice to hear from you, goldenSHK!  Thanks for coming, even though you may have been late.  I was late as well, as I had to replace my glass Invisible Shield.  Now almost all is right with the world, heh.  Thanks for bringing the HE-6, it's a great headphone.  We both really liked the LCD-X.  But man, that Koss portaPro!  Wasn't that headphone amazing?  And the price?  Haha...oh my goodness.
 
I came from the iPhone 5 as well, and it's good to hear that I'm not the only one that thinks the 6's DAC/audio codec is an upgrade.  I would have just been happy if it sounded as good as the 5 - I loved the 5 with Neutron Player & Spotify - Extreme Setting.
 
See you at the next meet hopefully! 
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Sep 28, 2014 at 1:32 AM Post #83 of 90
   
Nice to hear from you, goldenSHK!  Thanks for coming, even though you may have been late.  I was late as well, as I had to replace my glass Invisible Shield.  Now almost all is right with the world, heh.  Thanks for bringing the HE-6, it's a great headphone.  We both really liked the LCD-X.  But man, that Koss portaPro!  Wasn't that headphone amazing?  And the price?  Haha...oh my goodness.
 
I came from the iPhone 5 as well, and it's good to hear that I'm not the only one that thinks the 6's DAC/audio codec is an upgrade.  I would have just been happy if it sounded as good as the 5 - I loved the 5 with Neutron Player & Spotify - Extreme Setting.
 
See you at the next meet hopefully! 
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Ya, I think we have similar taste in sound signature. The shure se846 was a fantastic IEM too. It must be a hell of a portable companion. I was genuinely impressed by the PortaPro. But part of it was also because of Mike's DAC as well, at least when I listened to it. 
 
And thanks, the HE-6 is my all purpose 'serious listening' headphone, after today I am quite confident I made the right decision in purchasing them, although I admit that the LCD-X was insane and seriously very close in matching the sonic quality of the HE-6. I was also seriously, seriously impressed with the HE-500 and how similar it was to the HE-6 just with a noticeable touch less texture and musicality than the HE-6. Used HE-500s are going for less than $450 in the classifieds. I am seriously stupified that sound quality of that level can now be had for under $500, albeit used. 
 
Sep 28, 2014 at 2:18 AM Post #84 of 90
  Ya, I think we have similar taste in sound signature. The shure se846 was a fantastic IEM too. It must be a hell of a portable companion. I was genuinely impressed by the PortaPro. But part of it was also because of Mike's DAC as well, at least when I listened to it. 
 
And thanks, the HE-6 is my all purpose 'serious listening' headphone, after today I am quite confident I made the right decision in purchasing them, although I admit that the LCD-X was insane and seriously very close in matching the sonic quality of the HE-6. I was also seriously, seriously impressed with the HE-500 and how similar it was to the HE-6 just with a noticeable touch less texture and musicality than the HE-6. Used HE-500s are going for less than $450 in the classifieds. I am seriously stupified that sound quality of that level can now be had for under $500, albeit used. 

 
I also think we have similar tastes regarding sound signature.  It was refreshing to witness another person demoing headphones with hip-hop tunes (I'm sure you demo with all sorts of genres).
 
Mike's custom DAC was very good, I felt it could make cheapo headphones sound great...oh wait, it did!
 
Glad you liked the SE846.  It's pretty nice to have Hi-Fi products (SE846 [with SCS], HL Silver LItz and iPhone 6) in a small, easy to wear/carry package.  It makes my listening experience easy to experience anywhere, even when I'm working out.
 
I agree, the HE-500 was a darn good headphone as well.  I'm looking forward to hearing more headphones at the upcoming San Diego meet in November - should be fun!
 
Sep 28, 2014 at 1:54 PM Post #85 of 90
I had a great time meeting other headphone enthusiasts and sharing our toys and gadgets.
Big thanks to Mike and his Company for making it happened.
I admired all the toys and gadgets available for us to play and especially those wonderful cables and little Bravissimo cute little amp.
 
Listening to HE500 was refreshing (used to own HE400) and the amazing LCD X seems to be the next logical upgrade or complementary to LCD 2.
 
Folks who didn't make it should be sorry and better make that trip next time...so we have more toys on the table
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Best
 
Andrew
 
Sep 28, 2014 at 2:15 PM Post #86 of 90
  I had a great time meeting other headphone enthusiasts and sharing our toys and gadgets.
Big thanks to Mike and his Company for making it happened.
I admired all the toys and gadgets available for us to play and especially those wonderful cables and little Bravissimo cute little amp.
 
Listening to HE500 was refreshing (used to own HE400) and the amazing LCD X seems to be the next logical upgrade or complementary to LCD 2.
 
Folks who didn't make it should be sorry and better make that trip next time...so we have more toys on the table
beyersmile.png

 
Best
 
Andrew

 
Hey Andrew,
 
Thanks for coming and bringing your gadgets.  You brought the X5 as well, right?  Maybe next time I can have a listen, as I always like listening to different DAPs.
 
See you at the next meet!
 
Sep 29, 2014 at 12:17 AM Post #87 of 90
  The headphone stands were really nice!  Nice, quality wood, and worth the price if anyone chooses to purchase one (or more).  Bravo!  
size]
 (root beer in my glass).

 
Hey Moe,
 
Thank you for the kind words!
 
I had a lot of fun at this meet and really enjoyed meeting everyone that came.  Huge thanks to Mike for hosting and I hope to see you guys again at the San Diego meet on Nov. 1st.
One thing I will never forget was the look on Mike's face as Moe was 2-steppin' like a madman while listening to Mike's Audeze LCD-X's and his custom cable!  Priceless!!!
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Anyway, I should have a couple of stands up for sale on Amazon sometime this week. I'll post a link to the Amazon page once it goes live.
 
Just PM me if you have any questions about the stand.
 
Sep 29, 2014 at 2:25 AM Post #88 of 90
   
Hey Moe,
 
Thank you for the kind words!
 
I had a lot of fun at this meet and really enjoyed meeting everyone that came.  Huge thanks to Mike for hosting and I hope to see you guys again at the San Diego meet on Nov. 1st.
One thing I will never forget was the look on Mike's face as Moe was 2-steppin' like a madman while listening to Mike's Audeze LCD-X's and his custom cable!  Priceless!!!
atsmile.gif

 
 
 
Anyway, I should have a couple of stands up for sale on Amazon sometime this week. I'll post a link to the Amazon page once it goes live.
 
Just PM me if you have any questions about the stand.

 
Yeah, I've never been able to really dance around at a larger Head-Fi meet because of the multitude of people around, and I would look pretty silly - even though it was good to get a few laughs from you guys and gal who saw me dance around.  I didn't know if Mike was just dumbfounded by my dancing, or what, I dunno...hahaha.  That LCD-X with the thick custom litz cable sounded legit.  To have a few thousand dollar portable rig (LCD-X, custom litz cable and my iPhone 6 (128GB) in the most portable setup was just about as close to portable heaven to my ears as could be! 
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  One of my favorite setups of the meet.
 
It's great that you were so knowledgeable about headphones, as I'm more of an IEM guy, and your ATH-M50s really do sound great, especially for the price.  Did you get to hear the Koss portaPros?  It looks retro, but man, it packs a nice sound signature, especially for its price!
 
Good luck with selling your quality headphone stands, as I'm sure they will be sold pretty quickly, as they really are nice to look at and would look great with the decor of most every house design set-up.
 
Sep 29, 2014 at 6:21 PM Post #89 of 90
The PortaPro headphones blew me away for the price. IDK if the DAC had something to do with how good they sounded although I am sure it did. One of these days going to have to get both that amp and DAC from Mike. Such great quality in such a small package. The HE-500's were also a very nice treat. I thought they sounded absolutely amazing with the aftermarket cable on them.
 
The Shure SE-846's does sound like something I would like to have for on the go. Hopefully next time with more time I can try them again and hopefully get a better seal. I probably just needed to play with them a little more.
 
Xero1, can you let me know when you put the headphone stands up for sale? I think I am going to be in the market for one real soon, need something to put the K712's on other then my desk at the end of the night.
 
I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed listening everyone's equipment. Thank you again Mike for inviting us to your place for the event and pizza. Hopefully we can do this again sometime and I hope to see some of you at the meet in San Diego!
 
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Sep 29, 2014 at 6:42 PM Post #90 of 90
  The PortaPro headphones blew me away for the price. IDK if the DAC had something to do with how good they sounded although I am sure it did. One of these days going to have to get both that amp and DAC from Mike. Such great quality in such a small package. The HE-500's were also a very nice treat. I thought they sounded absolutely amazing with the aftermarket cable on them.
 
The Shure SE-846's does sound like something I would like to have for on the go. Hopefully next time with more time I can try them again and hopefully get a better seal. I probably just needed to play with them a little more.
 
Xero1, can you let me know when you put the headphone stands up for sale? I think I am going to be in the market for one real soon, need something to put the K712's on other then my desk at the end of the night.
 
I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed listening everyone's equipment. Thank you again Mike for inviting us to your place for the event and pizza. Hopefully we can do this again sometime and I hope to see some of you at the meet in San Diego!
 
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The portaPro sounded great even out of my iPhone 6 - crazy!  Yeah, the SE846 can be tough to get a good seal in, as using different tips will help out with that regard.  The SCS is a great upgrade regarding fit, seal and isolation, for sure!
 
I'll see you in San Diego in about a month!  Hopefully I'll win something this time if they have giveaways again. 
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