@Bill-P (left) organized a fantastic meet, with the help of
@HuddlerSteph, who's both a Head-Fi'er, and with Wikia. (Wikia is Head-Fi's San Franicsco headquarters.) Bill and Steph worked very hard to get everything just right, from name tags to layout, and much more. Thanks very much, you two, for all you did to assemble an awesome event.
@HuddlerLuis was also a huge help both before, during, and after the event.
The elf and the Baron. The short one's me (left), and that's
@baronkatz, who was there not just as a community member, but also on behalf of Schiit Audio, bringing a bunch of Schiit's gear. (Schiit was easily the best represented DAC and amp manufacturer at the meet, their gear being personally brought and used by
many of the meet goers.)
@HiFiGuy528. You may know Mike from his
YouTube videos, and also because he works at Woo Audio.
@chuckwheat listening to the HiFiMAN HE-1000.
That's WAS (his initials and nickname, pronounced "Woz"), who's a musician, music and audio enthusiast (he was there for the entire meet), and SVP at Wikia.
I had a great time talking to
@maeveth (left) and
@dpron.
@gepardcv listening to the Audeze EL-8 Open-Back.
@gevorg listening to the HiFiMAN HE-1000 from
@drfindley's Schiit Audio Yggdrasil (DAC) / Ragnarok (amp) stack.
This is
@Marcner. I had great fun talking to him and Barry.
@gevorg still listening to the HiFiMAN HE-1000 from
@drfindley's Schiit Audio Yggdrasil (DAC) / Ragnarok (amp) stack.
@over8ed listening to
@gepardcv's DIY Dynalo Mk2 and Sennheiser HD 580.
@dusk listening to the MrSpeakers ETHER from the Cavalli Audio Liquid Crimson.
This is the Cavalli Audio Liquid Crimson.
This is
@foo_me, listening to the Sennheiser HD 800, either from the Cavalli Audio Liquid Carbon, or the Liquid Glass.
@HideousPride listening to the Audeze EL-8 Open-Back from the Woo Audio WA6.
This is
@metaldood.
@F14sharky chatting with
@knerian.
@CEE TEE!
@third_eye with one of the rigs he brought: The Chord Hugo TT as DAC, driving the DNA (Donald North Audio) Stratus tube amp.
@maeveth listening to the Abyss AB-1266 planar magnetic headphones powered by Woo Audio.
@Mkubota1 listening to the OPPO PM-3 portable planar magnetic headphones.
@shane55 listening to the HiFiMAN HE-1000 from
@drfindley's Schiit Audio Yggdrasil (DAC) / Ragnarok (amp) stack.
And here's
@gevorg, at it again, with the HiFiMAN HE-1000, Yggdrasil and Ragnarok. Next to him is Craig, CEO of Wikia.
@dpron listening to the HiFiMAN HE-1000 from @drfindley's Schiit Audio Yggdrasil (DAC) / Ragnarok (amp) stack. It's probably abundantly clear by now that this was a popular stop at the meet.
Craig (CEO of Wikia) and WAS (SVP at Wikia). These two are serious about their music and audio, so it's a blast working with them.
@Mkubota1 listening to the MrSpeakers ETHER.
@F14sharky (left) listening to the Abyss AB-1266, and
@greenkiwi listening to the Audeze EL-8 Open-Back, both being driven by Woo Audio amplification.
@warrenpchi listening to a stock Sony MDR-Z7, which I think he's intending to compare with
@Bill-P's modified MDR-Z7.
Is
@warrenpchi dressing a headphone cable, or showing off his dragon form kung-fu? You decide.
@chuckwheat with his Sennheiser HD 650.
@aamefford was fun to talk to, always smiling,
and he saved the day by letting us borrow one of his OPPO headphone cables to use the HE-1000 from balanced outputs.
The impressive DIY Dynalo Mk2 built by
@gepardcv. Several of us listened to the HiFiMAN HE-1000 from this amp, and it was a gem.
There's
@gepardcv now!
This is
@drfindley listening to the HiFiMAN HE-1000 being driven by
@gepardcv's DIY Dynalo Mk2 amp.
The HiFiMAN HE-1000 being driven by
@gepardcv's DIY Dynalo Mk2 amp.
A bunch of us stayed at the same hotel downtown, so the night before we got together for a mini-meet. That's
@warrenpchi and
@third_eye, preparing to listen to the HiFiMAN HE-1000 from the DNA Stratus.
@warrenpchi at the hotel mini-meet.
I've always thought Donald North Audio's designs beautiful--I love the trademark blue color of his amps.
@third_eye listening to the HE-1000 being driven by the Chord Hugo TT DAC/amp.
I spy a lot of things in this pile of gear, including the PonoPlayer, Aurender FLOW (DAC/amp), Skullcandy Grind, and countless IEMs.
So Donald North doesn't just design beautiful blue tube amps. He also works on DSP for what is probably the best small-form-factor Bluetooth speaker I've heard--the RIVA Turbo X. This one belongs to
@moedawg140, but both
@joe and I each picked up one at CanJam SoCal (as did many others).
@moedawg140 (with
@warrenpchi) holding court over an impressive cluster of IEMs (in-ear monitors) of all shapes, sizes and prices. The following day, at the meet, moedawg140 graciously shared his vast knowledge of all things IEM with meet goers, and his table was quite popular.
@third_eye listening to the HE-1000 being driven by the Chord Hugo TT DAC/amp.
@shiorisekine listening to the Sennheiser HD 800. Soft-spoken shioreskine is of kind heart, and was a key event team player during CanJam SoCal 2015.
I think I have some phone photos to post, too, and I'll do that later.
I'll also post a few impressions later--though I did more chatting than listening, I did get some listening time in.
It's funny, I had my list of stuff to listen to, but didn't write it down, and then got caught up listening to this or that, or just talking to people and missed things.
