[bazelio]

Sorry to hear about the KGSS. Around 1 when I listened, Norah Jones' vocals were distinctly off center. But not mono.

First of all, it was nice to meet you all, Head-Fi and Massdrop folks alike. It seems my KGSSHV developed a channel imbalance (we isolated it to the HV by testing other phones and swapping the DAC’s channels), but it’s hopefully just a dislodged wire somewhere in the case. It seems clear that it was fine or close to it first thing in the morning and pretty much mono by the time I tore down my setup around 4 PM. If you listened through JRiver, you heard a bit of EQ; if through Spotify, then you heard the signal straight through, and I think most listened through Spotify.

I’ll just give a few shout outs to some good gear.

I really enjoyed Larry/ @Jazzfan’s modded HE-6’s. Tons of detail on these, though paired with a slightly hot treble. Texture and extension in the sub bass are top notch. Sound stage is wide open and expansive – some credit here is probably owed to the grill and pad mods. A favorite test track of mine is James Blake’s version of Limit to Your Love. Toward the end, he brings in a pitched bass synth, and there are many ways to screw it up – overtly distort, fail to track the pitch properly, reproduce the bass but mess up the vocals and treble in the process… the HE-6 do none of these. You hear Blake’s voice, the electronic percussion, and you can track the bass riff’s pitch easily.

Other than that, @Bill-P ’s modded 800’s sounded pretty great, although they didn’t have much “synergy” with the Luxman P1 I heard them from.  They’re definitely an improvement over stock, but I didn’t necessarily prefer them to the 800’s EQ’ed, and I’ll probably just keep EQ’ing my pair of 800s. With modding, you can fix problems, but you can also end up causing unintended changes. For those of you who don’t like EQ, try some mods. With the HD800S announced, the HD800 is a great value proposition. Actually, both the HE-6 and HD-800 (with mods) are some of the best values in high-end headphone audio.

I had a bunch of fun with @ichiboy ’s AD2000’s. I used to own a pair, and even though they aren’t that impressive in terms of technicalities (rolled off on both ends, not incredibly detailed), they have this lush, liquid, romantic midrange coloration. Ichiboy’s library is thankfully free of Krallcore, and weirdly-produced, low-fi, and otherwise not-audiophile recordings sounded great on the 2000’s. I generally prefer neutral headphones, and yet I’m a little tempted to try to snag a pair to complement my 650’s for worse recordings.

I’d actually never listened to a pair of PortaPros, so I did this time. And they’re pretty great too. They get tonality right, for the most part, though they’re a bit rolled off on both ends and have a warm midbass emphasis. Regardless, I’d take them over plenty of headphones that cost an order of magnitude more.

I’m regretting not having a chance to check out the ECBW or ECZD. Oh well.

Cheers, and see you all next time. 

 

[DecentLevi]

A COUPLE STANDOUTS - PART 1 of several​

 
AKG K812 with Oppo HA-1 amp
This is a very enigmatic pairing with stellar synergy! Very refined all across: dynamic (punchy) and organic (lifelike) sounding: both 9.5/10 for a dynamic headphone. Lush midrange, excellent soundstage and frequency extension.
Compared to AKG K7XX: 812 has much better clarity / treble response, slightly better soundstage and more lifelike bass.
Compared to Senn. HD 650: 812 has better soundstage, lusher mids & improved treble detail but slightly less bass.
Compared to Senn. HD 800: The HD 800 wins in treble quality but still has too much quantity compared the the K812. The HD 800 wins leaps & bounds in soundstage, impact and FR, but the K812 wins in bass quantity.
Compared to Hifiman HE-6 with Anax-mod on underpowered amp: (indirect comparison): 812 has better impact and mids presentation and is less bright
 Oppo HA-1 compared to other amps with the AKG K812:
 Both project Ember 2 amp and (separately) Fiio X5 DAP/amp: bright signature lacking bass and harsh treble with fairly small soundstage.
 Cavalli Audio Liquid Carbon with K812: Slightly bigger stage yet still too bright.
 Crack with Speedball: slightly bigger soundstage and more lush, yet still too bright.
Conclusion: this headphone packs a phenomenal performance, but synergy is absolutely critical for the source chain, as it only sang with 1 of 5 amps I tried it with- otherwise sounding unlistenable.

​

 

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[DecentLevi]

Grace Design Massdrop m9xx amp:
With HD 650: Impact lacking, highs rolled off, unrefined
With AKG K7xx: acceptable impact, rolled off highs, underamped
With Beyerdynamic DT-880 (32 ohm version): Wonderful synergy! Punchy, organic sound, lush mids - the 2nd best out of at least a dozen amps I've paired this headphone with.
 
Speaking with a Massdrop insider, he stated how this amp/DAC combo was designed to power low-z 'cans (and IEMs) - and by golly the difference to me seems night and day. It can sound mesmerizingly great with low impedance cans. Betting it's great with the Soundmagic HP 100 also @ 50 ohms. A must have portable solution.

 

[DecentLevi]

OK I feel like I'm going to explode if I have to contain my excitement any longer on this one
 
Koss ESP 950 electrostatic headphone with SRM 1 MK2 Stax amp and Bifrost Uber DAC versus SR-009:
It's taken me 24 hours to even begin to come up with words for how angelic this pairing is - still I'm left with just a bunch of words like magnificent, timeless, velvety, etc.!
Let me start by telling you this is without a doubt one of the best things I've ever heard - astoundingly surreal!!!!!

1.  Compared to Senn. HD 650: 950 has about 30% better punch / dynamics, about 50% more detailed. Soundstage about the same quantity but in a different way. Bass quantity similar but quality in a different league. 
2. Compared to the Stax SR-009: Stax wins by about 30% in all these regards: punch, detail, lushness, soundstage and bass quality, yet IMO is slightly bass shy.

 
From my testing, I would have to disagree with the previous poster that it's sound is overly dry / cold and that the attack / release is too fast. I quite enjoyed that punchyness especially on electronic music, and the decay will be there as long as it's part of the recording. Sure it's not as lush as the 009 but I had no qualms with that. It sounded marvelous with all the electro / pop / acoustic songs I threw at it. The only very slightly negative comment I would have was that the bass presentation seemed to have a slight artificial or plasticky feel too it. Both these electrostats were quite comparable but the SR-009 sounded more organic, pure, detailed and effortless.
Overall 8/10 for an electrostat.
The only other things I've heard to best it were Sony MDR R10, Stax SR-009 and a heavily modded HE-6 on a goliath powered amp
 

​

 

[stjj89]

OK I feel like I'm going to explode if I have to contain my excitement any longer on this one

[COLOR=3399FF]Koss ESP 950 electrostatic headphone with SRM 1 MK2 Stax amp and Bifrost Uber DAC[/COLOR] versus SR-009:
It's taken me 24 hours to even begin to come up with words for how angelic this pairing is - still I'm left with just a bunch of words like magnificent, timeless, velvety, etc.!
Let me start by telling you this is without a doubt one of the best things I've ever heard - astoundingly surreal!!!!!

•  Compared to Senn. HD 650: 950 has about 30% better punch / dynamics, about 50% more detailed. Soundstage about the same quantity but in a different way. Bass quantity similar but quality in a different league. 
• Compared to the Stax SR-009: Stax wins by about 30% in all these regards: punch, detail, lushness, soundstage and bass quality, yet IMO is slightly bass shy.

From my testing, I would have to disagree with the previous poster that it's sound is overly dry / cold and that the attack / release is too fast. I quite enjoyed that punchyness especially on electronic music, and the decay will be there as long as it's part of the recording. Sure it's not as lush as the 009 but I had no qualms with that. It sounded marvelous with all the electro / pop / acoustic songs I threw at it. The only very slightly negative comment I would have was that the bass presentation seemed to have a slight artificial or plasticky feel too it. Both these electrostats were quite comparable but the SR-009 sounded more organic, pure, detailed and effortless. Overall 8/10 for an electrostat.
The only other things I've heard to best it were Sony MDR R10, Stax SR-009 and a heavily modded HE-6 on a goliath powered amp

​

This was the surprise of the show for me. If only it had a little more bass for some genres of music I listen too...

 

[AtomikPi]

 
From my testing, I would have to disagree with the previous poster that it's sound is overly dry / cold and that the attack / release is too fast. I quite enjoyed that punchyness especially on electronic music, and the decay will be there as long as it's part of the recording. Sure it's not as lush as the 009 but I had no qualms with that. It sounded marvelous with all the electro / pop / acoustic songs I threw at it. The only very slightly negative comment I would have was that the bass presentation seemed to have a slight artificial or plasticky feel too it. Both these electrostats were quite comparable but the SR-009 sounded more organic, pure, detailed and effortless.
 

 
The thing to keep in mind is that the attack and decay are exponential with electrostats. So you get really rapid and sharp attacks of transients, plus quick, impactful bass. The downside is that you don't get much sustain. So, for instance, with sustained synthesized sub bass, you won't get a good sense of weight. And in general, it's a double-edged sword, giving you both a "weightless," "effortless" quality but also a certain sense of "ethereal," "light," or even "artificial" timbre. They also won't produce additional air that's not in the recording.
 
This is independent of frequency response. I can EQ my 009s to give them absurd amounts of bass, but they will never have the bass weight of a pair of LCD-2s. I can EQ them to add warmth, but I can't EQ them to have much more "weight."
 
For what it's worth, I do consider the 009s to be very close to neutral, but just a bit cold (by around 2 dB) and moderately bass shy (by around 3 dB).

 

[manywelps]

I would have to disagree with the previous poster that it's sound is overly dry / cold and that the attack / release is too fast.  

 ​

If you're referring to me, it's not a complaint at all.  I prefer it that way.
 
As far as the bass:
 
Here are freq charts for
 
SR-009 (note that this is an early 12XX, mine is a 31XX): http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/StaxSR009SZ91278afterburnin.pdf
 
ESP-950: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/KossESP950Sample2.pdf
 
There is sub-bass rolloff on the 950, but it's pretty flat down to 20Hz.
 
The perceived lack of bass is often due to the 950's pads, which are not meant to create a seal.  (Whereas the SR-009's do).
 
Mind you that doesn't bother me either.  The bass is still the same volume, it's not making the "thunder" due to the seal.

 

[stjj89]

If you're referring to me, it's not a complaint at all.  I prefer it that way.

As far as the bass:

Here are freq charts for

SR-009 (note that this is an early 12XX, mine is a 31XX): http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/StaxSR009SZ91278afterburnin.pdf

ESP-950: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/KossESP950Sample2.pdf

There is sub-bass rolloff on the 950, but it's pretty flat down to 20Hz.

The perceived lack of bass is often due to the 950's pads, which are not meant to create a seal.  (Whereas the SR-009's do).

Mind you that doesn't bother me either.  The bass is still the same volume, it's not making the "thunder" due to the seal.

D
Wow, you weren't kidding when you said that the SR009 plot is flat.

 

[DecentLevi]

Just a little 'disclaimer' - I by no way meant to trash the Senn. HD 650. It's still one of my favorite headphones. It still has a unique ability to scale with TOTL amps, and I can never forget how etheral the soundstage and overall refinement of both it and the HD 600 was with the likes of the Zana Deux and Liquid Carbon amp. Both the Sennheiser and AKG line happen to synergise with some amps better than others.
 
It really was a fun meet and time flew by. The talking wasn't too loud for demoing, but I'll have to admit even I broke my own rule about using a low voice more than once 

 
@manywelps yes I was referring to your electrostat setup. That sure was a nice surprise that you snuck deep inside those cardboard boxes in the middle of the day. And on behalf of all of us, thank you also. I see what you guys were saying about electrostat technology. But what you consider a disadvantage others may consider as an advantage 

. I do say however that any electrostat owner should also have other headphones for a change of flavor sometimes.

 

[DecentLevi]

Another surprise for me was @stjj89's modded Fostex TH-900. It sounded vibrant, impactful, weighty, full, extended FR and tonally correct. Myself and another member did a fairly thorough comparison between it and the Denon AH-D7000 and both agreed that the TH-900 did all these above things better than the Denon's which were slightly v-shaped. And it's strange since I distinctly recall it sounding inferior on my Ember amp before. Just another example of how important source chains are. I was referring to it's pairing with the amp in this photo, although I don't know the name.
   
 
 
Next I would like to say big ups to @Packdemon for all the unique custom modded headphones he brought in. I however feel for ya that it seems you're not getting any appreciation for all this 

 or maybe I'm mistaken. I would like to share a bit of constructive criticism, and see if anybody else agrees, or has a different take. 
 
I think your ability to alter / construct headphones and cables is really first-rate, but IMHO, I see the chosen transducers as the weak link. From what I can tell, it seems you are taking Beyerdynamic's mid-tier line of headphones and trying to turn them into something top-tier. The sound of a transducer can only change so much and that's it. So my suggestion would be to experiment with higher-tier transducers - the likes of possibly T1, DT-1770, HD 5xx, 6xx, 700 or 800 series, or even some cheaper yet great ones like Porta Pro, T-50RP and PX-100. Then you should be able to make a superior customized sound.

 

[stjj89]

Another surprise for me was @stjj89
's modded Fostex TH-900. It sounded vibrant, impactful, weighty, full, extended FR and tonally correct. Myself and another member did a fairly thorough comparison between it and the Denon AH-D2000 and both agreed that the TH-900 did all these above things better than the Denon's which were slightly v-shaped. And it's strange since I distinctly recall it sounding inferior on my Ember amp before. Just another example of how important source chains are. I was referring to it's pairing with the amp in this photo, although I don't know the name.

   

If anyone is curious, details about the mods I performed can be found here:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/763965/fostex-th900-mods

 

[velvetx]

Thanks to all the members for bringing out their gear and of course @dusk and @DecentLevi for organizing everything. Had great conversations with @TMoney, @Bill-P, @baronkatz, as well as @WillBright and many of the other Massdrop members (thanks for hosting).

Again I missed the STAX setups done by most people because it seemed like this time around I spent a lot of time talking to people and of course I had a mini booth with the @Sable STAX Lambda setup.

Bottlehead Crack w/ Speedball: Easily the hit of the show for me. I don't know why but this amp just seemed like it was made for the HD-650s. Every song sounded excellent with great mids, tight punchy bass, no super bright or super dark issues, with a tonally accurate sound signature. I am going to eventually get one in 2016 as my entry into DIY and big thank you to @Tyll Hertsens for posting that video of how to build one.

Oppo HA-1: I had never heard or seen the Oppo HA-1 before but this was definitely the shocker at the show because it was probably the very first Sabre DAC that I actually liked. I don't know what Oppo did here but they did a good job with the implementation of the Sabre chip. Oppo added a lot of modern features such as a remote, bluetooth audio, ipod usb connection. In terms of audiophile connections this thing has those in spades and the head-fi member who brought this said it was the center piece in his home audio/video setup as it seemed a lot more wife friendly with it's ease of use. At $1,199 I suggest you give this a listen to if you had a chance because that is a great price for everything you get. In terms of sound I listened to the amp with my HD-650s and the bass signature was accurate with that tight punch without bloat. The details and vocals were also accurate in the tracks I listened to. I don't know whether the amp favors dynamic driver headphones but to me Oppo did a good job here and I didn't get a chance to listen to the amp with orthos. In comparison I would easily rate this above my Emotiva and the AudioGd I listened to but wouldn't go as far as say that the dac/amp was better than the next item connected to the Crack I am going to discuss but I would say this is definitely a good choice for the Mid-Fi range.

Auralic Vega: This DAC is a beast. I was able to listen to the Vega paired with the Crack and I listened to this setup probably the most as to me it was the most enjoyable. Please keep in mind I didn't spend a lot of the time with the Yggy as it seemed like the booths were occupied and we all know how long it takes for an Yggy to warm up. The Vega and Crack made a great combination together. The Crack pairing with the Vega took the Crack to the next level. The details and sound stage opened up a little further than I had heard it before as well as the bass was more impactful and intense. The key here though was while that was going on it didn't take away from the vocals as much as I thought it would with the type of bass impact it was making. I would say that there was a tiny bit of mid loss due to the slightly overwhelming bass but not something I would call a huge deal breaker. Keep in mind the Auralic Vega is $3,500 so this definitely belongs in more of a summit-fi territory.

Project Ember: I had never seen one of these before and I guess there was a tube mod done to it which to me looked kind of weird but I really liked the sound it produced almost as much as the Crack. However, I didn't think that the pairing with the Gustard X12 helped the Ember like the Vega did for the Crack (both paired with HD-650s). I would be interested to compare in a much more intimate environment about the differences between the Crack and the Ember with the HD-650s. Keep in mind though that the Ember I listened to was a modded "Franken Ember." I don't know if rolling tubes like in the Ember makes differences with the Crack but I would like to compare them anyway. The Project Ember I listened to was a little tighter than the Crack in the bass department but I felt that the Crack had a slightly better dynamic presence as well as sound stage. This could have been the differences in the DACs they were paired with but to me this sounded awesome as well.

The final takeaway about this meet was that I need to go back and listen to a few brands I have written off as dead to me like Beyerdynamic and Sony. There were some people there that felt that Beyer's sounded great and someone went as far to say that with electronic music Beyerdynamics had a certain sparkle (Sony also was mentioned to have a similar sparkle). Keep in mind no one liked the Tesla Beyers so I think we can all agree on that haha (except I think the Tesla 2 driver is much better than the Tesla 1). 

I think it's always important to keep an open mind about things and take the time to revisit certain headphones, amps, and dacs because sometimes your needs, wants, or sound signature changes. Can't keep being stubborn about things and sometimes things you notice were overlooked by you but noticed by someone else. All it takes is one piece in your chain to change to make something sound different and when I have my setup complete I am going to be buying the right headphones rather than the ones that sound good in "meet conditions."

 

[gzone3lement]

  Another surprise for me was @stjj89's modded Fostex TH-900. It sounded vibrant, impactful, weighty, full, extended FR and tonally correct. Myself and another member did a fairly thorough comparison between it and the Denon AH-D2000 and both agreed that the TH-900 did all these above things better than the Denon's which were slightly v-shaped. And it's strange since I distinctly recall it sounding inferior on my Ember amp before. Just another example of how important source chains are. I was referring to it's pairing with the amp in this photo, although I don't know the name.
   

 
Denon AH-D7000 headphones and Luxman P-1 headphone amplifier

Great review DecentLevi!

 

[Packdemon]

  Next I would like to say big ups to @Packdemon for all the unique custom modded headphones he brought in. I however feel for ya that it seems you're not getting any appreciation for all this 

 or maybe I'm mistaken. I would like to share a bit of constructive criticism, and see if anybody else agrees, or has a different take. 
 
I think your ability to alter / construct headphones and cables is really first-rate, but IMHO, I see the chosen transducers as the weak link. From what I can tell, it seems you are taking Beyerdynamic's mid-tier line of headphones and trying to turn them into something top-tier. The sound of a transducer can only change so much and that's it. So my suggestion would be to experiment with higher-tier transducers - the likes of possibly T1, DT-1770, HD 5xx, 6xx, 700 or 800 series, or even some cheaper yet great ones like Porta Pro, T-50RP and PX-100. Then you should be able to make a superior customized sound.

One of the headphones that I had brought in actually had a T1 transducer (the whole driver really) inside of it. It's this the one that I overdampened and had to fix at the meet it's also in my profile picture, but here's another photo:

 
You said that the sound was probably balanced as best as it could be on that one, but that it lacked soundstage. But, I think that that's the best that I could probably hope for given it's housing as far as soundstage goes. That's because I'm not comfortable with putting the bigger earpads on this one, because if I don't do that then these headphones wouldn't get a good enough seal and would lose out on a lot of the base. 
 
Also these 2 were made with the DT770 600 ohm drivers:
 

 

 
But, ya. I was thinking that I'd make my next Custom One Pro headphone build off of the DT1770 or the T1.2 drivers. I heard really great things about the 1770, and I heard that the T1.2 has a boxy 250-500Hz midrange. So, I think that I'm going to have to wait for some sound signature graphs to come out before I make my decision. Also, my headphone building hobby is really pulling hard at my finances, in hindsight it was a really expensive hobby that I found myself. But what can I say? It's the most fun I've ever had doing something in my life; I really enjoy building unique headphone that no one else has! I'll probably have to start selling a few of my headphones on here or on ebay pretty soon if I want to be able to continue supporting my headphone building addiction XD 

 

[Packdemon]

I want to take my time to make a separate post though to thank everyone who had either offered me advice/criticism at the meet or just had nice things to say about my headphones and other equipment. Especially, @dusk @DecentLevi and @WillBright. Dusk gave me a lot of advice on business/branding, and let me know of lot of stuff about how I would have to name my headphones without crossing over into the Beyerdynamic branding and how and why that would be bad. DecentLevi, you gave me the most detailed advice on how my headphones sounded and your criticism/advice actually lead me to adjust some of my modifications halfway through the meet. WillBright gave the most overall advice in terms of both sound and business. He gave the best relations of how my headphones sounded compared to other headphones, and which headphones they most similarly match in terms of sound signature. He also gave me the best business advice on what I would have to do to get Beyerdynamic to care about my product and have them supply me their parts on a larger scale, how much money and how "big" I would need to start off, and so much more. Overall, the meet had a very laid back and chill vibe (pizza and beer need I say more?), and everyone has been so helpful and kind worded. I really had a lot of fun and enjoyed myself greatly. With this being my first ever meet, I can say that you guy have left a lasting first impression, and I will certainly be attending many other meets in the future. 

P.S.
My two favorite headphones at the meet that I tried (I never got around to trying everything so bare that in mind) were the Stax Lambda Nova (w/ SRM-3) and the Fostex TH-900 (which was a really great pairing for the Grace m9XX).