[AIM9x]

enough said

 

[psxguy85]

Woah, nice stuffed animals!

::scrolls::

Oh wow, 3 pairs of Grado HP-1000 (At least I think they are).

Now I finally get a sense of the size of the Gilmore V2. YAY!

 

[AIM9x]

count again, there's 4 there.

3 hp2s and 1 hp1.... everybody got some quality time w/the hp-1000s.

 

[tom hankins]

Damn thats alot of nice gear! Is that the Carlos modded Headmaster, and what are some of the impressions of the HP-1000's with the various amps.

 

[lan]

Nice. Was there anything else besides HP1000s?

What were your impressions of the various equipment?

 

[KR...]

Can you make the files a little bigger? Thanks

 

[dd3mon]

Yikes - I don't know if so many HP-1000's have been united post-factory before

The thread is titled impressions ... anyone have any?

-dd3mon

 

[pigmode]

Hey, hey, Audio Note. Lets have some impressions.

 

[psxguy85]

My bad, I missed one of the HP-1000's.

 

[carlo]

I ended up spending most of my time with Edwin's R10 simply because there were so many good amps there, and that opportunity doesn't come often. In one room Edwin had his SCD777ES, EAR HP4, and Sugden Headmaster. HP4 and R10 was the great matchup everyone has talked about before, and in this listen his Sony SACD player was much better than the Nakamichi I originally heard (last December in the HP-1 vs R10 mini meet review). I ended up going back to an HP-2 here with the EAR, I love that amp's stage and I think the HP-1K does a better job of presenting it in balance than the R-10. While that system was very, very good I wasn't finding myself drawn into the music.

So, brought the Meier Corda HA-2 into that room (Meier kindly let me bring his review amp to the meet).

background note: I've been using the HA-2 and HP-1 and love the pairing - midbass galore and impact, drive, immediacy. I wanted to see how that amp did with the R-10. end background note.

I very much enjoyed how the R10 brought out guitars and upper mids with the Meier. It still lacked the first strike, the impact and scale that I want from headphones. Still, separation between notes was definite and not implied; for example Brian Jones' guitar was well definied and clear but I couldn't groove along with him because so much of his style is in that leading line. But fast transients in the mids kept the music in place despite my knowing what was missing. Best was the R-10 was less fish-eyed than I heard it before, while not as huge as the EAR HP4 the Meier HA-2 keeps the stage smaller, and the R-10's ability to throw sounds very far made it an excellent pairing.

What was most interesting to me is HA-2/HP-1 out of my mod'd audioNote 2.1x (a warmish player) sounds dry at times. The Sony SCD777ES playing SACD has excellent quality of sound and still, HA-2/HP-2 (this pair was hawkman's) was also somewhat lacking in body and I found myself wanting a little more warmth. Yet with the R10 the SCD777ES and HA-2 was very good in the midrange: what I heard above translated into a balance that I found one of the better combinations at the meet.

During this time I also used the HP-2 and Edwin's stock Sugden Headmaster. I've described the Sugden as excellent in tone if weak in the extremes and seapartion between notes, and it was the same here. However I think the basic character of the HP-2/Sugden and the R-10/Meier is similar: really good middle, lacking in other departments. Having both amps out of the same source made the a/b pretty cool: HP-2/Sugden wins bass (sad since I don't really like stock Sugden's bass), R-10/HA-2 won most else.

AC1 brought Chesky's "Jazz Latino" and I got to listen to much of it with my audioNote and hawkman's DACt'd Gilmore. Very good, with this recording the R-10's excellent decay got a chance to excel. I listened to it with the Maestrobator/HP-1 as well (I was a/bing with gtecx) and liked it so much I asked AC1 for the name of the album and wrote it down

It was pretty late, unfortunately we weren't able to resolve a grounding issue and how to set up all the equipment until a few hours into the meet. I had promised to spend some time with the RS-1 and headed off into another room where Edwin and 13DoW were chillin' with the former's EAR HP4, the latter's Wadia 830, and Headroom's Max. I spent a few minutes listening the the RS-1 out of both the Max and HP4, then it occured to me, "Why the hell am I listening to the RS-1?" So, I left and grabbed one of the four HP-1K's and decided to have a good sit down with one of my favorite amps and a legendary CD player.

I had the same complaint about the EAR HP4 that I do about my EAR 834P: no balls. Wadia 830 into the HP4 had so much definition, separation, and information that the amp sounded completely in balance with the HP-1. And, mind you, I had listened to the same amp and similar headphone (HP-2 there, HP-1 here) with the SCD777es in another room, using the same hybrid SACDs (Rolling Stones Aftermath UK and Between the Buttons UK - damn you audiophelia). The detail in guitars, the bass lines, excellent rig. I also listened to the Max again and that amp was less polite and had a little more separation than I heard when I had auditioned/reviewed it before. I know we all know it, but Wadia really is something. I was tempted to grab my amp and go back to the 830, but at this point Orpheus had other things to do that night, Edwin was packing up, and I had assumed 13DoW was leaving. 830/HP4/HP-1 is one of those too few systems that make music.

My little time with the RS-1 was off gtecx's Phillips 1000 and Aim9x's JMT built CHA-47 and META-42 in a/b. In that listen I found myself preferring the CHA-47, META-42 had better control of the headphone but CHA-47 sounded a little warmer and full bodied. When I had both to listen to before (with Sennheiser HD580, SR225, etc) I easily preferred the META. For the first time I found myself leaning to CHA-47. Quirky RS-1. Short listen though.

Thats all I heard at this meet.

 

[AIM9x]

We had a quite a bit of quality gear at the meet. I guess I should list them all and give impressions of what i thought of the stuff i listened too.

In the beginning of the meet, we had a problem with ground hum. We spent a good two hours troubleshooting it, and i'm not sure what the guys did, but it was removed to the point where you could hardly notice it at normal listening levels. And with the ground hum problem gone, down to the impressions.

I didn't do any source comparison, but I'll just say that I had no complaints about any of them.

sources included: (in alphabetical order... why not?)
audioNote 2.1x w/ Superclock II
Micromega Stage 2
Phillips sacd1000 with modwright sig truth mods and tubed output
Sony CE775 SACD Carousel for the background
Sony SCD-777ES
Wadia 830

Dacs:
art DI/O (didn't get hooked up)
Theta Pro (nothing to compare to, but sounded great)



Going to talk about headphones before amps, and for important reason.

Joe Grado HP-1000: Practically perfect. Listened to Brahms's 3rd on these w/Gilmore V2 and I did not have one single complaint about it. I can see how these phones are so damned covetted... because they sound so damned good. The spectrum is neutral, but to me, they're neutral in the sense that they present something that's almost impossible to find faults. Some people may not find that "enjoyable," but what they presented to me was nearly perfection. Although not horribly source/amp dependent, I do believe the HP-1000s found their homes with the v2s and the maestrobator. (which i'll get to later on... be patient)

John Grado RS1: If the HP-1000s didn't make the meet, I believe these would have been my favorite cans at the meet. I spent quite a bit of time on these with random amps and I don't even remember which amp I enjoyed them most with. But I think these cans sounded best after Hawkman and I took a short trip over to radio shack and bought a 1/4 - 1/8 adapter to run the 1/4" phones on my meta and cha47 (the only ones at the meet, oddly enough). Of all the amps at the meet, I felt the RS1s sounded their best out of my meta. They also sounded excellent from the cha47, and I can see why people say the RA1 is the best compliment to these phones. But I feel the meta tightened up the RS1s and gave them an airiness that I really enjoyed. If you have RS1s, give them a try out of a meta w/AD8620 opamp and at least 2xEL2001s, you probably won't regret it.

Grado SR225: These phones were quite decent. Sounded great out of quite a few amps. I can't praise it as much as I would like due to how well the RS1s butchered them. These phones had a good sonic signature, not too bright, but bright enough to not leave you wondering what the hell happened to the high frequencies. I think they were playing some odd french jazz when I gave them a listen, not what the sr225s were meant to reproduce, but they still did it rather well.

Sony MDR-R10: I didn't spend very much time with the R10s at the meet because I knew I would never drop 2/3 of the price difference between a WRX and an STi on one pair of headphones. But from the short time I did spend with these phones, they were remarkable. I think I enjoyed the high end grados more, but the R10s from the hp4 made me realize how good headphones could really sound. Throughout the early parts of the meet, Tim was doubting headphones. But once he threw the r10s on, I think he stopped complaining. I'll let him post his own impressions, but I just threw that in here to show that these phones were truly good. Great, expansive soundstage, but what seemed to me a not-very-energetic reproduction. They sounded to me like etys without the oomph, but if you're into an accurate reproduction and have 4000$ to drop, do it. They are awesome.

Etymotic ER4S: I own these, but I just felt like I had to throw them in here. These canalphones kept up with the best of 'em here. I never realized how good they could sound until I put them on some of the high end amps here. Hawkman's Vivaldi cd was an immensely energetic production, and the etys captured it perfectly. The etys did not miss a single beat, they showed incredibly fast response, and in all senses, perfect. I must say that this is quite possibly my best purchase.

AudioTechnica W2002: I actually spent less time with these than the R10s. I basically swapped over to the w2002 from the r10s while both were being run off the EAR HP4. I can't explain the w2002s on their own, but I can say that the R10's presentation was much softer than the W2002s. Both were pleasant, but I don't think either one of these phones should be used with high-energy music.

Sony MDR-F1: I didn't listen to them at this meet, but I still have my impressions from last meet in my head. Very source/amp dependent and rather unappealing reproduction (to me anyways). They seemed to suck the life out of recordings unless paired with an awesome amp, which I didn't do at the last meet, and forgot to do at this meet (with the gear that was there, could you blame me?).

Sennheiser HD600: Spent a bit of time with the HD600 last meet, and my impressions still stand. These phones provide a rather warm representation of music. Bass is strong, and decently controlled, but nowhere near as tight as the rs1's bass w/meta. The highs leave a bit to be desired. Good phones, but not what I'm looking for.

Sennheiser HD600s w/cardas: Spent a LOT of time with these at the last meet and spent hardly any time with them at this meet. The Cardas cable is almost a necessity with the HD600s, at least to me. As you've just read, I'm not a fan of the HD600's representation of music, but the cardas makes them quite a bit more acceptable. The highs actually have a part in the music with the cardas.

AKG K1000: Spent a short time with these this meet, about the same amount of time I put into them last meet. I still find these rather enjoyable. The low end was controlled, but I believe it lacked impact. Maybe I just needed to turn the volume up, but that was me. I believe it's in the upper registers where the K1000s shine. The huge tube amp (didn't check for the name) that Dean had powering the AKG1000s fit the AKGs well, and considering how the highs were strong and the rather low bass impact, I don't think anybody should ever pair them with solid state equipment. We listened to the gladiator soundtrack and the k1000s had just enough low-end to keep the mood of the song flowing while creating a strong representation of the slow solo guitar and whatever else was randomly thrown around in the mix.

Beyerdynamic DT770: I wasn't too thrilled about listening to these when I saw them, but I thought i'd give them a try. The only open amp near them was Dean's MGHead, and I thought whatever. Note: MGHead is about as tubey as tube amps get (i would hope that no other amp portrays such a tubey nature). The DT770s were just awful when paired with the MGHead. So much low-end crap floating about that I couldn't enjoy the music.

Beyerdynamic DT880s: I gave these phones so many chances it's unreal. I tried really hard to not hate these. I ran them off every amp in the house (and in my amp roundup which is right after this, you'll see that I truly gave these a chance). On every amp, they were anemic, distant, lacked midrange, really dirty bass, just horrible. There was not one single good thing about these phones and not one person at the meet would disagree with me. I've heard Sony MDR-Vxx phones that give a more enjoyable AND more accurate representation of music than these phones did.



AMPS:

As you can see, we had a lot of high quality phones to throw around on these amps.

Headroom Supreme: I believe this amp had the biggest ground hum problem of them all. But from what I remember from last meet, the headroom supreme made the hd600s a little more fun to listen to. Although I wasn't too big of an hd600 fan, the supreme does give it stronger dynamics. It doesn't tighten up the bass much, but it does give it more punch. It's a good amp if you're looking to enhance the dynamics of your rig, but not do much refining.

Headroom Cosmic: Didn't spend any time on it, I'm sure somebody here could better.

Headroom Max: It was late in arriving (blame Carlo's rogue keychain for that one), so it was moved to the back room. Didn't spent too much time on it, but the time I did spend on it was rather enjoyable. The Cardas HD600s were really fond of the headroom max and now I see why it's a favorite among HD600 owners. Unlike the supreme, the max actually refined the sound (or maybe it was just me being reacquainted with the cardas cable... not sure). A little rich for my blood, and not quite the modded sugden for the money, but a decent product from a company with an awesome service dept.


Sugden Headmaster: I still really love this amp. I spent a lot of time with this amp at the last meet and I still hold it in high regard. Not a big fan of the hp-1000s, but handled other cans really well, especially etys. If you own a headmaster, it is your duty to pick up a pair of etys. Also, from last meet, the Sugden is a rather great sounding match for the HD600 w/Cardas.

Modded Sugden Headmaster: Etys + modded Sugden = brown undies. I nearly shat myself when hearing this combo. The sound was incredible. The etys just screamed don't take me off while listening through this amp. It's hard to explain the sonics. This was the last rig I listened to and I was happy it was. Though not as fast as the v2 and not as dynamic as the maestrobator, the modded sugden displayed (to my ears) the perfect audio spectrum. The bass was well controlled, the highs were sparkling, and the midrange was so glossy, i felt like taking the damned thing for a drive (sorry for all the car terms, i'm thinking of the STi again). I'm really pissed that I forgot to run the modded sugden with the cardas HD600s. Last meet I spent hours listening to the stock sugden and the cardas hd600 and carlo kept telling me that I should hear the modded one. Some other day perhaps.

Gilmore V2: The V2 is like the hp-1000s in that I could not find anything bad to say about them. I played different kinds of music through it, ran it off different headphones, could not find a glaring problem with it. I was content with what i heard from it while using the RS1s and the HP-1000s, but then I had remembered that I was told that I have to try the v2 with the etys. So I plug them in, and put on brahms's 3rd (2nd movement this time to hear how this thing can handle mellow music). I was rather floored. Hawk was there using the other plug with his HP2s (which is another thing i love about the amp, we all stood around listening to the same music w/different phones on the same amp, was a lot of fun). This amp reproduced this piece beautifully. But the strengths of the v2 weren't apparent until hawk put in his recording of vivaldi's four seasons. The recording he has is quite possibly the most energetic classical music i've heard, and the gilmore played it as if it was a joke to it. The gilmore did not skip a single beat. Every note started immediately and stopped exactly where it was supposed to. It was the fastest amp at the meet (and this was the one WITHOUT the dact). The v2 also played some beautiful music with the HP2s. It accentuates the fact that the HP2s have an almost flawless reproduction of sound.

Carlo Modded Melos Maestrobator: I tried Carlo's amp with both the hp1s and the etys, and the only word I can use to describe it is DAMN. It's not as fast or as neutral as the v2, not as clear and vibrant as the modded sugden, but very dynamic, very fun, very rich, and very intense. My first listen to the Maestrobator was with the HP1s with some jazz playing. The setup just simply destroyed it. The maestrobator was so rich and the hp1s were so smooth that you couldn't help but enjoy yourself. I tried a bit of classical, and the violins would move you. the horns would lift you, and the silence afterwards would ease you back into your seat until the next piece came on. The maestro and etys were an awesome combination for classical as well. While the v2 showed off the speed of the ER4S, the maestro showed off their power. Drums would pound you right in the face and the music would pummel you as if you were in a stampede (i mean all of this in a good way) and the maestro does all this while leaving you with a beautiful lush sound that allows you to relax as the insane dynamics drill you into oblivion. It's one of those things you truly must experience for yourself.

EAR HP4: Didn't spend too much time with this amp, but from what I did, it was rather incredible. It's a tube amp without too much tubiness (as opposed to the mghead which is a tube amp that screams TUBES like X-The Eliminator). This amp really brought the best out of both the w2002 and the r10 (which is what it was hooked up to for the majority of the meet). I hear people say the R10 has little bass, but with the HP4, I heard no bass deficiencies, I just heard beautiful music. Off the EAR, the etys, while not as crystal clear as on the sugden, were given an even more lush midrange than they normally have and they sounded great. I still prefer the other amps for the etys, but the EAR was still great.

CHA47: One of two portable amps I took to the meet. Only ran it with the grados, for obvious reasons. The RS1s had a really strong low-end with this and they sounded great. This is the amp you want to get if you want to not spend too much money, but your cans are a little too bright for your tastes. It's rather inexpensive to build, but I don't think there are many boards left, so you'd have to do it all solely off looking at a diagram (which isn't too hard if you've have any knowledge of electronics). As I said earlier, I can see why many people say the RA1 is the best amp for the RS1s, the CHA47 is basically a scaled down RA1 and it sounds great w/the RS1s.

META42: AD8620, 2x EL2001s... I personally preferred the RS1s on the meta than any of the amps there. It sounded great on the gilmore, but the meta just gave them something the gilmore couldn't... an opamp. The RS1s just didn't really like discrete parts. I didn't try it with the maestro, but i took carlo's word that they were bad on it. The RS1s weren't too great on the sugden either, but they truly shined on the meta42. The bass tightened up and would punch you while leaving a strong airy quality that only the AD8620 can do. Truly an amazing sound, I want RS1s, .

MGHead OTL: This amp is what you get if you want to walk up to somebody and say "hey, i have a tube amp" or if you want to invite random people over and say "hey, want to see what tubes do?" The MGHead portrays in its music an overemphasis of tubiness. Everything becomes so warm and the details get bogged down that I don't even realize what I'm listening to anymore. It was the only amp that the dt880s were remotely listenable on, but they still couldn't be saved. MGHead is still a good amp for somebody who has really bright phones and wants to turn them into somewhat regular phones, but you'd get better results by buying better phones anyways.




IIRC, that's everything that was at the meet. I would like to thank Dean for being an excellent host and allowing us all to use his house again for this awesome meet. Carlo, as1, hawkman, and gtecx for allowing this to be quite possibly the greatest hp-1000 reunion ever. Headroom for sending us all the quality equipment (a max, cosmic, dt880s, rs1s, sr225s). Carlo again for taking charge of the whole headroom thing. Everybody for taking themselves (and their gear) to the meet for an awesome time. And the Head-Fi mods for not deleting this post for using the words gilmore and v2 more than 3 times,

 

[psxguy85]

Based on your detailed impressions, I have more things on my list of stuff to buy.

I hope theres another meet this fall....I'll be around in Cali by then.

 

[AIM9x]

if there is a next meet, i don't think i'll be giving detailed impressions.... that took me a couple hours

and i'm pissed that I wanted to use etysmile in my little ety talks but they still haven't fixed the picture... the ear pieces are backwards

but anyways... MORE PICTURES!

here's edwin's little setup... I took the picture as he was setting up, so the R10s and the W2002s are in different pictures

w2002s in their beautiful velvet-lined case:

Dean (Orpheus) playing with the R10s and Pete (13DoW) playing with the K1000s in the studio:

The table we spent most of our time on:

no complaints about picture size... i don't want to hear it,

oh, and on the far right side of the last picture... on the chair, that wooden board contained a naked maestrobator.

 

[carlo]

Yes, forgot to add: Thank you Orpheus! Also thank you to all the members who were able to attend, I enjoyed talking with all of you and hope we do this again

 

[psxguy85]

The third picture...Who's that wearing the sexy K1000's????

*edit* nevermind...the name suddenly appeared above.