[jp11801]

Well I just got back from the SoFlo mini meet. Mike thanks for opening your house to a bunch of audio freaks!!
We had some great sources, amps, cans and most important people.
The one thing that strikes me about meets at Mike's is the abundance of Senns, we had stock ones, multiple recables and woodies. The meet was also a bit of a face off of two heavyweight Goliath sources and a modest David source.
We had more than a few new faces in attendance all great guys.
Some of the gear included the Meridian G08, Berendsen cdp, Cyrus Cd6, Eastern Minimax (never got turned on due to lack of inputs) Esound CD-E5 and multiple ipods.
Man the Berendsen and Merdian were neck and neck in our informal shootout. For me the Merdian had a slight edge in bass impact and drum sounds but the Berendsen had the magic with the mids vocals were true to life and had that 3D throaty sound that I love. We also had my Esound hooked up and with headphones it was really close to the other ywo sources with speakers it fell slightly behind. At no time was it dusted by the other players 4-6 times more costly. The only thing it lacked was just the slightest weight and body to notes that the other two heavies had.
I have to thank Matt for letting me hear his MXP3 amp, btw this is another amp that i could easily fall in love with. Great amp and mated well with the Cyrus cdp and would be brilliant with any source that was well paced.

Raj nest time we all get together I have to get a cpoy of that demo cd you use it has some killer tracks!!

Well I'll stop blathering I just wanted to get the impressions going hopefully we'll have some pictures up later.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Cool. Let's hope that the others jump in. Sorry I had to miss this mini meet. I'll be up in your neck of the woods next weekend, but just couldn't make this one.

 

[agile_one]

Sounds like another great party at Mike's (tyrion's) place. Sorry I couldn't make this one - FL Head-Fi'ers know how to have a good time.

Alright, slackers, let's get some more posts and pics up here ...

 

[philodox]

Cool, nice to hear that the Eastsound stood up to the Meridian and the Berendson. Out of curiosity, how long have you had yours and how many hours would you say that you've put on it? I assume this test was done using the same interconnects?

 

[PsychoZX]

Ok where are the pics?

 

[Omnis]

Pics? Oh yeah...that's my job.

Being as objective as possible, I'd agree almost exactly with what John had to say about the source duel. I mean, I had no prior exposure to both sources, and the amp as well. Sweet Raptor, by the way. Those tubes had me sweating.

John's AKGs weren't really my thing, truthfully. Not when compared to the 650s. Sure, they're good for a purpose (mids, mid-highs, no?)...but I just think Sennheiser makes a broader, more applicable headphone. Mike's AKGs were pretty nice, though. Nice and colorful, but still missing Sennheiser's lows. Still, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy them 100%. They're great cans.

There really needs to be some 880s at the next meet. I want to compare them to my cans. lol. I'm not complaining about anything, but anyone can agree...it would've been a nice touch.

Did any of you guys get stuck in that crazy storm? I was thinking about calling Mike again and telling you all to go grab your umbrellas. A tree next to my uncle's house got split straight down the middle, and the bark just exploded clear off. Its naked now and the heart of the tree is totally fried. They said it was smoking when they looked out the window.

Okay, so enough talk. Picture time. (sorry for any blur.

)



I'll let everyone make their own captions and picture interpretations. lol.

 

[tyrion]

I had a great time as usual. Gene and Wayne, we missed you. I just got back from dinner or I would have posted sooner. We had 4 new faces, 2 were unexpected and 2 were new guys on Headfi. Oz from Let There Be Sound stopped by before opening the store. He sent over 2 of his buddies and they seemed to have a real interest in our little hobby. I believe both are speaker guys.

We had some nice sources for the meet and I have to agree with John. The Eastbound Cd-5 is an excellent cdp for the money. It didn't best the more expensive sources but it didn't embarass itself either. The thing is solid as a rock. It didn't pick up the difference in bass as John described but I am probably biased. In the looks department the G08 has the Berendsen beat. It is a beautiful cdp. I don't think it beats it in the sound department. Most of my critical listening was done through speakers. I don't feel that headphones tell the whole story of what a cdp is capable of. You really can't evaluate as clearly things like soundstage and imaging of the instruments like you can with speakers. I tried the 2 cdp's with different sets of speakers. The Berendsen sounds more musical to me. Like you want to listen to it and not think about what you hearing. The Meridian, a wonderful cdp was a bit more analytical. I could live with either and, if fact, would be happy with the Eastbound if that's as far as my budget permitted.

I don't want to leave out the Cyrus. It is another great value. There was some nice synergy going on between the Cyrus and Matt's MPX3.

This was a fun meet. As always, too much talking, not enough listening. That seems to be the one constant. In the end, it's the friendships that makes a meet fun.

I want to thank Matt (NightWoundsTime) for making the long trip down here for 5 hours. That was above and beyond the call. It seems like the Florida contingent keeps growing each time we get together. Tampa in November should be great. Thanks to the regulars, John (jp11801), raaj, and to the new guys Marc (Omnis) and Miguel (mrarroyo).

 

[PsychoZX]

Did anyone compare the eastsound to the cyrus? Those are two sources that i've recently considered getting.

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PsychoZX Did anyone compare the eastsound to the cyrus? Those are two sources that i've recently considered getting.

We didn't get a chance to do a direct comparison between the Cyrus and the Eastbound. I don't think you can go wrong with either one. The advantage to the Cyrus is the form factor (may not be important to some) and a warranty, with local dealers to assist you. The cost is a bit more but for some the piece of mind may be worth it. I couldn't say which was the better player as I didn't spend enough time with either.

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyrion We didn't get a chance to do a direct comparison between the Cyrus and the Eastbound. I don't think you can go wrong with either one. The advantage to the Cyrus is the form factor (may not be important to some) and a warranty, with local dealers to assist you. The cost is a bit more but for some the piece of mind may be worth it. I couldn't say which was the better player as I didn't spend enough time with either.

Yeah the only thing that is turning me off about the cyrus is it's look. I personally think the eastsound looks much better.

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PsychoZX Yeah the only thing that is turning me off about the cyrus is it's look. I personally think the eastsound looks much better.

That comes down to personal choice. The Cyrus is not for everyone. With the other Cyrus components they look great together. For people with limited space it could be the perfect answer. On the otherhand, it is a great sounding cdp under any circumstance. The K1000 are pretty funky looking cans but in the end they sound great.

 

[jp11801]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox Cool, nice to hear that the Eastsound stood up to the Meridian and the Berendson. Out of curiosity, how long have you had yours and how many hours would you say that you've put on it? I assume this test was done using the same interconnects?

great question we has a switch box that allowed for the meridian, berendsen and e5 to be hokked up simultaniously to a RSA Raptor and the through the tube intergrated you see above. We had duplicates of MoFi the Wall and Raj has dups of a demo cd he uses. The Meridian and Berendsen used the same ICs (I forget the name) and the e5 had the silver raincoat se from Snowy. We did not have 3 of the same I IC.
We then proceeded to play the 2 cds through two of the players through a pair of System adio speaker (these are one from the top of the companies line and pretty amazing speakers). We would then switch while listening to the same track with Mike adjusting the levels because the Merdian and E5 were matched in sound output put the Berendsen was significantly louder.

I think we all walked away with fairly similar impressions. We all had to fight the halo effect each person has for their own source.
BTW I found a 340 and it's on the way

man I gotta stop stalking your set up. Not sure it will replace my 501s but time will tell.

 

[NightWoundsTime]

Not much to add to this thread as I didn't listen all that much

. Mostly rehashed old head-fi stories with Mike & Raaj. By the way I remembered this little treasure of a thread that you all must read.

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68466

classic. For some reason that Merton comment scared me into submission but I wish I'd persued the insanity further. I could have like 5 times as many posts now and be a much loved or hated head-fier, depending on the reader.

Anyway, small listening impressions. I stuck a Cardas power cable on my MPX3 and a Quail on the Cyrus and now I realize that was a huge mistake. I heard bass out of my combo that I can't replicate at home and finally have to admit was a cable upgrade. Grr. If I'd realized at the time I would have stuck Quails on both pieces and checked the improvements there. Now I'm left to wonder and listen to my tasteful but not mind-blowing bass

.

New guys Omnis and Mr Arroyo were very cool and seemed to enjoy themselves playing with all the great stuff we had present.

Ok that's it for me, you'll hear more tomorrow on the Tampa head-fi meet location.

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jp11801 BTW I found a 340 and it's on the way man I gotta stop stalking your set up. Not sure it will replace my 501s but time will tell.

hehe... I hope you like them.

 

[mrarroyo]

Yes it was a lot of fun and if further enphasized how little I know of this hobby. Time to learn (learn = spend $$$

)