[NightWoundsTime]

The official meet is wrapping up, just the sad sights of packed boxes and Guru stealing equipment.

Some memorable quotes to start things off:

"You can't tell left from right? How did you ever make babies?" - Raymond Samuels

"That thing looks better than my wife" - Stevieo

"I've got a permanent boner now" - Anonymous

"You started the meet thread last time so now it's tradition" - Tyrion

Here's to the afterparty.

 

[tom hankins]

I wait for the pics and opinions with keyboard in hand.

 

[Thaddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins I wait for the pics and opinions with keyboard in hand.

Ohh yeah...and don't let Guru get away with too much gear

 

[bhd812]

Hey I was almost there...on the phone ...lol

I called Ray, I said Hi..lol

I feel like I was there, I should of asked him to put some gear to the phone so I can get a good listen..hahaha

 

[agile_one]

Just finished up now, and people are straggling off to home, bars, bed, hotel room mini-meets, or whatever their energy level allows.

Me, I'm to bed, but oh, what a great weekend it has been. Friday night spent at tyrion's friend's Os' audio store listening to an exquisite vinyl system in a dedicated listening room - audio bliss. Today's meet was killer with great equipment, people and location. tyrion did a fantastic job of organizing, and making everyone feel at home, and his wonderful wife, Gail was all over the food and snacks - truly gracious hosts.

Had a nice, big meeting room at the Amerisuites hotel in Plantation (next to Ft. Lauderdale ) which made for very comfortable setup and listening. Both Mikhail and Ray were in attendance, so we were in the company of amp greatness all day. Even managed to get a sneak preview of Hirsch's two box balanced SDS - what an absolutely over the top beast that is - you'll likely see many comments following.

Biggest highlights for me were Wmcmanus' Orpheus headphones out of a Stax 007t from a Sony SCD-1 - just glorious - I actually got goose bumps listening to Jeff Buckley's "Allelulia" from Grace - stunning. Not that the Omega II's were slouches, they are just not on the same planet as the Orpheus. R10 vs Qualia? At this point a slam dunk for the R10's, but I reserve judgement for when I get more opportunity with the Q's.

Other vivid memories imclude Ray's Raptors, Wmcmanus' Shanling T300, and the general quality of portable sound from well ripped music on iPod's or iRivers. and lots of small, great sounding amps for SA 5000's (or any phones). I am missing a lot, but details must await a night's sleep and the drive home tomorrow.

Oh, yes, tonight after the meet, most of us grabbed dinner at Friday's (both Ray and Wayne managed to behave themselves pretty well), then back over to Os' shop for more amazing 2 channel vinyl, than some amazing concert Home Theatre - had an absolute ball - just blew us all away. Wish yu all could have experienced it.

Ok, boys and girls, this lad is off to bed ...

 

[GoRedwings19]

This is what I like about Florida. One of the highest R-10 quotient per state and no pics...and the bikini babes. If you can't post pics of the bikini babes at least post some headphone related pics

 

[tyrion]

I am going to keep it short tonight as I am beat. This was one heck of a meet, if I do say so myself. What made the meet great was the great people that participated. More comments tomorrow.

For now some pics. These were taken by Ray.

More to follow.

 

[tyrion]

That's all for tonight.

 

[stevieo]

let me start out with some brief impressions.

a real high point for me was the usual suspects that seem be the core of the the so. fla meets with the exception of mikeg & holly which was a personal disapointment for me that they were unable to attend. maybe they heard i would be there. some new folks showed up for the 1st time & seemed to have fun. it was fun to have them & i look forward to their return at the next so. fla. meets. if i have not worn out my welcome.

tyrion who orchestrated one hell of a awesome meet. he arranged a banquet hall at the hotel on saturday. friday night he had his buddy, a great guy named os, open his high end stereo store for a private late night soiree for a small group of early arrival diehards. then we went back to the hotel & all the members rooms were in the same area so we had the opportunity to play around with different rigs & walk from room to room listening to personal rigs. this is where i flipped over a $400 chinese amp. PSYCHOZX took a flyer on a Feel HP 200SE Tube Mosfet Hybrid amp with 1 pair of 12ax7, 1 pair of 12au7 & 1 6z4. i was floored for $400. everything i threw at it sounded really good including the qualia, senns, ergo 2. $200 for 3 day freight is the non optional delivery method. but, i think it was the big surprise for me of the meet. this was the one of the big standouts for me & i will probably have to spring for yet another amp i have no room for. this amp appeared to be very well constructed, very versitile & sounded as good as many amps at twice the price and more. psycho's dad seemed pretty cool about letting his boy hang with the degenerate ray samuels, moi & the kid from the cayman's. i guess we won't be seeing psycho anytime soon unless his dad preapproves the next attendees list.

saturday was meet day & started early. mikhail showed up with an eiffel tower sized balanced singlepower that was georgeous to look at & sounded even better to listen to. i don't know if i will ever be able to listen to unbalanced amps in the same way again. the buyer is luckier than a three dicked dog to get his ears on this thing.

agile1, did not dissapoint. he had some pretty technical stuff i could not understand but his r-10 & L-3000 were on hand & he had an earmax pro i can relate to.

i brougt the qualias & ergo 2. there were a few of 1st time listeners who had trouble relating to the qualia. but, that is expected. finnicky thing that the qualias are.

guru was very much in good form & did not have an opportunity to dissect any equipment. all eyes were on him at all times. i just know he wanted to dissesct the qualia to find out why he likes them so much.

i had a chance to listen to some phono stages & i have to say that ray's new stage is something special & so is the price. but if you have ever seen him eat non stop i can sort of understand how he sets his pricing.

wmamanus had the coolest looking design thing i have seen in years. he brought a limited edition shanling t-300 & wow. this thing is bound to be in the museum of modern art's permanent design collection. it is no b&o either. it sounds delightful brand new out of the box. i can't wait to hear it with burn-in & tube replacement. if all goes according to plan, i should soon have one gracing my kitchen table.

there was not too much emphisis on portable amps at this meet nor was there an extreme over abundance or overlapping of equipment.

nightwoundstime did have an interesting portable i was not familiar with that showed potential. his mpx was sounding dead on.

fortunately, omega II, Big O & a stax 404 was in attendance running off a stax 700T. no complaints from me here.

this was an especially fun meet, in a great space with a really good goup of people.

to top it off, os opened his store yet again & showed music videos on a killer home theater rig with stadium seating. thanks os.

i hope someone posts some photos.

 

[PsychoZX]

Great meet. This was my first meet but now I know it definately won't be my last.

It was great meeting some of the people that i've talked to here on head-fi. So much great gear. I got so caught up in talking to people that I actually didn't get to listen to as much stuff as I was planning. I'll post plenty of pictures and impressions on the gear later tonight when I get home.

 

[reynman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by agile_one Biggest highlights for me were Wmcmanus' Orpheus headphones out of a Stax 007t from a Sony SCD-1 - just glorious - I actually got goose bumps listening to Jeff Buckley's "Allelulia" from Grace - stunning.

That combo would give me goosebumps as well! Sounds like y'all had a great time. More pics and impressions, please.

BTW, was that a Music Hall MMF5 attached to Ray's XR10B?

Regards - reynman

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by reynman BTW, was that a Music Hall MMF5 attached to Ray's XR10B?

It was an MMF-5. It never sounded better. People were amazed by the quality of sound you can get out of that tt with the right phono stage. The XR10B is overkill for the MMF-5 but it did sound great.

 

[tyrion]

I want to thank Ray and Mikhail for traveling such long distances for the meet. I also want to thank JMT and Thrice for sending those beautiful M3 amps. They both look and sound great. Definitely a bargain in ss amps. I also want to thank Headroom who came through with a microstack and desktop portable. I also want to thank Stephen (Archosman) for lending us the Woo Audio 3. I liked the design once I saw them in person. The desktop portable is loaded with features including a 1/4 and 1/8 inch headphone uots, dac (usb, optical and coax.). The micro dac is likely to be my next purchase. I used it with my AX with excellent results. At $299, I believe it is a bargain.

As always, I enjoyed Ray's amps, phono stages and especially his company. Ray was in town from Friday night through Sunday morning so we were able to spend a lot of time with him and had a blast. I think the meet started at about 7pm on Friday night and ended Sunday morning. Mikhail was in Florida on vacation with his family and traveled a long way to spend the day with us. It was great to see him again for those of us who had the opportunity to meet him before. I am sure it was even more special for the the newcomers that were able to meet both Mikhail and Ray.

I spent a lot of time with the Raptor (tuberolling) and the XR-10B. I listened to more vinyl at this meet than I did to cd's, which I was not expecting. The XR-10B is special. We spent a lot of time Friday night and some Saturday night with Oz's HRX and the XR-10B. We compared it to a couple of other high end phono stages. For most must the XR-10B was the superior phono stage, both in available features (it is remarkable the amount of options it has) and sound quality with most music. At one point we needed to get Stevieo out of the room so we put on AC/DC Thunderstruck. He left the room saying something about going to the dentist to have his teeth drilled. The XR-10B really handled the fast pasted song with minimal congestion compared to the Heron tube phono stage. The Heron was strong (not stronger) with jazz and vocals.

Mikhail brought the PPX Slam and the SDS XLR. This amp is huge. The thing should have it's own zip code. It looks like 2 giant Maestos on top of each other. The amp sounded wonderful with the HD-650 and balance Zu cable. Thanks to Hirsch who I think owned the SDS and the Rockhopper M3, that were at the meet.

The Florida group is an interesting crowd as it consists of people from different parts of Florida, the Cayman Islands, Chicago, Maryland and Texas. Stevieo and Ray are now regulars and Guru is now in Texas and will be a regular as well, I am sure. We truly have a good time. Not only do we spend time at the meet but before and after, as long as people are around that want to hear music and talk about gear.

I want to thank Oz of Let There Be Sound who went above and beyond to entertain us. He was at the store with us until about midnight last night while his wife was home getting ready to give birth this coming week. We just had a blast listening to all the cool toys. It is unfortuate that there aren't more audio store owners that treat customers like he does. You feel like you are his friend from the moment you meet. him.

I don't have any more pics to post. Hopefully, when the others that took pics get home they will post.

I have to add that the one single item that caught my attention were Wayne's Orpheus headphones with Gene's Stax amp. Holy sh** that was as good as I've heard in headphones. I think my brother agreed as he spent at least an hour with them (see pic of the orpheus and guy with hat above). We had to call security to get him out of the chair.

My biggest surprise came today when I discovered while taking Ray to the airport that Gene left his K1000 behind with his 650's and SA5K. Matt (NightWoundsTime) volunteered to take them to Gene. I sent them with Matt, well all except the K1000, sorry Gene

. Now I understand what people like about them. The Raptor does a great job driving them. I have the volume at about 11:30 and the volume is a comfortable level. I can't believe I now have to buy a pair of these. I wish I knew this when Todd hasd his sale.

 

[PsychoZX]

Here come the pics.

Mike briefly checking out the HD-650/Zu combo on my FEEL HP-200se amp.

Stevieo listening to the raptor

Mikhail's HUGE SDS XLR

NightWoundsTime's MPX3 with HD-650/Zu combo

Mikhail's PPX3 SLAM

Meridian 508 with some of Mikhails pcbs around it

A close up of IMO one of the worst phones at the meet

 

[PsychoZX]

NightWoundsTime listening to the Omega's

Guss listening to the HD-650s

Wayne's Shanling cd player

Ray's Beautiful XR-10B phono stage

Ray's Stealth

Ray's absolutely gorgeous raptor

HD-600s, PS1's, and RS1's

Gene listening to the Akg 501s through the Dynahi