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.