Anders
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2002
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[size=large]First Swedish Head-Fi Meet
[size=small]September 11-12, 2009, Stockholm
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I participated in the meet the entire Friday and I hope that the continuation on Saturday is equally great (meet is still going on). This was my first Head-Fi meet and it was a great success, no masses of participants but very engaged and knowledgeable people and very good equipment.
I also want to thank Audio Concept for excellent support - not only for access to the local but they also contributed with equipment as power conditioning, some amps and headphones and, most essentially a number of high-end CD-players from Boulder, MBL, Audio Research, Gamut etc. That´s the worst thing to carry to a meet and we are grateful for the help.
Some short impressions - as always take it with at least one grain of salt depending on meet conditions. Listening conditions were good but listening is by necessity rather short, often unsystematic and it is more of comparing systems than components.
The greatest attraction was the Sennheiser Orpheus system fed by an enormous sized Boulder CDP (model 1021 if I remember right). I have heard Orpheus a long time ago at an exhibition and thought that my very favorable memory partly depended on that it was a one system demo and there was no competition. My impression was very similar now although I have listened to many other systems. Very large soundstage and 3D sound with a warmth and smoothness that catches you. No surprise, it is outstanding on classical music but I was surprised by how good it was on rock and pop.
I got an opportunity to listen to K1000 with an Audion 300B amplifier and liked it a lot - much better than the Antique Sound Lab amp with a decicated K1000 output (don't remember model nr.).
One of the surprises was that Donald Norths new amplifier was available at the meet. Also very good - it was driven with a 110 - 230V transformer and this probably subtracted somewhat from sound quality. I tested a similar transformer (looked the same) on Stax 717 and sound quality increased clearly when I set it for 230V operation. I liked the DNA much more than a Trafomatic amp that I connected to the same system (but I think they are in different price classes).
I compared two HD800s - with stock and APS cable - on the DNA amp and think it sounded better with APS cable - a little more color and warmth of tone and better bass. It might help with HD800 tendency of too much "monitor sound". With reservation for unknown burn-in status of the headphones.
I liked the Naim Headline - it is a bit behind the better amplifiers but with an honest sound and maybe better with the Naim power supplies. I did not like the Rudistor RPX-33 - the sound was warm and relaxed but the treble was suppressed in a way that made instruments soundunnatural.
There was also a Lawton DA2000 headphone that sounded quite good - warm and listenable without being blurred - but I preferred HD800 for more transparency andbetter bass.
Finally I had an opportunity to compare my new Lavry DA11 with a Weiss Minerva. The DACs got a digital signal from the RCA output of a MBL CD-player and further in the chain was a Stax 717/O2 mk. 1 system. I wish I had more time for this before going home because they were close. I did some comparisons and initially I thought Minerva was slightly better but then doubted it and thought it was more a matter of somewhat different sound signatures. Of course, it is possible that Minerva on the Firewire input is better than Lavry on USB, but that was not possible to compare in this setting. Anyway, I think that DA11 competed well with a DAC that costs more than the double.
To conclude - a great meeting and I hope there will be more. Thanks to the organizers and the sponsor.
[size=small]September 11-12, 2009, Stockholm
[/size]
[/size]
I participated in the meet the entire Friday and I hope that the continuation on Saturday is equally great (meet is still going on). This was my first Head-Fi meet and it was a great success, no masses of participants but very engaged and knowledgeable people and very good equipment.
I also want to thank Audio Concept for excellent support - not only for access to the local but they also contributed with equipment as power conditioning, some amps and headphones and, most essentially a number of high-end CD-players from Boulder, MBL, Audio Research, Gamut etc. That´s the worst thing to carry to a meet and we are grateful for the help.
Some short impressions - as always take it with at least one grain of salt depending on meet conditions. Listening conditions were good but listening is by necessity rather short, often unsystematic and it is more of comparing systems than components.
The greatest attraction was the Sennheiser Orpheus system fed by an enormous sized Boulder CDP (model 1021 if I remember right). I have heard Orpheus a long time ago at an exhibition and thought that my very favorable memory partly depended on that it was a one system demo and there was no competition. My impression was very similar now although I have listened to many other systems. Very large soundstage and 3D sound with a warmth and smoothness that catches you. No surprise, it is outstanding on classical music but I was surprised by how good it was on rock and pop.
I got an opportunity to listen to K1000 with an Audion 300B amplifier and liked it a lot - much better than the Antique Sound Lab amp with a decicated K1000 output (don't remember model nr.).
One of the surprises was that Donald Norths new amplifier was available at the meet. Also very good - it was driven with a 110 - 230V transformer and this probably subtracted somewhat from sound quality. I tested a similar transformer (looked the same) on Stax 717 and sound quality increased clearly when I set it for 230V operation. I liked the DNA much more than a Trafomatic amp that I connected to the same system (but I think they are in different price classes).
I compared two HD800s - with stock and APS cable - on the DNA amp and think it sounded better with APS cable - a little more color and warmth of tone and better bass. It might help with HD800 tendency of too much "monitor sound". With reservation for unknown burn-in status of the headphones.
I liked the Naim Headline - it is a bit behind the better amplifiers but with an honest sound and maybe better with the Naim power supplies. I did not like the Rudistor RPX-33 - the sound was warm and relaxed but the treble was suppressed in a way that made instruments soundunnatural.
There was also a Lawton DA2000 headphone that sounded quite good - warm and listenable without being blurred - but I preferred HD800 for more transparency andbetter bass.
Finally I had an opportunity to compare my new Lavry DA11 with a Weiss Minerva. The DACs got a digital signal from the RCA output of a MBL CD-player and further in the chain was a Stax 717/O2 mk. 1 system. I wish I had more time for this before going home because they were close. I did some comparisons and initially I thought Minerva was slightly better but then doubted it and thought it was more a matter of somewhat different sound signatures. Of course, it is possible that Minerva on the Firewire input is better than Lavry on USB, but that was not possible to compare in this setting. Anyway, I think that DA11 competed well with a DAC that costs more than the double.
To conclude - a great meeting and I hope there will be more. Thanks to the organizers and the sponsor.
