[arnaud]

Hi all,

It's getting late but I should post now or else it might never happen... And really I owe to say something because today was such a FUN meet!!!

Thanks a lot to Edwood and Luis (LFF) for organizing the meet, the office was so comfortable, really great.

It was nice to meet new friendly head-fiers, too bad I got some first names straight but don't really remember the pseudos... It was very nice to see Ray again, I had a very good time with you Ray!

Now on to some gear impressions, by chronological order:

- Ray Samuels Audio Hornet vs. Meier Audio PreHead MkI (AD chip) through Ray's switchbox: we were using MY Meridian 508 and MY HD650s and MY CDs. So, I was VERY familiar with the sound... Still, it took me a few times to nail down the differences between the two guys. From such a tiny amp as the hornet, that's quite surprising... In the end, the Hornet still had a very recognizable signature. While I could not tell them apart by the soundstage or the bass, the Hornet was definitely on the brighter side, actually a bit too much for my taste. I think it's the perfect amp for rockers out there...

- Singlepower PPX3 (with NOS tubes) using a sony changer and HD650s: I was very pleasantly surprised. Never harsh, nice big bass tight and going low, decaying notes (rooms reverb) was very easy to pick up which helped to create a realistic soundstage. Very very pleasing listening with Jazz.

- Ray Samuels Audio Raptor vs. Stealth using Meridian 508 and HD650s: With the original NOS tube Ray had in there, I could really feel the Raptor was warmer than the Stealth. When Ray switched to stock tube and did the switch box game again, I was not able to tell them apart. A nice cute little amp...

- Sony R10 through the Meier Audio PreHead MkI and Meridian 508: too bright for me but the soundstage was nice. I wish I could have listened to these guys through a warmer amp.

- Grado PS-1 running balanced of the Gilmore Reference and the Meridian 508: pleasantly surprised. I am really not a Grado fan (I find them way too colored) but did enjoy the PS-1 through that rig. I preferred the balanced HD650s/Zu though.

- RSA Hornet vs SR71 using ipod 4 line out and Sensaphonics 2X-S: Hornet was brighter than the SR71. I much preferred the latter just because it reminded me of my Prehead and Stealth amps. I listen to a lot of vocals, jazz, so I guess I am more after a neutral sounding amp. The hornet reminds me of Grado sound: a bit too much steroids!

- RSA SR71 vs. ipod headphone out using Sensas 2X-S: when using lossless files, it was a no brainer. The SR71 sounded blacker, more dynamic, smoother, fast, very solid and extended in the bass (I actually tried some organ music with 20Hz notes... you could very much feel it with the SR-71 while the headphone out was clearly cut-off). Now, when I switched to compressed files (AAC 192), I did not feel as much the need to amplify the Sensas, a lot of the magic was gone. So, when the day comes and I can store all my CDs in lossless format on a portable player, the SR71 shall become mine!!!

- Last but not the least: HD650s/Oehlbach vs. HD650s/Zu Mobius through Meridian 508 and RSA Stealth: wow wow wow... I did not expect this... I have to admit I have been skeptical about $200+ headphone cables for a long time... Well, thanks to (or because of shall say my wallet) Brian (Brianknewbie) I will buy a Zu cable very shortly. It was unbelievable, in some ways a more drastic change than switching amps!! When switching from the Oelhbach to the Zu I would hear smoother midrange, much cleaner bass. When switching back to the Oehlbach, the sound became lifeless, edgy, without soundstage, a total nightmare. It's so amazing that one hour before, I could not dream better than my HD650s/Oehlbach?! But now, I could not switch back?! It just sounded right through the Zu. More extended at both ends, very much controlled (no smearing of bass or treble), a soundstage I did not think HD650s could be capable of. It's simple: I AM SOLD!!

That's it for me. As you can read I enjoyed my day VERY much and had a few ear-opening experiences...

cheers,

Arnaud.

 

[LFF]

Just a quick post for two reasons (will post more later):

1) I would really like to thank everyone who showed up, especially Mr. Hertsens and Mr. Samuels. I appreciated your company, conversations and recommendations as well as opinions. I hope everyone had fun and I also hope to see everyone some time soon. I would like to thank you all for being courteous with each other as well as accomodating and special thanks for those who stayed to help me clean up a bit. I hope I get to have the pleasure of hosting another meet in the future.

Also - THANK YOU to all who donated $$$ to Head.fi and for charity. For anyone who is curious - over $60.00 for Head.fi and over $60.00 for charity. Thank you all for your generosity.

2)Trying new sig.

 

[Edwood]

"Oh my GOD! I need to get the Pelegrinno."

ROFLMFAO!

Also, a special thanks to Peter Rasla & Associates, P.L.C., Attorneys and Counselors at Law.

It was their Board Room, kitchen, and Meeting Room that we were given the priviledge of using for this meet.

(really needed more air conditioning, though.)

I have a lot more pics to post, but I am so tired, must go to sleep. Catch everyone later.

-Ed

 

[MisterX]

After a two day meet I think you earned a couple of days off Ed.
Take your time.

 

[rx7_fan]

Thanks Luis for introducing me to really great CD recordings and Ed for letting me listen to his R10 w/ Grace amp. That was nice of both of them

Here's my shot outs. Thanks:

Brianknewbie/Brian: For giving me a ride to my car, and I like your 330i =D, Ooh and thanks for bringing the Sony S5k, I really anted to listen to that.

Mark/Borat: Fun talking to you, and listening to your 600.

RnB/Myo: Thanks for showing me that cable makes a difference, and letting me audition your cables.

Bill/BRBjackson: Fun talking to you, hope you get your UE10-Pro soon.

Peter/Petery: Thanks for the iPod thing, and the ride to Irvine Spectrum. I know your career goals will work out great.

Aaron/Jasper: Hey thanks for introducing me to Orpheus, his 06 Corvette I rode in was really crazy. he also showed me some heel toe shifing. Nice meeting you.

Orpheus: Thanks for the ride dude, I know your didn't have to burn out and rev to high rpm; but i'm glad you did. It really showed the acceleration and muscle/torque of that Corvette.

Tyll: Thanks for showing me your USB DAC, it souded great.

Matt/Crazyfrenchmen: Matt, I talk to you on AIM all the time,so I don't know what to say

Mike Dias: Mike It seems like I always talk to you, not that I mind, but everytime I see you, it means driving to tune me UE5c.

Tell Noy I say what sup.

Hsui: I know i messed up on your name, but I'm glad you insits me to listen to grado. I really enjoyed your 225 on Acid Rain.

And all the other members that came. You guys were really great. I think I will be banned if my post gets any longer. Don't think that I didn't mention your name/aka that I didn't appreciate your time and comments.

Last but not least Ray, I hope your son have a Happy Birthday, and Good Luck with that Rx7 thing. I know exactly how he feels about the car; I loved that car when I was in high school.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Attention attendees of the SoCal Meet.

This hornet board is missing.

If you somehow find it amongst your stuff, please return it to it's papa. He misses it terribly.

-Ed

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek Yep that's me. lol .. Yeah, I had a good time. My ears are burnt out. BTW, Ray Samuels is a chracter, and BRBJackson is an extremely cool guy in person. I asked him his age and it turned out he's as old as my dad... that offended him but it shouldnt have! I'd be honored to have somebody like him as a dad

Are you using the md33s I sent you in that pic?

 

[foo_me]

Hi,

I just wanted to thank Ed, Luis, and everyone else who helped to organize the meet. Also thanks to Ray and Tyll for coming so far and bringing them equipment for us to listen to and to Luis for his excellent CD recommendations.

This was my first meet and everyone was very nice and helpful in regards to answering questions and sharing their music/equipment.

For me, the highlight of the meet was listening to brianknewbie's balanced grado PS1s on the gilmore reference amp. I found it warmer and more musical without sacrificing any of the tight bass and detail.
Being a PS1 owner, I have found my next upgrade!

The K1000s were also a pleasant surprise...outstanding with classical and vocals, but with some music, missed the bass.

Didn't get a chance to listen to anything else for a significant amount of time, but was impressed by the demo UE10s and ray's tiny Hornet.

all in all, a great experience and looking forward to the next one!

 

[RnB180]

ed,

when did it show up missing? saturday or sunday?

 

[RnB180]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rx7_fan RnB/Myo: Thanks for showing me that cable makes a difference, and letting me audition your cables. your

Thanks for taking the time to listen, with all the gear there, not many care about cables

hehe, I dont think many people have had the oppurtunity to listen to the gold alloy mini, IIRC only 5 headfiers own one before the end of its limited run.

I think purk still has the other one from the atlanta meet.

I really wanted to compare the zu and equinox cable with the my v2 senn cable, but had problems locating them, and parting them from their owners

I also want to thanks Ray and borat for letting me listen to their Cardas senn cable. Good sports aye! Borat was really helpful with letting me check out his cardas cable, I want to extend and big thanks to him for putting up with my cable addiction

 

[foo_me]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akwok Any more impressions on the K3000?

With the k3000...in listening to it with other amps...it was really hard to drive.
Even with the amps that drove the k1000 well. Wondering if maybe Larry could take a look at it and make sure it sounds like it's supposed to sound.

 

[petery83]

Thank you to Peter Rasla & Associates, P.L.C., Attorneys and Counselors at Law for letting us use their office! We really appreciate your generosity! Luis and Ed, thanks for organizing and coordinating this event!

I didn't spend as much time listening at this meet compared to last year's meet, since I really didn't want to end up spending lots of money. I also had lots of fun meeting and talking to other Head-Fiers.

The 2 headphones that impressed me the most were the balanced Grado PS-1 and the Ultimate Ears UE-10. Both of them (especially the UE-10s) are phones that I could envision myself eventually upgrade to. The UE-10s had unbelievable amounts of bass and detail, and would also be quite suitable for portable or home use.

I also thought highly of the Benchmark DAC1. With the DAC1, my HD650s were able to play fast, aggressive rock music with ease. In fact, I preferred the Redbook layer of Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms using DAC1 + HD650s over the SACD layer with PPX3 + RS-1. I was running the HD650s unbalanced, so I imagine that it would only improve when running balanced off the XLR outputs. The RS-1 also improved greatly as well. One headphone that did not benefit from the DAC1 was the Triport. They sounded somewhat decent through a warm tube amp such as a PPX3, but with a more revealing source/amp such as the DAC1, they were quite shrill and painful to listen to.

I did not like the MDR-SA5000s though. While they were quite detailed and fast, they were also a bit on the bright side, and were just too light on the bass.

Enough for now, I'll most likely write some more after some sleep.

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RnB180 I really wanted to compare the zu and equinox cable with the my v2 senn cable, but had problems locating them, and parting them from their owners

I'd be more than happy to send you my zu mobius if you let me demo your senn cable. Pm me if you are interested.

 

[Ferbose]

Thanks again to Ed (Edwood) and Luis (LFF) for organizing this absolutely wonderful meet, and Luis' boss. I have learned so much in this meet.

Today there are fewer people and the environment is quieter, and I am able to do more critical comparison. I got to listen to some more nice headphones today. Please read all my comments with a grain of salt becuase these are comparisons made on a haste.

K1000, Jon L's modded K1000 and Foo_Me's K3000: Jon's K1000 does not have the orange rods and the two drivers are connected by a single wire. The wire directly hangs on the head. K1000 sounds more immediate and bassy this way and I prefer it over stock K1000 for pop/rock. For classical/jazz I would stay with the stock unit for better ambience and holographic soundstage. K3000 is K1000's drivers put into CD3000's casing. It sounds totally unlike K1000 and is so much darker and muddier. I tried it on Cayin HA-1A (tube), EL84 version of Sophia Baby speaker amp (tube) and DAC1's headphone jack and the results are very similar. K3000 has some obvious distortions and sounds quite wrong.

Sony R10: It has very good tonal balance and neutrality, similar to UE-10 and K1000. The bass is not too strong but it is not lacking either. The soundstage is more coherent and well-centered than any other headphone I have heard except for K1000. Compare to other full-size headphones I heard at the meet (DT880, HD650, PS-1, RS-1, ATH-W1000, K501, SA-5K and K340), R10 seems to be the most unclolored and undistorted. I have no problem with people calling it the king of dynamic full-size cans. But for music requiring a lot of bass I would look elsewhere.

ATH-W1000: Very pretty in terms of appearance. Its sound is technically really good with great clarity and everything seems to be there. It is more bassy than R10 but less than HD650 or Grado. I do find its overall presentation a bit strange but can't really explain why. I need more listening to decide if I like its sound signature. Its clarity and transparency is really good because K501 sounds veiled in instant A/B against it and HD650 is further behind.

Grado PS-1 balanced: It is connected to Gilmore Reference amp by special cables. An unbalnced PS-1 is there for instant A/B. Balanced PS-1 is tonally more accurate than stock PS-1, and the treble is no longer masked. Even classical music sounds quite impressive and accurate on the balanced PS-1. Stock PS-1 and RS-1 both veiled and thinned-out treble which is instantly noticeable for calsscial music, but sound so exciting with rock. Balanced PS-1 is tonally more neutral and also more detailed, and sounds even better with Rock.

Senn HD590: Also a good headphone for pop/rock. It takes a cleaner approach towards rock compared to Grados. It is a bit lean on classical stuff so I would categorize it as Grado competitors.

Grado SR225: A bit edgier and less detailed than RS-1 and PS-1, but still has the Grado sound signature to do rock music right. I might considering picking up a pair myself. On a Gilmore V1 it actually sounds better than one particular PS-1, becuase that particular PS-1 has a strange ringing problem in the upper midrange. Another PS-1 does not have this problem and of course sounds better than SR225, but the difference is not too big. Out of DAC1's headphone jack, Feoteng2003 and I both prefer it to RS-1 on several rock/pop albums we tried. Of course, RS-1 is clearly better than SR225 becuase it is more detailed and sweeter. But I feel that DAC1's internal amp and SR225 seem to have a really good synergy and make rock music pushy and edgy in a fun way.

Now for headphone Amps

Ray's Hornet: This little wonder completely changes my view of ultra-portable amps. Don't be fooled by its small size. It drives power-thirsty HD650 with volume pot at 10 o'clock. The sound is very clean and nice, even with a wall-wart. I felt it is better than my DAC1's internal amp but I did not A/B. I recall Edwood saying it is on-par with his Grace M902, which is well known to have a better amp than DAC1. To see if its sound quality becomes worse near clipping levels, a K1000 is connected to it. Amazingly, K1000 sounds quite nice at low levels and the Hornet retains its clarity even when it is very near clipping. Honet is powerful enough for any normal headphone (K1000 is not really a headphone) and sounds big and clean even when pushed to the max. Kudos to Ray--this is IMHO a good amp regardless of size.

Benhcmark DAC1's internal amp: It is a pretty normal (not great) SS amp but seems to have suprising synergy with SR225. XLR output actually is a better headphone amp.

Rudistor RP33: Big surprise. This is the smoothest SS amp I heard in this meet. HD650 sounds incredibly smooth on this amp. If I have a amp like this I probably won't need tube amps (but I like tube-rolling to fine-tune the sound). I feel this is a SS headphone amp with finnese, which is not suprising considering that it is Italian made.


Cayin HA-1A vs Singlepower PPX and Ray's Raptor

I just got used Cayin HA-1A from head-fier Archosman for $300. It is made by Spark audio in China, a subsidary of a state-owned company supplying Chinese airforce with electronics (they probably know tubes because of those MIG fighters

). This amp's discontinued Taiwanese version used to be $400 and I expect its US retail to be around $500. Its distribution in North America seems to be in its infant stage. It uses 12AX7*1, 12AU7*1 and EL84*2. Most of the time I use it in triode mode but there is a switch for ultralinear as well. It is single-ended class A with output transformers and a impedance selector (four settings). It is super powerful for a headphone amp and can output 1.5 W into headphones with any impedance (1W would destroy almost every headphone on the market). It has pre-amp out and can also drive 8-ohm speakers via speaker binding posts (only 2.2W).

Cayin HA-1A vs SDS PPX

Cayin has a bit of self-noise that is audible on insensitive cans and more noticeable on sensitive, low-impedance headphones. Except for the most senstive cans, the noise is basically inaudible during music playback. I don't know about self-noise on PPX. Using a HD650, Pete (Digipete) and I feel that Cayin has more transparency and clarity. PPX is thicker, warmer and less resolving. BTW, Cayin is already too warm for Grado headphones becuase of class A tube output. Their tonal balance is quite different and the same vocal album seems to feature two different singers during our amp A/B. It is hard to say which amp is better but I think Cayin is significantly more neutral. HD650 is thick and warm already, so it might not highlight the strengths of PPX. Unfortunately, all the CDs we brought are well-recorded. I suspect bad recordings will sound better on the PPX than Cayin. PPX is very tubey sounding to my ears.

Cayin HA-1A vs Ray's Raptor

In this comparison, Foo_me, Feoteng2003 and I are lucky to have Ray's switch box to instantly switch between amps using a single headphone. I did not compare self-noise becuase the environment was not quiet enough. With the switch box the volume can matched quite well, and the source was Meridian 508. First we tried K1000 and initally they sounded identical. Over time people gradually pointed out really subtle differences. Basically the Raptor has a tad more clarity and I could not consistently point out other differences. Imaging, tonal balance and PRaT all seem pretty much the same. I think I heard bigger differences when I was tube-rolling the Cayin at home. Is it possible I happened to tube-roll my Cayin to sound just like the Raptor? I rolled through two kinds of EL84, 3 kinds of 12AU7 and 5 kinds of 12AX7 in two days right before the meet. Raptor's volume pot was at 4 o'clock for the comparison. Amazingly, Raptor does not lose any sound quality even when it is pushed to the max, and therefore I think it may be compatible with K1000. We then tried HD650 and the conclusions are still the same. It is surprising to me that two amps with different tubes and output methods (Raptor is output-transfomer-less) can sound so similar. I think Raptor will sound better than Cayin with low impedance cans but I did not actually try it. Overall I am really impressed with Raptor because it looks elegant and sounds elegant. The Cayin is also a good value because it held its own against PPX and loses to the Raptor by a small margin.

 

[philodox]

Strange that everyone is not liking the K3000 after what we have heard on Head-Fi about them thus far.

Any more impressions on the K340's? What mods were done to the pair that were there?

It sounds like the hornet was a big hit. Any direct comparisons to the headroom micro amp?