Sydney Meet #3 impressions

[Covenant]

Well, i guess i'll start it this time. Thanks everyone for attending, we had a bigger turnout than expected, and many thanks to Kevin for hosting us again. I hope i'll be able to drag you back to the land down under for future meets

Let me see if i can list off memory everything we had there:


Headphones
------------

CD3000
SA5000
HD600
HD650
RS-2
DT770
DT880
L3000
E4c
UM2
KSC35
Various Stax models
Various other AT cans

I'm sure others will chime in to fill the blanks there

Amps
-----
MINT
Supermacro
Portaphile
Various stax amps
VAL E10

Sources
--------
Lots of iRivers
Benchmark DAC1
M-Audio Transit

Standouts for me were the E4cs - finally, a canalphone i was satisfied with the sound quality of. They came across as well balanced, not too muffled, and relatively clear despite the fact that they were crammed into wax-riddled ears

The Stax models all sounded great, they're possessed of a clarity and precision that's very hard to fault - though i did miss some of the chocolately richness i remember from the O2 demo.

The DAC1 was truly impressive in its versatility, at one stage we had it driving a Stax amp via the balanced outs which was in turn driving two Stax 'phones, and my VAL via the unbalanced outs driving a dynamic headphone, AND driving another dynamic headphone via its own internal amp. It very quickly became the hub of our activity, on its arrival.

I'll let others chime in here, as i'm still a tad tired from lugging that mountainous sack of gear back home with me

Was an excellent meet, hope everyone had as good a time as i did.

 

[dvse]

Yeah, that was an enjoyable meet.

For the record, the Stax headphones were SR-404 and Lambda signature (ca. 1990), both connected to SRM-717. The third one, SR-202, was plugged into SRM-212.

I quite like the sound (and build quality!) of AT L3000. It's a shame we didn't have a better amp for them than the Benchmark. They are sufficiently different from my electrostatic setup to make it interesting - smooth sound without sacrificing detail, deep soundstage. I might look into getting one of AT models with wooden caps (perhaps w5000?).

Sony SA5000 sounded quite good out of both VAL E10 and DAC1. Overall tonal balance and performance seemed similar to Stax SR-202 model, but maybe not quite as fast (albeit close). I would need more time with them for a more definitive conclusion.

Grado PS1 was another impressive headphone, although, again, the amplification was lacking. Fast and balanced sound, I could not quite understand why people think of them as having overwhelming bass.

Again, thanks to blackreplica for hosting!

 

[dvse]

And by the way, I would be very grateful if people who heard both SR-404 and Lambda Signature could post what they thought about the two.

 

[renesis_au]

First of all I'd like to thank Kevin for hosting this meet and all the other guys who brought along their gear for all of us to share. This is my first meet and my first meet impression so I'll try to keep it simple

SA5K: Really really fast, was really detailed as well. To me it sounded like a supercharged DT880 with the speed and detail coming at a dizzy speed but also more fatigueing (I assume) than the DT880.

ATH-A900: This was a real suprise for me, I assumed it would sound good but not this good. Sound stage was really impressive and what impressed me most is that it sounded this good without needing an amp to supply the current/voltage needed to drive one of the power hungry monsters (like my DT880 which coincedently is unamped). I may possibly look for a AT as my next headphone.

PS1: My first time at listening to a Grado and what a suprise, it was an amazing experience. The sound was so intimate, warm and musical but at the same time it was very neutral and the bass..... never over the top never to little just right with the right amount of slam. These would be one of the best headphones if only it had better comfort and more soundstage.

Stax: These were also my first experiences listening to an electrostatic (and thanks to dvse for bringing the Stax triplets) and it was a very fun experience. I can't really comment on the differences between the 202, 404 and Lambda, but to me they all sounded really music and the soundstage was so real where details just appeared out of nowhere, it was especially good with the live tracks.

I can't give much impressions on the amps as I don't recall which headphone was plugged into which amp. Hopefully the other guys can chime in here and give their impressions.

Thanks again to Kevin and all the guys who could make it today, my first meet and it looks like I'll be coming to more in the future.

 

[$qwuzzy]

thanks to blackreplica for hosting and to everyone for bringing their gear and sharing. i've never tried writing stuff like this before, so bear with me a little. i'll give it a shot.

SR-404 - my first electrostatic experience. it's introduced me to another whole world in some music. the finest details in recordings were brought right out into the open, and the soundstage was huge.

Lambda Signature - in comparison these made the sr-404s sound veiled. these were vastly more musical and open sounding.

supermacro - great little amp. opened up the ps1's and my a900s, giving them a little more punch. i'm definately considering this as one of my next purchases.

 

[overlunge]

Great effort, guys. Seems like you guys had good fun. Sadly my HF-1 couldn't made an appearance at this meet. I will let Nathan keep it for awhile so there's still chance for the next one.

Now, let us see some photos.


Overlunge

 

[$qwuzzy]

forgot the ATL3000 - nice hadphones. very comfortable. clear and transparent. but soundstage was small. great phones none-the-less though

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlunge Great effort, guys. Seems like you guys had good fun. Sadly my HF-1 couldn't made an appearance at this meet....

yeah, i was kinda looking forward to hearing them. but that's alright - my ones should be here next week!

 

[overlunge]

blackreplica, is it possible for you to ask your friend who kindly lend out the L3000 for the meet, approximately how many hours has the L3000 been used? From seeing impressions and talking to renesis_au yesterday, I was wondering if it would need a bit more playing time before the characteristics of L3000 to come through?

Just a thought.


Overlunge

 

[chungsoi]

Sounds like you guys had a good meet. I'm here in korea, and it is bloody freezing here, can't get adjusted. Anyway, going to meet some relos today. It'll be interesting, as the last time I saw them was about 15 yrs ago..

Overlunge - I left syd around 5 on Friday but the hf-1's hadn't arrived then. So it must have been still caught up at customs. I'll get a mate to check at my house on Monday to see if it has arrived.

 

[blackreplica]

heya people!

What a great meet again, it was nice to see so many new faces attending the meet with so much new gear as well!

I think dvse was the star of the show when he brought 3 stax systems + 3 amps + benchmark DAC1 with him yesterday

Anyway here are my summarised impressions:

Senn HD600: I think Senn did it right with this headphone when it comes to price-performance. The soundstaging was excellent, probably one of the best i heard, and the sound is smooth and mellow, much more hifi sounding than its current market price would have you believe. an excellent phone overall i think. i couldnt distinguish it very well from the newer HD650 aside from the 600's superior soundstage. Since it is cheaper than the 650 i think it represents excellent value.

Beyer DT880: The first impression i got was that these cans were really difficult to drive. At low volumes i was a little underwhelmed, but they just got better and better sounding the louder i played them. At the 'sweet spot' volume i thought they were very neutral in their presentation: linear and flat in the frequency response and not lacking in bass like some say about them. the only flaw i noticed was a slight spike in the treble which seems to be characteristic of beyers it seems, i recall my Dt770 had the same characteristic. again, for the price, these are excellent cans, although i would think plenty of powerful amplification would be mandatory for them.

AT A500 / A900: This was a little surprising for me. i absolutely hated the A900 sound for some reason. i just thought that it sounded too thin and harsh. this was running out of my iriver portable ampless. surprisingly though, i enjoyed the A500 much much more. i felt the A500 was a more well-rounded headphone.

Stax: OK there were many stax headphones there and i think i had problems identifying which was which but my impressions are as follows: All Stax headphones had the same kind of sound that one would expect from them, very fast, transparent and airy kinda sound. I absolutely loved all of them. All of them had good bass. The 404 had clearly better bass output than the 202, but slightly less than the lambda. Midrange wise i found it hard to differentiate the 3 headphones. Treblewise the 202 could get a little harsh sometimes, the 404 was better in this regard, and the lambda performed the best. All had marvellous extension which most dynamics would struggle to reproduce. My listening of all three also gave me the impression that the gap between the 202 and the 404 was reasonably large but the gap between the 404 and the lambda was barely noticable. if i ever bought an electrostat, the 404 would be it. it lies in the sweet spot in the stax range by offering crazy sonic performance at not so crazy prices.

Benchmark DAC1: This thing impressed the hell out of me. From one digital source (my iriver) i remember the benchmark was connected to 5 headphones at one time! All 3 stax headphones (via 2 amps, one connected via balanced, the other via RCA) plus it was driving the L3000 and PS-1. How cool is that!!! I have no complaints about the DAC1 amp, at least for my PS-1. The built-in amp is insanely powerful and drove pretty much any headphone that was thrown at it. I also like the feel of the volume know, it moves like a stepped attenuator, very nice touch

I guess thats pretty much it. I also did post a mini review in the headphones forum some time back comparing my PS-1 to the L3000 so if anyone is interested they can look there for my impressions. overlunge, my friend had a couple hundred hours of use on those L3000s by the time he came for the meet. He told me about a week back than he stopped noticing changes in his L3000 so i presume it was fully burnt in by the time of our meet.

<<<<new stax fan

 

[Jahn]

I really never pegged myself as a STAX fan, but I'm glad I dove in when I did - I agree with you all that the electrostatic experience is well worth having in the home, even if you are a hard core dynamic Grado lover like me!


Pics Please!~

 

[overlunge]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn Pics Please!~

I was told there were no cameras at the meet...

Overlunge

 

[blackreplica]

unfortunately the rumour was true

 

[$qwuzzy]

unfortunately i was short sighted enough to have left my digital camera in my dad's car..... so that was unavailable Frown

 

[TonyTripleA]

Sounds like another great meet. Again life didn't allow me any free time. I was enjoying my twins birthday party that day but appreciated the thoughts you guys put together.

Blackreplica, I'm with you. That DAC1 headphone amp is certainly adequate. The DAC itself is so clean, and detailed in its sound: great! I still think if you add the price of a good CDP and a decent amp the DAC1 stacks up as a bargain. PLUS you don't need expensive interconnects between the DAC and the built in amp! Having corresponded with Benchmark, they don't even suggest spending big on a digital input cable. I made my last one for around about A$12, and it beats my TOSLINK cable for sound (just barely, but I can make it out in the blind tests I did).

Thanks again for your thoughts.

TonyAAA