[yaps66]

What a marvellous first day of the Amsterdam Watercooler Meeting! So lovely to meet all these headfiers in person, sharing a common (and crazy) passion, listening to gear and having nice conversations. A few pictures below of the event so far. We have another half day to look forward to!

Just amazing. A thousand words these pictures tell!
Kudos to @drftr and @MatW! Epic epic meetup!

I'm quite sad that I didn't manage to attend your meeting in Amsterdam. Your photos really reveal everyone's happiness and the good vibe that was with you. What a great meeting.
I'm currently undergoing tests at hospital and the worst thing that's troubling me right now is that it's been discovered that my vision has decreased dramatically in both eyes, whereas it was already poor before. I have no idea, I just hope that things will somehow stop now so that I can still travel to such a meeting like this in the future. Hey sorry,...
I would appreciate more photos from the meeting.

Sending you all my warmest and best wishes from Vietnam. I hope it all works out for you.

Amazing! Amster-Jam looks like it was a smashing success. Kudos to @drftr, @MatW and anyone else who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this happen. It would be great if someone could put Head-Fi names to some of these faces!

In other news, some more Maui photo highlights:

There are chickens running around literally everywhere here. I found one who is pals with a cat.



The food trucks here are amazing and a definite highlight:





Today we got up at 3am and made our way to the sacred summit of Mt. Haleakala to take in the sunrise. Standing on the edge of the crater:





Standing at the summit of Mt. Haleakala:





The beautiful a windy Hana Highway:



I found this peacock checking himself out in the reflection on our bumper:


Another beautiful Maui sunset:



Our splendid accomodations courtesy of @HiFiHawaii808 :

Amazing pictures Jeff! Jealous!

Thanks to everyone who organised the event and was there yesterday. One of the best HiFi meet-ups I took part in and so much better than audio fairs due to the overall silence and much more informal vibe. Lots of great conversations and beautiful people to meet. The opportunity to listen and compare all the gear was priceless. Will make a write up, later down the road.

Hope we repeat it next year!

Can’t wait for your write up!

Here is my little write-up of the Amster-Jam.

What stood out the most, gear-wise:

Fei Wan
Taking the chance to hear this was high on my priority list. John made it possible - thanks again!
Style-check
I'm surprising myself, they are 10/10 for me. What a stunning look. I don't typically care much about the design since I don't see them when I wear them. But in this case, I really enjoyed looking at them.

Sound-check
As always - this is TME (to my ears).
Mighty, overall! Bold bass department. Massive sub, even bolder mid-bass. Round, controlled and textured. Mids: Forward, textured, dynamic. Treble: Energetic, detailed, with my critical zingy track: on the edge. For other critical treble tracks: In alert mode - but still good. Stage: Wide x-axis, wide y-axis, no 3D but I did not miss that for a single moment either. Very high detail and good seperation. The secret sauce for me was in the powerful mid-dynamics (for the lack of a better description).
For the last weeks I almost exclusively listened to the Raven - and I very much enjoyed it. Fei Wan is on par! At least. The same level of greatness and enjoyment. It very much fits my electronic and Miami Bass libraries and probably much more genres too. Since I see a large overlap with Raven, I'm not considering buying Fei Wan. For now.

P6 Pro Ti

This was the other top priority I had. Thanks for making it happen, Alessandro!

I can keep this short. It took a bit of time and the cosy couch, some meters away from the Dutch head-fi epicentre in order to focus on this A/B test. After 2 tracks I was able to pinpoint where I hear the difference. It's in the mids. The Ti is a tiny bit pulled back which added some "elegance" for me. This might have led to my interpretation of even one little little tiny bit more roundness of the R2R-esque liquid treble. I can understand why the description focussed on voice and timbre when it was released. Everything else, including the insane and impulsive dynamic range is there.
Listening to it was bittersweet and I found myslef (virtually) scratching my head, how I'm not adult enough to be immune against this minimally hearable and impossible for me to quantify difference. That's probably what drives some / many of us, I guess... What will happen from here - I honestly have no idea for now.
To sum up matters: Mighty Alessandro asked me to complete my testing by listening to his LP6 Ti 99 too - the implementation was different and even more analogue (and I mean, how is that even possible?) but the perfect form factor of the P6 pro series makes the LP a no go for me. My P6 has seen 3 continents and an LP would never leave Zurich since I would not want to put in a pocket of my trouser ...

Up to the last point: What stood out besides the gear has been mentioned by other posters a lot and here is my version. The vibes of such a meeting can not be described but must be experienced - my apologies if this sounds too cheasy for you. Reading / writing on a good forum is one thing but being able to dive deeper when in a face to face discussion, to me lifts everything to a whole new level. Talking gear is great and I love(d) it. Being able to talk about other things is priceless and this bears the potential of creating friendships (big word for me). And with that, here is my personal summary - my apologies to the less than a handful of people I was unable to speak. Next time!



In no particular order:
@DutchKarma Thanks for sharing the insights in the Dutch Football league - and Bangkok architecture! @armstrj2 Thanks for supporting my aspiration to drink less beer by making me switch over to Cidre! Cheers! @Junmoe62 Thanks for reminding me of the fact that I can always buy a single DD IEM for 8K! @Alpexis Thanks for reminding me of the fact that I can always buy a simple power cable for 8K! @Alexzander Thanks for being such an easy guy to chat to! @Leto Dal Thanks for taking explodingravenconcerns seriously! @Oschi Thanks for reminding me how close Der Ruhrpott is to Amsterdam! @lafeuill Thanks for explaining to me that a vitamine B9 deficiency can have impact on memory. Or was it B8? C9? @LFC_SL Thanks for planting the seed in my brain that hypothetically I could state the real costs of gear to my spouse! @julioiglesias Thanks for the Voldemort moment when you dared to say the name. MQA! @F700 Thanks for letting me send some regards to your wife over the phone - in my bad French language! @NYanakiev Thanks for sharing the cab and touching on many topics. I will find a way to transfer to you the 7€! @hAbIrAbI Thanks for being kind enough for not judging me for drinking Weissbier! @MSwiss Thanks for reminding me of Hulks, Pepsis and Batmen - and how to properly talk to Brits, mate! @slumberman Thanks for being the living definition of modesty - you are a legend, Sir! @oliveradr Thanks for reminding me of the power of ratings and the quick mental journey back to Frankfurt.
And then, a special thank you @drftr for making this happen, for all the extra miles you went for and for knowing that your offers for support are no lip service but the real deal. And another special thank you @MatW for the organisation, for all the efforts, for being a really nice guy and for making me remember Rotterdam Termination Source and how uncatchably advanced the Western Dutch Gabbers were style-wise, in the 90s.

The final two specials go out to Stefan from Headphone Auditions for being such a great host - this was one hell of a burger!


And finally thank you KLM for cancelling my return flight, referring to the fairy tale of weather conditions and making me having to rebook myself in order to be on the first flight out to Zurich, this morning, 07:00, making it impossible to attend the second meeting. You did a great job in assuring that I will never fly KLM again. In this case: SWISS 10 points, KLM 0 points.



Thanks everybody - over in person in Amsterdam, or here, in the forum, for making this happen! ✌

Great write-up! Thanks for sharing!

By popular request, the headfi names to the faces:



And all of a sudden, the event is over and all is quiet...



It was such a great opportunity to meet all these nice people. Truly heartwarming to see people sharing their passion and getting along that well, almost all of them meeting for the first time in real life. Also on behalf of @drftr, thanks to all of you for taking the time and effort of coming over to Amsterdam and making this event a success!

Very very nice! Thanks for tagging everyone! Feels like a family of not just audiophiles but budding friendships! This is what it is all about!

Totally incredible write-up, my friend, drenched in love.

Also just to let you know I will do my next organizing project at this 3 letter embarrassment. At least now you understand why I avoided the Netherlands for 11 years. Can't wait to leave - preferably with my new love...

Tnx for joining and for putting 2 days of energy in just 1.

drftr

Kudos Joop! You outdid yourself!

 

[maegnificant]

Here is my little write-up of the Amster-Jam.

What stood out the most, gear-wise:

Fei Wan
Taking the chance to hear this was high on my priority list. John made it possible - thanks again!
Style-check
I'm surprising myself, they are 10/10 for me. What a stunning look. I don't typically care much about the design since I don't see them when I wear them. But in this case, I really enjoyed looking at them.

Sound-check
As always - this is TME (to my ears).
Mighty, overall! Bold bass department. Massive sub, even bolder mid-bass. Round, controlled and textured. Mids: Forward, textured, dynamic. Treble: Energetic, detailed, with my critical zingy track: on the edge. For other critical treble tracks: In alert mode - but still good. Stage: Wide x-axis, wide y-axis, no 3D but I did not miss that for a single moment either. Very high detail and good seperation. The secret sauce for me was in the powerful mid-dynamics (for the lack of a better description).
For the last weeks I almost exclusively listened to the Raven - and I very much enjoyed it. Fei Wan is on par! At least. The same level of greatness and enjoyment. It very much fits my electronic and Miami Bass libraries and probably much more genres too. Since I see a large overlap with Raven, I'm not considering buying Fei Wan. For now.

P6 Pro Ti

This was the other top priority I had. Thanks for making it happen, Alessandro!

I can keep this short. It took a bit of time and the cosy couch, some meters away from the Dutch head-fi epicentre in order to focus on this A/B test. After 2 tracks I was able to pinpoint where I hear the difference. It's in the mids. The Ti is a tiny bit pulled back which added some "elegance" for me. This might have led to my interpretation of even one little little tiny bit more roundness of the R2R-esque liquid treble. I can understand why the description focussed on voice and timbre when it was released. Everything else, including the insane and impulsive dynamic range is there.
Listening to it was bittersweet and I found myslef (virtually) scratching my head, how I'm not adult enough to be immune against this minimally hearable and impossible for me to quantify difference. That's probably what drives some / many of us, I guess... What will happen from here - I honestly have no idea for now.
To sum up matters: Mighty Alessandro asked me to complete my testing by listening to his LP6 Ti 99 too - the implementation was different and even more analogue (and I mean, how is that even possible?) but the perfect form factor of the P6 pro series makes the LP a no go for me. My P6 has seen 3 continents and an LP would never leave Zurich since I would not want to put in a pocket of my trouser ...

Up to the last point: What stood out besides the gear has been mentioned by other posters a lot and here is my version. The vibes of such a meeting can not be described but must be experienced - my apologies if this sounds too cheasy for you. Reading / writing on a good forum is one thing but being able to dive deeper when in a face to face discussion, to me lifts everything to a whole new level. Talking gear is great and I love(d) it. Being able to talk about other things is priceless and this bears the potential of creating friendships (big word for me). And with that, here is my personal summary - my apologies to the less than a handful of people I was unable to speak. Next time!



In no particular order:
@DutchKarma Thanks for sharing the insights in the Dutch Football league - and Bangkok architecture! @armstrj2 Thanks for supporting my aspiration to drink less beer by making me switch over to Cidre! Cheers! @Junmoe62 Thanks for reminding me of the fact that I can always buy a single DD IEM for 8K! @Alpexis Thanks for reminding me of the fact that I can always buy a simple power cable for 8K! @Alexzander Thanks for being such an easy guy to chat to! @Leto Dal Thanks for taking explodingravenconcerns seriously! @Oschi Thanks for reminding me how close Der Ruhrpott is to Amsterdam! @lafeuill Thanks for explaining to me that a vitamine B9 deficiency can have impact on memory. Or was it B8? C9? @LFC_SL Thanks for planting the seed in my brain that hypothetically I could state the real costs of gear to my spouse! @julioiglesias Thanks for the Voldemort moment when you dared to say the name. MQA! @F700 Thanks for letting me send some regards to your wife over the phone - in my bad French language! @NYanakiev Thanks for sharing the cab and touching on many topics. I will find a way to transfer to you the 7€! @hAbIrAbI Thanks for being kind enough for not judging me for drinking Weissbier! @MSwiss Thanks for reminding me of Hulks, Pepsis and Batmen - and how to properly talk to Brits, mate! @slumberman Thanks for being the living definition of modesty - you are a legend, Sir! @oliveradr Thanks for reminding me of the power of ratings and the quick mental journey back to Frankfurt.
And then, a special thank you @drftr for making this happen, for all the extra miles you went for and for knowing that your offers for support are no lip service but the real deal. And another special thank you @MatW for the organisation, for all the efforts, for being a really nice guy and for making me remember Rotterdam Termination Source and how uncatchably advanced the Western Dutch Gabbers were style-wise, in the 90s.

The final two specials go out to Stefan from Headphone Auditions for being such a great host - this was one hell of a burger!


And finally thank you KLM for cancelling my return flight, referring to the fairy tale of weather conditions and making me having to rebook myself in order to be on the first flight out to Zurich, this morning, 07:00, making it impossible to attend the second meeting. You did a great job in assuring that I will never fly KLM again. In this case: SWISS 10 points, KLM 0 points.



Thanks everybody - over in person in Amsterdam, or here, in the forum, for making this happen! ✌

Wow, what a great write-up! You have the memory of an elephant, so crazy impressive to me! I am glad you went after all and it seems like this might evolve into a reocurring event, hopefully. I will try to join you guys next time.

 

[MatW]

A few more pics of cool IEMs I got to listen to. Unfortunately I did not have the time to take notes but these were great in one way or another.

@Junmoe62's Simphonio P-Zero and Rosenkranz Silver HB Ruthenium, @Scuba Devils' Nostalgia Camelot, @drftr's Noble Sultan.

 

[Frankie D]

By popular request, the headfi names to the faces:



And all of a sudden, the event is over and all is quiet...



It was such a great opportunity to meet all these nice people. Truly heartwarming to see people sharing their passion and getting along that well, almost all of them meeting for the first time in real life. Also on behalf of @drftr, thanks to all of you for taking the time and effort of coming over to Amsterdam and making this event a success!

Wow! What a great time for all. I wish I was there. It is especially nice to see what everybody looks like.

 

[theintention]

The final two specials go out to Stefan from Headphone Auditions for being such a great host - this was one hell of a burger!

....is this heaven

 

[salwani8888]

Here is my little write-up of the Amster-Jam.

What stood out the most, gear-wise:

Fei Wan
Taking the chance to hear this was high on my priority list. John made it possible - thanks again!
Style-check
I'm surprising myself, they are 10/10 for me. What a stunning look. I don't typically care much about the design since I don't see them when I wear them. But in this case, I really enjoyed looking at them.

Sound-check
As always - this is TME (to my ears).
Mighty, overall! Bold bass department. Massive sub, even bolder mid-bass. Round, controlled and textured. Mids: Forward, textured, dynamic. Treble: Energetic, detailed, with my critical zingy track: on the edge. For other critical treble tracks: In alert mode - but still good. Stage: Wide x-axis, wide y-axis, no 3D but I did not miss that for a single moment either. Very high detail and good seperation. The secret sauce for me was in the powerful mid-dynamics (for the lack of a better description).
For the last weeks I almost exclusively listened to the Raven - and I very much enjoyed it. Fei Wan is on par! At least. The same level of greatness and enjoyment. It very much fits my electronic and Miami Bass libraries and probably much more genres too. Since I see a large overlap with Raven, I'm not considering buying Fei Wan. For now.

P6 Pro Ti

This was the other top priority I had. Thanks for making it happen, Alessandro!

I can keep this short. It took a bit of time and the cosy couch, some meters away from the Dutch head-fi epicentre in order to focus on this A/B test. After 2 tracks I was able to pinpoint where I hear the difference. It's in the mids. The Ti is a tiny bit pulled back which added some "elegance" for me. This might have led to my interpretation of even one little little tiny bit more roundness of the R2R-esque liquid treble. I can understand why the description focussed on voice and timbre when it was released. Everything else, including the insane and impulsive dynamic range is there.
Listening to it was bittersweet and I found myslef (virtually) scratching my head, how I'm not adult enough to be immune against this minimally hearable and impossible for me to quantify difference. That's probably what drives some / many of us, I guess... What will happen from here - I honestly have no idea for now.
To sum up matters: Mighty Alessandro asked me to complete my testing by listening to his LP6 Ti 99 too - the implementation was different and even more analogue (and I mean, how is that even possible?) but the perfect form factor of the P6 pro series makes the LP a no go for me. My P6 has seen 3 continents and an LP would never leave Zurich since I would not want to put in a pocket of my trouser ...

Up to the last point: What stood out besides the gear has been mentioned by other posters a lot and here is my version. The vibes of such a meeting can not be described but must be experienced - my apologies if this sounds too cheasy for you. Reading / writing on a good forum is one thing but being able to dive deeper when in a face to face discussion, to me lifts everything to a whole new level. Talking gear is great and I love(d) it. Being able to talk about other things is priceless and this bears the potential of creating friendships (big word for me). And with that, here is my personal summary - my apologies to the less than a handful of people I was unable to speak. Next time!



In no particular order:
@DutchKarma Thanks for sharing the insights in the Dutch Football league - and Bangkok architecture! @armstrj2 Thanks for supporting my aspiration to drink less beer by making me switch over to Cidre! Cheers! @Junmoe62 Thanks for reminding me of the fact that I can always buy a single DD IEM for 8K! @Alpexis Thanks for reminding me of the fact that I can always buy a simple power cable for 8K! @Alexzander Thanks for being such an easy guy to chat with! @Leto Dal Thanks for taking explodingravenconcerns seriously! @Oschi Thanks for reminding me how close Der Ruhrpott is to Amsterdam! @lafeuill Thanks for explaining to me that a vitamine B9 deficiency can have impact on memory. Or was it B8? C9? @LFC_SL Thanks for planting the seed in my brain that hypothetically I could state the real costs of gear to my spouse! @julioiglesias Thanks for the Voldemort moment when you dared to say the name. MQA! @F700 Thanks for letting me send some regards to your wife over the phone - in my bad French language! @NYanakiev Thanks for sharing the cab and touching on many topics. I will find a way to transfer to you the 7€! @hAbIrAbI Thanks for being kind enough for not judging me for drinking Weissbier! @MSwiss Thanks for reminding me of Hulks, Pepsis and Batmen - and how to properly talk to Brits, mate! @slumberman Thanks for being the living definition of modesty - you are a legend, Sir! @oliveradr Thanks for reminding me of the power of ratings and the quick mental journey back to Frankfurt.
And then, a special thank you @drftr for making this happen, for all the extra miles you went for and for knowing that your offers for support are no lip service but the real deal. And another special thank you @MatW for the organisation, for all the efforts, for being a really nice guy and for making me remember Rotterdam Termination Source and how uncatchably advanced the Western Dutch Gabbers were style-wise, in the 90s.

The final two specials go out to Stefan from Headphone Auditions for being such a great host - this was one hell of a burger!


And finally thank you KLM for cancelling my return flight, referring to the fairy tale of weather conditions and making me having to rebook myself in order to be on the first flight out to Zurich, this morning, 07:00, making it impossible to attend the second meeting. You did a great job in assuring that I will never fly KLM again. In this case: SWISS 10 points, KLM 0 points.



Thanks everybody - over in person in Amsterdam, or here, in the forum, for making this happen! ✌

love the post, the Fei Wan & the hobonichi !

 

[Rockwell75]

By popular request, the headfi names to the faces:

Wonderful...thank-you so much. Two more weeks and we'll have a similar photo from our brethren in SG to complete our Watercooler world tour!

 

[zikarus]

By popular request, the headfi names to the faces:

Thx a bunch for this pic!
Seems you and Joop have set a benchmark in Amsterdam that will be hard to top with the next event. Congrats for making this Jam happen!

 

[Quartex]

By mistake - sorry

 

[AxLvR]

By popular request, the headfi names to the faces:



And all of a sudden, the event is over and all is quiet...



It was such a great opportunity to meet all these nice people. Truly heartwarming to see people sharing their passion and getting along that well, almost all of them meeting for the first time in real life. Also on behalf of @drftr, thanks to all of you for taking the time and effort of coming over to Amsterdam and making this event a success!

OMG! You guys look awesome!! Man I wish i was there! Kudos to @drftr & @MatW and whoever else help organize the Cooler Eurojam! Despite the short encounter, I hope you guys had an incredible time! (I know you did!) The pictures just made me smile the entire time i read about these Eurojam posts.. (jealous!) I hope this can be a yearly tradition for the years to come! or better yet, Euro Canjam! Sending love to all who attended! Will be waiting for the impressions and hopefully i will get to meet y'all in person!

 

[twister6]

Interesting detail is that some at our meetup were the physical link between 2 of the most successful group threads on Head-fi by connecting @flinkenick's 17 Flagship IEM Shootout with the Watercooler, as Nic himself managed to join in himself today for a few hours. Much appreciated, especially as he all but left the hobby. Many of you here were regulars on Nic's thread before the Watercooler even existed and are now spreading the word on Jeff's. So kudos to Nic to get all of this started and to Jeff to continue all the good work. Amen.

drftr

No way, Nic made it to Amsterdam-Jam meet? Where is the picture of that son-of-a-gun?

The last time I saw @flinkenick was at CanJam NYC '2018, great memories and a great picture with @Jack Vang , Jack/EE and Nic. Never mind @Eric Chong in the background in front of EA banner (that was back in 2018)

 

[MSwiss]

Here is my little write-up of the Amster-Jam.

What stood out the most, gear-wise:

Fei Wan
Taking the chance to hear this was high on my priority list. John made it possible - thanks again!
Style-check
I'm surprising myself, they are 10/10 for me. What a stunning look. I don't typically care much about the design since I don't see them when I wear them. But in this case, I really enjoyed looking at them.

Sound-check
As always - this is TME (to my ears).
Mighty, overall! Bold bass department. Massive sub, even bolder mid-bass. Round, controlled and textured. Mids: Forward, textured, dynamic. Treble: Energetic, detailed, with my critical zingy track: on the edge. For other critical treble tracks: In alert mode - but still good. Stage: Wide x-axis, wide y-axis, no 3D but I did not miss that for a single moment either. Very high detail and good seperation. The secret sauce for me was in the powerful mid-dynamics (for the lack of a better description).
For the last weeks I almost exclusively listened to the Raven - and I very much enjoyed it. Fei Wan is on par! At least. The same level of greatness and enjoyment. It very much fits my electronic and Miami Bass libraries and probably much more genres too. Since I see a large overlap with Raven, I'm not considering buying Fei Wan. For now.

P6 Pro Ti

This was the other top priority I had. Thanks for making it happen, Alessandro!

I can keep this short. It took a bit of time and the cosy couch, some meters away from the Dutch head-fi epicentre in order to focus on this A/B test. After 2 tracks I was able to pinpoint where I hear the difference. It's in the mids. The Ti is a tiny bit pulled back which added some "elegance" for me. This might have led to my interpretation of even one little little tiny bit more roundness of the R2R-esque liquid treble. I can understand why the description focussed on voice and timbre when it was released. Everything else, including the insane and impulsive dynamic range is there.
Listening to it was bittersweet and I found myself (virtually) scratching my head, how I'm not adult enough to be immune against this minimally hearable and impossible for me to quantify difference. That's probably what drives some / many of us, I guess... What will happen from here - I honestly have no idea for now.
To sum up matters: Mighty Alessandro asked me to complete my testing by listening to his LP6 Ti 99 too - the implementation was different and even more analogue (and I mean, how is that even possible?) but the perfect form factor of the P6 pro series makes the LP a no go for me. My P6 has seen 3 continents and an LP would never leave Zurich since I would not want to put in a pocket of my trousers ...

Up to the last point: What stood out besides the gear has been mentioned by other posters a lot and here is my version. The vibes of such a meeting can not be described but must be experienced - my apologies if this sounds too cheasy for you. Reading / writing on a good forum is one thing but being able to dive deeper when in a face to face discussion, to me lifts everything to a whole new level. Talking gear is great and I love(d) it. Being able to talk about other things is priceless and this bears the potential of creating friendships (big word for me). And with that, here is my personal summary - my apologies to the less than a handful of people I was unable to speak. Next time!



In no particular order:
@DutchKarma Thanks for sharing the insights in the Dutch Football league - and Bangkok architecture! @armstrj2 Thanks for supporting my aspiration to drink less beer by making me switch over to Cidre! Cheers! @Junmoe62 Thanks for reminding me of the fact that I can always buy a single DD IEM for 8K! @Alpexis Thanks for reminding me of the fact that I can always buy a simple power cable for 8K! @Alexzander Thanks for being such an easy guy to chat with! @Leto Dal Thanks for taking explodingravenconcerns seriously! @Oschi Thanks for reminding me how close Der Ruhrpott is to Amsterdam! @lafeuill Thanks for explaining to me that a vitamine B9 deficiency can have impact on memory. Or was it B8? C9? @LFC_SL Thanks for planting the seed in my brain that hypothetically I could state the real costs of gear to my spouse! @julioiglesias Thanks for the Voldemort moment when you dared to say the name. MQA! @F700 Thanks for letting me send some regards to your wife over the phone - in my bad French language! @NYanakiev Thanks for sharing the cab and touching on many topics. I will find a way to transfer to you the 7€! @hAbIrAbI Thanks for being kind enough for not judging me for drinking Weissbier! @MSwiss Thanks for reminding me of Hulks, Pepsis and Batmen - and how to properly talk to Brits, mate! @slumberman Thanks for being the living definition of modesty - you are a legend, Sir! @oliveradr Thanks for reminding me of the power of ratings and the quick mental journey back to Frankfurt.
And then, a special thank you @drftr for making this happen, for all the extra miles you went for and for knowing that your offers for support are no lip service but the real deal. And another special thank you @MatW for the organisation, for all the efforts, for being a really nice guy and for making me remember Rotterdam Termination Source and how uncatchably advanced the Western Dutch Gabbers were style-wise, in the 90s.

The final two specials go out to Stefan from Headphone Auditions for being such a great host - this was one hell of a burger!


And finally thank you KLM for cancelling my return flight, referring to the fairy tale of weather conditions and making me having to rebook myself in order to be on the first flight out to Zurich, this morning, 07:00, making it impossible to attend the second meeting. You did a great job in assuring that I will never fly KLM again. In this case: SWISS 10 points, KLM 0 points.



Thanks everybody - over in person in Amsterdam, or here, in the forum, for making this happen! ✌

what a great write up, thoroughly enjoyed your company and let’s meet up again if either of us travel in the right direction @Quartex

 

[MSwiss]

Thanks to everyone who organised the event and was there yesterday. One of the best HiFi meet-ups I took part in and so much better than audio fairs due to the overall silence and much more informal vibe. Lots of great conversations and beautiful people to meet. The opportunity to listen and compare all the gear was priceless. Will make a write up, later down the road.

Hope we repeat it next year!

With regards to the next meet, I’ve mentioned that I could host in London so there’s one option out there already

 

[Alexzander]

Wow that were some long and fun days that went through like on a single breath!

Big props for @MatW and @drftr for putting that much effort into organizing the event and demonstrating such a great amount of hospitality.

And of course it was joyful to meet everyone in person and have some nice talks!
And thanks everyone for letting try their gear.

Coming to the IEMs part I was able to audition ALL the products I wanted - in a cozy and quiet space, with nice people around.
Sorry for you NoiseJam guys! (all puns intended )

So here we go.

Traillii Ti + Orphy: the atmosphere became heated the same time as their main adept, namely @Tokpakorlo , entered the building and set just in front of me - one of the biggest OG lover I think.
Comparing to OG Traillii JP I hear primarily a faster tighter bass which made the sound more technical but heavily affected the rest of FR.
I hear lower mids to become less full and upper mids becoming more forward and close. Those mids definitely gained some clarity but lost that special lush romantic sauce.
The treble is more or less identical.
What you pick up is up to your preference but I would still choose OG JP with the stock cable 1960 over Ti with Orphy, he-he-he

Subtonic Storm + Sovereign 8w: one of the most technical combo I have ever heard.
Pairs beautifully with the DX320 MAX except the very highest end of the treble where cymbals can come as a bit splashy at times. Bass doesn’t feel BAish, everything else is 100% correct and natural - to my taste. Probably the most detailed set released to date, a bit peaky to the recordings as a result.
And despite minimal coloration it’s not boring and has excellent dynamics along with imaging.
The stage scales well depending on the source and also the recording, tend to be on the larger side. It’s more like listening to speakers rather than sitting in the middle surrounded by the sound 360 degrees-like.
The shells are on the bigger side, pretty comfortable, but could be an issue for some.
Really thinking if I should buy it next.

Rhapsodio Supreme MK3: along with it non-metal brother it’s a treble first set with also elevated upper mids and greatly reserved bass. Could not listen to it for a long time due to overly-energised high end with tons of ts and tsh sounds, doesn’t work me at all. That’s how I imagine of what an extreme Asian tuning could be about.

Annihilator 2023: great set for Rock imo and just a really good all-rounder. Could sound just a tad dark due to meaty mid bass.
Bass doesn’t sound bad at all for me - it’s good in terms of quality, not the best one but very satisfying, with enough rumble from sub bass. Mids are pushed back a little but sounding very natural. Treble is veeeeery detailed and vivid, but without sounding harsh or peaky - a wonderful achievement. Stage size pretty decent. Shells are again on the bigger side so beware.

Canpur CP622B: I had high hopes for this set and it almost met them. BCD is of higher quality like the one you can find in Mentor, looks like it’s covering the whole FR. So you get pinpoint imaging and timely transients in dynamics.
Bass despite being BA is not plasticish and of good quality, with enough sub bass rumble and mid bass punch. Mids are clear and present, highs are a bit accentuated but to a lesser extent than say Noble usually do.
The set is pretty technical despite not being aggressive and would be a perfect W-shaped all-rounder, but.. (there are always some butts in those buts, right?).. at times it feels like it’s mid lack some body in their weight and this is something that I cannot unhear. So it doesn’t sound as natural as I wanted them to.
Shells are not big but the stems are of like a semi-custom form, so that could be an issue for some. Also they do look a bit cheap.

Canpur CP54E: this was the star of the show for me. Being “just” of 2k cost, they sounded more correct than CP622B to me. You can mix bass to be DD while it’s BA, mids are clear and highs being more natural this time. Technicalities rival of what you can find in the 3k+ price range. A very nice balanced W-shape signature, the stage is of a larger side and imaging seems to be very good.
And the layering is impressive also.
Shells for me are more comfortable than the flagship, still looking a bit cheap, but it’s not jarring for its price.

Aroma Audio Fei Wan: I’ve relistened to it again, this time paired with Cardas Clear cable. And, despite using Eletech Baroque eartips this time I heard it as too bright and harsh in the treble with DX320 MAX TI. This IEM definitely needs a thick classical copper cable to tame its highs.

Aroma Audio Jewel: I do love the bass on this - so natural! The stage isn’t the biggest one, but the vocals are sweet and forward. It reminds me of a typical HiFiMAN sound, but the upper mids dip is too big unfortunately.

Nostalgia Audio Camelot: a true underdog with beautiful DD bass, good technicalities and no peaks or harshness. The sound is very natural and full, highs are almost not rolled off - to a much lesser extent than I have imagined, actually.

Nightjar Singularity: interesting V-shaped set, but not very remarkable for me in terms of price to performance value. Mids are being pushed back a bit too far away. Shells are too leightweight and small, so the cable weight can easily drag them out of my ears.

Raven V2: this hasn’t improved drastically over the V1 version. The bass is not thunderous enough for me to be considered an EVO successor, mids and treble is lovely colored but too polite also. Also there are sets with better quality bass already on the market, so I’m still not sure that Ravens are competitive in their price range.
Shells again felt as big and not the most comfortable ones despite being pretty lightweight for what’s inside.

Vision Ears X: this reminds me alot on how old flagships like CA Solaris were sounding - kinda warm, not the last world when it comes to the details, and the stage is on the average size. I didn’t like the quality of the bass - compared to Aura it felt to be few leagues below, and also an overall sound was a little bit diffused.
Mids are a bit forward, and the treble is more on the rounded side without much air between the layers.

Dita Perpetua: the definition of a relaxed and smooth single DD with decent performance. There are some peaks in highs which can make timbre sound a tad artificial at times, but it didn’t bother me at all. The shells are not lightweight opposite to Singularity and also very smooth, so they also tend to fell off out my ears. Not sure I would pick them based on price performance ratio again.

Dita Project M: and this one I could see actually buying. The transparent shell design is beautiful, the cable feels premium, the sound is almost neutral except for accentuated highs. Overall tuning tend to be reference and technical, but not boring, staging and imaging are decent and plays way above their price range. I can easily see Project M competing to say Singularity for the overall performance albeit choosing completely different approach in its tuning.

Austrian Audio Composer: a full-sized HP surprise. With the cost of 2.5k it has not bright, not boring reference tuning. There is enough sub bass rumble and mid bass punch but only when the tracks call for it. Mids are even and lively, distantly reminding me a properly driven Susvara ones, maybe just not so sweet. Highs are without annoying peaks and are not overdone. HPs itself are very lightweight, pads are OK despite being made from a protein leather. Also seriously thinking if I should buy them.

So, that’s it - hope you enjoyed this report and see you all in the next European Watercooler meetup!

 

[Wyville]

Interesting detail is that some at our meetup were the physical link between 2 of the most successful group threads on Head-fi by connecting @flinkenick's 17 Flagship IEM Shootout with the Watercooler, as Nic himself managed to join in himself today for a few hours. Much appreciated, especially as he all but left the hobby. Many of you here were regulars on Nic's thread before the Watercooler even existed and are now spreading the word on Jeff's. So kudos to Nic to get all of this started and to Jeff to continue all the good work. Amen.

drftr

Top shelf work @drftr and @MatW!

Great to see the weekend worked out so well.