Hi all. As I was going through my photos I realised just how little kit I actually listened to on the day. Curse of the organiser I guess
. It doesn't matter though as I really enjoyed meeting & chatting with so many fellow enthusiasts. A big thanks to Shaun and Kristina for supporting the event, and I certainly hope we can look at taking it up a notch or two for next year. Thanks also to everyone for treating all the kit with such care. I don't think we had any problems at all on the day, so well done to everyone!
Of the limited things I did listen to, and just to be completely unoriginal, I was most impressed with the b22/hd800 combo. Although I think I'm probably a "tube guy", I was surprised at just what a lovely warm & detailed sound the b22 delivered for a SS amp. I could only listen single-ended as my hd800s are terminated with 2x3-pin rather than the 4-pin of the b22, but I still think it was the best thing I heard all day, and is definitely on my wish list for the future.
The Senn hd800s - having bought my pair blind (or should that be "deaf"), I'm pleased the gamble paid off. I can see why they wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I don't think I would swap them for anything else I've heard (yet!).
Next for me was the DACS Headmaster DAC/amp that Douglas brought. It had a really neutral, clean sound & drove the hd800s really well. Considering the price & spec, I think this unit deserves to do really well, and I'm not surprised it's been reviewed so positively. Packaged in a consumer-friendly chassis, it would be a really tempting proposition. Many thanks to Douglas for taking the time to come along, and also to Sennheiser for providing the demo hd800s.
A real surprise for me was just how great my hd600s sounded with tudj's MiniMAX, and interestingly we did notice an improvement from the stock cable to my Cardas, mainly in the bottom end. I've never been a huge believer in cable upgrades, but I'm fairly confident there's something in it with this combination at least.
I'm generally not a huge fan of closed headphones, but I did enjoy MarkyMark's D5000s (MarkL modded, but with some padding removed). They had a really nice detailed but warm sound, though I'd say I prefered them via his Heed Canamp rather than straight out of the DAC-1.
I also thought the Phonak Audeo earphones brought along by Shaun (HiFiHeadphones) were great value, very comfortable & with a really neutral sound. They were pretty tough to drive though (even my Cowon D2 struggled), and really benefitted from a portable amp.
Of the Grado's I listened to, my favourites were Pete's PS1 and my HF-2. The PS1 is a lovely thing to behold, those big chunks of aluminium (it's heavier than any Grado I've played with). Via Pete's rig they had bags of nicely controlled bass, and great detail. I do struggle to enjoy the pushed mids of most Grados, which I suppose is why I find the HF-2 an easier listen. The PS1 was clearly the more capable headphone, but for these non-Grado ears, I think the decidedly non-Grado HF-2 is more suited.
I'd say that by the end of the day, some of you guys probably had more listening time on my Woo WA22 amp than I had! Considering it had only arrived 2 days earlier, and I'd been unwell, I'd really not had a chance to get familiar with it's character. I've been making up for that this week, and I'm really enjoying the WA22/balanced hd800 combination. I've certainly never heard this amount of tight, controlled bass out of these headphones, which just proves to me how dependant they are on upstream components. I suspect the b22 is still probably my favourite, but I didn't compare them closely enough on the day to call it. I have some new driver tubes coming soon, and it'll be interesting to see how I get along with the WA22 over the coming months.
Regrets, well I wish I had listened to loads more stuff! I had a brief flirt with Duggeh's lovely Stax rig, but not really long enough to formulate a view on it. I wish I had tried more of Fault's kit, and I also missed out on the PS Audio amp. Still, there's always next year
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