Dropped by HB today and chatted a bit with Travis. May 18 is definitely on; T mentioned he had the Coal Harbour room booked. Asked about the Hifiman HE-560 and the Oppo PM1 and there is a possibility T may be able to land some demo units for us from the respective reps. HB should also be getting its shipment of HE-560s by the third week of May or so, perhaps even just before the date of the meet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that as that would be awesome for the meet - no promises though. Also looking forward to trying Parkie's Stax SRs if he manages to trust someone with them for the meet.
... Yeah got to try the AKG 812 today and was really wowed. I'm surprised it is not making as many waves especially on Head-Fi. It's very sensitive, probably 15-20% more than the other AKGs I got to try in the shop - 612, 712 and another model I forgot. The 812 was just miles ahead, very open sounding and was playing fantastically well out of my iPod/Fiio E11 combo. Anyway hope to meet up with some of you guys soon -- p.s. am also willing to pitch in so the room costs can be spread out, etc. Are we doing that this time around again?