[roastpuff]

Had a blast, too sad I had to leave early. Sooooo much equipment for so few people - more headphones than sources, for sure!

Headphones I loved:

iamsmrt's ATH-W2002 - dream phones right now. I have to go PM overlunge....

rmx's woodied MS-2i with C-Pads - everyone's favorite at the meet; Frankengrado, the Senn-like Grado. Dark, but detailed, if such a thing is possible.

Aliacha's HP-2 and K1000 - amazing top-end headphones. I had to take them off after 30 seconds, or else I'd end up crying on the spot and stealing them.

Headphones I didn't like:

rmx's KSC-35 - can you say painful to put on?! Sounded extremely good for $20, though.

rmx's random pair of Stantons - heavier than my entire portable rig together, and the treble hurt my ears. Looks like a monster pair of 70's nostalgia gone amok.

All in all, great meet! Fun to put faces to the name, and I spent an awesome time listening to the myriad amounts of sources and songs.

Pics:

Pic Edit: check out the photo album in post #5
http://photobucket.com/albums/a8/roa...lti=1&addtype=

EDIT: Ug, grainy pics. I don't know what was going on with my phone, it's normally fine. Wait - it's a phone !

 

[Jahn]

Wow great initial impressions and pics! And what's with coffee shop meets and the greater ratio of females thereof? i think we've been going about these meets all wrong on the east coast...

 

[roastpuff]

We've been graced by a comment from the almighty Jahn... wow!

We're not worthy! We're not worthy!

I think it's the West Coast air

. That, or they're all California girls

.

 

[Enricht]

Hi everyone.

I have sent the pictures to ....

" FEB12HEADFI@hotmail.com "

The password for this hotmail address is..

" wicked12 "


Could someone please access this hotmail address and perhaps post them to a website. Whoever it does it, please inform the others, so it is not posted again.

The pictures are higher resolution, but I used hotmail, and they automatically downsized it. Not sure if anyone wants bigger quality ones, but I still have them for the time being.

My apologies if I missed anyone's pictures. I was caught up in all the gadgets and gizmos, and hardly had time to listen to music myself.

All in all, a great time. My impressions below.

 

[Enricht]

Although I would have preferred not to have paid an entrance fee, that could have gone to a crapload of pizza, I must say it was a beautiful place, and gave me a chance to take some pretty snazzy photos.

My apologies from my girlfriend and I; although we seemed ostentatious at times, we really just don't go out enough, meet people, and all in all have a great ol' time. It was "wicked" fun, and we both enjoyed it thoroughly.

Hope you enjoyed the Karoke, she was a tad excited; we like to leave pride at the door.

Thanks to RMX for organizing.

Thanks to Dylan for helping us be ourselves, by laughing with us.

My girlfriend said she likes you Gabriel. Hope to see you next time too. We think you're photogenic. But screw that nonsense, we just think you're a genuine guy to hang with.

I like you Derek. Haha.. just kidding. But my favorite moment of the whole night, was when a Dac1, Dynahi, a 650, 600, AKG271's, and was it a Grado HP something?

Anyways, we were all bouncing along to Keane. My favorite memory.

Take care all.

-e

 

[roastpuff]

Images hosted @ my Photobucket album.

http://photobucket.com/albums/a8/roa...lti=1&addtype=

Darned cappucino... now I can't sleep.

 

[jpelg]

"You...you're my 'density'!"

Nice job guys (and ladies). Keep the impressions coming.

 

[Jahn]

Jimmy, your comment is far cooler than my response to that pic, which was "um, I'd talk to you without the cans on, but the K271 has a cut off switch when you take em off, and I'm kinda burnin' them in right now..." great pics guys, that meet had plenty of ambience! But where's the Karaoke pics?

 

[sonick]

gah crap, this totally slipped my mind! d'oh!

looks like a great turnout, congrats to RMX for planning this successful meet!

 

[Shion]

First, let me thank everyone that showed up for making the meeting a success, special thanks to rmx for taking the time to organize it. You're all a cool bunch.

Enricht, you're making me blush here man. I appreciate your comments, thank you, and say hi to your missus for me... hope to see you guys soon again. There was talk of some speaker meet in Surrey this week, Tim should keep us posted soon, so we could suddenly have another headfier meet to go crash that other party ^_^.

Thanks Dylan and Matt for bringing all that gear, you made my year. Thanks everybody else for bringing your stuff as well, just that I spent too much time with their gear... sorry!

Well, this being my first meet and experience with so many different headphones and amps, I'm overwhelmed at best. Some poor impressions to follow ^_^.

 

[Shion]

I'm really really glad I went though. We got to do this more often, just so I can listen to rmx's woodied MS2i's again. Man, that bass... that bass is outstanding, when I heard it on a couple of techno tracks on the CD I brought, I thought to myself "... so this is what it should feel like..." it was pure bliss. I probably won't use them (if I ever get something like it) in that configuration for vocal pop tracks though. It makes the vocals sound 'muffled' if there is such a word. Or maybe I should say really dark and woody? Who knows, I know nothing after all

Now I may waste even more time reasearching on what I could do for my SR80's to make them sound anything close to that.

HP2's: outstanding. Between these and the MS2i's, I realized truly what the shortcomings of entry level grados are. The SR80s sound harsh compared to these.

AT W2002: never thought I'd get to listen to these. They're really nice and comfy, and just plain classy. They could be bought just to wear them without listening to anything. But what counts is the sound... right? I need to listen to them some more to decide, but it would seem like the sound signature may not be my cup of chocolate. They were very clean sounding and detailed though.

HD650: I confirmed finally that sennheiser sound is just not for me. I am not sure how to describe that, you can recognize the quality but that doesn't mean you'll find it pleasing... Like fashion clothes. Some people like A, some people like B, both are equally recognized.

K1000: boy, they need tons and tons of juice. I had Dylan's Dynahi at top volume and still didn't get them loud. But now I kind of understand when people talk about these and a certain lack of deep bass. It's there, but I craved for greater quantities

They had a certain feeling of being 'quick' at reproducing detail... more than any other headphone I tried.

There were tons of other things at the meet to try, but the above is what I listened to the most... I should have listened to those other AKGs, so many headphones, so little time!

I must comment on the DAC1 though... the juice coming out of that thing is amazing. Simply outstanding. Even if I have no reference to compare it to, it just sounds good and had no problem keeping the K1000s loud at less than 12 o'clock.

I would comment on amps, but I have only heard 4 in my life.... 3 of them at the meet. Since I know nothing about audio and would likely have to spend years listening to something to differentiate, I'm not worthy of trying to comment on those! I can't wait to get my z-audio lambda.

Oh boy... it sucks being a student... I'll buy a ticket for the national head-fi meet raffle and cross my fingers for a good outcome!

Cheers,

Gabriel

 

[Aliacha]

 

[applebook]

Thanks to Raj again for arranging the meeting. I really like his Panerai as well (for those of you in the know, you'll understand what I mean

Thanks to everyone for bringing equipment for us to try out. Unfortunately, many potential attendees weren't there, but we managed to have a solid time with what we had.

Dylan's Dynahi is better than I had imagined. The amp is very powerful and dynamic with lots of PRat and DEEP bass out of my 650s. Running it out of the DAC1 sounds terrific, and we had a great audition with a few Gorillaz and Keane tracks hooked up to several 650s

The W2002 is a very detailed can that seems very neutral. There is one thing about it that bothered me though. Male vocals sound extremely detailed, but as Kelly's review claims, I also heard a strange coloration: http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showt...ighlight=w2002
I've never heard Liam Gallagher's snarl as clearly before, but at the same time, it also sounded unnatural but detailed. The W2002 is a very nice can even when hooked directly to the XLR output from the DAC1. All of the detail and dynamics were there.

I had my first listen to the K1000 curtesy of Matt. These phones are certainly unique and quite an experience! Out of the Mini-DAC> Dot II, the K1000 sounds great but a bit lean out of my DAC1's XLR without an amp (an expected compromise of not having a dedicated amp).

Matt's Mini-Dac sounds sweet, but I never got a chance to listen to it out of a CDP. My brief impressions are very positive and affirms my belief that DACs in this price range ($1K) are very competive with each other.

I came away from this meet with many ideas and new insights --this is the ultimate point for these types of get-togethers, so the event was definitely a success.

It was also very pleasant to talk to other audiophiles and meet the faces behind the avatars

 

[applebook]

BTW, those blue monsters that you see in those pictures is a vintage headphone that Raj (aka rmx) dug out of his basement. They're lighter on your head than they appear and actually sound pretty good out of the Dynahi.

 

[rmx]

Nice pics guys! I had a blast, and now that we're good friends with the owner of the place, we can always have a meet there. Of course, smaller mini meets at my place are always cool

Sorry I couldnt have the g07 there.... I still havent gotten it back... grrrr... last time I lend it out to a friend for an extended period of time.

The variety of high end cans was really impressive. I was quite impressed by the HP2's of course, but I just found my own MS2i's (they're actually just blacksilver recabled and beta-pad equipped, not woodied.) a ton more fun. I think this meet actually saved me some money cuz I realized I was just happy with my current setup! I wish the RS1's were around though.. I really wanted to compare them to my cans again after the mods. Perhaps another mini meet is in order? hehee...

Thanks to all for coming again... lets do this soon. BTW, enricht, can I get high res versions of those pics off you?