jp11801

Vendors for RMAF are rolling right along! I am setting up the pipe and drape set up for the room right now looks like we are at 16 vendors and counting probably get to neat 20 plus a 800 sq foot space for members. Steve and Sherwood please get the locals rolling we needs member rigs fellas, please.

JImmy while you could use it without a mac yes set up or changes would need to be done on a mac. I would think though that straight throughput from a transport to either AES, optical or spidf would be relatively easy. If only using the D/A side without needing any DSP then a used version prior to the additional card upgrade was standard would be the move. Check Craigslist for them and hunt a price south of $1000 for a non +2 card unit $800 is a good price. Headphone amp in the unit is decent enough and better than entry level but is a bit bright, most likely for recording/mastering reasons. Right now it is pulling double duty as a phono pre (ADC) and DAC for my mac mini running the amarra software.

Al, you should give Craig a ring on Monday maybe? You could get evil and have him drop in c-cores

Matt, have a great Birthday!

How did the 4 tracks get out in the world then? I've heard the separate mix tracks for both pepper and revolver?

The tablet is perfect for me as on the go with my netbook it's just music, movies and surfing the web. It would need to show major enhancements over the iphone though to get me to dump my asus eee900.

while I am interested in the remasters if they sound like Let It Be (Naked) or Love then the LPs will still be better. Love had bette separation but the tone was all wrong, while I do not have the greatest collection of rare stuff I'll take the purple chicks (mp3s) over most of the stuff I have heard, yeah its 320 kps but you for many songs you get the separate track of the 4 track for Pepper and Revolver and can remix if you like. I just dropped Pepper (red mono Japan) to 24/96 and so far it is my favorite. That japanese vinyl is super quiet but the LP master job could have been warmer. Probably done on SS gear in 86.

EF johnson NOS tube sockets for my 845 tube amp 7n7 to 6sn7 tube adapters 6sn7 tube sockets 12ax7 tube sockets amarra demo ilock

well after spending the day with amarra, peak LE and itunes I think I am going to take the plunge and buy amarra. THe demo is a PITA without the dongle as the sound cuts in and out. I may wind up getting the $50 demo for 30 days just to be sure but in my time today amarra had more depth to the soundstage with both speakers and my JH13s. It also had greater detail and a more natural tone. Peak was better than itunes but still flat staged and punchy sounding and itunes was third with a flat stage and somewhat veiled sound compared to the other two. That said the difference was noticeable but not huge somewhat like amarra at a 10 peak at a 9 and itunes at an 8 At $395 it's a good deal for the 24/96 as for most of us 95% of our digital material is at 16/44 and the recording industry is most likely only going to 24/96 in the near future.

I need to pick up three sets of tube sockets for my Dared 845 amp and I assume I need 2 pcb mount 12ax7, 2 6sn7 pcb mount (do they make a 7n7 pcb mount?) and a pair of 845 bayonet type sockets. I really prefer high quality over saving a few bucks. Any ideas on where to buy also ceramic and teflon is one better than the other? The reason I ask is I found a local tech here in the East Bay (SF area) that will do the work if I source the sockets. Great older guy who grew up in the radio and recording industry. Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide.

sadly my camera never emerged from my cargo pants hopefully Peter took a few shots. Nothing from a tube standpoint in common with the ZD it uses smaller russian tubes and is about the size of two or three bricks stacked on each other.

Here are some of my thoughts regarding some of the gear I tried at the meet. One of my goals at the meet was to try a wide range of amps with the JH13s. As great as the JH13s sound out of my pico/netbook/flac rig I knew a lot more goodness could be squeezed out of these puppies. I made a choice to not eliminate any amp there no matter how bizarre it seemed to pair them with an iem. Well after listening to them with the GS-1, Gilmore Light, Balancing Act, ZDT, BottleHead battery amp (btw very cool $200 amp), DNA (Donald North), Luxman 200 and pico slim I settled on the GS-1 being the best choice for me although the Balancing Act had the absolute best sound with them. Most if not all the others sounded good with them but the GS-1 and Balacing Act really locked in with the JH13s, I know I know how crazy is it to use a huge tube amp with IEMs or the GS-1 for that matter but the JH13s are no ordinary IEM. Out of the BA the Decemberists song 'THe Perfect Crime #2' sounded the best I have heard it. BlessingX's rig with the GS1 was equally stunning with the JH13s Roger Waters singing Paranoid Eyes from the FInal Cut cd was scary good as was Frank Sinatra belting out It Was a Very Good Year. Ric thanks for putting together a great demo song list for your rig , it is always a treat to see your set up. Ok on to some of the gear Audeze LCD-1 I really like these and had the opportunity to hear them out of the Eddie Current ZDT. Great imaging and tone out of them they remind me of Maggie speakers in the way they reproduce lifelike sound and have great speed. At $400 for the ones in the converted housing they are a steal. DNA Sonnet nice amp and Donald is a great guy as well. I started out at his table with no cds of my own and the fist two cds were so poorly recorded that I thought it might be the gear, thankfully I switched to Radiohead (not the best recordings but decent). The amp sounded good, remember I was using them with the JH13s and also I used Donald's Beyer 880 which I really am not a fan of. Nice amp in the $1000 category not ultimately my favorite amp in this segment but a very nice amp non the less. At this end of the amp market there is not a whole lot out there and this is an option you should hear if you are in the market for an amp in the $1000 category. HeadAmp Got a chance to hear the pico slim at Justin's table as well as check out the GS1 and Glite at other tables. The Pico Slim is a great little amp and was not outclassed while being fed by the Sony ES5400 sacd player. If I did not already have a pico amp/dac combo I would have handed over my money to Justin for one of these on the spot! The GS1 yikes with the JH13s and the GS1 on the low setting it sounded really spectacular. This pretty much sealed the deal for me on a home amp for the JH13s. The sound was very textured and detailed and never sounded harsh or bright. I think the Glite would be a close second but was not bowled over by the sound which I attributed to the usb to optical converted that was used at that rig to get the digital audio out of the laptop source. In theory the Glite and GS1 should be very similar when applied to the JH13 other than the PS there is really no difference in low gain mode (gs1). Eddie Current Craig is really the best guy in the amp market that has a handle on tube headphone design. His years as a partner in Moth Audio and his work prior to that in the electronics industry provide a knowledge of circuit design that remains unmatched in our hobby. The Balancing Act, what else is there to say wonder tone and texture sounds to me like music should. The BA more closely resembles the sounds I hear when I play music or when I go hear live music (probably 20+ shows a year). Now with the JH13s it's total overkill but still best in class and kicks major butt with every dynamic I have thrown at it in my multiple sessions over the past few moths with it. I had a short time with the ZDT and was really impressed, it reminds me of my HD2 that Craig built for me, just scaled back slightly but improved in other ways. Craig was gracious to let me home audition the ZDT for a bit so a more detailed review to come but once again very impressive. Unsung star of the show for me was Craig's new phono pre amp look for this to come out in the near future and it sounded great and was paired with the pedestrian technics 1200 and denon 103 which are not bad at all just not at the level of the electronics in Craig's arsenal. Lastly the Laconic mini ZD, this is a Russian amp that Craig imports and does some tweaking and overhaul work to then sells. Based off his designs it sounds great in it's price class and would be tough to beat at $600 (I may be wrong on the price). Once to keep an eye out for as a second amp or a nice tube amp on a budget. More to come just wanted to some initial thoughts out there.

Not much to say as I am burnt out after a fun filled day with great freiends and great gear. More to come tomorrow after I recover.

I spoke to Justin just after he arrived at SFO and believe he was trying to reach you at one point today, weird?? He's most likely at In and Out Burger or the Red Roof Inn sleeping

Justin is around somewhere and Craig may also be there with the family.

guys keep in mind the person that wrote that release was most likely Margorie (Al Stiefel's wife). Having met her and her assistant on this thing there is no way they were trying to be condescending. She is new to this and does not fully understand our community, while she has been a part of RMAF for years she has done so as Al's wife not as a crazy audio enthusiast like the rest of us. How about giving the women a break on this one and not reading into to things too much.

845-900 am ish

depends but something normally materializes, not sure who is staying at the hotel

Al the sad truth is Greg fears the meet as there will be two sonic studios/amarra computer interfaces there and he knows he is weak and will have to purchase one. Greg we'll miss you bud

Matt I get that as well varies from LP to LP

Jon at Sonic originally programmed an app that would allow the sonic blade sound engine to run under the GUI of ITunes for his own use. WHen he compared them he was surprised at the difference in sound and amarra was born. Amarra is just a way to use the sonic blade (used for pro recordings) as your playback engine while still retaining the user interface of itunes. Oddly enough Jon mostly listens on very pedestrian speakers at work I have no idea what he uses in his home. This is what he relayed to me when discussing amarra.

Tough one I loved the Woo 2 at canjam with the hd800s but the 6's tranny coupled output and form factor are sweet. That said I'd most lkely go 2.

Mike that's very cool DB is great, how old is he?

personally, I like it when reviews/impressions don't sound like a summers eve douche ad