Asr

As I'm doing a mega-whirlwind tour of Florida this weekend (Jacksonville yesterday & today for Axpona, then scampering down to Tampa tomorrow morning for the Beerfest and then back up Sunday morning), I'll have essentially no time to post either impressions or pics anytime until Monday night. Axpona was pretty cool today. It was fun listening to a wide variety of speakers. The hotel venue was smaller than expected, but inside the hotel was fairly well decked out with the audio stuff in lots of rooms. Compared to RMAF, I'd say the event is maybe around 20-25% the scale - and even then I still didn't get to see everything today, let alone listen to everything. If I was continuing tomorrow I'm sure I could've covered the rounds completely. But it's ok, I heard plenty of stuff anyway and I also took some pics too. Both Music Direct and May Audio Marketing were there (May Audio supplies Elusive Disc, Acoustic Sounds, & Music Direct with their audiophile recordings, like the XRCDs, AF Gold CDs, MFSLs, etc) and I was glad to hear they were selling music at discount prices (unlike at RMAF, which I'm still miffed about). So I picked up a handful of CDs and actually saved a nice amount not only from the discounts but no shipping either: Amanda McBroom - Midnight Matinee XRCD, Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms XRCD, Horace Parlan - Speakin' My Piece XRCD, Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down The Wind MFSL, Santana - Santana MFSL, and Tina Brooks - True Blue XRCD. My Axpona experience is over now and Beerfest is next. Looking forward to what will surely be a smashing time. Next installment to come Monday night. Uh....any chance we could make the Meets & Meets Impressions forums invisible unless you log in? I've been noticing lots of guests/lurkers in this area with our recent meet impressions....

I found a cheap hotel yesterday near the Tampa airport to stay at on Saturday night so I won't need to crash in someone else's room. Could probably let someone crash with me but I should add I'll have to leave early the next morning (like around 6-7 AM-ish).

1 more week to go! Small correction: release date is next Tuesday 3/9. Kinda excited myself as I don't own any Jimi Hendrix albums yet. Also thought I'd reiterate that newly remastered CDs of Are You Experienced, Electric Ladyland, Axis Bold As Love, and First Rays of the New Rising Sun will also be coming out on 3/9 and will also each bundle a DVD for the low price of $10 per title at Amazon. I have all 5 of the new releases queued up in my cart now, just waiting to buy them early next week.

So where are we all meeting up and where's the best place to park? I was thinking about parking at the Hilton Garden Inn in Ybor but see that they charge for self-parking. Any other places nearby with free parking?

Head-Fi pics have been posted here: Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio - View Single Post - NorCal - SF Bay Area Feb 27 Meet Impressions HC exclusive pics: (can click for larger) guzziguy's Nugget Audio MenaceTC Lite Grahame, with Al and George (puffkuh) behind The small Qualia actually fits on Peter's head! The liquor awaiting us at the lair in Mayberry Matt & Peter

Stax 4070 & SR-Omega, revisited (source: Voltron's Amarra setup | amp: Woo WES) I really wanted to check out the 4070 again, to find out if it might be worth buying to try out, and my conclusion was that I might very well buy one eventually. The closed design helped muffle the meet noise a bit when it seemed to be at a fever pitch, which was nice. The 4070 hit a bunch of right spots for me - it had a fair amount of treble but just enough bass at the same time. I actually listened to the 4070 twice, once early in the day and then again much later, which was interesting because the first session actually bothered my ears (the upper mid-range distracted a bit with some extra "bronzy" effect) but the later session went just fine and I noticed no unpleasant aspects. Aspects of the 4070 that I liked included its speed, the amount of treble, and an appreciably large soundstage that almost seemed to "reverb" at times - not sure if this was part of the recording or not though. The SR-Omega was more of a different flavor with less treble and more mid-range in comparison, but it too sounded very good. It sort of reminded me of the OII but with a little more tilt towards the treble. I haven't listened to my OII very recently though so that might also be inaccurate. (Been listening more to my dynamic setup lately.) I think I might want to also buy an SR-Omega at some point...maybe. Beyerdynamic T1 This has definitely been big on my radar ever since someone on Head-Fi proclaimed that it had a similarity to the Grado HP1000. Well, I'm going to call a "yeah, right" on that. I heard these first on Al's Luxman P-1 and then later on, on my Ayre QB-9 & SPL Auditor combo. I wanted to try them on my own music and apparently the SPL should be a technically proficient amp for it too with the 120V circuit technology (whatever that means) and 1.7W at 600 Ohms. Because I ran these off my laptop PC, I was able to quickly run through a wide array of music ranging from Baroque classical (Julia Fischer's Bach Concertos) to metal (Megadeth, Symphony X, Beyond Twilight) to classic rock (Led Zeppelin, The Eagles) to jazz/blues (Anne Bisson, Eva Cassidy, Sonny Clark) to electronica (The Crystal Method, The Prodigy) to my favorite bluegrass (Alison Krauss & Union Station). (I also went through my 24/88 of Rebecca Pidgeon's The Raven and 24/96 of Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand.) Ok maybe I should start by saying that I thought the T1 was actually pretty good. It's not like it was terrible and sounded like ass or anything like that. It had good separation between instruments, a relatively clear mid-range (and not too much mid-range either), both treble and bass (though it didn't sound too bass-heavy and it certainly wasn't bright), and it was also moderately fast (though I'm not sure how fast it is, since I didn't bring any of my headphones other than the HE-5 which I'm still learning about). But while the T1 sounded good, there wasn't a single aspect that stood out about it and some that distinctly underwhelmed me. I immediately wanted more & faster bass on my electronica music, more power drive & mid-bass on metal music, more liquid presence to female vocals & full-range instruments, and finally, MOAR TREBLE!!! All that said, I still intend to buy the T1 though, because I thought it was interesting and worth checking out for an intensive listen. I can also say that the T1 didn't really sound like any other headphones that I've heard and it left me grasping at straws trying to think of its closest sonic relative(s). I did not listen to any other gear. I did say in post #11 above that I didn't listen to much.

I invariably attend meets more for the people than the gear and in that aspect, this meet was yet another smashing time. Lots of HC folks that also included Pliny the Younger and Older from FL. 'Twas great to catch up with the NorCal crew since the last meet, and there were lots of newbies too. I did listen to some gear but not too much - there's really not that much gear I'm interested in hearing anymore since I've gone through a lot of it myself. I spent a lot more time going around and talking to people and taking pics than anything else. Even trying to just sit down and listen to music wasn't enjoyable due to the meet noise and I just gave up. Not that I'm complaining per se, but having to turn up the volume because of meet noise killed my enjoyment factor, so I didn't try to listen much for that reason either. The post-meet stuff at Al's hideout in Mayberry was definitely the highlight for me. Really cool place and I enjoyed downing the available forms of liquor. The pizza was really good too, including the one with the corn-based crust. Grahame videotaped some interviews with some key people during the meet that included Al, Matt, Gene, Peter (Iron_Dreamer) (and a couple other folks too that also included fresh newbies) and we watched the raw footage at Al's hideout, and the footage turned out to be way more hilarious than intended. I can't wait to watch what Grahame puts out for us later, hopefully we also get the unedited video because it was honestly ultra-hilarious and I could NOT stop laughing at it and the roasting that everyone was ribbing at each other while we were watching. I'm now really looking forward to this coming weekend for the follow-up Beerfest & schmoozing in Tampa. Both gear impressions and pics to come tomorrow.

Created for great justice! How can there not be a thread here yet?? 'Twas a great time as expected and more to come later. No pics or impressions yet. Tired. Must sleep. zzzzzzzzz.

dreamwhisper has been brainwashed by NoNoNoNoNoNo!

There are so many classical masterworks and so many recordings of them, it's hard to pick just one (or even a few). This is doubly compounded that neither HDTracks or Linn Records offer much in the way of some of the more well-known recordings, let alone at hi-res. This one might be worth a download tho: https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=catalogdetail&valbum_code=HD090368023469 And if you have a particular favorite classical composer that can help to narrow down the field. There's also this one:

Get one of screaming oranges' HP1Ks. Make him an offer he can't refuse.

What's the killer price? I wonder if I should get one too. Also Larry, do you really need to routinely state the details of how your money is funding your equipment purchases, where it's set up in your home, and your medical issues? No offense but those are all things that we really don't need to know and on the medical issues, something I personally really don't want to know.

Wow thanks for all that info John. Suddenly 3 days doesn't seem like enough time to check everything out. If only there wasn't that dastardly Memorial Day weekend preceding the week of CanJam to interfere with anticipated holiday plans, otherwise I probably would've flown out even earlier. Will definitely take you up on that offer Ryan, thanks.

Going to be in Chicago starting Tuesday 6/1 through Monday 6/7 but I have different objectives than Matt - just food and sightseeing for me. Well ok, live music could be cool too. I'll be staying close to the downtown loop area for the first 3 days and will not have a car - any recommendations on quick & cheap places around there? I'm still carrying the low-budget eating habits from my college student days so <$10 (though I guess it might be more realistic to stretch to $20 if needed) and fast are all I'm looking for. Hand-held food is even better so I can eat while walking around. For example, every time I go to NYC I always seek out the pizza and Greek. Dinner places too but I don't like paying more than $20/person for dinner. And I eat all types of cuisine btw, in fact I usually like to try something new.

What are the food options like around the Beerfest area? I'd probably be there around lunchtime and ideally would like something both cheap (under $10 if possible, but no more than $15), fast, and local to that area. I'm also thinking I might not spend all night with you guys and might head back up to Jacksonville earlier (the timing might not work so well if I drive back up on Sunday) so ideally I'd want to eat something along with the beer. Oh and PM me your cell number Matt, so I can call when I get there.

Nice Al, did Todd say which position you're at? I canceled my pre-order the other day so I could better support moar music purchases. (But I intend to re-order at some point.) Now slap some flat pads on there to really enjoy the HP2 magic.

What's it like dealing with the touch screen? As in, interface and touch sensitivity? I'm semi-interested but the touch screen experience I had with my former Classe CDP-202 drove me bonkers.

Angelspit - Hideous and Perfect. Ok so I don't have the CD yet but I instantly added it to my cart on Amazon when I checked out the streaming samples. Wow, some of the coolest industrial I've heard in a long time. And the cover art is snazzy too, which I wanted to share:

I got mine from them, as did Mike. Maybe you could call them to ask what their stock situation is.

Nightwish - Once

Bearfoot - Doors and Windows

Should we start a "Let's get CherryBomb a Stax OII MKI!" effort? I'd throw in a bit of coin for you.

That could work too, but I don't know any lesbians....

Head-Direct HE-5 re-cabled with APS V3, Rockhopper Balanced M3, & SPL Auditor. And my flight to CanJam 2010. A/L?

Been going a little crazy thanks to a nicely-sized bonus from work not too long ago. Even got most of these used which is even better. I love the WAYLT thread, it just keeps on giving! (Almost done ripping them all to FLAC too, save for about a handful's worth.) Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion Anthony Wilson - Jack of Hearts Anthrax - Among The Living Anthrax - Persistence of Time AC/DC - Highway to Hell Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde Bob Dylan - Desire Bob Dylan - Modern Times Christian McBride - Kind of Brown Depeche Mode - Violator Dream Theater - Octavarium Dream Theater - Train of Thought Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings Iced Earth - The Dark Saga Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son Isis - Wavering Radiant Judas Priest - Angel of Retribution Judas Priest - Hell Bent For Leather [Audio Fidelity Gold] Judas Priest - Painkiller Katatonia - Night Is The New Day Lemon Jelly - Lost Horizons Massive Attack - Heligoland [Deluxe Triple Gatefold Edition] (pre-order) Megadeth - Endgame Metallica - ...And Justice For All Metallica - Master of Puppets Metric - Fantasies Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood Neko Case - Middle Cyclone Nightwish - Dark Passion Play Nightwish - Once Pink Floyd - The Wall [Deluxe & Remastered] Queen - A Night At The Opera [MFSL] Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime Rainbow - Rising Rodrigo y Gabriela - 11:11 Rodrigo y Gabriela - Rodrigo y Gabriela Rush - Moving Pictures The Dead Weather - Horehound The Decemberists - The Crane Wife The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love The Who - Who's Next [DCC Gold] Van Halen - Van Halen Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon Wilco - Wilco (The Album) Don't know, haven't listened to it yet. I've sorta been buying more music than I have time to listen to lately. Maybe I'll check it out sometime soon, will let you know.