Voltron

I would believe that. It didn't sound like what I am used to, and the competing DACs were competing too well.

What is the grounding issue?

I was guessing $750.

Although I am not sure I will send him my cans, I agree that Justin needs more of them to test out his amps. Also agree that he needs some good old NOS tubes. The new stock Mullards he had in Florida were better than the ones he had this last weekend and may account for some of the differences I was hearing. He should have some NOS options for review and then for purchase when he starts shipping.

Hope you didn't have too much Remy last night and that you are feeling chipper for your big day! Happy listening! Cheers

The Onion Rulz

I don't think it was possible to get a good handle on that comparison, because when I was doing the same thing with Neil it was difficult to tell what was happening with the sound at all. The output was so much higher on Filburt's DAC that the fluctuation in level was all that you could hear. I don't know what kind of magic Filburt did to that DAC or even what DAC it is in the first place, but the NWO topped by EMM Labs SE stack in side-by-side comparisons so I gotta believe that the differences would be VERY noticeable in the proper setting.

You have such a great eye and camera skilz too! Thanks for sharing the pics, but any good stories to go along with them? I have got to go to Germany and Berlin especially before too much longer.

I intend to talk to Justin about his thoughts on the rig at the NorCal meet because I was duly blown away by the BHSE-->O2mk2 at CanJam but thought it did not sound right this weekend. I also heard the HE90s and 4070 on it Saturday and they did not sound good either. I am not going to put words in other people's mouths, but I was far from the only one to think it was off. I think there was a lot of can-switching going on and the amp was opened up at one point and lots of little things, so charging of the cans could have some small part in it. I know some changes have been made to this prototype and the tubes are different, I believe, so those could factor in as well. The source is a viciously revealing animal, so one theory would be that the NWO was showing something to be "wrong" in that setup. Unfortunately I did not hear the NWO direct into cans (which is pretty awesome, btw) so I don't know if it was part of the problem, but neilvg did not suggest he was having any issues with it. Also, it was a meet and you cannot get great listening done with electrostats in those conditions. (Unlike guzzi, however, I don't think the speakers playing at barely audible levels at times and not at all at other times really had an impact because the meet room did not seem that loud.) All I know is that the sound never seemed close to the CanJam version, and it was disappointing. I was hoping that Justin would get yet another well-deserved boost out of this meet, but the Picos are the only HeadAmps getting lots of props (as well they should). Curious what was going on.

Admit it, you're trying to decide which you are more excited about: Los Lonely Boys or Night Ranger!

Shitty week.

More pics for the history books. Let's start with a first for Head-Fi meets to my knowledge. Guitar Hero has had a place at a number of meets, but this is the first time Guitar Hero was rocked out on a GameBoy with PX100s. Looked like fun when Becky was picking away at it: Before working on her riffs, Becky once again created some of the tastiest sweets ever to grace a Head-Fi meet. This time it was awesome chocolate chip cookies and the return of her incredible candied pecans. I was lucky enough to get the left-overs, and my wife and kids are as impressed as me. Thanks again Becky! Here is Asr's rig that he shipped from Colorado to share with the faithful. I did not get a listen myself, which is a shame, but I did feign a clubbing with the remote to the Plinius. It is a hunk of metal to be respected, for sure. JP and I also thought the lack of any readout on the front of the CDP was refreshing. The namaanf-built balanced Beta22 is as great sounding as it is beautiful. Here is Asr, listening to other people's gear, like any good Head-Fier. He's at AMB's table of delights, and as always, the acrylic tops for meets give everybody a good look at the works. In addition to Asr and AMB, at least a couple other Beta22s were in attendance. First up, Fallen Angel and his customized signature B22: Also present, was rockcod, some young roadies who walked the room with AT and Denon cans (iirc) sampling the offerings, and his great looking black-cased B22: Last comes the rjkdivin Beta22, with due credit to the designer right on the front: Here is Ti's Beta24 mentioned a few times already, along with a lame pic of the front of the AMB speaker. And here is Justin talking a little business with Ti: Here is Justin's Blue Hawaii Special Edition, which was paired with neilvg's NWO 3.0G Here is jrossell's amp in an acrylic house that is an Alex Cavalli design. I thought this amp sounded great with single-ended HD600s, and Jeff himself said it was a champ on the mid-range but not the greatest on the bottom end. I thought it had decent body and had a very clear sound.

Carrying on with the photos. Here is the new look of the Zana Deux: Here are a couple action shots of people. New Guy and new guy Aaron313 bigguy and wife Becky checking out the Stax 4070, but I missed the grimace on her face as she said they were too heavy: Guzziguy rocking the HP-2 on TTVJ 307A, while Aaron and bigguy checking out some Stax action: rhythmdevils and friend also checking out the Voltron/TTVJ table: And here is the gear in question, Stax 007t, Onix CD-1 Reference, and TTVJ 307A: JP#s rig, with Mac Min, Apogee Duet, and the unobtainium HD-2 from Eddie Current: And JP speaking with Craig Uthus about the new stuff Craig couldn't get delivered in time for the meet (for example, a DAC with user-selectable and switchable DAC boards allowing one to choose an Analog Devices, Burr Brown, or other chip to be used). We were sorry to miss out on those, but he did bring the new Nautilus, the ZD with alternative 6c18 tubes in it, as well as his phono stage and the good old Moth DAC. Here is the blessingx table, with another 007t amp along with three vintage Stax cans being powered at once. Sources were the Squeezebox and the Macbook, along with the Audio Magus MagiDac prototype on loan from the manufacturer. He also had the SinglePower Extreme powering some HD580s. I wonder what time it was when I was taking these pics? Here is ironbut tuning up his awesome Tape Project-based rig and calaf giving it a listen with requisite lusting: Speaking of calaf, here is his rig, with the Corda Opera and k340s that calaf recabled himself, and a Woo Audio 3 powering some HD25-1s.

As Dusty points out, there aren't any real impressions of the NorCal meet over here. I did just post in the TTVJ 307A thread so there are some thoughts perking over there too. For now, I am going to port over my posts and pics from the other place. I still have some more thoughts that I hope to get out, but haven't had the time to sit and type. Here's a start: Well, as many heard yesterday, I was running from the meet to a friend's wedding and had to bolt the scene [late] at 4:45 or so. I hate leaving meets early, and usually enjoy the after-meet at least as much or more than the meet itself. We did go out for a little In-N-Out Burger birthday celebration with Justin on Friday night, and hung out in Guzziguy/Iron_Dreamer's room, which was fun but that didn't substitute for the traditional after-party. I hope some of the crew managed to hang out after, and that you all did not get oyster poisoning like JP! Anyway, JP put on a great meet where 50-60 local Head-Fiers and Bay Area Audiophile Society members were treated to the true cream of the headphone crop. Many of the active Bay Area crew were present and it was great to see everybody. As usual, we had some traveling members present, and it is nice to see people make that extra effort. Guzziguy, Iron_Dreamer, Craig (Eddie Current) and ldj325 all made the journey from the south/east of California, Amphead made it down from Sacramento, Asr and Mikhail both came in from Colorado, and Justin of course flew from Virginia. I was impressed by the number of new members who I have not seen at meets before. Some were new to Head-Fi and some have lurked or been active for awhile without attending meets. It was good to see new faces and meet some new folks. I was also impressed by how many BAAS members showed up and think that we have a good opportunity to expand each others' horizons by participating in more events. BAAS is working on a very cool event at a club where musicians will perform exact renditions of recorded music and they will be compared live to recording to hear how they are similar and different. That sounds really interesting and I hope to attend. In addition to the usual headphone rigsn, we also had a short speaker session with Ti's own Beta24 and home-brew speakers and a little Stratocaster wailing by Amphead, which were fun too. Ti's setup was really nice and clearly would have been far better in a smaller more suitable room. The Beta24 is a work of art and audio magic, for sure. Congrats on yet another achievement, Ti/AMB Labs! As for impressions, these stand out. TTVJ 307A: As JP mentioned, Todd kindly agreed to rhythmdevils' initial suggestion to send out the new TOTL amp designed and built by Pete Millett and sold exclusively by Todd and TTVJ. I heard it first at CanJam and was equally impressed here even with the Meridian 808 as a source. I tried it with my own PS-1, Ed. 9, and HD650/Equinox (all balanced), with Guzzi's balanced HP-2, and with Icarium's balanced Sony Qualia 010 with the SinglePower headband. The PS-1 cannot have had more bass response and power. It is amazing if you like the sound of the PS-1, and the entire spectrum is presented well not just the bass. The HP-2 sounded even better, and it is consistent with my thought at CanJam hearing the RS-1 -- this amp does great things for Grado cans. Amped not as well, the great HP-2 can sound too neutral the the level of being boring. Not so with the 307A. It has life and flesh and texture beyond most any other amp I have heard it with. The Eddie Current and SinglePower amps are my other favorites with the headphone, but the 307A just too top honors no question. The Ed. 9 and HD650 both sounded excellent, but I did not spend as much time listening to them. The true shock was how GREAT the Qualia's sounded on this amp! The sound was rich and full but fast and dynamic and very lifelike. It was a great match and really made the Qualia sound better than they ever have. I liked them on Ray's B52 in Florida one other time, but this was certainly better and made them a much more accessible can. Not only does this amp do balanced amazingly well, but it has single-ended covered from IEMs to full size of high and low ohms. It makes so many cans sound their best, that Pete and Todd have the high-end Swiss ARmy knife of all time, in my opinion. Great stuff. Life is interrupting, so I am going to continue this later. Cheers.

DrJ/ldj and I had quite the opposite impression of the TTVJ-->Qualia. I posted the following on H-F and I am going to port over my pics and such shortly. "TTVJ 307A: Todd kindly agreed to rhythmdevils' initial suggestion to send out the new TOTL amp designed and built by Pete Millett and sold exclusively by Todd and TTVJ. I heard it first at CanJam and was equally impressed here even with the Meridian 808 as a source. I tried it with my own PS-1, Ed. 9, and HD650/Equinox (all balanced), with Guzzi's balanced HP-2, and with Icarium's balanced Sony Qualia 010 with the SinglePower headband. The PS-1 cannot have had more bass response and power. It is amazing if you like the sound of the PS-1, and the entire spectrum is presented well not just the bass. The HP-2 sounded even better, and it is consistent with my thought at CanJam hearing the RS-1 -- this amp does great things for Grado cans. Amped not as well, the great HP-2 can sound too neutral the the level of being boring. Not so with the 307A. It has life and flesh and texture beyond most any other amp I have heard it with. The Eddie Current and SinglePower amps are my other favorites with the headphone, but the 307A just too top honors no question. The Ed. 9 and HD650 both sounded excellent, but I did not spend as much time listening to them. The true shock was how GREAT the Qualia's sounded on this amp! The sound was rich and full but fast and dynamic and very lifelike. It was a great match and really made the Qualia sound better than they ever have. I liked them on Ray's B52 in Florida one other time, but this was certainly better and made them a much more accessible can. Not only does this amp do balanced amazingly well, but it has single-ended covered from IEMs to full size of high and low ohms. It makes so many cans sound their best, that Pete and Todd have the high-end Swiss ARmy knife of all time, in my opinion. Great stuff." Now, in my experience, the Qualia can sound like utter crap when they are not sitting right, fitting right, or just don't feel like sounding right. Maybe Laurence didn't have a good seal going or maybe we just want different things from them. I was truly surprised by how much I liked them, and I used the Low Z setting throughout. Another thing to keep in mind is that the source I had was just OK -- the Onix CD-1 with balanced analog outs -- so the TTVJ could have been happier. We should have moved the NWO across the room because it did not sit well with the BHSE in my opinion, but Neil was only at the meet for about 4 hours or so. I love this amp, and I am going to listen as much as I can over the next few days before sending it back. I was rocking the balanced RS-1s last night and it was good shit. But for the redundancy in my current amp holdings and the price tag, I would own this beast fo sho!

We didn't take the thread crap for anything but that. Even calaf, who got dissed here for his comments once our impressions started for real, is a good guy who was just hoping that the barrage would stop. As for DC, stevieo just asked me for your email address, which I do not have. Please PM both of us with somewhere you can be reached. He is hoping you can come so he can make you sleep on the floor this time!

Crappy Birthday Jones! I trust you had fun in Sarasota, and I wish I could have played with you guys at least by phone and posting on Saturday. I did not have a computer at the meet, and then I ran to a wedding. I did not see all of the shit you guys posted in our meet thread, but heard that it was piling up. Should have harassed you anyway, but it just never worked out. Next bi-coastal meet will be a little better organized and hopefully I will be drunker more of the time. In any event, cheers and welcome to Head-Case!

Happy birthday George. We were sorry you couldn't make it yesterday and hope all is well.

Although I started this thread as Iron_Dreamer, I wanted to make sure I got in my greetings as me. Cheers again.

You need Whites Off Earth Now on MoFi SACD!

Thanks man. I am going to try to take those pics of the ED-1 this weekend if I can swing it.

This book isn't for jazz aficionados, but it is a good introduction to listening to and understanding jazz.

Alright, some basic questions on a couple things, and then a request to figure out a price for something. First, what is the difference (quality, SQ, sound signature, other) between the SR-Lambda Signatures and the Lambda Nova Signatures? Second, same question as between the T1, T1W and T1S energisers? Last, what is a fair price for the ED-1 Diffuse Field Equalizer? Boring, I know, but I am curious about doing a deal with a guy and I am not sure what I am dealing with.

We should have plenty of fun with the 307A tomorrow. Definitely sorry you won't be there, but glad to see you are above water enough to be posting and even moderating today. My puppy is dragging me down, so the thought of having a newborn right now is mind-boggling.

Sorry, buddy, I thought that got answered somewhere already. Todd sent one for the meet, and I unfortunately do not get to keep it forever and ever like I want to. It is actually right in front of me in a big box in my office. I am tempted to set it up today for the hell of it, but I will probably wait because I get to play with it for a few days after the meet.