tkam Posted August 26, 2007 Report Posted August 26, 2007 Yesterdays meet at Earl's was a good time as usual. Here's the obligatory gear pics:
Nanoha Posted August 26, 2007 Report Posted August 26, 2007 Good stuff, good stuff. Must have been great.
PFKMan23 Posted August 26, 2007 Report Posted August 26, 2007 People pics, animal pics + impressions plz....
Absorbine_Sr Posted August 26, 2007 Report Posted August 26, 2007 Man I wish I could have been there. Looks like eargasm city!
Iron_Dreamer Posted August 26, 2007 Report Posted August 26, 2007 At least you guys got through ok without any trees falling on the place or flooding. Looks like it got real nasty in that area yesterday.
tkam Posted August 26, 2007 Author Report Posted August 26, 2007 I ran into some of that nasty weather as I was leaving, really sucked but I was able to get ahead of it pretty quickly.
tkam Posted August 28, 2007 Author Report Posted August 28, 2007 Ok time for a few impressions I suppose. MS-2/MS-2i: I did a bit of listening to the MS-2/MS-2i's as I've been thinking about grabbing a pair for use at work and I was pretty happy that at least at first listen they didn't seem nearly as bright as most Grados. Their treble is still pretty clearly bumped up but overall they had a pretty smooth sound and nice tight bass w/ good impact. SP Extreme: It was good to finally here an Extreme for a decent amount of time, it doesn't have the refinement, extension, impact or soundstage of my amp but at $1k it's a hell of a value. I'd really like to here an Extreme side-by-side w/ a Zana Deux one of these days. Audio Aero Capitole - This is a damn nice cdp, little more weight and warmth than my modded Opus 21 though the Opus might have a little more detail. Either way both very excellent cdp's. I can't forget to mention that the Capitole's balanced outs drove the Senn 650's extremely well, I really doubt you'd get much of an improvement by adding a balanced amp. As usual the best part of the meet was the people and just sitting around shooting the breeze w/ Earl, Jacob and Vern (Jacob's friend)
Icarium Posted August 28, 2007 Report Posted August 28, 2007 Must say TKam, while my Singlepower amps are decent. I am somewhat jealous of your amp. Mikhail whipped out some Bendix 6080s at the the post-meet hang out and though we didn't have an amp that can use them they seem like damn impressive tubes I wish I could put in my amps! Though Mikhail said that's not doable without some mods ;p
tkam Posted August 28, 2007 Author Report Posted August 28, 2007 Yeah I really like the SP amps with the higher output tubes, mine especially of course . I really do need to get some binding posts put on my amp one of these days. FYI at the meet my amp was running 1x 7062 -> 2x 6bx7 -> 2x - Bendix 7802 (w/ the 2nd gain stage the bx7's disabled). Speaking of Bendix 6080's one of Earl's died during the meet
en480c4 Posted August 28, 2007 Report Posted August 28, 2007 Nice to see the woodied 325s making an appearance! Sounds like a great meet. Well done!
Guest sacd lover Posted August 29, 2007 Report Posted August 29, 2007 oh, i forgot the Squarewave XLR: it didn't do it for me off of a SS source, but once tubes were added to the mix (via my Capitole), it sounded pretty damn good. the dual pots is shit, though, i hope it comes out with either a 4 channel pot, a pair of 2 channel SAs, or a 4 channel SA (preferably the last). that would be nice. and a nicer case would be good, too. I only had the SW for two days. I dont think the SW was broken in. Plus, I didnt have a balanced cable until Todd gave me one. Thanks Todd! The more I listen to the amp with my sacdmods players the more I like the sound. I always get bored with SS but this one seems to be getting through to me. I am sure he isnt done with the SW. If he makes the changes we keep suggesting about the pot and a better case and keeps the price down .... the sound quality is there IMO. Meet impressions. I really like the Dragon. Mikhail should finally make those 6c33 adapters I keep mentioning to him so we could see what that tube would do in the Dragon. With a seperate power supply and those dual 14 or 20 amp transformers Todd could power them easily. The HP2 sounded awesome out of the Extreme; probably my favorite sound of the meet. I loved the Opus but I love the Audio Aero even more. But, I wish someone would make a changer type cd/sacd player of that quality. The L3000 sounds good to me but I think the sound is just a tad to dark and closed in for me. Despite the HP2's lack of comfort the sound just takes hold of you. The L3000 excites me more in line with the Senns. I am currently smitten with the MS2's .... but the HP2 is better still. I have to say though the MS2 is the best Grado I have come across since the HP2. The PS-1 is to bassy and just not that big of an improvement over the MS2. I am glad I am so satisfied with the $300 MS2 instead of the near unobtainable HP2. I have to admit I actually enjoyed the 650's run balanced out of the AA. I usually just dont like the 650. There does seem to be something to this balanced drive. I have been skeptical and maybe I still am \ some. But, my opinion is definitely evolving.
aerius Posted August 29, 2007 Report Posted August 29, 2007 Meet impressions. I really like the Dragon. Mikhail should finally make those 6c33 adapters I keep mentioning to him so we could see what that tube would do in the Dragon. Ok, what the heck is this "Dragon" thing? As far as I can tell it's some sort of Singlepower tube amp, and doing a search for "Dragon" brings up a bunch of stuff on audio cables, but not amps of any sort. Any details on this thing?
tkam Posted August 29, 2007 Author Report Posted August 29, 2007 It's a pretty long story into how the amp came about so I'll give the short version. I wanted a top-flight headphone/pre-amp that would also have the ability to drive speakers at some point in the future. So the original plan was to build an amp geared toward using the 6528's as they are very netural sounding tubes and would have plenty of power to drive efficient speakers. The final design ended with an amp that has two gain stages the 1st stage is a single tube and the 2nd stage is two tubes. The 2nd stage can be turned on and off and is really only useful w/ the k1000 and speakers. I still do need to get binding posts added at some point.
tkam Posted August 29, 2007 Author Report Posted August 29, 2007 Here's the intial thread I started regarding the amp: http://www.head-case.org/index.php/topic,1144.0.html I hadn't come up with The Dragon name by that point.
Icarium Posted August 29, 2007 Report Posted August 29, 2007 I only had the SW for two days. I dont think the SW was broken in. Plus, I didnt have a balanced cable until Todd gave me one. Thanks Todd! The more I listen to the amp with my sacdmods players the more I like the sound. I always get bored with SS but this one seems to be getting through to me. I am sure he isnt done with the SW. If he makes the changes we keep suggesting about the pot and a better case and keeps the price down .... the sound quality is there IMO. Meet impressions. I really like the Dragon. Mikhail should finally make those 6c33 adapters I keep mentioning to him so we could see what that tube would do in the Dragon. With a seperate power supply and those dual 14 or 20 amp transformers Todd could power them easily. The HP2 sounded awesome out of the Extreme; probably my favorite sound of the meet. I loved the Opus but I love the Audio Aero even more. But, I wish someone would make a changer type cd/sacd player of that quality. The L3000 sounds good to me but I think the sound is just a tad to dark and closed in for me. Despite the HP2's lack of comfort the sound just takes hold of you. The L3000 excites me more in line with the Senns. I am currently smitten with the MS2's .... but the HP2 is better still. I have to say though the MS2 is the best Grado I have come across since the HP2. The PS-1 is to bassy and just not that big of an improvement over the MS2. I am glad I am so satisfied with the $300 MS2 instead of the near unobtainable HP2. I have to admit I actually enjoyed the 650's run balanced out of the AA. I usually just dont like the 650. There does seem to be something to this balanced drive. I have been skeptical and maybe I still am \ some. But, my opinion is definitely evolving. You gotta have Mikhail whip you up a balanced amp Earl ;p
Salt Peanuts Posted August 29, 2007 Report Posted August 29, 2007 What is the Dragon!! Here's the intial thread I started regarding the amp: http://www.head-case.org/index.php/topic,1144.0.html I hadn't come up with The Dragon name by that point. Seeing Todd's SP amp makes me want mine even more. It'll get here at some point, I guess. Earl - How many SACDmods.com 555ES's do you own?
Guest sacd lover Posted August 29, 2007 Report Posted August 29, 2007 I think he has 4 or 5 now Five .... plus one 9100 ES.
Salt Peanuts Posted August 29, 2007 Report Posted August 29, 2007 Five .... plus one 9100 ES. Wow, I'm surprised you didn't buy mine when I sold it a while ago. LOL.
Guest sacd lover Posted August 29, 2007 Report Posted August 29, 2007 Wow, I'm surprised you didn't buy mine when I sold it a while ago. LOL. I must have missed your for sale ad.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now