Seattle Meet (11-17-2007) Impressions

[socrates63]

There was quite a bit of uncertainty as HF is down and the attendees had no way to communicate with the organizers. I am sure bhjazz, who organized the meet, was nervousrs about whether people would actually show up. I arrived 30 minutes late, and there were only 4 people, including myself. But soon thereafter, most of the attendees arrived and another great meet was had.

Based on my conversations with several people at the meet, I may have been the only Head-Caser in attendance. In other words, this thread may turn out to be a one-man impression thread. I did tell a few people about HC, so we'll see.

Sorry, Brian. I couldn't wait until HF came back online to do this.

It was a blast meeting many people for the first time. Kelvinz and Akui, in particular, had the faces of kids in a candy store. It was very refreshing to see people who were truly excited about the hobby.

On to the photos... I didn't manage to take as many photos at the meet because I was too busy talking and trying out gear... well, mostly talking.

About 10 or 15 minutes after my arrival, several more people arrived. From left to right: Akui, bhjazz, WittyzTH (Big Poppa obscured), xtreme4099, kelvinz.

The Man of Nerves of Steel aka bhjazz who put the meet together

The master bhjazz speaking to the padawan Akui about all things audio

Kelvinz chillin' with his K701 and my MPX3 SE. He was absolutely thrilled to have the chance to try so many pieces of gear. He should also thank his pretty girlfriend for waiting for him for nearly 5 hours in the room with a bunch of headphone geeks.

Triad Audio Lisa III brought by xtreme4099. At the last meet, Sergio brought a Lisa III encased in a woody enclosure. This one looked pretty sweet, and sounded as good as it looked, too. The box sitting on top is the battery pack.

The Big Poppa listening to his APureSound rewired KSC75. Awesome job, Alex and it sounded fantastic.

bhjazz snagging some photos

WittyzTH listening to his ATH-W100

My first chance with the Grado HP1000 </drool>

The RS-1 and HF-1 are mine. xtreme4099 brought the HP1000.

Joshatdot setting up his PC-based speaker rig

Joshadot's friend "K" who was blown away by the HP1000 and RS-1

The classic pose of a meet attendee (KobaltBlau) who is trying to ignore all the chatter and concentrate on the music and gear, dammit

That's all the photos I have.

[apnk]

Thanks for the pics man, looks like it was a fun meet.

[socrates63]

It's too bad I didn't get a photo of everyone who attended today. Maybe Brian managed to get a few more people as there were at least a dozen people in attendance. We even had two unregistered HF lurkers.

My impressions and thoughts... so little time, so many things to try

Thanks, Brian, for managing to snag the Headroom Desktop Portable and Headroom Desktop Max Amp/Max DAC. I hadn't heard these since Tyll came to Seattle with the Headroom Tour in 2005. I mostly listened to the Desktop Portable as the Max was being hogged other people (Andy, that's you ). The DP didn't sound anything like the original Micro Amp (DM module) that I briefly owned. The Micro Amp, as another user put, was syrupy, and I didn't care for it. However, the DP was totally different. It had a slightly warmish sound without being slow or dark. Equally impressive as the sound are all the features that Headroom managed to squeeze into the svelt enclosure. How did you manage to fit all the inputs (analog, optical, coaxial, usb)? Great job, Tyll and the gang. Anyone in the market for a desktop quality amp and DAC in a battery-powered portable enclosure should give a long and hard look to the Headroom offering. In fact, I don't think there's another company offering anything similar to the Headroom DP. I wish we can have another go at the Headroom gear during the February meet.

ATH-AD2000 received a lot of love today, especially from xtreme4099. Several people were blown away. I bought them because at one time, Elephas said they were the best open dynamic headphone he had heard, and it's wise to listen to elephants.

I was thrilled to get my first chance to try out the Grado HP1000. My only two regrets were that I didn't play with them long enough, and I didn't get to try them with bowls as I'm not a fan of flats. This bad boy needs a good source and amp to sound its best. When I tried it with my M?, it was unimpressive. The β22 took it to another level (or two), and this is what led me to think that good source and amp were mandatory. Having said that, with my gear, I preferred the RS-1 over the HP1000 (gasp). It's really too bad that I didn't try the bowls with the HP1000 as I'm pretty sure it was the flats and their bassier sound that was ruining it for me.

Nugent Audio β22 received a lot of praise from several people on the build quality and unmatched sound. Great work, Nate! I finally had the courage to bring it home today (it had been in my office all this time). Hopefully, my wife won't notice . My main home can is the DT990 and it sounds fantastic -- great soundstage and details, and fast to boot.

I tried the cmoy (Joshadot's variant) for the first time in more than a couple of years. Sorry, Josh, but a cmoy is still a cmoy and it can't hold a candle to more recent portable amp designs. In comparison to the mini? and PINT, the cmoy sounded muffled with no soundstage. But perhaps your cmoy is a good match for your modded KSC75.

Speaking of modded KSC75, Joshadot kramer modded his in addition to recabling them. Big Poppa also had his recabled by APureSound, and these blew me away, the sound was so clean, tight, and refined. I generally use my KSC75 when working out so I'm not too interested in throwing more money at them, but I'm now one step closer to ordering the Ety replacement cable from APureSound. In any case, whatever the mod, modded KSC75s sounded significantly superior to the stock version.

WittyzTH brought his ATH-W100, and I really liked them. I thought I read that some people found the W100 the worst of the ATOW. If I didn't have so many headphones, I'd be tempted to buy one if given the chance.

Motherone brought his Laconic Lunchbox. I'm not sure which version it was, but it was a fun little amp. I had a brief a/b with Motherone's Millet Max, and the Millet Max was the superior amp (better soundstage, separation). I wish I had photos of Motherone's amps. The wood front face of the Millet Max and Millet Hybrid looked cool. Mike is one prolific DIYer. In addition to the three aforementioned amps, he also had a PPA v1.1, Monica2 DAC, both performance and long-life versions of the mini? and some other stuff.

WittyzTH also brought his ATH-ESW9. Akui compared it to his Senneheiser HD25, and commented that the ESW9 was significantly better. I preferred the HD25. While the ESW9 sounded a little better than the ATH-ES7 that I used to own, $300 seems a bit steep.

So much gear, and so little time!! Thanks, everyone, for coming and having fun. And thanks for helping me pack and load my stuff!

Great job, Brian!

[Voltron]

Congrats on pulling off the meet against the odds folks! Looks like fun and of course plenty of great gear was there too!

[Edwood]

Must have been fun listening to headphones with speakers blaring.

[jp11801]

cool to see you guys pulled it off, looks like you had a great time.

[socrates63]

WittyzTH brought his modded ATH-W5000. He said he bought it from a HF'ier recently. I can't remember the specifics but it had a foam mod as well as a recable. Akui and I a/bed WittyzTH's W5000 with my stock W5000. All we could say was that WittyzTH's W5000 is no longer a W5000. It sounded like a totally different headphone, and while the modded W5000 sounded good, it no longer resembled the W5000's signature sound (airy, sparkly highs). I'm not sure whether I'd want to take such an expensive headphone and turn it into something else.

[n_maher]

Young, did you rename the beta?

[deepak]

Young, did you rename the beta?

Ha nice pick up

[socrates63]

haha, a Freudian slip so to speak... I was told that Steve Nugent from Empirical Audio may be making an appearance at the next meet tentatively scheduled for Feb 08.

I listened to my HD600 (Blue Dragon) with the Nugget Audio Beta22 yesterday, and the Beta22 performed wonders with the HD600. Among other things, the amp alone seems to have lifted another layer or two of the Sennheiser veil.

[Nanoha]

WittyzTH brought his ATH-W100, and I really liked them. I thought I read that some people found the W100 the worst of the ATOW. If I didn't have so many headphones, I'd be tempted to buy one if given the chance.

They're decent. Better than the W1000 of course.

[bhjazz]

You're here! Excellent! I'll get my pics processed and up.

[bhjazz]

I am sure bhjazz, who organized the meet, was nervous about whether people would actually show up.

Hell yes! Here is what I saw at 12:20.

And the boxes were mine!

[Nanoha]

Hell yes! Here is what I saw at 12:20.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l78/bhjazz/Seattle%20Head%20Fi%20Meet%2011%2007/2007_1117SeattleHeadFi0008.jpg

And the boxes were mine!

Large empty room. Wow, I would have been so worried and scared!

[yuujin]

damn, billy i wonder what will happen at my meet.

im organizing one in singapore and the response seems a little bleak.

i hope it will turn out as good as yours!

[socrates63]

My first hand at organizing a meet was last May. I was pretty nervous about how things would turn out, but it totally exceeded my expectations.

yuujin, don't worry too much. You only need 3-5 attendees to make it work. The biggest challenge to this meet was the crashing of Head-Fi.org. We had no way to communicate with meet attendees.

[Nanoha]

I listened to my HD600 (Blue Dragon) with the Nugget Audio Beta22 yesterday, and the Beta22 performed wonders with the HD600. Among other things, the amp alone seems to have lifted another layer or two of the Sennheiser veil.

Your signature still says Nugent! It's a conspiracy!

[socrates63]

Large empty room. Wow, I would have been so worried and scared!

Yeah, having tried my hand at organizing the meet in May, I can appreciate what Brian must have gone through.

The room was excellent and better than the last meet. It probably comfortably fits 20-25, may be more, even with tables.

While I couldn't attend because of family obligations, after the meet, bunch of the guys headed to the pub across the street. Very nice location for a meet.

We should start an hour earlier next time -- 11am. With setting up and packing, that leaves 3-4 hours, and the time goes by so quickly.

[socrates63]

Your signature still says Nugent! It's a conspiracy!

Find out, drats! Fixed the sig.

[yuujin]

true but the cost of the room

well if it happens this will be the best meet singapore has!

[socrates63]

For the two meets in Seattle, we looked for free rooms and started with libraries that had conference rooms. This one was held in a conference room in a local public library. If you're a student and don't expect too many people, then perhaps the university can offer a meeting location. I know that people have held meets in schools and even meeting rooms in a coffee shop.

Some of the areas with a larger membership have held meets in hotels, but until we can develop an active steady support from people in Seattle, we wanted to keep costs as low as possible.

[WittyzTH]

WittyzTH brought his modded ATH-W5000. He said he bought it from a HF'ier recently. I can't remember the specifics but it had a foam mod as well as a recable. Akui and I a/bed WittyzTH's W5000 with my stock W5000. All we could say was that WittyzTH's W5000 is no longer a W5000. It sounded like a totally different headphone, and while the modded W5000 sounded good, it no longer resembled the W5000's signature sound (airy, sparkly highs). I'm not sure whether I'd want to take such an expensive headphone and turn it into something else.

I agree with this point. They are no longer W5000s. Somebody call them Audio Technica ATH-F5005.

I just finished recabling the W3000. hope I can bring to the Feb meet or probably mini meet if Brian wanna make it.

[bhjazz]

The room was excellent and better than the last meet. It probably comfortably fits 20-25, may be more, even with tables.

We should start an hour earlier next time -- 11am. With setting up and packing, that leaves 3-4 hours, and the time goes by so quickly.

I was pretty happy with the room as well. The wood walls kept the room a bit quieter than a room that size could get. Nice tweak....! As the room was empty when we arrived, whenever people showed up we just pulled a new table out. We might save time and get a handle on space better if we just get the tables out first. I think Mike and Andy would have liked that.

As for a start time, I completely agree: we should start earlier and end later. I did not get enough time to sit and listen! I see this as positive growth...

[bhjazz]

I hope I can bring to the Feb meet or probably mini meet if Brian wanna make it.

I'm ready for the task, regular meet or mini. This one was a total rush for me! \/\/00t!

[Nanoha]

I agree with this point. They are no longer W5000s. Somebody call them Audio Technica ATH-F5005.

I just finished recabling the W3000. hope I can bring to the Feb meet or probably mini meet if Brian wanna make it.

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