Winnipeg, Sept. 27 2011

[acidbasement]

As far as I know I'm the only Manitoban posting on HC, but in case anyone is going to be in the area, we have a small Winnipeg group from the other forum who meet up semi-regularly for food and gear. The next one is Sept. 27. If you're interested, either post here or in the Winnipeg meet thread on HF, or PM me or whatever.

[acidbasement]

Okay, it was a small gathering - four of us in total. There was a large amount of gear, however.

Headphones

HD600

HF-2 woodied by Headphile

ATH-700

ATH-900

Realistic Pro-30 ortho

Yamaha HF-2 ortho

Fostex TRP40 transplanted into Phiaton cups

HD25

DT1350

DT250

I was surprised to like the HD25 as much as I did. Not enough to go out and buy a pair, since I have no need for portability, but I liked it better than the DT1350. Maybe just because the DT1350 is way more demanding about what angle it sits on, and how good the seal is.

The Realistic Pro 30s sounded absolutely great, but they weren't big enough for my head, and caused my ears some pain.

The Yamaha HP-2s were my favourite of the orthos, and possibly my favourite of the night. A funny thing I noticed was that they sounded better when I had them on backwards. The treble became much more clear. I was surprised at how incredible these sounded, completely unmodded. I have a set of HP-3s, and I had to put them in different cups to get them to sound anywhere close to what I consider good.

The woodied HF-2 stole my heart at the last Winnipeg meet, but I found it unsuitable for metal at this meet - there was some muddiness in the midbass that bugged me.

I didn't hear anything that made me want to trade in my HD600s.

Not worth writing home about (IMHO): ATH-700 (not bad, but slightly muddy bass), ATH-900 (too bright), DT250 (not overly offensive, but not great), DT880 (a bit too bright).

Amps

Bottlehead Crack

Apex Butte (on loan to head-fi's Armaegis from TTVJ)

Pico Slim

Miu MRK1 (a modified clone of Grado RA1)

cmoy

We did a lot of back and forth between the Crack and the Butte. They both drove all the headphones present with loads of headroom to spare, and sounded good doing it. The Butte was a bit brighter sounding than the Crack in general, but I would be very happy to have either of them in my house.

I built the Miu MRK1 a couple of weeks ago, after winning the kit in a contest on HF. I believe its design is based on a modification of the circuit used in Grado's RA1 amp. I know the Grado amp doesn't have the best reputation, but we were all pleasantly surprised by the MRK1. It was a quick and easy build, and it sounds good. Not in the same league as the desktop amps we listened to, but it does the job well enough depending on the application.

[mythless]

Haha, so this is where you hang out now!

[acidbasement]

Hey David, welcome to the party! Read the welcome PM, and don't get too upset if people start throwing beer bottles at you. I hope you stick around.

[swt61]

Welcome David.

[guzziguy]

Welcome. So far.

[mythless]

Thanks! I think next meet, I'll be trying the headphones as most of my headphone gear are gone. But, they're seems to be some nice deals on CAM as of late, lol.