Aura

Head-Fi's impression thread

Well, I think I'll just dig right into the nitty-gritty:



Meridian 508 > RSA B52 > Sony R10










^ This is me, if you didn't know. I like R10's best when they're resting on my head. ^






- I was shocked to see this sitting before my eyes when I first walked into Rob's stunning abode. I had been hoping that Ray would bring his Grado PS-1, but the R10 was simply amazing; reproduction so accurate that I couldn't even tell that I was listening to a cd honestly. I could go into the details at great length, but suffice to say that I think we all know how ridiculous this setup is.




Meridian 508 > SinglePower Extreme > Vintage RS1/SR225/HP1000










^Love this pic btw^








- Spent a lot of time with this rig since I'm getting an SP myself. With my 225's and Incubus in lossless I was experiencing phenomenal impact - essentially rock at the best I have ever heard with my particular cans. The A/B with RS1's essentially confirmed what I had heard earlier with the Zana Deux rig. I prefer my 225's for the music that I listen to. The RS1 is very laid back and more refined, which would be beneficial for classic and other more detailed genres. For straight-up rock, techno, etc., I absolutely adore my Grado's and the sound they deliver. The HP1000 is nuts - it was just mesmerizing in every aspect. Basically it sounds how I imagined the RS1 would.




Denon cd player (not sure of specifics) > Darkvoice 337 > JVC DX1000










- My absolute favorite rig of the meet (except for R10's lol). The JVC, when combined with the warmth of tubes, is so involving and delightful that you get lost in the music. I spent nearly 40 minutes with this rig simply because I couldn't tear myself away. It matched my tastes perfectly, and I went through at least 1 song from every cd that I brought with me. My next headphones really called to me .




iMod > Meier Corda Opera > Denon D5000/Darth Beyer/SR225








- The Denon is a very good pair of 'phones, better than the balanced HD600/K701 that I also heard. So smooth, so relaxed; I wish I'd have had more time with these. The Darths were underwhelming, both visually and in sound. My 225's sounded a little odd on this rig, confirming that solid-state does not always work well with the Grado sound signature.




iMod > Ming-Da MC84-C > Beyer DT990/SR225








- This amp looks really fantastic, bu I wasn't impressed with the pairing with the DT990's. I guess I'm just not a Beyer man, because nothing about this pair really impressed me at all. I greatly preferred D5000, HD600, and K701. My 225 sounded quite good on this rig, not as much impact as with a few of the other tubes, but still very satisfying and worth listening to.




Resolution Opus > Zana Deux > New RS1/SR225










- Second most-expensive rig at the meet. I'm sorry to say that I didn't get much time with it. I A/B'd early on with my 225's and Absorbine's RS1, but after that it was being used very frequently. The source and amp were just terrific, but I listened to jazz music. Not exactly the reference genre I'd have like to use, but I had never heard jazz sound quite like it did with this rig.




Keces DA-131 > Millet Hybrid > SR225/Ultrasone HFI-780










- Very nice budget rig. The Keces is a clean-looking DAC that sounds very similar to the E-MU 0404, but with more present treble for a brighter sound. My 225's sounded pretty decent, but I had already listened to the SP and this kind of made the Millet lacking. I do not like Ultrasone at all - it sounded like they tried to imitate the Grado signature but didn't get it right at all. Bass was fine, but the balance just wasn't there. Very disappointing for a pair of cans that so many people seem to love lately (I sense bandwagon).




Keces DA-131 > Little Dot MKIV > SR225






- Tony dragged over his amp to use with Mike's Keces for a fun little combo. I don't remember a whole lot about this rig, but I preferred the Millet overall. The amp looked very nice though .




Meridian G08 > RSA Apache > Balanced HD600/K701






- Beast of a rig. Both the 600 and K701 sounded awesome, but I'd have to give the edge to the K701. I listened with a jazz vocal piece, and the K701 reproduced with better clarity, more smoothness, and a wider presentation that really enhanced the piece. That isn't to say that the 600 was a slouch; it just didn't impress me as much.




Meridian 508 > RSA Raptor > K400/HD600








- This was part of Ray's insane rig that had 4 different amps connected to one source so 4 people could listen at once. The Raptor is a very nice looking tube amp with a very small footprint. The K400 sounded pretty good - vocals felt very forward but otherwise the instrumentation really sparkled and I enjoyed what I was hearing. The single-ended 600's were quite nice as well, but I only listened for 2-3 minutes and moved on.




Meridian 508 > RSA SR71 > SR225

- I was talking with Ray for a little bit and he urged me to throw my 225's into the SR71 to see what I could get. It was far superior to any portable I had listened to previously. I found that RSA can work with most any heaphone, but Ray does use Sennheiser as the reference and as such it may not be quite as synergistic as other options. I'm guessing this rig sounded nice because of the Meridian, which is an awesome cd player and benefits every amp that I listened to with it.

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Other Pics:







^ I really dropped the ball with this rig. I really wish I could have A/B'd between the Predator and the 0404. Sorry guys :/. ^


^ Everyone just taking a break to listen to Rob's insane Denon Vinyl + B&W speaker rig. It sounded SOOOOO GOOOD . ^





Well, that's most of what I listened to. Wonderful people + wonderful equipment = wonderful time. I could write a short novel about how much I learned from this experience, but I'll save all of us the time .

Thanks for reading/looking.

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dskina

Pretty neat

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phospholipid

Gih

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Namrac

Didja listen to the Raptor?

Edit: I'm dumb.


<.<

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Audio Setup:
PC: JRiver Jukebox ASIO > MHDT Constantine+ > Singlepower MPX3 SLAM > Sennheiser HD580
OCN Headphone Club. Because computers don't suck up enough of my money.

TheLegend

Amazing.

I'll definitely be at the next Chi-town meet. Thanks for all the great pics Bryan. Kind of cool to see Ray Samuels in person and also to hear his R10s. That is quite an impressive setup.

Those B&Ws probably cost more than my college education. Skylab has quite the setup.

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Pasha

Dammnnnn nice speakers. Those are amazing.

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Far2Paranoid: Knew this guy in HS
Far2Paranoid: Built a box with 2x 350Mhz Pentium2, back in '98
Far2Paranoid: The trick was, filled his bathtub w/ glycerin
Far2Paranoid: Took apart a mini-fridge and used the coils to cool the glycerin to ~40F
Far2Paranoid: Then sunk the box so he could OC the CPUs to 1.3Ghz
Far2Paranoid: Coolest **** I've ever seen.
AlbinoChpmnk: If this was sitting in his tub, how did he shower?
Far2Paranoid: After what I just said, what makes you think he showered?

triggerc

Lol, Grados unite!

I wonder how much the combined costs of everything there was... I don't think I'd be overestimating by guessing $20k?

TheLegend

Add a 0 to that.

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Aura

Vastly underestimating actually .

Rob alone probably has over $50,000 invested in gear, and Ray's B52/R10 rig could fetch $12-13,000 most likely.

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triggerc

haha you're right. Now that I think about it, 20k is FAR to conservative.