Head Fi meet, Woodinville public library, July 17th

[Doc B.]

We will be showing the Crack amp with Speedball upgrade and a custom Front Panel Express chassis plate at the Head-Fi meet at the Woodinville public library on Saturday July 17th, 10-3. Come check out the Crack amp running Sennheiser HD800s, the S.E.X. amp driving HD600s, and Paramount 300B amps running AKG K1000 headphones - all playing Tape Project Tapes from our Nagra T Audio reel to reel deck with Bottlehead Tube Repro amp. It's a free event that will be followed by a post-show get together at Red Hook Brewery. Hope to see you there!

[mrarroyo]

Glad to see the Head Fi members will get an opportunity to listen to your amps. I should build one to take to one of our local meets, for example the upcoming July 24th in Fort Myers, Florida. Good luck, and have a great time.

[Doc B.]

We had a great time at the Bay Area Head Fi meet last August and I am planning to attend the RMAF Can Jam as well. You are in luck if you want a Crack kit for the 24th as we just got in the fourth run of Crack chassis plates this morning, and we should have the latest order of tubes showing up in the mail Wednesday.

[richardl]

Just talked to Paul Joppa and he told me about it.  I will try to drag him along.  However, when ballet calls........   

Richard

[Doc B.]

That would be great. Don't know if PJ's Saturday class got scheduled or not, he was just in the door from being away when we spoke yesterday. Ed should come by too, he's not that far away.

[Doc B.]

Also, I don't know if it is OK to post this on the HeadFi forum but I know it's OK with the mod here ;^)>

I should have two Crack with Speedball kits and a S.E.X. kit ready to go this afternoon. If anyone who is attending the meet wants to purchase one of these kits today I can deliver at the meet tomorrow. And of course you could purchase them there tomorrow if they haven't already sold.

[ironbut]

Looks like the meet impressions are trickling in. (it always takes a couple of days for folks to get this stuff posted)
Here's some nice pictures that a member made available.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27177305@N08/sets/72157624526245348/

I'm sure that you're expecting this but , what's the gear in image 5193? The tube labeling makes it seem a little familiar.

[Paul Birkeland]

I'm sure that you're expecting this but , what's the gear in image 5193? The tube labeling makes it seem a little familiar.

Hey Steve,

Those are a couple of my custom built pieces.

One of them is a tube CD player, the other is a 6C45PI spud headphone amp (with nickel outputs). 

[ironbut]

Beautiful stuff Paul.
The 6C45's peeking out of the front panel had your name written all over it (ala HM's custom preamp's V-Caps).
Speaking of which, didn't you use some sort of inlet filter/IEC on that pre? I thought I'd read a post about it but the last time I looked, I couldn't find it.
Maybe I was dreaming?

[xcortes]

Doc or PB,

Anything interesting to report in terms of the headphones you had a chance to listen too? Particularly with the BH amps (including Paul's which, I guess, have the flavour of the house)?

Thanks

[Doc B.]

I didn't hear everything there, but I did hear the T-1s and LCD-2s which seem to be a couple of the more talked about models on HeadFi.org. I ended up feeling like PB's HD800s were still the best choice for my taste. The T-1s were really very nice, similar to the HD800s, but I liked the little bit more open top end and spaciousness of the HD800s. The LCDs were nice too, they simply didn't happen to suit my particular (or perhaps peculiar) taste. But a lot of folks at the meet really liked them.

[ironbut]

That's kinda my take on the T1 (BeyerDynamic) and the LCD-2's. The T1 would probably seem a lot better to me if the HD800 didn't exist. There's a kind of "Zingy" texture to the upper mids that some folks like but I don't. There's a taste of that with the legendary Senheisser HE90/60 electrostatics but it's more in context there IMHO.
Also IMHO, the Audeze planars are still a work in progress. The first time I listened to them the drivers were in an off the shelf enclosure which were cheap plastic and very rough. Even so, it was pretty obvious that those guys were onto something. I used to own some Yamaha othodynamics back in the 80's and even after an elephant sat on them and I literally had to tape them to my head, I still enjoyed them for a while longer.
To me, the LCD-2's need refinement of the sound and to scale the enclosure back a little. I mean, it really looks nice and I appreciate all the work and the industrial design that went into the looks, but they're just too darn heavy! They are the FOTM at Headfi but, I actually liked them better a couple of prototypes back.

[xcortes]

You guys trying to steer me towards the HD-800! I guess I will try those eventually. My experience with older Sennheisers is good but nothing more, though.  Decent sound (both HD-600 and 650 with BH cable upgrade) but nothing too good to make me listen to headphones if I can listen to the bad ass horns. They're also not that comfortable to me (I start to feel heat with them) and they look cheap. That's what has kept me away from trying the HD-800

Right now I have a set of Sonys (R10s). With these it's hard to decide if I want them on the head or on the case and listen to the speakers. I'm using a Ni MQed Sex with them right now. I would eventually try the K1000s (if ever get to rebuild my DC heated Parabees) and let's see what else!

Electrostatic headphones have a cult following (you hear me Steve!) but unfortunately they need push pull amps and I'm a die-hard SETer.

[Paul Birkeland]

Beautiful stuff Paul.
The 6C45's peeking out of the front panel had your name written all over it (ala HM's custom preamp's V-Caps).
Speaking of which, didn't you use some sort of inlet filter/IEC on that pre? I thought I'd read a post about it but the last time I looked, I couldn't find it.
Maybe I was dreaming?

Hey there Steve,

I did not use any kind of line filter on that preamp.  I tend to think of line filters as a liability.