2015 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest Impressions

Discussion in 'The Meeting Place' started by velvetx, Sep 28, 2015.

  1. DrForBin

    DrForBin Friend

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    hello,

    could someone ask Schitt their opinion of tube savers? it seems to me that raising tubes above the chassis would improve cooling, but i know nothing about tube amps.
     
  2. JK47

    JK47 Guest

    Anyone going drinking tonight? I should be at my room near the tech center by 7:00pmI'm still a few hundred miles away
     
  3. velvetx

    velvetx Gear Master West/Vendor Spotlight Moderator

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    According to Schiit Tube Savers won't do anything for the heat. In regards from personal experience it just looks cooler and is a bit easier if you are doing a lot of tube rolling.

    I actually have a brand new pair of Tube Savers from Tubemonger so PM me if you are interested in buying (at a discounted rate obviously).
     
  4. DrForBin

    DrForBin Friend

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    hello,

    thanks for asking them. not yet, just curious at this point.;)
     
  5. jexby

    jexby Posole Prince

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    ok, i'm slightly an idiot:
    Vi DAC was only connected to HE-1000 the entire day.

    at 11am, when I asked Summer to move the Edition X to the Vi Dac she said:
    "um, you don't want to do that. too much power."

    I didn't push the issue Friday, but may try again Saturday.

    In one word Vi DAC + HE-1000:
    INSANE.

    paired with the HE-1000 and some HiFiMan DAP feeding SPDIF, it was simply superb. went back to it two times and Friday and will visit again Saturday.
    haven't had much fly time (besides pyrate meet) on HE-1000s, but the deep/present bass matched with details, musical mids + treble was just nutso.

    the case itself was so sleek and stealth: A perfect deep gray almost to black shading, elegant angles and, strangely in the audio-verse, a small volume knob but with good play and volume range.

    REALLY wish I could hook Vi DAC up to a decent computer/USB implementation OR HiFiMan staff really needs a better selection of lossless on their DAPs for the common-man audience.
     
  6. velvetx

    velvetx Gear Master West/Vendor Spotlight Moderator

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    The Vi DAC + HE-1000 was insane I brought my iBasso DX90 with me which had a lot of my music loaded up and man was it sweet. Fast, detailed, and smooth. It wasn't the best setup I heard overall at the show but it sounded great. I also agree with Jexby that the unit itself looked really cool.
     
  7. money4me247

    money4me247 Friend

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    what was the best few set-ups in your opinion?
     
  8. velvetx

    velvetx Gear Master West/Vendor Spotlight Moderator

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    Day One Impressions:

    I don't want to lose today's thoughts so I figured I would post my day one impressions right away now after I have had a nap and a little more time to think about and process what I heard. Please keep in mind that this is my first big audio show and I was quite overwhelmed with just the sheer amount of time spent in the Can Jam area. I think at some point I started to feel like things were blending together so for Day Two I am going to go back to some of the booths for listening.

    My first stop was Echobox. They are currently crowdfunding a DAP as well as claiming they have created the first titanium IEMs (I can't verify this so that is why I say claim). I felt that the DAP itself didn't sound great but their market from when I spoke with their team was more mainstream (believe DAP is priced at $300). The soundstage and detailed instruments and vocals just wasn't present as everything sounded too meshed together. Their IEMs to me were also too neutral sounding and didn't project the bass in a manner which I liked. They come with different audio filters for things such as bass and treble but I didn't get a chance to listen to them. Their current price is $199.99 for the IEMs.

    Next stop was the Oppo booth. I didn't stop and listen to the headphones but since I used to own an Oppo Blu-Ray Player I asked what they were working on. So for people who have one they are working on a native 4k UHD Blu-Ray Player.

    I was a man on a mission and spent some time listening to the Questyle QP1R with the Enigmacoustics Dharma. I had never heard the Dharma ($1,150 I believe) before this show or the Questyle QP1R ($899). Regarding the QP1R I thought that for a DAP at that price range it sounded excellent. It completely blew my iBasso DX90 out of the water. Tighter and punchier bass. More soundstage depth. More detailed voice and instrumental imaging. Really just an overall great DAP. Now onto the Dharma. I think this is a great sounding headphone. Even playing out of the QP1R it sounded magnificent. Fast, detailed, fun. I want to do some more detailed listening tomorrow of the Dharma but it currently may be on the top of my list to pick up in the near future.

    I visited the Schiit booth and listened to the Gungir Multibit with the Ether open back headphones and was really impressed at the level of clarity and depth this setup brought. I wasn't able to listen to the Yggdrasil so that is my goal tomorrow. The one thing I will say is that the Schiit Europe rep was amazing. Honestly Jason if you hired this guy what a great pick up. He was very knowledgable and so honest. Schiit as a company to me is not about sales they have always been about honesty with all of us audiophiles and the customer experience. Don't get me wrong Jason he sold me on the Yggdrasil (so yes I will eventually be getting one) but I felt when asking about the products that he was very upfront on what he thought.

    Alright enough hype what was my favorite headphone at the meet thus far? I hate to say it because I will probably get flamed but whatever it's subjective. The Abyss 1266 headphone was amazing. I stopped by the booth and had a great conversation with the Abyss reps and I have to say I think this headphone is often overlooked for it's well headband wierdness. At first it was intimidating even to me but after the rep showed and explained things to me it actually felt good on my head. Anyway onto the music. I was luckily able to find some tracks I was very familiar with and let me say I thought Hotel California after listening to the HE-1000 couldn't get any better but I was wrong. The truth is I heard a new Hotel California I had never heard with the HE-1000s. One with so much detail in the instruments and sound stage I really thought I was in the studio. The vocals were tight and bass punchy it was just something that was magical for me. To say that about the HE-1000 I felt the Abyss went even further and pulled out details even further. I heard a lot more guitar twangs, Don Henley's voice was much more detailed and natural. The sound stage was much more put together and what I would call accurate. I would come back to the Abyss a little later in the day (not at the Abyss booth).

    There are a lot of audio companies either incorrectly representing themselves or saying things that just aren't true. I felt for the first time when I read Changstar the amount of eye opening you guys did for me was very real and being at this show was a great start to really understanding and feeling what the difference between the Changstar community and say the Head-Fi community is about. Well anyway enough brown nosing. The reason why I mention this is that my next stop was Cavalli Audio. Please keep in mind I have never met Alex Cavalli but I have to say after meeting the guy he reminded me a lot of the Schiit team. He was very open and honest about his products and like Schiit he really cares about the audiophile community. He cares about the people he sells the products to and I think that is important. Anyway after sitting down with Alex I was able to listen to the liquid carbon. I know on Head-Fi there have been some snafus with the shipping of the carbon but I assure you after listening to one you won't be disappointed. That and he created the first batch of carbons specifically to give back to the audiophile community so he has kudos from me there ($599 price point). I listened to the carbon and for the price point I have to say this is definitely worth the $600 I felt that it did a great job with detailing as it should since the technology is similar to that of their higher end products the Liquid Crimson and the Liquid Gold Balanced SS Amps. Anyway onto what I currently thought was the best setup at show. I felt the Liquid Gold Balanced SS Amp with the Abyss 1266 setup was the best thing I heard at the show so far. On this setup I not only tested Hotel California but I also tested Dire Straits Walk of Life track. Honestly just completely blown away by the speed and clairty of the tracks and unlike other booths he was running what I believe many people listen to digitally which are 16bit/44 FLAC files (yes I am a flac guy deal with it). It honestly was the best experience talking with Alex and listening to this setup so for me a win win.

    My final frontier was Astell and Kern because I wanted really to compare the JR with the Questyle QP1R. For the pricepoint I felt the JR was superior but when you go up to the Questyle you get many features and connections that aren't on the JR. To me the sound quality on the QP1R was superior to the JR. I think that the JR is great but I feel like Questyle has something a little more natural sounding. The soundstage on the JR was just a little tighter and I felt that signer was placed much more forward than on the Questyle. I thought the Questyle had a bigger soundstage and a little better imaging also what I consider a more natural sound.

    Booths I visited but wasn't impressed with Woo Audio. I didn't think the firefly WA7 was anything special to me. Don't get me wrong it's very affordable but I felt some of the solid states I listened to for less money sounded much better. Another one I visited was Pioneer. Maybe it was just at the end of the day but their DAP I really wasn't impressed with. I found the sound signature to be a little neutral and dull. They use the Sabre DAC which after prying they said that it was the most cost effective (which I figured). The DAP is loaded with features but at a $700 price point you are playing with AK and Questyle and both of those players blew the Pioneer DAP out of the water. Oh yah I listed to their new $2500 headphone as well and was equally not impressed.

    I did visit the Head-Fi booth and met Warren (Jude wasn't there so I didn't get a chance to speak with him). Really nice guy, down to earth, and honest.

    I don't want anyone to think that this is the end all be all for the show as there are many SBAFs out there making the rounds as well and hopefully at least someone thought that what I heard was the same (if I am the only one who had all these opinions I think that might be a little scary). Sorry more of you weren't there but I hope to meet you guys at future meets. For now it's 12:41AM so I'm out.
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2015
  9. kapanak

    kapanak Canucklehead - Friend

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    Great impressions, I enjoyed reading it.

    And don't worry about your love for the Abyss. You're in good company here at SBAF. The Abyss sound is well liked here.
     
  10. velvetx

    velvetx Gear Master West/Vendor Spotlight Moderator

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    Oh yah one more thing I forgot to add. Abyss is working on a more affordable headphone (they were supposed to have it at RMAF but they are having an issue sourcing leather in the US).
     
  11. thune

    thune Friend

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    Sure, follow up the Abyss with "Diana". Tragic...exploitative... seems to fit.
     
  12. HitmanFluffy

    HitmanFluffy Hoping to see real genitals someday!

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    I couldn't bring myself to be bothered too much by the strange choice of name. The Abyss people on HF put up some sentimental story about how that name came to be, but what caused more consternation for me was the idea of an open-backed, on-ear headphone. I can't even imagine why they would take that direction with the design but everything's up in the air till people get some ears on it. For reference I absolutely love the Abyss 1266 sound.
     
  13. Judeus

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    what is wrong with flac? isn't jriver/foobar with flac like the audiophile standard
     
  14. Aelms

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    I saw these guys at the Tokyo Spring Headphone Festival at Nakano. I haven't really developed my source chain well enough to judge their DAP but I was really impressed with their IEM. From what I can remember, they stood out to me because there weren't any outstanding peaks and the resolution/imaging had been good enough out of any portable transducers I've bothered trying. I only have a T1 as reference though and I distinctly remember that a lot of IEMs in that show had huge mid-bass humps so YMMV.

    Sorry if this is too off-topic.
     
  15. uncola

    uncola Friend

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    thanks for the vi dac impressions jexby and velvetx.. can't wait for mine now
    [​IMG]
     
  16. velvetx

    velvetx Gear Master West/Vendor Spotlight Moderator

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    At the show there were some vendors who felt that Flac wasn't good enough versus their fancy DSD. It's not an insult or anything just a I hope the DSD crowd doesn't flame me haha.
     
  17. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    Bifrost MB and Asgard 2 gave the Ether some life. And the Senn 800s sounded really good as well. What a great mid priced setup that would be, haha. And even James' modded 650s sounded really good, so ignore any previous comments from me as to Asgard not playing so nicely with 650s, must have indeed been warmup time.

    I'll see if I can get the Bifrost connected to the Molljnir for a quick comparo to the Gungnir Multibit.

    Gungnir Multibit and Molnir 2 with ss tubes, now that is spacious.

    Soekris (sp) is there with a $650 portable R2R dac / amp, first impressions were pretty good, need to hear some familiar tunes on it and his 650s.

    Gotta get ready to drive down the mountain.
     
  18. Judeus

    Judeus Facebook Friend

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    Lol... DSD is still a thing?
     
  19. ohhgourami

    ohhgourami Friend

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    No news on the Edition X?
     
  20. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    Pretty nice sounding via my phone and dac/amp. Certainly not usable with many phones direct. Very light and comfy.

    Worthy of an extended audition if you have lots of cash to spare.
     

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