Nashua, New Hampshire Meet: Decemeber 5th, 2015

From HF. Thought I should make this forum aware. ZMF Headphones, Vinnie Rossi are going to be there.

Where: Fidelis (http://www.fidelisav.com)

460 Amherst St (Route 101A)
Nashua, New Hampshire 03063
United States of America
Telephone: 603-880-4434

When: Saturday, December 5th, 2015. From 12pm to 5pm.

 

Was in Durham this summer, nice area. Will go back in July. Let me know if anything happens then.

 

Considering I live maybe 10 minutes away I should probably make the effort
96.3% chance I'll be going.

I'll be bringing my main rig (overpriced amp/overpriced DAC), a few headphones, and my shitty measurement system as well.

 

Awesome. Looking forward to checking out the gear. You must be decently happy with it if it is your main system.

 

Yeah pretty happy with it, I'm using a BMC PureDAC --> Auralic Taurus MkII.

 

Should be able to get the loaner Bifrost Multibit and a pair of Audio Zenith PMx2 from Alex to try at the meet.

 

So who's coming out tomorrow?

I'll be down just before 12 to setup all my shit.

 

Impressions
Probably only spent an hour or so actually listening to things on the day. Really wasn't much there that I hadn't tried in the past but a few new items stood out to me:

Dharma D1000 - First time trying it, not bad. Good extension at both ends, mids were not recessed, bass wasn't bloated (and I didn't hear any noticeable distortion). Treble was a tad bright and I noticed a few peaks. Comfort was good, slightly more clamp than the HD 800, pads were a bit firm, but not bad at all. Probably not something I'd add to my already overgrown collection.

HiFiMan HE-1000 - Again, first time trying it out. Driven through the Vinni Rossi system, it sounded very smooth. Overall tonality was very enjoyable, good body to bass and mids, expansive soundstage, maybe a little lacking in treble response. Not worth $3k though.

Fischer amp - Wow, didn't expect it to sound so bloody good. Paired well with the HD 600/800, nice rich characteristic, surprisingly low distortion and noise floor.

ZMF Omni - Noice. Definitely a warmer tonality, good bass impact and extension, smooth mid range which carries through to the lower treble, a little dark up top. It reminded me of a bassier LCD-2 pre fazor. Comfort felt better than my AD's, and the build and finish was very nice.

Decware amp - Also noice. Not exactly sure which model it was (it had dual xlr outputs) but it sounded pretty damn good with my LCD-2's and the Omni's. Slight bit of noise was noticeable which I guess was caused by Zach's cellphone.

LFF Paradox Slants - A nice little surprise, I didn't realize they were the Slants when I first looked at them (it had a terrible paint job so I thought they were a crappy DIY mod) but they sounded pretty damn good. Pretty flat, good extension at both ends, good imaging, definitely a more enjoyable tonality than my AD's. Comfort was ok, pads seemed a bit shit (dare I say too soft), susp but a solid package.



Other notes
It was interesting to hear some feedback on my own stuff. Unsurprisingly, pretty much nobody enjoyed the EL-8C all that much. Same with the MDR-Z7. My modded HE-500 got a few nods, a number of people preferred it to the LCD-2 and HE-560. Some mixed reactions to the modded Nighthawk (though everyone did think it was comfortable).

Ischa bought some interesting gear along. The Jecklin Floats looked even more ridiculous in person (didn't try it as it wouldn't fit my massive head). HE-5 was pretty disappointing from a very brief audition, a bit too bright.

Had an interesting chat to Zach about how the wood used in the cups affects the sound. I've always thought that you dampen the hell out of the interior to reduce the negative characteristics (resonances/reflections) of the housing coming through. Zach of course does do a lot of that but I guess you can't entirely prevent some amount of vibration going to the housing. I guess that's why the different woods (which have varying densities) still affect the sound slightly (apparently hard to measure). Also Zach just seems to be a pretty chill dude, more than happy to talk about his stuff without trying to shove it down your throat.



Pics

http://imgur.com/a/p8oRj