SuperBAF Can'tJam (Not CanJam / Changfest) 2016 Meet Impressions

Nope

 

I think that these things are mainly about being there to experience it. If you weren't there you kinda have to wait until the product comes out.

 

I checked the back, and the Bifrost Multibit has the MB sticker on it , but you might be at lunch so I didn't to get to meet you.

 

@sphinxvc , well-written post! So descriptive and full of gratitude. Post of the year.

 

Big thanks to the meet organizers and donors for making this meet happen. I've been to many meets before but this one was special. It's like taking the great qualities of the NY SBAF meets, add in the wonderful vendors, and tacking on the pre and post meet hangouts. I spent most of the early hours of the meeting listening to the gear I was most interested in, and then the rest of the day hanging around and meeting people. So let's start off with the people behind the companies and their gear!

Ken Ball / Campfire Audio
it was a pleasure meeting the man behind CA. Ken is an enthusiast at heart and really cares for his products and customers. I spent probably close to 2.5hrs at his table demoing the three new CA iems and the Andromedas with my zx2. Sorry for hogging the seat!

Vega - I first tried these with the spiral dots and found them to exaggerate sibilance. I swapped over to the stock foams and the sibilance disappeared! But with the foams, the bass was overwhelming. However, the bass was very well textures and doesn't bleed into the mids. I'd characterize the Vega as a bassy downward sloping iem. It has a decent soundstage but doesn't compare to the uerms or andromedas. I found them to pair best with instrumental music, jazz, bossa nova, and vocals. I did not like them with pop or electronic music.

Dorado - The dorados were very interesting with their be drivers and two HF BAs from the Andros. I liked them overall more than the Vegas. They did have a bit of a V shaped response though. I enjoyed the treble the most from the Dorados. It was very well extended, smooth, but also sparkly. Bass was a toned down from the Vega, which I really appreciated. Fit was a little awkward because the nozzle was longer and didnt work well with the spiral dots. Foam is recommended once again. The BA and DD integration was very well done here and It didnt bother me until I heard the Lyra II, which uses the same be driver as the Dorado.

Lyra II - I think the lyra II is overlooked for its low price but to me, it's probably the best value. It has a very well balanced sound signature with slightly elevated bass and a downward sloping treble. The bass quantity is less than the Vega but a little bit more than the Andros. It's kind of like an unmodded hd650 but with much better bass extension. Soundstaging was similar to the Vega but appeared to be better because of less bass getting in the way. I agree with Marv that these are the anti-Andromeda. The DDs have a much different presentation than the BAs and it's very noticeable in the bass decay and the fullness of notes. The lyra IIs make a great compliment for the andromedas/uerms and I'm really looking forward to listening to them more with the upcoming loaner.

Andromedas - This is my third time hearing them and it reinforces my belief that they're my favorite BA iems. I wouldn't change a thing about how they sound with the zx2. Well extended bass with punch and slam. Even and smooth mids. Downward sloping treble with plenty of sparkle. Large soundstage but loses slightly to the uerms. Very resolving. I would have bought a pair at the meet, but I found my ears getting sore after 30m of using them, due to the large housing.

Donald North / DNA Audio
I'm glad I got to meet Donald in person and pick up the last Sonett 2 from him. He seems like a very humble guy who knows EXACTLY what he wants to do with his amps, and it shows in the sound quality. I wish I had more time to chat with him, but there was just so many things to do at the meet and there seemed to always be someone waiting to listen to the Stellaris.

Stellaris - it's hard for me to give any real impressions of this amp, but I enjoyed listening to Emilie Claire Barlow out of the amp with my hd650s. I also tried the Utopias briefly but didnt care for them.

Sonett 2 - I don't know if anyone actually listened to this amp while it was at the meet, but im loving this amp so far. I got home at 1am after missing two flights at LAX (aka Hotel California) and just stayed up listening to music through this amp. I think this amp has just my ideal sound: Slight warmth, tube wetness, big soundstage, smooth, non-fatiguing, yet still clear and resolving. Now I kind of understand why a lot of people preferred the ZDS to the Stratus at a previous Cali meet. The EC amps that I've heard all tend to be extremely clear and resolving (minus the BW), but especially dynamic. The dynamics from the EC tends to easily impress people over the smoother SET sound from Donald's amps. I'll be spending lots of time with this amp over the next few months and comparing it to some popular amps.

Craig Uthus / Eddie Current
Craig was there with his ancient moth dac and EC studio. It was my first time meeting him, and he was pretty much what I had expected him to be. Really laid back and chill.

EC Studio - I did not like the studio at all, but I knew that before I even listened to it. It was very lean and bright even with the Moth's ultra analog dac and the hd650. However, the soundstaging, imaging, and realism was something else. The recorded sounds at the beginning of Pink Floyd's money just sounded so real! Craig urged me to try the studio with the hd800s and well... It was unbearable .

Ravi / (not) LH Labs
Darrin Wong / OOYH

Sorry that I only got to introduce myself to you guys. I would have loved to try out your stuff and chat! Maybe next time?

Doug / ECP Audio
I've met Doug before at the previous head-fi meet. Cool guy, but a little bit crazy with the amp designs

More impressions to come later!

 

Schiit, how could I forget?

Jason Stoddard / Schiit Audio
Jason was pretty much what I had expected out of him as well. I loved his t-shirt with the power switch on the back xD. Jason has a really candid demeanor when talking about his own products or just about anything in general. Really chill guy. It was also very clear to me that Schiit knows what the market wants, and that's what we're going to see with their two new products. I won't be giving up my lynx aes16 anytime soon though! I didn't get to listen to Marv's speakers with the Vidar/Saga unfortunately but I got to see the units and they look very well done! Jason has said that he finally figured out what he wanted to do just last year, so I'm looking forward to seeing a true end game amp from Schiit in the future.

 

So many great impressions in this thread!

 

Yeah, some tables were especially full. I had to wait until the very end to get in on Donald's table. Here are some impressions before I forget:

1) Geek Out 2 Aluminum vs Infinity vs Signature: base version is pretty good. On high gain, it outputs some very respectable amount of power, and my HE-5 was screamingly loud! It'd probably be able to drive a lot of headphones then if it can do that to an HE-5. Infinity version sounded about the same, but with a bit cleaner blackground (okay, that's too much buzzword), or like... it's cleaner sounding overall? Both as a DAC and as an Amp/DAC. The middle never made sense to me before since I don't have headphones that would make use of it, but now I use it mainly for DAC functions and also to drive my easier headphones like HD580. Signature version? Even cleaner, and somewhat smoother. Oh em gee. I wonder if I can trade my GO2A Infinity in and pay the difference for the Signature edition. It was dangerously close to the smoothness of R2R, but still having the "edge" of D/S, which is much needed for orthos, I think. Overall a very solid (pun intended) device now. I miss R2R body, but aside from that, I can't complain! Honestly, at $250, I think choosing between Momby/Modi Multibit and GO2A will uite the dilemma for some of y' all. Am I being too positive? Well, no. I got shafted by LH customer service, and they sent me a regular non-Infi GO2A instead of the Infi. Isn't it just a firmware difference? Well... no. I have a method that you can use to verify that the Infi and Signature Edition actually indeed have better noise and power supply filtering than the regular model. The better power supply filtering makes a difference with the balanced output as well. Just connect your GO2A via balanced to your Jotunheim. Wih only balanced output/input, you'll hear noise in Jotunheim. To remedy this, you gotta connect SE output from GO2A to Jotunheim SE input as well, even though Jotunheim will be taking balanced input. This is because GO2A doesn't pass along ground with its balanced output, and so it'll create a ground loop problem with Jotunheim. Was able to confirm this with both Larry Ho and Jason Stoddard at this meet. The Infinity and Signature Edition GO2A are the real deal!

2) Vi DAC NOS: right off the bat, it's got more of a sharpened/clean sound than I remembered. And yet it's also less annoying up top. What the f**k? That's weird. It was like stock Vi DAC was HD800 and NOS Vi DAC is Utopia. Not that extreme but that's how I heard it. Is it warm/rolled/lacking air? Well, no. It was actually like... uh... more textured than how I remembered. But blackground wasn't exactly as black as I remembered either. It sounded kind of like a clean vinyl sound, if you know what I mean. Meet conditions aside... I should note that at meets, I listen around 80-85dB, so unless someone is screaming right next to me, blackground stuffs would show up pretty fast. Also helps that tis meet was more quiet than all other meets I'd been to. It was awesome! Now I gotta decide whether the extra warmth/body was the DAC or the amp (Black Widow 2). I'm inclined to say DAC, but I also remember the Black Widow emphasizing a small part of the lower mid to make itself sounding a bit sweeter. So, anyway, conclusion? I think there should be a way to switch to NOS Vi DAC if indeed the differences are really as I heard them. If it was just Blakc Widow 2 because well, reasons, then... Larry should do it anyway. "Let me put my DAC on NOS" would be quite the conversation starter. @zerodeefex used magic on this setup and I was convinced to write these words. If you don't agree with what I wrote, he's the one you should beat up.

3) Milos' clones: HD600 tonal balance, ortho bass, dynamic body, HD650 mid, HD650 treble smoothness, HD800 extension, HD800 soundstage, Utopia imaging. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Not sure how much of that was due to BHSE. TL;DR: it's awesome. @n3rdling needs to quote me a price.

4) HE60 on BHSE: HD600 with HD800 technicality. Maybe not as shouty but the upper mid peak is also present. @sorrodje should consider recabling this thing permanently to Stax connector.

5) @Audio Zenith lent me his improved PM-X, and I still remembered telling him how it had great tone but air was somewhat lacking. But... I take all of that back! Now it has air. Somehow he has perfected the art of crafting a headphone that has a smooth, almost blurry/cloudy sound but yet so very airy. There was notning that I could find in my music library that was even remotely bad with this headphone. It was the epitome of smoothness IMO. Even HD650 would have some trouble here and there, but this had none. I thnk some imaging and precision was traded off for the ultimate smoothness, but... honestly, I think that's a small price to pay for a headphone that can truly be considered problem-free. Congrats, Alex! You finally did it!

6) @Donald North brought along an amp in Stratus casing, but it wasn't Stratus. I listened to it on Utopia, and modded HD580. I liked it. My good friend @No_One411 had this "how much money do I have in my bank account right now?" look on his face after listening to it. So, unless you wanna spend *glitched* dollars, don't listen to this amp. <- where have I heard that before? Hm...

7) @ohhgourami brought his HE-6 system along. It was legit. Best HE-6 ever? Potentially so. It certainly did not annoy me in any way, and I was at a loss on what to nitpick. Well, I have one: the amp is too heavy. It's like... so heavy that I think Jason probably had the worst time out of everyone else, including the speakers folks, trying to lug his gears around. I guess the final frontier after this can only be speakers... Jason, my hat is off to you.

8) There is no 8. I took a lot of photos, talked to a lot of folks, and got to know them better. That was the point of the meet for me. The gears were really just icing on the cake. I honestly mostly use my headphones for Youtube and such nowadays. Maybe an album or two here and there, but it's so rare. Speakers are the final frontier. But I still tune and mod headphones sometimes for fun, and I enjoy helping other people out on their journey as well, because... I realize that there are not a lot of information on this topic now. Modding and tuning a headphone is still such a "new thing" in 2016, and manufacturers have not exactly been good at tuning headphones in recent years. I mean... if you need evidence, the most popular headphones around are still HD600/650. Why? Because they were tuned well! And nothing else has ever been created that can rival them. In fact, the recently released HD6XX from Massdrop didn't even have any tuning change... and that's because it's not necessary! We need more headphones like that. And unfortunately, short of EQ, it's not easy to make any other headphone sound like those. And then we have the modded HD650. It was clear to me at this meet that people really care about and like the HD650, and it just reaffirmed to me that the HD650 is still a headphone worth investing time and effort into modding/tuning/matching with gears, because a lot of people are finding joy with it.

So, even though I'm ready to move on, I think I can finally see why @Marvey, who has already moved on, is still having a website dedicated to headphones, and he's still organizing meets related to headphones: it's because he's passionate about the hobby, and he cares about those who will get into it, or are already in it and are climbing up the ladder. And guess what!? His work has been rewarded. SBAF is proof of that. We now have a vibrant community of close friends who are passionate about the hobby, and care enough to want to improve it, both for themselves and for others. On top of that, these friends took their time, and paid the expenses in order to cross lands, mountains and seas just in order to meet up with us for a few hours.

So... I'd just like to say to all of you who took the time to come to the meet: THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! It was great seeing and conversing with you guys in person. One of these days, I'll have to return the favor.

I'm proud to be a part of this community, and I'm proud to call all of you "friends".

 

Haha yeah I know . Still, you're pretty much our liaison for LH Labs here.

 

Thanks for the impressions. It seems like the meet was a resounding success that will serve as a milestone in the history of SBAF. Congratulations to @Marvey and anyone else who was involved in bringing the event together.

 

Did we ever invite Zach from ZMF to the meet? He's pretty much a CS/SBAF member in spirit. I would have liked to chat with him and try out his new headphones.