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

Big thank you to Marvey for setting this up and invite.

Everyone was so super cool and I had such a great time talking to everyone, great meet, thank you all. I am really thrilled to be a part of SBAF meets and hope to participate again next year. I also look forward to getting to know everyone a little better.

Thank to all for your most excellent feedback, constructive and positive alike. I can really get into my own bubble so its great to get some constructive feedback and reflection. It was super humbling to receive the positive comments from a number of people, thank you.

One highlight was meeting Larry from Lightharmonic as well as chatting with Ravi. I hope to do some collaboration with Larry as I have a few product ideas that me and Caleb have been trying to make for the last 3 years with no luck. So the hook up was really cool.

Great to be a little part of SBAF, thanks all.

Ken

 

This SBAF Meet was just ridiculously special. I barely heard ANY gear at all, but the 4 short hours I had to spend there, I cherished every moment of it.
I really wanted to interact with members even more, but I just wasn't able to. The few that I did interact with, I am very grateful for. There is a vibe and energy in this forum that keeps me almost addicted in ways. I have met truly spectacular human beings and made many friends who are in it with such pure spirit.

I believe, it is that spirit that I cherish. Even though I met many of you for the first time, it felt like we've known each other for years. I think @Marvey has really let this forum live to its designated name....somehow he knew these waters would run deep.

@zerodeefex (awesome meeting you Ravi! You showered me with so much bro-love the moment I stepped into the room, I was frankly overwhelmed!).
@Marvey , you put on one helluva meet bud...it was MAGIC! If I didn't have a Steven Wilson concert to go to at 6:30pm, I would have just loved to hung out with the gang for the mini meet afterparty! Thanks for all you do.

All of the guys I met, thank you SO SO Much for the interaction and privilege of your company. I enjoyed meeting all friends, new and old. Pardon me for not being comprehensive, but you folks make this hobby what it is....a family EXPERIENCE @CEE TEE , @sphinxvc , @ohhgourami (who gave me a warm hug as soon as I came in!), @Chris F, @HitmanFluffy , @struggles, @JK47, @SteelCannon , @blubliss , @bazelio , Ron, @n3rdling , @insidious meme , @abernardi , @Out Of Your Head (Darin, you are such a gentleman and good soul, you have no bloody clue!), @Wfojas (so nice to finally meet you!), @Audio Zenith (Alek, you always meet me with such love man, you always win me over with your kindness), @Mikoss (Dude, move here...we need more like you around SoCal!!! We are going to get along JUST FINE!), @PTS (Glad you got your HE-6 amp choices sorted!), @sorrodje (so so happy to have finally met you), @Bill-P (Man, your tool saved the vinyl rig in the EAR-Marten setup! I got that brand new Denon DL-103R dialed in thanks to the tool you provided!), @No_One411 (Glad you made it bud), @Clemmaster , @TMoney

People I really missed and wish they were around: @OJneg, @Merrick @Pyruvate , @velvetx, @ohmaigulay (congrats on your new Friend Status!!! Now post more ), @jelt2359 , @knerian , @uncola , @MrButchi , @munch , @brencho (Dude, your speaker rig is unreal...stop wanting to upgrade before you've had a chance to listen to it! LOL, wish you were here to hear what it sounded like just thrown together, not even dialed or tuned in properly) and a bunch more people I am failing to mention!

@sphinxvc , Prashant, thanks for coming over! It was a pleasure to share music with you my friend. Dark Knight Rises was just unreal! You made me a fan. PLUS those records you brought....I'm going to do some listening with them tonight!

Last be absolutely not least @drfindley, Adam, you brought ALL that equipment and set it up yourself single handedly. I was supposed to come in early to help and I just wasn't able to. You deserve ALL the credit for what we all heard in that setup. IT WOULD HAVE NEVER happened without you doing all that. You didn't even complain one bit about that...hats off to you for being such a dear friend and audio buddy. You don't drink, but I'm going to pour some special Bunnahabhain 18 and drink to your happiness and success in everything you do in life. Cheers! To many years of friendship...Cheers to all of your friendships SBAF!!

Your In Music,
Gaurav

 

Really bummed that I didn't get to make this (and not just because the plane tickets and room went to waste*) it looks like it was a hell of a good time.

Seeing pictures of the Studio there has me very much more interested than I have been previously (my reservations with EC stuff have only ever been aesthetic, something I'm unduly hung-up about, but, still, hung-up on nonetheless). But that actually looks very neat. Going to have to find a way to hear one of these I think.

(*Work usurped my LA excursion with a last-minute trip to Ireland, which then got postponed before I made that flight; so I could have gone, and been back, and had a day in between, after all. At least the flights can be re-used, so I will have to use those to make it out to CA to hear the Studio before I investigate the WA234 any further).

 

REDACTED.

Whoops I forgot that it's not official yet. Thanks mods for censoring my post, well at least I got to know what it is before it got redacted.

 

@TMoney Glad you enjoyed my Dave also. Thanks for watching over it while I went around and talked to people and tried stuff out.

I wanted to join everyone for dinner but already had plans for my friend's birthday dinner.

 

Care to elaborate? Vidar successor (Thor?) or headphone realm?

 

I pulled an all-nighter the night before flying from ny to la. I did my best to listen to gear and hang out despite being extremely sleep deprived. Thanks @sphinxvc for rubbing it in! XD

The best part of the meet was getting to chat with all of you and put a face to the name, or in @sorrodje's case, a voice. I was shocked to learn that @SoupRKnowva is not Korean, why would you mislead us like that? I hope some of you guys will come visit the nyc crew, just hit me up if you need a place to stay.

I spent a good bit of time chatting with the holy trinity of headphone amp makers, @dsavitsk from ecp audio, Craig from Eddie Current and Donald from Donald North Audio. It was obvious that none of these guys are making amps for the money.

Given how much I have praised the torpedo 3 on sbaf, I could not wait to meet Doug in person. He showed up in la from Connecticut, and I was super grateful to talk with him and hear his new solid state amps. Doug loves to tinker and play with new topologies, he has bread-boarded over 100 hundred amps and you would not believe how many transformers he has put in some of them. Oh and btw, he got into building amplifiers after completing a diy kit from pete millette...because he knew he could build something better!

Donald is obsessed with great sound and hunts far and wide for the best parts to put in his amps. He is incredibly friendly and shared with me his love of the k1000 and good music. If you are looking for warm and gooey amps that have excellent sound stage and are super resolving, have a chat with Donald and you are sure to learn a ton.

Craig is different from the other two. He is not interested in what you think of his amps, they are exactly how he wants them to be and if you like it great. However he is happy to discuss just about anything else including his love of piano rolling. He let Chase and I have at his system so we could listen to our music and compare modded hd650’s. Afterwards he was curious to hear about the mods. Bottom line, the not so Korean guy’s headphones sounded the best, cleaner bass and lower mids.

So, if you haven’t already, add some dynamat to the magnet of your hd650s, it makes a big difference.

ECP DSHA-3(I think that’s what it was)

Doug’s amps are built differently than just about everyone else’s and I for one really like the way they sound. His amps are really aggressive and fast, they hit hard and always have clear and well extended highs. But they are also just a little bit warm and euphonic in the mids.

The solid state amp @TMoney bought fits the above description. It was crazy fast, aggressive and resolving but it still had some of that nice midrange warmth typical of tube amps. The treble was ever so slightly elevated and was really crisp and extended. Absolutely dead quiet, not a hint of glare or grain; the best solid state amp I have heard to date. @TMoney had a huge grin on his face listening to my modded 650s through his amp, a fantastic pairing in my opinion. I may not like the utopias but in my opinion they sounded much cleaner and more controlled through this amp than the many other amps I tried with the utopias.

EC STUDIO:

I spent at least 30 minutes comparing modded hd650s using the studio but it is still hard to describe the amp. In a nutshell I would say the studio was very lean and cold but had brilliant highs. The highs on the studio are unlike any other, much more detailed, much more dynamic and much more realistic. Listening to some prog metal through the hd650s, it is hard to deny how much I enjoyed the technical excellence of the amp. But, I don’t think I could live with the lean bright sound. I wish it had just a bit more warmth and low end energy.

ZDS

I was really looking forward to comparing the ZDS to the Torpedo 3. Thanks to @bazelio and @Jh4db536 and @RKML0007 , I was able to compare 2 torpedo 3s and two ZDSs. The torpedo 3 slams a bit harder, is a bit more aggressive but is not as focused and refined as the ZDS. The ZDS is slightly softer but equally resolving and is much more refined and layered. The zds has life size sound stage, and while warm is also quite aggressive and fast. The warmth in the zds is different than other amps, somehow cleaner and much more nuanced, like a peaty whiskey. I could get drunk on this sound. I really liked this amp. Deserves every bit of praise it gets.

Among the torpedo IIIs I have heard. I prefer mine the best. Bazelios t3 was fantastic and focused in the mids but lacked bass and was slightly smooth in the treble. Jh4db536 t3 with mundorfs and ccs boards was very cohesive with the hd650s but lacked slam and aggression compared to my t3.

UTOPIA:

I listened to 3 utopias out of at least 4 amps and every single time I heard nasty distortion in the bass and lower mids. Sounded a lot like resonance in the cups. The highs were really rough to my ears. So overall the utopia sounded lean, distorted and rough. Maybe I really am allergic to beryllium.

ELEAR:

I spent much less time with the elear but I thought it sounded less wrong than the utopia. There was more bass and it was cleaner than the utopia but still not quite right. The highs were a mess. Overall, a loose similarity to modded hd650s but not nearly as cohesive.

HE90 CLONES:

These had more bass than 007, 009 and he60 but were still too lean for me. The treble was also slightly too smooth for my taste. They were pleasant, musical and superbly refined. I found the clones more realistic than the other stats at the meet but I missed the bite and energy of dynamic headphones. If you are into stats, not sure it can get much better than this. Imaging, sound stage, tonal balance and transient response they did everything better than every other electrostatic headphone present.

 

@SoupRKnowva I thought you were my fellow Korean!

 

Seriously...apparently like half the forum thought I was Korean... >.>

 

I too had thought Soup was a fellow Korean until he came over my house for a mini-meet. Wonder if there are other Korean SBAF'ers beside me. 아무도 없나?

 

진짜 없다

 

Last shitposting. Time to increase S/N ratio.

 

@zerodeefex Actually I'm currently living in Taiwan. I'm only here for the month. I came for RMAF, visit family and friends, food, and SBAF meet. Leaving on Wed back to TW.

 

@drfindley It was awesome finding someone who likes aphex twin as much as I do, so I hope you wont take what I have to say the wrong way. In my opinion those marten speakers were holding back your setup. The highs and mids were fast and clear but the bass was distorting and sounded like it was overdriven.