Superbestaudiofriends Boston Meetup 11-11-17 Blink HighEnd Cambridge

Discussion in 'The Meeting Place' started by Lou Casadonte, Nov 9, 2017.

  1. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Maybe too many so I'll try just a few. Thanks everyone for showing up it was a great turnout with great hosts in Blink High End. Great time, great gear and it was fantastic to meet such nice people.[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  2. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Okay a couple more then:
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  3. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    k, a few more then:
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  4. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Final Installment:
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  5. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    I think it was the quantity in one post. I never tried to post 30+ pics in one post! Great to meet you @spwath
     
  6. Vansen

    Vansen Gear Master (retiring)

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    Thanks for putting on a great meet @Lou Casadonte.

    Main takeaway for me: I thought someone turned on a new set of speakers everytime @porkfriedpork started listening to a new pair of headphones. :headbang:
     
  7. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    Takeaways for me, apart from Vansens point:

    People want you to be careful around speakers when they cost upwards of 100k
    HD800 actually do have a lot of treble, and the mod actually fixes it
    AEON closed sound really good, may be my next phone
    Audioquest Nighthawks sound pretty bad, but some people like them
    I didn't notice too much of a difference between my Valhalla and the Aficionado, so I'm sticking with the amp I have for now
    $7k+ chairs are comfortable, but not that comfortable. The recliner I have in my dorm we got at goodwill for $8 might be better
    MIT has a lot of security and wont let you crash their parties, and Harvard doesn't have that many parties
    The parking attendant at the garage didn't seem to be speaking English, or any language for that matter
     
  8. ButtUglyJeff

    ButtUglyJeff Stunningly beautiful IRL

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    "Swag" is the only word that comes to mind. I'm glad you all had a good time with good looking gear...
     
  9. JoshMorr

    JoshMorr Friend

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    Ok some impressions:

    This was a very interesting meet. Started off with a weird vibe. Meets for last 2 years or so have been at NinjaPirates house or college kids basement apartments. Now we are In Cambridge going to a hifi store which is located in a residential complex on the 4th floor in a regular apartment? Get there and there is a full sized piano in the middle of the room and greeted by host / hostess with fancy snacks on silver platters. Certainly not a regular meet. Mood started a but stuffy as people who are unfamiliar with each other are all packed into a apartment and getting talked to about standing too close to the $110k speakers. I actually think this is what quickly bonded us all, and in the end made this a great meet. We were all thrown into a pretty uncomfortable situation and ended up kinda taking over and having a good time.

    Things that stuck with me:

    Vansen being one of the worlds coolest guy. Where did this dude come from? A) he brought exclusive gear B) he complimented my music selection (easy way to become a friend of mine) C) has a good and quick ear. Only downfall he is a portables guy, writing him off just to be safe.

    Speaking of ultra exclusive massdrop x cavalli amps, Van happened to have cans to perfectly compliment them. I didn't have high aspirations for these guys (Liquid carbon prototype and CTH), but they both sounded quite a bit better than I thought they would. Modi Multibit + CTH + HD6xx combo was the value buy of the day and be near the top of my list of suggestions to redditors graduating to big boy setups. Tough to beat for $700 or so. CTH was very pleasant tonally, played to strengths of 6xx and didn't make it sound like a dull and flat like some lower end amps tend to do. Im a Liquid Carbon hater having heard first version enough times to have mental image of warm grainy try hard balanced amp. This PCB sitting on the table - paired with HE500 wasn't bad. Didn't hear the grain I was expecting, and had enough power to give the he500 a bit of punch and speed. Van is a master Audio Sommelier. Man also paired HD800 with a balanced dac (Sony gold thing?) and it sounded normal, better than normal sounded like it was being powered with a full size setup.

    IHA1 - Topic of hot discussion among me and some friends. Is this amp any good? Short answer yes, longer answer its going to force you to become a member of the cult of glowing delights. I heard the amp with HD650 and HD800 and its a high quality tube amp - stage/image of a good tube amp, detailed etc. Punchy, neutral, everything that you would hope from a good tube amp. I told all this to Pork the owner of the amp, adn also mentioned that it had a tiny bit of grain or harshness. He said that he could fix that, ran around, grabbed a new rectifier tube (and dropped previous one of on the ground, RIP) and said try it again. Now the amp was smooth and more laid back at the cost of some detail. It was honestly a completely different amp, I have heard about this before, but never believed that amps really change that much with tube rolling. About half the people I know that have this amp have obsessively tried every variant and approximate equivalent tube they can think of in each spot and I thought they were insane (think head-fi Feiks Elise thread). Anyway, tube rollers delight (for better or worse) and a solid recommendation for an amp that falls in the rarely good $2000 tube amp price range.

    Sonoma - The E-stat combo that Tyll likes. Doesnt really sound like an stat. Sounds like a dynamic, but sounds pretty good. Some exotic unobtainable dac was feeding it, but didnt sound that sweet to what I'm assuming is the analog inputs being converted to digital and then back to analog with internal dac. Sounded more natural than all of the other stax I've heard, no plastic timbre fake whatever stax signature sound is. Also, the cans look like they ripped off hd6x0 platform. Amp doesn't get very loud for some reason, need quieter setting, didnt think it was end all be all in detail, but if this cost $2k instead of $5k they would have something. I will wait for V3.0

    Sitting right next to this was the newish senneheiser SS amp to go with HD800, hdvd 820 or something. Pretty good amp. too bright and peaky with stock hd800, but smoothed out with modded hd800s. amp was designed to do with this headphone and sennheiser did a decent job. No idea what this costs, but I assume its over priced if its from Senn.

    Utopia - My first time hearing utopia - 18 months or so after it came out. Super classy high end fit and finish. Sounds really really nice. Not quite as open and airy as HD800, but tonally probably a bit more exciting and a good change of pace. Other technicalities close to hd800, but just a different flavor of a high end can. Sounded great on everything we plugged it into. Hype is real, Im just late to the party figuring it out.

    Cayin IHA6 / HE6 combo - cheapest way to get he6 to sound "right". Great get by @porkfriedpork

    Grace M9xx / hd600 combo - hahahahahahhaha, no

    Our host was Blink High End - and the owner had a really good set of ears. He isnt really a headphone guy, but was interested wide assortment of gear even though he ususally sells $250k speakers. I tried a couple of tests with the man (stock hd800 vs modded, a/b a couple of things) and he was always spot on and knew what he was listening to. I've always assumed these guys had little to no training or experience and were full of shit.

    It was cool meeting SBAFers who haven't been out before - thanks guys! All the regulars, cant wait until next time. As always I forgot half the stuff ive listened too, missed half of the decent setups, but the people are what make these things cool. Lou is the man for setting us up with this crazy spot. Certainly a memorable one. Thanks!
     
  10. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    Oh, so you are Josh. That makes sense. I wasn't really sure who everyone was.

    Seemed like a real nice place. The lady asked me about my major, and when I said I was Mechanical with Acoustics Concentration, she said she would email me when they have a designer/engineer come down like they sometimes do. That would be interesting. Very nice place. Fancy piano, fancy speakers, fancy things to prevent the fancy cables from touching the floor and/or kinking.

    But I have to say, the best thing I heard there was the Aeon closed. My college life does not budget that for now, but I could probably save up for them eventually, if I manage to save my money (which I usually don't).

    I'm glad I wasn't too impressed by the multiple thousand dollar systems.

    Also a bit skeptical about the $27000 media source being worth it...
     
  11. Vansen

    Vansen Gear Master (retiring)

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    Don't leave me in a room alone with your music collection and an external hard drive.

    Other thoughts:

    Something was wrong with the Utopia that was on hand. The bass during the intro of Explosions in the Sky's 'Loosing the Light' was actually causing rattling in the right ear cup.

    The AK240 actually sounded really good, and I don't like A&K players. I'll have to borrow one sometime in the future.

    I liked the Sonoma Acousitcs electrostat headphone. The timbre was nice, which I wasn't expecting with an electrostat. This looks like it might use parts from the same bin as the HD600 family. The amp with it will not drive it very loud, but it's plenty loud enough for my tastes. If I were in the market for a full sized setup, I might audition this further. (edit: Looks like Josh and I are of similar impressions.)
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2017

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