Brought this up in the chatbox months ago, but a recent thread involving a porn shoot mini-meet motivated my lazy ass. So here's the thread:

This was a three day meet in Shanghai. I'm pretty sure everyone has owned/audition most of the gear here so I'll just give some impressions of what stood out and stuff not usually mentioned on Chang. First some pictures:

Day 1:

I like Martin's work, so I showed them some Martin Grados. Also made a couple threads on erji.

Martin now has to suffer emails written in Chingrish (sorry Martin ):




BHSE + Mullard XF2 courtesy of Tari.



HEV90 (second revision) + HE90 courtesy of Milos. (Btw Milos YGPM)



TTVJ 307a w/ Pinnacle transformers. This was brought by a friend who purchased it from DannyB on HF. More on this later.



This the Airbow SR-SC21, a modded 507. Airbow is a company that mods stax in Japan. I didn't get a chance to listen to these but my friend says they have better resolution and dynamics then the 507.



This is what lemon pledge does for wood cans (must apply with finger and loving caress). I now own 3 bottles and my pinky is forever ruined.



Other stuff:





Day 2:

First and third day were decent for critical listening (just a small group of friends). Something went wrong the second day.





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Jeff Rowland Aeris.



Qualia 010. Many thought this was the best out of the dynamics, they also got what I meant when I said senn copied many elements of the 010 while making the 800.



An amp made by the guy wearing the 010 above, design was based on the RKV MKii. What impressed me was he wound the 4 transformers used by hand (which were then "sealed" in something... maybe oil?). Sounded much better than the original with RD/Don modded YH100s. Thing also weighs a ton.



Btw the original RKV MKii sounds like shit (@France). Just not something I'd pay 2k for.. the guy who made the amp above left it at the headphone shop the meet was at for around 3 years. I guess he doesn't like it that much either.

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Sources at the meet: Meridian 808.2i, Jeff Rowland Aeris, AMR DP-777 (the CD player, not the DAC that recently popped up at HF), Linn Klimax DS, Electrocompaniet ECC1, Weiss DAC 202, DAC2 HGC, Northstar usb dac32.

Amps: TTVJ 307a, HEV90, BHSE, Goldenwave GA-09, ATH HA2002, DIY amps X2, RKV MKii, Stax 007Tii, Stax 727

Headphones: Only half made it into the pictures.



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Gear pron taken by expensive cameras (and my cellphone):
















Day 3:

Last money shot - Jades:






Sources:

Meridian 808.2i :  Tonally dark, lush sound signature. Fat booty, bass control wasn't that great. Imaging just didn't feel right at times, lacked a coherent presentation. Owner and a few others told me these are decent only as a "speaker source".

Aeris: Warm, laid back. Tonally it reminded me of my old Cantata, though with better resolution and dynamics.  Overpriced at the MSRP (10k) and still overpriced at market value of 7k (new). At this range I'd take a Bricasti M1 or the Analog.

AMR-CD777: Top end was blunted. Sounded abit thin throughout the spectrum, but the midrange was very organic and smooth. If it's any indication of how the DAC sounds... Nope.

Electrocompaniet ECC1: You will never see or hear this source in your life. And I hope, for your sake, that it stays that way.

The RDS didn't make an appearance that day as there was too much junk flying around, but hopefully I have the chance to extensively audition it in the future.

Amps/Cans:

Orpheus combo and the Omega+BHSE stole the show. Consensus was that the Orpheus had a colored sound that suited classical (all) and the Omega was more neutral (compared to the 009, sweeter treble, better midrange, airier, poor dynamics/ bass, humongous soundstage). One guy commentated that it had the best upper range reproduction he had ever heard in headphones, and he might have creamed himself a little while listening to Norah Jones. I wasn't sure if he understood a word of English though.

Having no suitable amp to pair with this is where the 009s sat for most of the meet:



Might be a meet in the near future involving a T2, BHSE, LLv2 and Electra (shoutout to lmswjm for selling his to a friend here in China  ).

TTVJ 307a: Having not heard the stock version I'm not sure what the Pinnacle transformers did for this. Compared to the BA this amp sounds lean er and faster. Like the BA it has a clean & clear® sound for tubes. Comparatively it has a more forward soundstage and it is a much more neutral amp, even with the KR PX4's on the BA. Soundstage not quite as big but beastly imaging, edged out the BA in both instrument separation and layering.

It drives orthos better than the BA, bass has more authority and slam and the sound has a whole has more meat, but didn't do as well with the 010's as it has a brighter sound than the 300B BA.. which only exacerbates the 010's treble issues. I'm thinking the 307a would do better in terms of variety (headphones) than the BA, while the BA excels with a couple. Definitely an amp I'd pay cash moneys for, especially since the tubes are cheap and tube rolling options are limited (BA after tube costs is quite extravagant).

My BA setup: drivers are Mullard ECC33, TS BGRP VT-99. KR PX4, Vaic VV30b, Old WE 300b.

R10 gets a notable mention. Get these if they pop up. Jades (unmodded) were rated as "between the 009/007" in terms of sonic signature. Nobody gave the YH100's a second glance, even after listening to them, which suits me fine. Suckers.

All-in-all not a very productive meet for me. Other than the 307a I got nothing out of it other than pretty pictures.