Basically a Mad Dog that still wasn't quite as smooth and/or articulate in the treble as I expected. Overall balance was good, or at least, less laid back than the Mad Dog. Maybe "unrefined" is the right word to use.

Really enjoy hanging out with Insidious Meme, LFF and Paul. Good times!!!

My THA-SHO Saturday afternoon impressions...

Geek Wave

Great bass control and detailed mids. These guys can pack a lotta class-A punch in such a small set of systems.

The treble was harder for me to assess. With Allan Parson's "Eye in the Sky" and with Stevie Wonder "Superstition" it did great. However, with the copy they had of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" it was a bit harsh and bright.

Hope to see these again sometime soon. The practicality of these solutions appeal to me.



Kingsound KS-H2

IMO much better than their previous offering. From short impressions, these have better mids and extension on both ends relative to what I heard from their first generation cans.

It helps that I get a decent seal with their cup design. Right next to these were the ESP950s (E/90 Amp), Lambda Novas, and SR-009s (SRM-323 I think). Unfortunately I could not get decent seal out of the ESP950s and the Lambdas, which makes a comparison unfair. But I did get decent seal out for the 009s.

It was not immediately obvious to me that the 009 was far superior to the KS-H2s, and would have to give these two another shot if I ever get a chance (the 009 destroyed KS previous offering though)... Think the KS-H2s are $700, which IMO is not bad for a set of stat cans that fit me. Aesthetically these are better looking than what they had available before.



HE-560

This time around Insidious Meme and I had a chance to compare these head to head with not one but two stock Oppo cans. Both, IM and I felt the Oppo's were relatively laid back and perhaps too smooth. Relatively speaking, the Oppos where closed sounding. The HE-560s were better extended, and a lot more dynamic. I felt the HE-560s had a clear upper hand over the Oppos in terms of SQ. The Oppo's however are much more sensitive and easier to drive.

From what Fang said, it seem these use one-sided planar magnetic drivers (similar perhaps to the Abyss), and use pads that use some of Jerg's ideas.

Construction is a different matter. I did not like the plastic + veneer look presentation of these cans, and told so to Fang. It seems these decisions where based on cost and weight. Fang should use some endangered wood for the cups, and replace the plastic assembly with some sort of Titanium alloy... then charge TOTL stat prices. Win-win.



Obravo HAMT-1

These cans use hybrid dynamic/Heil-AMT drivers, which give them a high cool factor. I felt the mids were a bit wonky and weird, but who knows.

My blurry pic (use the powar of google to get a better pic):



ADL H118

At first I thought these full size closed cans were not to bad at all. Bassy, but not to bad. Fun perhaps. However, with some songs I did feel these had quite a bit of distortion somewhere in the upper mids or lower treble. Maybe something was up with the demo cans.



Schiit Stuff

Asgard 2 might have been a bit U-shaped for me, but had no problems handing the HD6 50s. Treble was not edgy or piercing, which I highly appreciate. I felt the Vali amp offered better detail.

Valhalla 2 is a step up (from Asgard 2) IMO, and this time it works well with lower impedance cans such as Grados and much of the mainstream stuff. Very nice amp.



Focal Grande Utopia EM speakers

Well, they are grandes and look pesadas, they sounded meh IMO. Maybe it was the room, or the recording, or the amp, or the DAC, or maybe it's me.



Wilson (Sasha I think)

There where a set of Wilson's playing on a large room and another on a smaller room. They did OK on the larger room, but horrible on the smaller room. Didn't jot more notes about it.

Big room:



Acapella Atlas

Apparently these are like ~$99,000. To me they sounded boxy and bright. Proly a room or a "it's me" issue.

They do look cool though.



Marten Coltrane Tenor

Walked in, thought they were bright, walked out... ~$77k I think.



WA Grand Teton

These bookshelfs look interesting. The mids sound OK and they produce quite a bit of apparent bass for their size... But muddy IMO.

Site linky

Perfect 8 Technologies "The Force"

Seems like an open glass narrow baffle line array design with no bass which absolutely requires the glass sub. Needs a big room and sitting far behind for coherence. ~$566K of WTFness.



Piraeus Athena

Really good sound all around, but narrow sweet spot.



Muraudio PX1

I really like these speakers. I was expecting complete failure, but was pleasantly surprised. Seems like an omni-directional electrostatic transducer together with a LF dynamic driver. I liked the integration and sound feel. Again, very pleasantly surprised... $58k



Voxativ Pi

Listened to these to reminisce about Marv's 'ol full range speakers. These were OK in the short amount of time I listened, but Marv's where speshul.



Nola Metro Grand Reference

Notes: No likey, too bright. Proly the recording they were using. Dunno.



Magico Q7

WTF where these guys playing! Maybe sort of OK I guess. Hard to say with the contemporary pseudo-techno they were playing.



Kef LS50

Liked them before. Checked them out again. Still like them a lot. Making my wallet a bit uncomfy.



CARS

My fav:







Awesomeness:















Dunno this amp's name, reputation, or referenceness, but it should make up for any sort of size inferiority complex...

Kingsound KS-H2

IMO much better than their previous offering. From short impressions, these have better mids and extension on both ends relative to what I heard from their first generation cans.

It helps that I get a decent seal with their cup design. Right next to these were the ESP950s (E/90 Amp), Lambda Novas, and SR-009s (SRM-323 I think). Unfortunately I could not get decent seal out of the ESP950s and the Lambdas, which makes a comparison unfair. But I did get decent seal out for the 009s.

It was not immediately obvious to me that the 009 was far superior to the KS-H2s, and would have to give these two another shot if I ever get a chance... Think the KS-H2s are $700, which IMO is not bad for a set of stat cans that fit me. Aesthetically these are better looking than what they had available before.

That was my booth! But I think you were there on Saturday. I was not at my booth.


I had the ESp-950's, 009's, and King Sounds at my booth. Glad you got to compare.


I listened to the KKS-H2's with the King Sound amp for a little bit. They definitely sound better than their previous models, but I still didn't like them. I much prefer the Stax 009 and even the ESP-950's. The upper bass/low mids sounded kind of hollow to me.  The earlier models had the same issue but worse. Maybe I should try them with the Vostok amp instead.

HIGHLIGHTS....





The GeekWave is the sh1t...


Yes, it sounded bad with Billie Jean but IMHO, it was a bad vinyl transfer of Billie Jean NOT the GeekWave. Can't wait to get mine!!!! Gavin was super nice and his friends were very accommodating too!


HE-560


No joke...it sounds SOOOO much better than the craptastic Oppo PM-1. Fang did a great job with the HE-560.  


THE MUSIC!





Got to record two bands in binaural sound with the help of Assistant Engineer Adam Bernardi aka abernardi. The recordings actually came out quite good using "George". As you all might know, "George" is my newest binaural head...litterally...this version is just a head with no torso and a few other tricks not implemented on "Donny Lou". Electronic components built by none other than the great dbel84. Both performances had wind but you can't hear a single gust in the recordings! 


The ONLY speaker room I walked in that actually impressed me (VERY HARD TO DO!!) was the room by Fritz Speakers. VERY organic sounding and the man actually had MUSIC playing at a REASONABLE volume.   The owner is a nice guy too with a great sense of humor.  BEST OF SHOW for me this year!


The only other thing to kinda impress me was a tall blonde wearing a red dress. Beautiful girl.