Yup, at this point the potential of the Levi will be the quality and performance of the available tubes and transformers available.  I even had an idea for a new super duper PS that Mike Moffat thought was a good idea that he feels has yielded proven results, but I think Craig would crush my skull in with a Levi when I wasn't looking.

Had an awesome time! At the beginning I was doing my rounds to see what gear was out there to sample, and ran into Che Guevara. He had this awesome set of enigmatic cans from some guy that goes by LFF:



The black one was warm sounding and the grey one was detailed sounding. Pads where different. Che was driving LFF cans with a Cavalli Liquid Glass amp which did a fantastic job.



Che also had pretty awesome songs in his laptop.



Some dude to his left was selling doggie treats for some reason. His cans were OK.

Another highlight of the event was the uber-awesome Cooter electrostat. With it the Stax cans recovered their ballz. It could have been the CDs in the transport or maybe Frank had some equalizer hidden below the table, but IMO the best electrostat in the show IMO, YMMV. Additionally, the toobs will light up the room like a boss. Not many got to hear this amp cuz of location. Selfishly that was fine by me cuz I got to hear quite a few songs out of it w a minimum of fuss.



Now, this is also the first time a hear the AKG K1000s. Saw them and thought these wouldn't have what it takes... WRONG. Loved these weirdo-phones a lot. Out the Mjolnir these delivered the goods and then some. I was told these were the "bassy ones"... maybe, but liked very much what I heard.



Another setup that I liked a lot was the one with the DNA Stratus. I liked it way more this time around than when I heard it at a previous LA meet... Perhaps it was the cans. I also got to talk with Donald about the Aurasound mini-full range speakers. Got good pointers about them. Dude knows his stuff.



Went over to the HeadAmp table and saw a beautiful BHSE and a black GSX2 with a bunch of cans. This time I tried the GSX2 with the HD800s, HE6s, and LCD-3... Think I tried some modern jazz. Yup HD800 and HE6 don't mix with GSX2, but LCD-3 was OK. With classical music, which I also heard through this setup, things might be also OK.



N3rds had his HeadAmp Aristaeus around. I thought it was pretty nice! In fact, I think I personally prefer that one to the BHSE. It was a short listen though. Meet conditions. Whatever. Very nice and enjoyable setup though. Always wanted to try it, and sure delivered the goods.


 
OJ brought his Torpedo as well. Liked it better than the Crack going by memory. Paired very well with his HD600s.



Got a chance to hear the Levi too with Anaxes HD800ses. Really nice setup with huge transformers to fondle. Huge toobs too. One does need a proper place to put it though. I think the table started to bend. Very detailed combo there with a great microdynamics.



Heard the Woo electrostat setup too. I was expecting a bit of warmth, but I felt it was a bit glaring actually. Maybe it was the cans.



Ohhgourami brought in his modded HE-6s along with a ridiculously sized Krell amp... And liked what I heard. I think he did a great job in the mod. Got to measure them (before and after)... dude is obsessive



The guy that was from Light Harmonics (no more with them) brought in some pretty cool gear. Got to hear the Carrot One he brought and thought it was pretty good with the LCDs in his table. He also had a pretty nice set of mini hi-fi speaker setup there. I did not hear the speaker setup though, but he was in proly the most busy room along with Sennheiser, Apogee, and so on, so it would have been hard to appreciate them.







Jude making the rounds... proly making sure business is taken care off, and things are running smoothly.



Heard the Oppos too, but who know what pads this time. They were OK. Heard the setup that Alex had with some correction going on and felt it was very nice indeed.



And here are the guyses! An honor sitting next to Che!

Og finally got a "real" Krell. His new 100lbs Krell makes his old "fake" Krell sound like a piece of shit. I have a picture of it somewhere and I forgot to post / mention it here. I really liked that big Krell. It's similar sounding to the Krell Klone that I heard a few meets back. Bass is neutral and not overbearing. Clear, refined, and very microdynamically adept. Actually has some tubish qualities in that way.

Family member passed so I've been busy elsewhere.

@n3rdling:  The reason why I like having a lot of gear there - especially from manufacturers - is because nothing beats an audition.  Ultimately, auditions shed the light of (personal) truth more than any number of reviews, impressions, recommendations, etc.  For example, I feel a very specific way about certain A-T cans - the ATH-M50 in particular - that runs counter to popular opinion.  I can post myself blue in the face, running a gauntlet of fanboys, or I can just have A-T come and bring their gear so people can try it out themselves.  This also lessens the burden on us bringing all of that gear.  Because we can't all be heroes and bring out our entire collections (lookin' at you CEE TEE).  Having manufacturers, and sometimes distributors, helps a lot.

Also, it's important to keep in mind that there are noobs coming into this hobby all the time, and having a ton of gear there makes for a very valuable experience for them.  A lot of us have done this, and done that, so it does nothing for us.  But for the new people, it could make a world of difference in terms of how they progress through the hobby.

And finally, I am seeing a ton of personal audio events pop up around the country and around the world... many at established audio shows.  This is generally a good thing, because as the industry grows, events need to keep pace.  However, I personally believe that manufacturers should be kept, both close to, and accountable to, the community.  Many of them began their journeys and/or their recent surge in popularity with us - and I think it should always be that way.  So, for as long as possible, I'd like to see them prioritize us over a rank-and-file consumer.  Maybe I'm being possessive about that, but that's how I feel.

@burnspbesq:  that might be kind of tough, not so much from a monetary standpoint, but from a logistical standpoint.  Let's consider someone like Brannan or Dan, who will drive in for a meet.  I doubt that they will want to leave home butt ass early to drive over, so they will probably do what they always do, which is come in the night before.  At a hotel, they can set up some basic banners and such the night before, crash out, then have a bellhop cart stuff down the morning of.

At the convention center, it would be a different story.  They would have to get to their hotel, and unload all of the stuff into their hotel rooms (because they don't want to have all of that sit in the car overnight).  Then, they'd have to re-pack the car in the morning, get over to the convention center, unpack again (possibly at the hands of union-priced unloaders) and then set up.

Why don't they set up in the convention center the night before?  Because then we'd have to purchase insurance for them (or they would have to purchase insurance themselves) to leave the gear there overnight.  Or they can go uninsured, but that's a pretty stupid thing to do.  And even with insurance, that doesn't prevent catastrophe.  Gear can still be stolen or damaged, and although they would be reimbursed monetarily, their meet is now shot and a complete waste of time.

Or they can just get up butt ass early and drive down - which I'm sure they would love (not).  And that's just for the locals.  Any exhibitor flying in from out of town will have a much harder time than that.

And preferably closer to downtown!