Marv or anyone else, did you get a chance to talk to Dan (and possibly Jason) about the leak? How did Dan react?

Yup, that's why I was wondering about the feeling in the room and what Dan might have to say.

A follow up: did anyone who attended in person feel it was awkward or strange for Mr. Speakers to be squatting at the Schiit event? Especially since they decided to steal the HF thunder with their own announcement the day before?

• The event as was advertised as a Schiit-Show. Not a Shiit / Mr.Speakers Joint Show. Setting proper expectations for the customer / attendee is paramount IMO. For these kinds of things, I don't like surprises.

• Following up on that thought, for a Schiit-Show (which was really more of a customer appreciation event), Mr.Speakers presence was more overwhelming than expected or wanted. Every table had Mr.Speakers Ether and Ether-C headphones. Every table had the Mr.Speakers writeup and measurements for the Ether-C. One of the Rag/Yggy stacks had both Mr.Speakers and his assistant's business cards in business card holders on top. Since I was expecting a "Schiit-Show", the back of my mind sort of goes WTF? Coupled with Jude's super front page announcement and glowing praise of the Ether-C on HF tying into this event, it felt like "ewww yuck, don't get your cooties on me" or like someone is trying to shove something in my face. Nobody likes that feeling. It's like how the fuck did the Schiit Show become a Jude/HF/Mr.Speakers circus show too? I know some other people felt the same way, but will never say it, except Ravi.

• As some of you guys pointed out, Jason and Mike were never in the room. That puts a lot less pressure on people in the room listening to the stuff - so they can more freely and openly talk about the gear. Dan was in the room a lot. I'm sure he wanted people to like his headphones; but that sort of puts a damper of discussion inside the room. Throwing out impressions to each other, re-listening for certain things, that's a big part of this hobby.

• Tubes (real) take the Mjolnir 2 to the next level. While the real tubes shift the tonal balance to "more fun" relative to the SSTs, i.e. more bass and more present mid-treble, tubes really do liven up and increase the "technicalities" of the Mjolnir: more resolving, increased macro dynamics, more gradations of small volume contrasts, and more open. In essence, more engaging, the sort of engaging that makes you NOT want to put the headphones down. In my opinion (and these words are borrowed from someone else), the Mjolnir was always meant to have tubes. I wouldn't worry about the "treble" comment. It's relative to the SSTs and it's not edgy (we are talking about tubes after all), and it doesn't preclude the use of HD800s. The tonal balance comments do need to be tempered by the fact that I don't know what tubes were used. There is a huge selection of tubes what will work, and I know you can get all sorts of different tunings with the 6922s. Finally, I'll say this again: Lyr or Vali fans would very well served by upgrading to the Mjolnir 2. [I'm actually very tempted to pick one up for myself]
• I know a lot of people like the Lyr 2 because of its bass, warmth, and slam and I totally respect this view. However, the SSTs actually make the Lyr 2 more neutral sounding. The SSTs tighten up the Lyr 2's sound, provide a better transient response, a faster sound with more delineated lines and articulation. This is my personal preference, and to me (again, borrowing words from someone else), the Lyr was always meant to have SSTs. My view is that the tubes for in Lyr 2 don't actually do anything other than offer more bass and more slam. The Lyr 2 isn't as technically capable of as the Mjolnir 2, so the good things that tubes normally bring to the table (non-mist clarity, resolution, microdynamics) isn't as evident. So in this case, I'll take more control and more precision rather than more warmth and slam.