Yes it was fun seeing the Chang gang all out in full force. We have an
awesome group of guys here. It's a shame not everyone could be there.
A bit of back story on gogators:
While going through the roster list, we noticed that a user named macgig, who expressed interest in attending, ended up being gogators/nkkuma/faithmore, the same guy that's been leveraging the good faith of honest Head-Fi'ers for good deals on headphones and then flipping them for outrageous prices on eBay. So, we were all doing moral inventory and trying to decide what to do if/when he showed up -- deny him entry? call him out in front of everyone? simply let him hang out amidst the honest folks? take him to a vacant storage closet and beat the shit out of him?
We weren't exactly sure what was going to happen, but we did print him out a special name tag with a scarlet letter so that he had to wear his shame:
Other highlights for me-These awesome shirts thanks to Anaxilus and Purrin(RD, I have yours):
-Anax's shirt says "Analmorticus" on it.
-When purrin, shipsupt and I were hanging out at the registration desk and a member checks in with his HD700 in hand. I say "oh nice. I've been wanting to audition those" (it's crazy how absent the HD700 is from these meets). He replies, "yeah, these are so awesome. They're spacious and they image so well. I know they get a bad rap..." all the while purrin is smirking says, "yeah, that's partially my fault". After an awkward moment, the guy admits, "well honestly, with some music they do make my head hurt."
-@shipsupt letting us hang out at his room until past midnight the night before even though he was jet-lagged from traveling all the way from the UK. Beers on us any time you're back in town.
-Post-meet dinner with the guys. Most of us were dead tired by then, but it was lots of fun. VERY good Afghan food too, thanks to Yelp.
I didn't listen to much gear at all, but some that I remember:
-Electra + ESP-950/modded Jades/Omega II -- Really stellar amp. These guys aren't joking when they say the ESP-950 almost sounds like a different headphone out of this amp. This may not be everyone's cup of tea, as I can see some folks thinking its a tad too lush, but for me it strikes a good balance between technicalities and euphony.
-After giving away my M-80, I've been wanting another set but have been waiting to hear the M-100 first. After some head time with the M-100, I'll be getting another M-80. It's way too bassy to be a versatile, all-arounder portable headphone, in my opinion. I had to double-check to make sure they weren't the Crossfade LP2's. Strangely, I heard it later on in the day at Larry's table and thought -- whoa, these don't sound too bad at all. Then realized it was plugged in to a Benchmark.
-Listened to Larry's 009's for a while. They are a technical marvel, but it takes a while for my brain to adjust to them. It's almost as if the decay is way too fast and ends up sounding a bit unnatural. I imagine I'd get used to the "Stax" sound after living with them for a while, but it's a bit jarring at first.
-Bought a pair of baby Stax from verber. I believe it's the original 001 (not MK2). Very pleasant presentation. Super smooth, and warm. The treble will probably not satisfy most people though (myself included perhaps), and there's a bit of bloom/veil. But it's a nice compliment to the hyper-de
tailed UERM.
-Craig was running an LCD2 out of his DIY amp, which isn't anything special (especially compared to the rest of his lineup). But for ~$100 for completed build, it's a no-brainer to buy one. It was in a cool minimal case with the Eddie Current logo embossed on top, which he said he's not offering (I asked if cases were included, and he said "hell, just put the thing in a pie plate"). I'm hoping we can generate enough interest to do a small group-buy for them.
