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Author Topic: Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions  (Read 3902 times)

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Marvey

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Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions
« on: July 20, 2015, 05:25:16 AM »
Safely back home now. Once again, Warrenpeachy and Ethan put on a great show. A good change of pace this year was that the hobbyists were inter-spaced with the vendors, unlike least year were some hobbyists with some great gear (e.g., the guy with the Lampi) were stashed away away in some idiot room that we only noticed at the last minute.

Wow, so many years have gone by and it was good to see members of the old Bay Area crowd I used to hang around with when I lived up there. On the drive home, I nostalgically went back in time to the meet that CEETEE put together in 2011. I see the many of the same faces, except now our faces, necks, and bellies are all puffed up. Getting old sucks.

I recall CEETEE "Hey, you are Purrin?" at the entrance to the DoubleTree. I remember Whitney (Rhythmdevils) walking up to my table and dumping a dozen vintage headphones from his backpack. pcf dropped by with his HP1000s (a very memorable experience). Jason and Mike Moffat were there with the Asgard 1 and Lyr 1 (I didn't care for those amps - haha). Met n3rdling with his STAX setup which was like OMFG. And Frank Cooters' blue toob (mercury vapor rectifers) SE stat amp setup which IMO is still the most slamming stat amp I've heard to this day, including the one he brought to this year's meet. At the end of the meet (2011), a small group of us gathered together, disturbed and disappointed at the LCD2rev1 considering the rabid hype at HF about it. We quietly discussed if we should even say anything negative or against the grain on HF. Doc Bottlehead overheard us and said something to the effect of "At my age, if it's garbage, we call it garbage." I ended up taking those words to heart for myself.

Jump a few years later at the SofiTel meet, and there's this handsome brown dude with big huge eyes (zerofeedex) that I could tell had "rascal" written all over him. And then maybe a year back to the LAX Hilton were this kid, not even in high school (maccat) had this awesome setup with the HD650, a turntable, a Jolida phono-pre, and a Bottlehead Crack. I was like wow, this kid put on a better setup than 90% of the others with 25% of the budget.

The awesome thing about these meets is how many enduring friendships are made with people who have similar interests.



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zerodeefex

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Re: Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2015, 05:31:35 AM »
Oh my god. I was a lurker at 2012 and brought the TEAC and RWAK100 in 2013. I was so embarrassed by the casing job on my beta 22 and dynahi single ended that I never brought either.

I've met so many wonderful people and made so many friends at the meets. Genuinely wonderful guys with families and lives and hardcore day jobs and concerns that take up 90% of their time and they pour everything else they have into making this hobby and community amazing.

So, after the last meet we put on in Feb 2014, how many friends have you made at the Judemeets™ since?
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Marvey

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Re: Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2015, 05:34:47 AM »
Quote from: zerodeefex on July 20, 2015, 05:31:35 AM
Oh my god. I was a lurker at 2012 and brought the TEAC and RWAK100 in 2013. I was so embarrassed by the casing job on my beta 22 and dynahi single ended that I never brought either.

You realize that while I enjoyed speaking with you, I didn't bother listening to your POS setup. :-) I totally ignored it.

Quote from: zerodeefex on July 20, 2015, 05:31:35 AM
So, after the last meet we put on in Feb 2014, how many friends have you made at the Judemeets™ since?

Can you give me a minute to think about that? Let me go through my Rolodex to see if I can find a match.


P.S. Dammit, how much more crap have you owned that I didn't know about?
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kothganesh

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Re: Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2015, 05:36:26 AM »
Marv,

anything of note by way of new gear ?
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Marvey

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Re: Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2015, 05:37:47 AM »
Let me post pictures and we shall discuss. I am prohibiting myself from talking about amps, but I sent Ravi (zdfx) to listen to a few that I think he would have found "interesting". (zdfx, let me post pix first).
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n3rdling

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Re: Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2015, 05:39:15 AM »
That Norcal meet a couple years back was epic.  That's the only time I've mustered up the energy to go to a NorCal meet but it left such a positive impression that I'm still tempted to go everytime I see them having another meet. 

I could've sworn I met you before that...I'm thinking one time at GoldenEars' house in Venice?  I think we did a shootout between his Wadia and my Accuphase via the BH and SR-Omega.  Good times.
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zerodeefex

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Re: Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2015, 05:40:39 AM »
Quote from: marvey on July 20, 2015, 05:34:47 AM
P.S. Dammit, how much more crap have you owned that I didn't know about?

Oh god. CEE TEE has heard about half the list. I've owned the 580, 600, 650, a newer 650 and a newer 600. And that's JUST the HD580/6XX family. Now explode that out over all the gear out there and cry for me.
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Marvey

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Re: Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions
« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2015, 05:56:13 AM »
Quote from: n3rdling on July 20, 2015, 05:39:15 AM
That Norcal meet a couple years back was epic.  That's the only time I've mustered up the energy to go to a NorCal meet but it left such a positive impression that I'm still tempted to go everytime I see them having another meet. 

I could've sworn I met you before that...I'm thinking one time at GoldenEars' house in Venice?  I think we did a shootout between his Wadia and my Accuphase via the BH and SR-Omega.  Good times.

My memory blurs. The Goldenears meet... where I met Craig and Anaxilus. Anaxilus' first question to me and my face: "soooo..... what do you think about the LCD2?" (probably his test of whether I was an idiot or not).

That 2011 Doubletree event was indeed an epic meet. Just the energy. CEETEE skillfully arranged vendors and hobbyists to be mixed in together. Mostly hobbyists and probably a half-dozen vendors. I can only remember Jason, Mike, and Doc Bottlehead. Different feel. They didn't seem like vendors at all.
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Marvey

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Re: Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2015, 05:57:42 AM »
Some seriously unobtainable or expensive amps here.
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Marvey

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Re: Head-Fi Bay Area Meet 2015 Impressions
« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2015, 06:00:06 AM »
CEETEE has the best look when listening to headphones.

Across my table... the Schiit stuff. Jason and gang didn't personally make it to this one. I don't blame them. Hitting meet after meet is hard work.
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