[Berndt]

Most positive.
Great to meet  some new AC faces.
The dac showdown was interesting, through the mapletree.
Going to shift towards a squeezebox, dac thingy now.

[Berndt]

The smga's received a thumbs up, not to mention the swarm subwoofer system.

[R_burke]

Chili and hospitality were awesome 

Not sure I can get behind the idea of a squeezebox, or music server in general.  Lot of work to load the music, just so you don't have to use a CD Player. 

Nothing wrong with the sound, especially using a DAC, and they are less expensive than a high end CDP, but I already have one of those, so going to a server doesn't make much sense to me. 

The modded maggies were very good and the swarm sub-array integrates well with them, but having four subwoofers (even though they are small) wouldn't work in my household (WAF)

Enjoyed meeting everyone and exchanging ideas, etc. 

Thanks to Berndt and Denise for the great time

[Sonny]

well, my first NorCal gig...
Thanks Bill and Denise for hosting and also the awesome chilli!!!
Good to meet the rest of the gang...
R_Burke is right, the squeeze box sounded darn good!!!  I was amazed!  I didn't think it could do it as a front end, but it sounded quite good, especially using an external DAC...
The Maggies, 1s, right Bill? Sounded awesome?  Nice mod you got!  They made rock so mellow it was listenable yet, acoustic guitar on Bob Scaggs sounded wonderful!!!
Too bad I had to leave, would have like to stay to hear the true DAC shoot out...

Guys, what was the outcome???

Thanks
 

[Berndt]

the maggies are SMGA's, modded by magnestand...http://www.indiespinzone.com/magnestand.html
I'd like to tahnk everyone for taking the time to bring their gear.
I prefered the SS dac with the mapletree pre, just have to wait til I finish paying off the subwoofer system first .
The subs were Duke Leguenes swarm, they are not on his website yet...http://theshowlasvegas.com/main/exhibitors_profile.php?gbID=296
I'd also like to thank woodsyi for going the extra mile by getting me this great innersound amp in time for the show.
The ampstand was... http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=40753.0

Gotta run to work now, wish we would have gotten pictures...
Bill

[Dan Driscoll]

Sounds like fun, I wish I could have been there. 

[Rashiki]

Thanks again to Bill and Denise for hosting. Jen and I had a great time and we look forward to the next get together.

We compared a Citypulse solid-state DAC to a couple of Paradisea tube DACs (one with the stock tube, another with a NOS tube), and also compared the analog output of a Shanling CDT-100 CD player and the analog output of a modified SqueezeBox 3. We used the SB3 and the Shanling as digital sources for the DACs. In Bill's system, I believe that the general consensus was that the Citypulse sounded better. The Paradisea's sound was more laid back, but Bill's system was already quite mellow, so the extra tube stage just seemed to slow everything down. It would've been interesting to compare the DACs with different speakers.

We also had a Behringer SRC 2496 hooked up occasionally to play with upsampling. The Behringer didn't make much of a difference with the Citypulse DAC (which has its own upsampler), but there were some noticeable differences in some configurations using the Paradisea, but we didn't listen carefully enough to be able to describe them in detail.

 -Rob

[Berndt]

someone left a squeezebox remote behind...

[GBB]

someone left a squeezebox remote behind...

That's odd - I thought I was the only who brought a squeezebox but I've got as many remotes as I have squeezeboxes right now.

Any one else?

---Gary

[GBB]

Let me add my thoughts about yesterday's get together at Bill and Denise's.

It was a pleasure meeting the crew.  I'm not great with names but I think I met Rashiki (Rob) and his wife, R_burke (Richard), Sonny (Tuan), and Keyan (?).  When I arrived at Bill's place, the Magnepans were playing with Richard's Shanling CDT100 as the source.  Never having heard Maggies, I was pleasantly surprised.  The sound was big and open and very musical.  It sounded a bit rolled off on the high end but whatever errors I heard were ones of omission and it was clearly a system that one could listen to for hours without getting fatigued.

I brought quite a few items to the meeting.  I brought my modified Squeezebox - see this thread http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=24353.0  for details on what I did.  I also brought a Citypulse DA7.2X DAC and Stereovox HDXV digital cable.  And I brought a modified Sansui TU-9900 FM tuner.

We stuck my Squeezebox into the system and gave it a quick listen and everyone seemed surprised at how well it did.  Unintentionally, the first comparison we did was between the Shanling playing a CD and a ripped version of the same CD played through the Squeezebox.  It was pretty close but to my ears the modded Squeezebox was more open and balanced.
Then we switched to the Squeezebox driving the Citypulse and it was no comparison.  The Citypulse was much better in my opinion.  It had much more authority in the bass, highs were cleaner, and the overall soundstage was bigger and better defined.

People also brought a few Paradisea DACs and we swapped those in.  The sound between the Paradisea DACs and the Shandling was much closer and I didn't listen closely enough to decide which was better.  My feeling is that the tube warmth from the Shanling or the Paradisea was just too much of a good thing when combined with Bill's tube preamp.  I can imagine that either one driving a solid state preamp would be just the ticket but driving a tube preamp seemed to be a mismatch.

We also did a bunch of smaller tests with interesting results.  Here's what I remember:

--- The Behringer upsampler made no difference with the Citypulse.  Others say it helped the Paradisea but I didn't hear that.
--- Using the BNC input to the Paradisea sounded much better than the RCA input
--- Driving the Squeezebox from my laptop (an IBM) using FLAC encoded files (lossless compression) sounded better than driving the squeezebox from an Apple laptop using Apple lossless.
--- My Sansui TU-9900 didn't sound any better than Bill's Luxman tuner and might actually have sounded worse.

That covers it for now.  Thanks again to Bill and Denise for hosting.

---Gary

[toxteth ogrady]

Sorry for the late reply guys... my two wee ones have been keeping me mighty busy.

First off... big, big thanks to Bill and Denise for a great time. It was a pleasure getting to meet some of the locals and also to hear some great tunes from a variety of sources. Bill, your chili was wickedly hot and delicious, which only confirmed what I've read about good chili recipes... that it ain't good chili unless it burns twice ... so thank you for that   Also, thanks for clueing me in on that outstanding Big Daddy IPA... I know what I'll be drinking on the 4th.  aa

I agree with the others assessment that your system sounded best with Gary's modified Squeezebox and Citypulse Dac. A very different presentation from what I'm used to... it wasn't too forward and had a very open, transparent sound. This was my first experience with planar speakers and I was really diggin' the sound once we got things dialed in. Another pleasant discovery for me was the Audio-Technica Headphones running off the Shanling... marvelous sound... something I will definitely be exploring.

Somewhat of a disappointment for me was when we swapped in my Macbook Pro and fed Gary's Squeezebox the AIFF's I ripped in iTunes. I had somehow convinced myself that iTunes was just as capable as EAC but clearly the music was a little less precise then when we were listening to Gary's FLAC files ... one more audio related triviality for me to waste otherwise productive time on... can't wait.

Anyway, that's all you'll get from me at this time of night... rapidly falling asleep. Thanks again to Bill, Denise and everyone who showed up, I had a mighty fine time.

p.s. Bill, I'm fairly certain that remote belongs to moi.

[Berndt]

I also have a rca ic with a black cord and no markings.

The headphones were a big (pleasant) surprise for me. Look forward to heading down that path with Richards help when the $$ allow.
The open feeling of both pairs of headphones were a surprise and very likeable.

[Sonny]

Again, thanks to Bill and Denise for hosting the great gathering...it was hard to leave the confines of good musice and company, but I had an hour's commute back to the Eastbay, via BART... 

First things first...the Chilli was rockin' and in the spirit Berkeley, all organic ingredients...

Second, I think we are all in agreement that in Bill's System, with the Mapleshade tube pre, the modded Maggies, it did appear that a tube source seemed to really slow things down...  I never thought that would be so apparent, but I remember on Bog Scaggs cut, it was like he was playing in a difference time, like instead of the 1/4 time from the Squeeze Box, it was more like 1/2 time on the Shanling!!! 

Third, also through the Paradisea tube DACs, the results seemed to be the same as compared to the City DAC.

Lastly...Bill's system sings wonderfully and the Maggies really took me by surprise!!!

Thanks all
Tuan (Sonny)

PS, I look forward to hosting one in August if you guys are interested!!! 

[Berndt]

I'm going split this topic, lets get a date on the board for August.
Please see that thread for the next meet discussion.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=42535.0

Thanks Tuan for your kind words regarding my system. It's strengths outway it's weaknesses for me.
I put my CJ amp back in with the marchland active xo and I was able to tame the boomy ness it exibited before, albiet lacking the midbass control of 600wpc...
Low level listening gives a nod towards the sense of timing the cj presents.

[topround]

Hey any photos?
Gary did you bring your Citation II?

mike

[Peter Gunn]

in Bill's System, with the Mapleshade tube pre, the modded Maggies, it did appear that a tube source seemed to really slow things down... 

Glad to hear you guys had a good time, and even happier you liked my maggies. I would like to clarify two points however. Bills pair were only the second full wood frame models I did, and those speakers of his are cursed (and I'm really not kidding) Everything on them, with them and about them keeps on breaking. Even when here whatever room they were in, things inexplicably went wrong. Because they seem to exist in a semi permanent state of self destruction I would have to wonder, despite liking them as much as you all did, if you really heard the speaker at it's best.

I want bill to buy a new pair of MMG's and let me mod them for him this fall. (and blow those up) That will also resolve the slight issue some of you had with them not quite reaching the "upper" levels of high resolution some are used to. The MMG's I modded can do this and still retain the non fatiguing sound these have.

I highlighted your quote above because I wanted to point out that I don't think the speaker used was the problem with the "slowness", because maggies can sound as bright and forward as any speaker in the right (or is that wrong) circumstances. I think what you guys showed is that too many tubes, or tubes constantly re-inforcing a certain area can be just as bad as too many transistors. I use a tubed Lector 7T source, tubed Hovland and/or the Mapltree Ultra and maggies, and slow or thick is not a word I'd ever consider applying to it. In your situation, I would say the source was the source of the problem. 

Anyway, thanks again for the positive comments guys, and boy, how can so many of you never have heard maggies before!?  That's gotta change!  Once you mod them right, there is no better speaker. Be a lifer too, you won't regret it.

[GBB]

Hey any photos?
Gary did you bring your Citation II?

mike

Mike,
It's good to see you checking in on the California scene.  Unfortunately none of us thought to bring a camera.  Next time we have to fly Levi out from NY to be our official photographer .

Regarding the Citation II, no I didn't drag that one along.  It would have been much too little power for the Magnepans plus I haven't actually gotten a chance to listen to it since I moved - things have been too hectic to spend a lot of time on stereos.
And I guess it isn't a bad thing to save a few things for future meetings.

---Gary