[Jon L]

Orange County Meet Impressions: 1/30/2010

A million thanks to Shaizada for hosting this wonderful meet and being such a gracious host as well as to all those who brought so much gear and enthusiasm.





Modified Bottlehead 2A3 SET monoblocks powering electrostats via Stax SRD-7 MkII tranformer.  The transformers are not supposed to be able to power Stax OII very well at all, and yes, that was true for the bass dynamics.  But by God, from midrange to treble, this combo really had the *IT* factor in spades.  Such purity, clarity, and that SET inner glow from the midrange up, much different from my memories of BHSE, Singlepower ES-1, etc.  I may be looking for some OII's in near future.





 Stax, Stax, and some more Stax!  Ably assisted by $$$ Simaudio Moon Supernova CDP, Stax Lambda, Lambda Sigs, Sigma, OII, and others could be quickly compared through daisy-chained Stax 717, SRM T1, SRM T1S, and SRM1 Mk2. 

I determined for myself that solid-state 717 does OII good, while Lambda Sigs synergize better with tubed SRM T1(S).  Surprisingly, I quite liked HE Audio 1.2b/Jade out of 717, though I thought both Senn HE-60 Baby Orpheus and HE Audio sounded pretty nice out of SRM T1.    I was also pleasantly surprised by Stax Sigmas (normal bias) with more prodigious bass quantity and more forgiving presentation.  All 'stats and amps were helped greatly by the nice source here, no doubt. 



Manley Stingray EL84 amp, powering the venerable AKG K1000. 



Woo Audio WA5 300B amp powering Denon d7000 closed headphones.  One *might* think 300B and d7000 would give you too much warmth and bass, but this combo actually worked quite well, giving you all the warmth you need while still delivering pitch definition and texture nuances.  Rich, round, smooth mids with good detailing, too. 



I believe this is Twisted Pear Audio Buffalo32 DAC and Beta22 amp.  Would have loved to take a listen, but something in the system was being worked on when I swung by a couple of times..





Donald North Audio's new prototype K1000 amp using 2A3 tubes.  That blue is quite pretty in person, I must say, and this amp is possibly heading for production this summer.  And yes, I asked, and so far there is no plans for speaker outputs on these babies.



Substituting in some EML 2A3 solid plates instead of Sylvania double plate 2A3 resulted in better dynamics, bass punch/weight, as well as resolution IMO.  Very nice. 

[Jon L]

Moar.







Ray Samuels Audio A-10 electrostat amp with Sennheiser HE90 Orpheus, HE Audio Jade, etc, sourced by Meridian G08.  This is my second time auditioning the A-10, and I am coming to the conclusion it sounds better with Jade than even HE90, which sounds pretty darnn good already.  The surprise of the meet will be revealed later, however.   





And that surprise is the new Ray Samuels "The Protector."  This tiny amp takes single-ended RCA input, and then somehow drives balanced headphones in balanced mode using batteries.  I have no idea how this little amp can sound so powerful and clean driving balanced Senn HD600 and HD800, but those of us who listened to this setup could not believe our ears.   











Yup, those are Quad ESL57 electrostats.  The chain of Accuphase DP-75V CDP->Audible Illusions preamp->Bedini amp->Quads was sounding unexpectedly dynamic and powerful, perhaps even bassy (!) with that only-stats-can-do-it transparency through the midrange. 







Shaizada can better explain in more detail what is happening with this madness.  But that chain of VPI turntable->Einstein phonostage->RSA B52 used as preamp->Consonance EL34 monoblock amps->Omega Super 8 Alnico Monitor + Omega subwoofers was sounding very nice, doing some stuff single-driver speakers are not supposed to do. 

As much as I would hate to ever convert back to vinyl, I must admit vinyl was cooking with more better than the digital side, which consisted of Upgrade Company modded Reimyo DAC.

[santacore]

Great pictures! I was nice to meet you Jon, and fun to hang out with the locals. Overall a really great day for audio.

[shaizada]

Thanks for posting here as well Jon.  It really was a great day and a very memorable one. Santacore, thanks for all that vinyl you brought.  It was a blast listening to some of them 

[santacore]

My pleasure! It was a great day of listening, thanks for having us.

[Russtafarian]

I was just spinning some of that vinyl last night.  MJQ, Oscar Peterson, Van Morrison.  Very nice!  Thanks Santa Core.

I was inspired by the meet.  I'll set up a few headphone rigs for the GTG I'm hosting on Sunday.  Rig #1: Squeezebox > LM4680 Chipamp > Stax Sigmas.  Rig #2: Portable CD > Bottlehead Quickie w/ Speco OPTs > ATH-AD700s.  All battery powered of course.  That should keep a few folks amused.

Russ