I think somebody mentioned that u can email the guy u bought it from for ideas on what other tubes u can use to tube roll... u can try your luck there? I am very happy that this meet happened because i got to test out quite alot of gear unlike the previous meets where i was late Please note that the opinions are mine and may not reflect your own opinion.
Lekguan summed it up nicely. Star of the show for me was the AKG K1000, the MingDa amp did quite an admirable job of driving it and was probably the best amp for driving the K1000s there at the meet besides the pro amp. Difficult pieces were a breeze for the cans but my only gripe with it was how the doublebass sounded. The decay of the bass was quite unnatural on the pro amp and the MingDa did a better job but it was still quite off for me.
The find of the meet for me was the ATH 2000 (i think.. pls correct me if im wrong). Paired up with the PAV2 it was a sound i really liked. Its the first open cans i really liked. Too bad when i got there, the A900s were leaving with the owner... no chance to audition. Oh, the SR-71's and the PAV2 sounded good to me. Another big surprise for me was that i actually preferred the PAV2 to the SuperMacro and the SR-71's sounding alot like a more refined PAV2 but at that huge a price difference, i guess i would expect it to be so. I also got to try out the 2 HF-1's at the meet. One was a with the sen 414 pads and the other was modded with bigger earpads, looked like it was beyer pads. I dont know how burnt in the ones with the yellow pads are but it was quite sibilant with quite a few amps and didnt sound 'smooth' to me. The other one with the modded pads sounded totally different to me eventhough they are the same, bass was rolled off on both but it went quite deep and the sibilance wasnt there for female vocals on this HF1.
On another note, was hoping that the little dot 2 would pair up nicely with the 150's but it sounded quite dull to me. The little dot didnt go well with the grado's as well. I was hoping for more from the little amp i guess. The MingDa amp sounded good with the 150s and the 880s. Had a neutral sound that i liked and everything sounded like it should in my mind. Considering that it could drive the K1000s, thats a very good amp to me.
After the meet ended, Mackie and the shop owner was kind enough to let us listen and give us pointers to a pro speaker setup. It was a great initiation for some and one topic that kept coming up was that most of us are too used to how some artists and songs sound on any given speark/headphone setup. Its quite a valid topic considering that artists may sound different live and some recordings dont do justice to them and that kind of gets mistaken as how it should sound like. I guess if all of us are lucky we should check out and see how live artists/bands/groups/orchestras play. Mackie mentioned that some audiophiles went to the esplanade when it opened to watch an orchestra live and they complained about this n that and that made me laugh for a bit because thats how it sounds like, not how it should sound like in their mind.
Ok, im sure i missed out on a few other things here and there, and i do stress that these are my own opinions and personal findings. I wanna hear about some of the experiences from other members! Thanks Mackie and Anything Audio for making this meet happen!
ps.. the ipod nano is just so droolsome lol.
(the DT-150's pictured are mine and thats me with the K1000s)
who else is in the pics?
