SuperBAF Can'tJam (Not CanJam / Changfest) 2016 Meet Impressions

I had two main goals going into the weekend:

• Hang with the SBAF crew and meet some people
• Get head time with as much gear as possible but with specific intent to listen to: HD800, Utopia and Elear, CA Vega and Dorado, EC Studio, DNA Stellaris. I wanted to form a picture of what the best equipment sounds like and this meet offered me that opportunity.

I would say mission accomplished on both counts.

OK lets get the impressions train rolling!

Campfire Audio:
Vega

• Excellent bass extension but it was slow and kind of blah overall. Based on my experience with the Dorado (up next) I suspect the Vega needs a good amp to shine and my iPhone 6 is not that.
• The treble peak around 9K that I don’t like in the Andromeda is here and it is worse. I heard it as being quite sibilant and then rolling off rapidly after that which I did not like.
• Overall did not like mostly because of the treble. Would strongly suggest listening to this before buying.

Dorado

• I loved it. In fact I thought it was so good I went back three times during the day to make sure my impression stayed consistent.
• The signature is bass heavy with very slight bass intrusion to lower mids but in a non offensive way. If I had to put it in a single word it would be “vivid”. As far as I can tell the treble is very similar to Andromeda meaning that I still hear the ~9K peak and it rolls off after that. With the Dorado however, the overall bass heavy balance is mitigating it to the point where it no longer bothers me.
• Awesome transient performance for an IEM. I think the combo of the DD + BA gives it the best of both worlds. You get the speed and impact of a good DD in the low end combined with smoother BA treble.
• Seems to retain all the technical performance of Andromeda; resolution, tone etc..
• The smaller size makes it more comfortable than Andromeda
• The combo of iPhone -> GOV2A -> Dorado was one of the best things I heard at the entire meet, regardless of price. WTF good.

Andromeda:

• Impressions are still consistent with what I heard from the loaner I had for two weeks meaning I don’t like the treble peak however in all other regards this thing is the real deal.
• I don’t think anyone who heard these disliked them.

LH Labs:
The GOV2A is stupidly good for what it costs. I don’t know exactly what sorcery is involved but as far as I could tell the amp section drives the 650 to full potential. Rock solid bass control and squeaky clean throughout the rest of the spectrum. It was also stupid good driving the Dorado IEM. I briefly had the opportunity to compare the DAC section vs Bifrost Multibit and Modi Multibit and it was clearly the best of the three. This plus a modded 650 is absurd performance for money to the point where I want to shoot it out vs my Yggdrasil/Rag stack at home. I also did a shootout of GOV2A vs V2 and the V2A is better in all areas but especially the amp section. I will be ordering one for use as my mobile setup.

Focal:
Elear:

• Reminded me of a modded 650 without the mid bass hump. I can see why you would be inclined to call it a “Super 650”. It’s better than a stock 650 but not better than a modded one.
• Doesn’t appear to have the 650 presence dip; I actually heard it as a bit mid forward.
• Tone was a bit off.
• Well made but not worth 1K.

Utopia:
I heard the Utopia in at least 4 different setups. I found it very interesting because I had trouble picking it apart. When something has “no sound” and does not call attention to itself that usually means it’s really really good. In terms of technicalities it for sure is right at the top of the heap. So why am I not super excited? Well… there is a problem and it’s name is bass. In every setup I heard it as lean and lean is really really not my thing. I would really like to get a loaner pair of these so I can listen longer and properly wrap my head around the sound.

Sennheiser:
This was my first chance to hear a modded 650. There were at least a half dozen at the meet. Based on what I heard there is absolutely zero downsides to modding your 650 and everyone with a 650 should do the coinmod/spider removal/dynamat on the back of the driver. I will be modding mine ASAP. The mods greatly improve the perceived treble frequency response as well as remove the grain that is present in the stock version. A modified 650 is a world class headphone.

HD800 and 800S:
This was also my first opportunity to hear the HD800 and HD800S. There were an assortment of them present. The modified 800 is better than the 800S. I can still hear the 6K peak on the 800S. On a modified 800 it’s mitigated to the point where I don’t find it all that offensive. The technical performance of the 800 is excellent. Super resolving, killer stage etc… Only the Utopia competes. The problem with the 800 is simply that it’s too lean (for me) and this rules it out unless you have a warm amp to pair it with.

REDACTED:
REDACTED.

2 channel stuff:
The Saga and Vidar clearly improved the sound of Marv’s homebrew Altec horn setup vs the stuff he was originally using. Clean. Would like to see them driving some medium sensitivity full size floor standers.

Jotunheim:
I heard it with a Modi Multibit/Wyrd/iPad. The sound was very aggressive; fast with lots of slam with lots of treble and excellent extension on both ends. I would like to hear it with a really good source as I felt the Modi Multibit was really holding the amp back.

Assorted Yggys and Gumbys:
I don’t need to tell you these are good….

Chord:
DAVE is a very good DAC and that’s about all I can tell you from 5 minutes I listened with a modded 650 and an ECP amp. Too much unfamiliar gear and no familiar music so impossible to even start to get a proper read. Would need to get one in house to properly compare it vs Yggdrasil. (not going to happen)

Eddie Current:
Studio:
Awesome but lean. For my taste it would need to be paired with fuller sounding gear or maybe you can tube roll it for a bit more fullness. Killer resolution, tone, transients etc.. It did it all and it did it really really well. Craig was using a vintage Moth DAC which paired very well. I should have asked Ken Ball to borrow a Dorado from his table and plug that in because I suspect it would have been mind blowing good.

DNA:
Stellaris:
This was by far the best I heard the Utopia all weekend. A good pairing. With Utopia I liked it better using the -6DB “balanced” setting.




Subjective “Best Sound” Awards:
Headphones:
Modified HD650 (coin mod, spider removal, dynamat)
Notable mention: Focal Utopia

IEM:
Campfire Dorado
Notable mention: Campfire Andromeda

Amp:
EC Studio and DNA Stellaris
Notable mention: GOV2A

DAC:
DAVE or Yggdrasil
Notable mention: GOV2A and Moth Vintage

Lastly a huge thanks to everyone involved in putting this event on. Shout outs to Ken Ball, Craig Uthus, Jason Stoddard and in fact all the "not vendors" for being super cool and approachable. Shout outs to everybody for bringing their gear to listen to especially the guys with hundreds of lbs of speakers or full vinyl rigs or giant unwieldy amps. Shout out to Marv and all the organizers and volunteers for putting it together and picking a great venue.

Thanks for a great event and I hope it happens again next year.

(Edit: Nicer formatting, fixed some spelling and grammar)

 

A simple USB to SPDIF converter, that's all, wink wink

Looks like you guys had a wonderful time!

 

Yeah, and they are a part of @struggles horn system he has, it's a much much bigger system than the BLH one we brought to the show. They can be cranked so effin' loud and don't have an abrasive quality at all, it's uncanny. An amazing piece of gear, a single T500 mkII cost more than both Sigma drivers and the material that built the enclosures. I may go 1 step down on my own system and order the old Fostex super tweeter flagship the T900a and see how it fairs. Hopefully at $500 each, they can be in the ballpark soundwise of their big brother.

 

First off, I want to say what a pleasure it was to meet/hang out with you guys. I really enjoyed getting to talk with some of the SBAF young-guns. You guys are super smart and I wish I knew as much as you do back when I was starting out. The future of our hobby is in great hands.

The quality of gear on display was amazing; the best I've seen for a "big" meet. I probably only listened to about 15-20% of what was there and I was blown away by a lot of it.

Best part of these things is meeting everyone. I knew a bunch of the Bay Area and So-Cal guys from prior meets, but it was great to see and talk to many of the people that flew in for the occasion.

Big ups to Marv for hosting/organizing! The venue was huge and worked out great. These bigger venues are awesome. People have plenty of space to talk without making it too loud to listen to the rigs.

Well, lets get to it:


Roscoe's

• If you have a meet in LA this isn't a bad way to start the day.
• The Breakfast Club (@Ryu, @SoupRKnowva, and @Mikoss) was great company. Thanks, guys for getting up early!

Darren Fong's OOYH

• Darren is an absolute gentleman whom I've always enjoyed talking to at meets. He also has an awe-inspiring collection of headphones.
• I did his demo. I thought it succeeded the best at visualizing stereo speakers. The surround wasn't quite as convincing for me, but what Darren is doing is the future, no question about it. Personalized HRTF DSP is coming, it is just a matter of time. This is very exciting stuff.
• Darren has the single most "cherry" pair of K-1000 I've ever heard. They looked as if he had pulled them right out of the box that very day. Sounded amazing too. AKG really needs to make these again.

Donald North Audio

• Donald was very nice to talk to. We discussed a lot of his design choices on the Stellaris. I can't say the 2x3-pin XLR is really my thing, but he does make a pretty looking amp.
• I did not love the sound of Stellaris with Utopia.
• I borrowed Darren's K-1000 and plugged it in to Stellaris and the K-1000/Stellaris paring was quite wonderful to listen to, so I will give it that.
• The gain on Stellaris really needs some kind of adjustable dial IMO. Even out of the single ended output in "low" mode the Utopia was already too loud to listen to at "2" out of "10" on the dial. The only headphones I can think of that need that much gain seem to be K-1000 and HE-6.

Campfire Audio/ALO

• Had a real nice chat with Ken Ball. He seems like a good guy, and I'm happy to see his IEMs are starting to win quite the following around here.
• I told Ken I wanted to blind test his three best IEMs. I have not been following the campfire threads, so I had no idea what I was listening to. Ken let me borrow his ALO amp/DAC to interface with my ipad for the blind test.
• When I was done I showed Ken my winner. It was Dorado (over Andromeda and Vega). If I was buying one of these, it would be Dorado. Maybe not as hyper-detailed as Andromeda, but just such a pleasant listen.
• Big thanks to Ken for letting me blind test. That was fun.

Speaker Room

• Damn, @drfindley, you really took care of my guy @brencho. Brent, you are a lucky man. The setup sounded fantastic. @drfindley's influence is all over this sound, it sounds exactly what you would think and all-analog, all-tube set up would sound like.
• The Schiit speaker stuff is legit, and is going to be an awesome value. Pretty damn good sound out of a $1,200 amp/pre. I love how you can switch from passive volume control to the active tube buffer on the remote. I preferred the tube buffer easily over the passive.
• @schiit is always a blast to talk to. I love Jason's candor and only wish I was more knowledgeable with regards to the technical aspects of the gear so that I could have deeper discussions with him.

@bazelio's Rig

• Brian is one of the few Bay Area guys I hadn't already met in person before the meet. It was a pleasure to meet you, man!
• We had a fun discussion about the T3. Brian's is cranked all the way to 11.
• I think if I had to chose between Brian's ZDS and T3 I still take ZDS. Both sounded great with the HD800S, but the ZDS just has something special to it. I think it is the most interesting amp that EC makes.
• I'm gonna remain skeptical about this USB de-crapifying stuff until I can do some more focused testing. Switching back and forth with the two Brian had set up I can't say I heard any difference other than one was slightly louder than the other.

@ohhgourami's HE-6 Monster Rig

• Damn, I forgot to get a picture of this truly impressive setup.
• I think it is safe to say you've squeezed everything out of the HE-6 that it has to give, @ohhgourami! Your Krell-rig is bat-shit crazy... in a good way.
• Of the two pairs of modded HE-6s, I preferred @ohhgourami's. I thought they had the better tonal balance of the two.
• I'm still not on the HE-6 bandwagon. It is a solid headphone, but I think there are better choices out there.

The Chord DAVE -> ECP Stack

• First up, extra special shout-out to the gentleman who brought the Chord DAVE and let us piggyback off of it. That was extremely nice of you.
• The hype on the DAVE might be out of control at HF, but it sounded pretty legit to me in the limited time I spent with it. It is way out of my budget, but it did sound sublime. I would love to test it more.
• I'll leave it to others to give a fair assessment of the DAVE -> ECP -> Utopia combo, but in my biased opinion I thought it was one of the best if not the best sounding rig at the show. It also might have been the most expensive rig at the show (non-speaker division).
• @SteelCannon's modded pair of HD650s were wonderful through this setup as well. Man do the HD650s ever scale up on better gear.

Last but not least, apologies to all the other people I talked to and didn't mention here. This post is already too long as it is.

 

Before breaking down, a few of us did a comparison between my Krell and the new Schiit Vidar out of our excellent chain. The Vidar is a great amp for the MSRP but doesn't hold a candle to something worth $11k new as expected. Great budget amp to run those hard to drive headphones! I can recommend.

 

I had a great time at the meet. Many familiar faces as well as numerous new ones.

Started off at the Campfire Audio table listening to the Vega and Dorado. I've spent time with the Andromeda in the past.

• Vega: Laid back, "could listen to all day without fatigue" kind of sound. Slight v-shape, detailed. Didn't wow me, but didn't do anything offensive. I could see myself enjoying these in the lab while doing long tests.
• Dorado: Forward, aggressive. strong bass presence and fairly forward mids. I thought I was going to enjoy this more than I did. Sadly, it fatigued the hell out of my ears in less than a minute.

I slid over to the LH table next. As a long time wave backer , I wanted to see if the new chassis held up to expectations and how it compared size-wise.
Here are a couple of different angles:


After speaking with Larry and Ravi and listening to the GO2A for a while, I'm feeling pretty excited about eventually receiving a WAVE...eventually.

Donald is someone I always try to catch at the meets. I end up learning something new or discovering a fantastic song/album from his collection. Great guy.
The Stellaris is a beast. It's SOOO powerful - maybe too powerful. Didn't get much play on the volume knob regardless of the setting or headphone. I didn't really like it's paring with the Utopia, but found the nearby Flow to be a better choice.


Sadly, I didn't get to spend anytime with the clones. They were a hot item, but I did enjoy the surrounding setups. In fact, one of the favorite listening sessions of the night came from the Rednet rig.


The same rig also managed to spark my cable management OCD as soon as I went behind the table. Had I a bag of cable ties, they wouldn't have been able to hold me back.


Finally, a big shout-out to my favorite pairing of the night, Bill-P's modded HE-5 >> Jotunheim >> GO2(?) >> modded Wyrd. I first listened to it without the Jotunheim, straight out of the GO2(?), and found the bass impact extremely underwhelming. With the addition of the Jotunheim, they began to sing my tune. Loved them. They also extremely comfortable. Comfort is as important as the sound itself for me.
Here I am forcing other's to listen and confirm that my enjoyment wasn't simply a figment of my imagination.


Thanks to everyone involved in making the meet happen and for all the wonderful people that made the meet worth attending. Much love to the many that flew in from all over the country and even other countries. Looking forward to the next one.

 

Our table was a shit storm of stuff

 

It both sounds and looks like it's been an awesome meet you guys had. I'm jealous! I enjoy reading all the impressions and looking at the pictures taken.

 

Despite not even being on the same continent, I am jealous as hell and have made it a bucketlistesque resolution to one day attend an SBAF meet.

 

Damn, still kicking myself over not being able to make it. Especially seeing the friday night pic with Jimmy and Christos and thinking that I could have been with them .
Looks like such an awesome meet. The speaker room looks huge. Looking forward to even more impressions.

 

Please, please, copy this post to a thread of its own.

Quite apart from being the best speaker-build story I ever heard, I'm sure there is lots more to say about these.

 

OK, done. I added it to the SET and Fostex BLH thread. Posted a few more pic's of build plans and links to help someone looking to tackle a similar project.

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/set-and-fostex-blh-speakers.1358/page-4

I will also be giving away my old Madisound BK-16 enclosure's for free to anyone that wants to pick them up in Orange County. I'll drive them to someone's place within reason (can be convinced to go further for beer). They are a little beat up finish wise, but still structurally sound and come with the stands. Just PM me.

BK-16 enclosure's are spoken for, that was fast!

 

The location of the meet was on point... the west coast is gorgeous. The venue itself was also a wise choice; as others mentioned, the rooms were spacious, with good acoustics. What made this meet exceptional was that it contained the energy of SBAF, and there was just an amazing vibe of knowledge and friendship. I met so many wonderful friends- a huge thank you to everyone.


My take is brief, as I spent most of my time enjoying the speaker rigs, and meeting others:

- Focal Utopia - I heard mixed opinions on these; a lot of underwhelmed impressions. I found they had controlled bass, with an overall presentation close to a modded 650, with slightly more finesse and agility. Treble was more extended, and tastefully applied, however I didn't feel the treble was as revealing as the 800. I actually enjoyed the Utopias enough for them to replace the 650's, however I believe an MSRP around $2k is much more realistic. I can happily live without them, especially with the HD-6XX available shortly at $200.

- Focal Elear - Surprisingly decent as well. In comparison to modded 650's, I was left with an overall bassy sound, with a bit of midrange trouble, and treble sizzle. Minor quibbles that would bother me without fixes, however I would enjoy hearing if they could be alleviated with mods.

- Andromedas are still my fave IEMs, despite hearing some very good offerings from CFA. Ken Ball has done a tasteful job with FR tuning and presentation throughout their lineup, but the Andromedas just offer superior resolution. The closed prototype cans were well constructed, and seem to be on the right track sound wise. I have yet to hear any closed can that I'd be happy to live with... good luck to Ken with these.

- EC Studio - The experience of musical details coming from such a black space made this amp. Where the ZD is immersive, the Studio just captures so many fine details with ease, allowing for contrast. I likened it to having a pitch black sky, where stars normally unseen were allowed to contrast bigger, brighter stars. I found older, warmer recordings worked very well on the Studio, whereas more compressed recordings could come across thinner. Overall, glad to experience the Studio.

- I was thoroughly impressed with Jotunheim. It pushes the 650's so very well, with a chain-revealing resolution that is not forgiving of the source. It sounds sophisticated, detailed and energetic, however it will not make every source sound magically great. I would not run a craptastic source into Jot, which seems counter intuitive for its $400 price point. I also agreed with some of the criticisms... (eg. less involved soundstage/a slight shoutyness), however this was a must have for me, regardless.

- Chord DAVE - I spent a fair amount of time with the DAVE. I found it resolved tape hiss with ease, like the Yggdrasil, however, I find that its presentation is different. At its best, I heard easily resolved details, with sonic layering that really seemed to work wonderfully for electronic music. I did find that I missed the Yggdrasil's Moffat bass, and would have liked to hear it feeding the ECP amps. I think I heard Chord's intended sound through the built-in SE amp feeding the 650's, and I think it would serve people who enjoy that sound well.

There was also plenty of other gear, and I do regret not being able to meet everyone, or spend more time in the crazy e-stat room. I hope the next meet will be extended over a weekend, but I am very thankful for being a part of this meet!

 

That was my setup. HPA-3B, I don't remember if that was @Ryu's Bifrost Multibit or my Modi 2U 4396 driving it when you there.

 

...

 

Great meet, probably the best I have been too because the listening conditions were excellent (at least compared to all the other big meets I've attended). It was nice to meet people like sorrodje, TMoney, and doug, and to see old friends, gaurav, craig.

Milos has a very nice headphone with his DIY HE90. Coming out of the SRX and some tiny dac it sounded great, need to listen on my T2.

I really loved the sound coming from the ecp amps, wish I had gotten around to listening to more stuff.

Thanks for organizing Marv and whoever else had a hand in it.