New England SBAFers

Discussion in 'The Meeting Place' started by JoshMorr, Apr 30, 2016.

  1. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    I should hopefully be there, was a nice location last time, with free food and such.
     
  2. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    Each location withh free food is nice, just sayin' :p
     
  3. jcn3

    jcn3 New

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    so bummed to not be able to make it . . . .
     
  4. Broberto

    Broberto New

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    I'm up in Worcester these days so I have no excuse not to come

    Spend most my time lurking and this will be my first meet so will be great to meet some people and get ear time on a wider variety of gear
     
  5. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    Enjoy!
     
  6. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    Looking at the thread on headfi it looks pretty good.
    So much free food
     
  7. JoshMorr

    JoshMorr Friend

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    Spread looks nice on one end - hopefully gear and people are better
     
  8. FatCat

    FatCat New

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    If I can make it (should be able to) I'll bring my SW51+, 650k, Atom, and Verum 1. I'd bring my dac but since its r2r I'm worried about it cooling down in transit, are there tricks for keeping it on like with a portable battery pack or something? I read the Head-Fi thread but couldn't tell if sources will be provided, I can bring my laptop as a source but if anyone has a Wyrd or something to that effect it would be much appreciated.
     
  9. JoshMorr

    JoshMorr Friend

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    Usually people have their own sources (laptop and a dac), but people also happy to share (i would be). Really wamy to hear a sw51+ too. Looking forwars to seeing you.

    I forget when, but i had a battery back up plugged in at the house with dac connected. Ran to car with 12v to 110v converter, drive to meet, then run in again. To avoid that trouble, can just play cold too, and we all take notes tonsee if we can hear differences over time.
     
  10. FatCat

    FatCat New

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    Life might just be too short to worry about these things... I'll just bring it cold : ) looking forward to seeing you as well\/
     
  11. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    Cold audio hardware didn't kill anyone yet as far as we're aware :p
     
  12. JoshMorr

    JoshMorr Friend

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  13. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Sorry guys won't be making it up. Definitely thought life was going to let me do this but I'm in the wrong state! Have a great time and post lots of pics! Hello to everyone who makes it!
     
  14. Regular Petey

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    For those of you who are not too far from Portland Maine and want to take part in a Freya OG, Freya S and Freya+ listening comparison, send me a PM, or reply on this thread. I've been pretty diligent in trying to avoid getting COVID-19, and have reservations about having many strangers in my house because of it, but I would be open to having a few people over if you're really interested in comparing those preamps. I'm sure others would like to hear our thoughts as well. I haven't seen much in the way of direct Freya OG to Freya+ comparisons.

    I have a Freya OG (the earliest version), and I've been wanting to compare it to the Freya+ and maybe the Freya S. Someone posted a Freya S for sale yesterday and I've sent him the PayPal payment. I also ordered a new Freya+ from Schiit this morning. Freya+ is currently backordered (says 6-17 days).

    My current system is Mac Mini running iTunes/Bit Perfect -> Yggdrasil A1 -> Freya OG -> Aegir amps (mono) -> Salk Veracity HT2-TL

    Pete
     
  15. hifiandrun

    hifiandrun Almost "Made"

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    Hi Pete. PMed you a moment ago. please sign me up. Thanks!
     
  16. Regular Petey

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    I've been giving the whole Freya listening comparison / meet up idea some thought throughout the day. I just paid for the Freya S and ordered the Freya+ this morning. It will probably be 2-4 weeks before I get the Freya+, assuming they don't have production delays. I'm looking for feedback on switching gear on the All Purpose thread.

    I live in one of the smallest, crappiest houses in Cape Elizabeth. I'm not embarrassed to have people over, just saying that it's an 840 sq. ft. ranch, so there's not a lot of space to spread out. My living room and kitchen are essentially one room, which is about 16' x 22'. I also have a small deck in the back, and it's rarely buggy outside here. I would be happy to fire up the grill and provide food for people. In order to do this, I think that it needs to be a nice day where people can be outside, windows can be open, etc., which would mean rescheduling if the weather doesn't turn out that way.

    As far as listening inside, maybe we limit it to a few people inside at a time (and I don't need to be one of them). Wearing masks: I would lean toward saying that if you're inside, you should wear a mask, outside it's up to you. That's not so much to protect myself, or a mandate, maybe more of a starting point to begin a discussion around what would it take for most people to feel fairly comfortable taking part in a meet up. There's really only one sweet spot in terms of the ideal listening position anyway. If you want to bring along a headamp and headphones to evaluate the downstream sound differences of the three preamps, it seems like that should be easy to accommodate. I think it would be cool to do this. Especially with the COVID-19 situation, it's difficult to do this kind of thing, but I'm not going to keep three Freyas around forever, so I'd like others to have the opportunity to compare if they want to.

    If there's sufficient interest in say the greater Boston area, or elsewhere in the northeast, and someone else has a home or space in which they were willing to have people over, under whatever conditions they are comfortable with, I would be willing to bring the three Freyas and maybe some other gear with me and meet you all there, so there are fewer people at my house and others don't need to travel so far. I grew up in CT and have lots of family there. The only thing that would absolutely not go on the road with me would be my speakers.

    Feel free to provide your thoughts on any of this, without either saying that COVID-19 is a hoax, or that we would be a bunch of irresponsible jerks for even considering having an event like this. The Schiiter is opening, restaurants are opening, and I'm more on the cautious side, but being able to do something that would have been normal a year ago, would be nice for many of us.
     
  17. hifiandrun

    hifiandrun Almost "Made"

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    Hi Pete, no worries. You are doing us a favor. The heat in the summer will help lower the possibility of transmission on top of other measures.
    I personally don't need to be there if many trusted local ears signed up. I am more interested in learning additional opinions on those preamps than anything else. I have two Aegirs running mono and I am using a JBL Nano patch, but I also have a phono stage with only SE output, thus I would need to add a RCA-XLR converter to my OG Saga or to get a balanced pre-amp like a Freya.
     
  18. Regular Petey

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    I didn't in anyway post that to try to discourage you from coming up from the Boston area. I think that things will depend on the level of interest. If there were 6, maybe 8 people at most who were interested, then that seems like a reasonable number to have over at my place. If there were 3-4 (or more) people in the Boston area that were interested, and someone was offering up their place for people to meet at, I would be happy to travel with the gear, if for no other reason, it would save all of them a bunch of travel time. I'm divorced and I'm not working, so I have plenty of time to do that kind of thing.

    You certainly are welcome, whether it's at my house or somewhere closer to your home. You're one person who absolutely should be included, considering that your personal system is an ideal spot for a Freya, from the sounds of it. And at the end of the comparison(s), I'll be selling two Freyas.
     
  19. Regular Petey

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    I also would be interested in hearing more about the PI2AES as a source device, and we also could do some comparisons in that part of the chain. I've been debating what I want to do regarding expanding my music options. I'm leaning toward a Qobuz subscription, and maybe a Roon subscription, just to simplify things. I know Roon is $10 per month, and there are other free (or far cheaper) options, but I could put Roon on my Mac Mini and be done (hopefully). But unrelated to audio, it would probably be easier and more sensible for me to find a cheaper alternative to my $60 per month Verizon Wireless bill, and send $10 per month to Roon, than to keep sending Verizon all of that money, and buy Pi hardware and delve into a new arena of Pi music servers. At the end of the day, I want to be listening to music, on the best sounding system that's within my budget, and not spend too much time mucking around with getting it working. That's not to imply that setting up a PI2AES device requires much time on my part, because it does seem fairly straightforward. It needs to sound better, not just be a bit cheaper, for me to want to put the effort in.
     
  20. hifiandrun

    hifiandrun Almost "Made"

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    @Regular Petey. I see. I am in Boston arera and I was trying to hold a local meet at my current apartment last summer but ended up we didn't do it because people have different summer weekends schedules planned. I am divorced too (shaking hands, LOL) thus no need to worry about anything such as audiophile's WAF at my place. The catch is that I am going to move to another apartment in July 1st. I have no idea about the room acoustic of that place. My current apartment doesn't have AC and will be very hot very soon. The other thing is that I just sold my B&W Nautilus 803 and I only have KEF LS50s and a pair of old Harbeth P3 original version (no bass at all). If the poll is to have the meet in Boston, I'd be honored to have it at my place, which will be the first floor unit of a very old 3 floor house. The living room is about 20' x 14.5', high ceiling.

    The PI2AES is a great streamer. Day and night better than the USB 5. There are so many different choices on the software side, all free. I am using Qobuz high-res bridging through a local Logitech Media Server (the LMS). Cheers.
     

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