Headphone Meet Feb 11 2012 San Francisco Bay Area

Looks like head fiers are getting together:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/562773/bay-area-meet-california-february-11th-2012-interest-thread

I will probably attend, may take my Manley 300b preamp which can serve as both a regular headphone amp and a STax amp with a Stax transformer adapter/ SR 507 and Ultrasone Edition 8 headphones.

Those SF bay area headphoners take note.

Not much of a headphone group here. I went to this meet as a displayer. Took my Manley neo 300b preamp, set up as both a dynamic headphone amp and a Stax amp with the aid of a Stax transformer wired to a banana jack.

It was fun, there are more older guys in the headphone hobby than I thought with some truly inspired DIY guys like Frank Cooter, who was across from my table.

I took the Manley with Stax SR 507, vintage Stax SR 3n/5n, and the Ultrasone Edition 8 headphones.

I used a dvd player and purposely used cheap AV cables and inexpensive tube complement, because I wanted my own base line in comparing the most expensive rigs. Nontheless, the Manley got some honorable mentions from some of the formidable headphone studs.

Unfortunately, because I was displaying, I did not get the time I wanted actually listening to other rigs. I did get to hear the Stax SR 007 and 009, as well as the legendary Sennheiser Orpheus 90 system, as well as the various sub systems that were in my room.

Headphones are as variable as any other kind of audio, but my general conclusion was that a "95-98" percent system would consist of a Stax SR 407 or 507 with a good tubed or solid state amplifier, and that to recover the last 2 to 5 percent would cost about ten times as much.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/595457/nor-cal-feb-11-2012-impressions-thread

Mah rig: http://www.head-fi.org/gallery/image/view/id/513914/album/564454