I'm really glad that Nadeem organised another London Head-Fi meet up so quickly after the last. I regrettably missed the first one, in April of this year, while I was on holiday. Not this time though, this marked my first attendance to a Head-Fi meet, but also headphone shows in general. I met a lot of people for the first time here, that I'd only spoken to via phone and emails before. I had such a great time talking to them that I neglected to talk to people on many of the tables however, so now I'm eagerly awaiting the next meet up.
One big regret I had was forgetting to photograph the Custom Cable set-up. On the up side I do plan on doing a special article on their shop (in South West London) soon anyway, so watch this space. They have a great collection of gear and a nice cosy place for trying out high-end headphones so I want to help them show that off a bit.
For anyone who wasn't able to make the show or anyone thinking about attending the next one - here are a few of my images to show what it was like...This was the table for Hifi-Headphones.
These are the guys that got me into SoundMAGIC and also provided me with the German MAESTRO headphones for my reviews. As you can see Hifi-Headphones are stocking what must be the entire range of Final Audio Design (FAD) in-ears. They also had a prototype of their first full-size / over-ear headphone (top right). This chassis might be a mere mockup, but the drivers are final and they sounded quite interesting indeed. Keep an eye out for these, hopefully I will get to review these too.The Just Audio uHA-120DS custom DAC/amp (shown here running digital directly out of the iPhone 5). I had no idea you could do this. I've been running in from my Galaxy Note 2, but iPhone support was a complete unknown to me - wow! Justin was describing to me in detail how and why he set out the inner workings of this machine - a seriously knowledgeable and brilliantly friendly chap! I shall be reviewing the 120DS very soon.Mark from Electromod was here showing off the Hifiman & Schiit ranges (which is where I got mine from). As you can see he is also going to be selling the Mad Dogs, including the Alpha Dog in the UK soon - sweet!The 3D printed Alpha Dog mod by Mr. Speakers. Hopefully I will get to test these soon as well, watch this space...I had a quick listen to these bohemoths (Hifiman HE-6 / EF-6) at the meet. Hopefully I will get to test these for the bog soon as well - can't wait! :)I also got to meet up with my Ifi Audio contact properly too. You will have seen me playing with this stuff a lot recently anyway, but they brought quite a lot of cool gear. For one there was a couple of rigs set up for A/B testing the tube buffer. They also teased these stands for keeping them tidy if you want to stack them more nicely (much needed if you have a few I can tell you).These little puppies were also shown here for the first time. A Mini / portable DAC & a dedicated headphone amplifier. Both units will have internal batteries. The DAC will also decode DSD files from an iPhone, via the camera adapter (android support is spotty, but possible) and will also have a headphone output that will be good enough for IEMs. Audio Technica were here showing off their gear through various amps. Here I am listening to the W1000x through a Lehmann Audio Black Cube Linear, via a ProJect audio server.Beyerdynamic's table - I really want to test these (all of them) so I am sorry that I didn't get to talk to you guys at the meet :(.Grado and PSB gear - yum! I am still buzzing from the last time I tried the PS1000s and not just because of the earth shattering price tag. I wish I had spent some time with the GS1000s and others as well. Next time guys...Another table that I didn't play with :(. The Astell & Kern DAPs plugged into some high end Ultrasone, Audeze, Beyer headphones etc. - would have been a blast I bet!Arcam also had a table. Showing off their rDAC and FMJ (A19 & D33) bad boy amp and DAC.I have to take my hat off to fellow reviewer ostewart (formally known as Random Kid), for bringing his own gear in to play with. I did actually bring some things, but when I saw that it was already available to play with on other tables I decided not to bother. JVC showing off some new high end headphone (two in-ears and two over-ears).It was really nice to hear Russ Poole's music live at the show and with no amplification too - wow. Serious talent here, really enjoyed it!A really big thank you to Nadeem and everyone involved in the meet/show! It was brilliant fun and I really can't wait for the next one. How long is 6 months in days? oh crap!! o.0
