I had a blast! It was nice to meet new friends and see old friends. Joe (great to meet you), Amos (great to meet you too, I'm glad you made the trip!) and Jude get the travel awards as far as I know. Got to share a table with Larry (
@jazzfan), see
@shane55 after a loooooong time,
@CEE TEE,
@warrenpchi,
@mrspeakers and
@MrSpeakersPeter,
@Stillhart (Nice to finally meet you also). I met and saw others, but my memory suffers the "older than 55" syndrome, so please forgive me if I forgot to give you a shout out.
I got to hear most of what I wanted to - the Ether C Flow, the Focal Utopia and the Liquid Tungsten prototype. I did miss the HD800s and trying a Schiit GMB with my amp, just to compare with the Dac-19 and see which one I liked the most.
Some verdicts - Hearing the Ether C Flow is gonna cost me some upgrade money in the future.
Luckily, I need closed cans, or I'd really wish I could afford the Focal Utopia - very nice (and way pricy) headphone.
The Liquid Tungsten was lovely, seems to be everything it has been noted to be, but this one won't cost me money - I'm not really a tube junky.
For those that asked me earlier - for me, the Ether C Flow is pretty much a guaranteed upgrade. It has more and deeper low and mid bass, the midrange is filled out, the details are better and more present, and the highs are not overly bright. The end result is what I wish the single black pad would do to the non-flow version ('cause then I wouldn't have to upgrade....). It makes the headphone closer to my desired signature, and the best closed headphone I've heard. For the record, I did not try the open flow..... I had my standard Ether C and an Ether C Flow the
@MrSpeakersPeter kindly loaned me for the day at my set up (AK100ii or iPhone as transport, Dac-19 10th anniv into Cavalli Liquid Crimson). I talked to two people who preferred the Ether C over the Ether C Flow based on the brighter presentation. My take on this - if you like a bright presentation, you may prefer the non-flow. Everyone else liked the Flow version better, some found the difference more profound than others. For me, the flow wins hands down. Just a more realistic, "smoother" presentation for me.
Oh, I'm so lousy with names - whomever sponsored me a piece of the "vendor pizza - THANK YOU! I was starving!