Great Polkie Get Together

heiney9

Yesterday at my place I had a little local get together. In attendance were dkg999 (Doug), a_mattison (Aaron) his wife (Michelle) and my brother (Blake). This is the same group minus my bro that got together before x-mas at Aaron and Michelle’s to help him demo some separate amplification for his rig. Aaron, and Michelle too, have been bitten by the audio bug. Part of the reason outside of the fellowship and camaraderie was to give Aaron and Michelle a chance to hear the Lsi 9’s in a setting outside of the showroom. Since he just completed his basement and moved his HT set-up down there he is looking for a serious 2 channel rig for his main room.

Doug, having a magic audio closet, brought over some other great gear to demo as well and I think he enjoyed hearing the 9’s again outside of the show room. My brother is just as into audio as I am (he’s 9 years younger) so he got the bug from me. He brought over Lsi 7’s.

The weather was terrible as it just started snowing; blowing and sleeting a little after 4:00 after everyone arrived. Doug, true to his many many years in this hobby brought a bunch of cool stuff that took us several trips to unload. We had gear, speakers and cables everywhere in my front room.

The gear:

My gear- Adcom Gfa-545 amp; Nak CA-5 pre; Adcom GDA-600 dac; Nak MB2s cdp; Lsi 9’s.

Brother- Lsi 7’s

Doug- Audcom tube pre-amp w/Gary Dodd mods (purchased from Russ); Parasound HCA-1000 amp; Parasound Pre P/PH 850; Monitor 5b’s (which I purchased); Epos ELS-3 mini-monitor; Cambridge 640 cdp; Signal cable power cord; Signal cable and Blue Jeans interconnects; DIY Canare with bananna plugs. And a cool tube headphone rig he just got from Mark (Doro) as well as some Sennheiser headphones.

All I can say is we had a great awesome time. The time just flew by and before we knew it, it was like 8:30 and we were hungry and decided to venture out in the nasty weather and get some food. We had more great dinner conversation and I arrived back home about 10:30.

This is what this board and hobby are all about. We had a great time critiquing gear and music, discussing our likes and dislikes of things and bouncing ideas and opinion off one another. I have definitely made some new friends and I think we will continue to have these get togethers for a long time. 3 great people that I would have over again anytime!!!

Aaron took some pics which I hope he will post later today. I’ll be giving my impression of all the gear in this thread in a different post. All in all a wonderful afternoon/evening and Doug was nice enough to leave me some Signal cables as well as the Audcom tube pre for me to demo for awhile. That was a very kind gesture!!!

H9

beardog03

Sounds like a great time..!

It`s really cool when you can enjoy your passion with good friends..

heiney9

beardog03 wrote:

Sounds like a great time..!

It`s really cool when you can enjoy your passion with good friends..

The great thing is these are new friends. When we gathered before x-mas that was the first time we had met each other. And I agree it is really cool to have people to share a passion with.

cfrizz

That is AWESOME!!! I'm glad you all had a good time & look forward to reading everyone's impressions of the gear.

schwarcw

Wonderful! I'm glad all of you had the chance to get together, listen to some tunes, talk audio and have a good time. Congrats to you all!

I'll be looking for those pictures!

Fireman32

Very cool had a cool meeting with Joe (hearingimpaired) yesterday as well.

dkg999

Thanks to Brock (H9) for hosting. It was great afternoon and evening of listening to music, gear, and good conversation among friends. We even briefly thought about consulting our server at the restaurant on the topic of "do cables make a difference?"

I have to say that I have a new appreciation for the LSi9's. It also points out once again that most retailers don't have speakers set up so that you can really evaluate them. Listening to H9's LSi9's set up in his living room, the traits of the speakers that I previously did not like seemed to be minimized, and I really enjoyed listening to them! The comparison that we did to the LSi7's was also very eye-opening.

I think we turned some heads when we demo'd the little EPOS ELS-3's! They are little boxes that produce a big sound :cool:

I look forward to the next get-together. I guess I better clean the apt, because it's my turn to host :eek: Doug.

Lowell_M

Thanks again Brock and DKG for a great get together. Pictures will be posted soon. ...Oh, and as promised, I won't post the picture that Michele took of "Heiney9's heiney". :rolleyes:

This was another very eye opening day. There are so many things to write about, but the most impact for me was the subtle differences in the 3 pre-amp models we had to review playign through the LSI9's. Again, my preconseptions were ripped to shreds. In looking for a budget minded, but decent pre-amp, I made the illconceived assumption that a pre-amp is a pre-amp unless you are talking SS vs. tubes.

In my limited experience with Parasound gear, their amps have a very clean, detailed sound, but a little too nuetral for me. Not enough nice rounded bass. To my surprise, the Parasound pre-amp, hooked to H9's ADCOM amp seemed to exhibit the same signature of sound that the amp had. Then we moved to the Audcom tube-pre and the 9's came to life for me. Nice detailed highs, supurbly blended soundstage and deep, warm bass. I liked it...That was until we hooked H9's Nakamichi pre back up. It had a similar sound to the tube pre, but more detailed and deep, punchy, solid bass.

My preference is definately the Nak Pre, but if they were all played a day or so apart, I would probably like any of them. These are all in a similar price range used ($100 - $500), so nothing that would break the back too bad. (as compared to a $3000 tube pre, or something)

Oh yea...and H9 convinced Michele that we need to convert our RTi home theater to all LSi's.:cool: ....gonna need to think about that one for a bit...and save $$:D

Oh... DKG, yes, Michele has a sister.

SCompRacer

Socializing with other audio nuts, I mean, audio enthusiasts,:D is fun. Experience different gear, maybe hear some new music. Like my bowling towel says, going together is wonderful, coming together is divine.

janmike

More and more get-togethers happening. SUPER. Glad you folks had a great time.

Lowell_M

Pictures attached of various gear and people. In last picture from left to right... DKG999, H9, A_mattison

OH...and I've never really posted many picures here, so if there is a better way, please let me know.

RuSsMaN

Way to go guys!

candyliquor35m

Party on Garth

If you wanna convert those bmp's to jpg's which will reduce their size by 80-90%, you can use lviewp1b. just file/save as .jpg and it's done. no install, just a .exe and .hlp. I've been using it safely for a good 10 years. Poor stubborn folks like me still have dial-up

http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000015125

Lowell_M

dkg999 wrote:

Thanks to Brock (H9) for hosting. It was great afternoon and evening of listening to music, gear, and good conversation among friends. We even briefly thought about consulting our server at the restaurant on the topic of "do cables make a difference?"

Doug.

Also, I must add that the sound system at the resturaunt lacked presence and detail. Very thin, resturaunt PA system-like sound. Probably just cheap cables. :rolleyes:

heiney9

C'mon Aaron we proved cables don't matter. Where is that John K T-shirt we were all going to wear

schwarcw

Nice guys! These get togethers are great! Glad you had a good time!

dorokusai

I would have to say that Michelle wins the prize for best looking Polkie. The rest of the lot is motley at best

Absolutely fantastic guys, great pics and sounds like a great time. This is exactly what the hobby is about and CP makes other forums look like kindergarten just opened.

heiney9

dorokusai wrote:

I would have to say that Michelle wins the prize for best looking Polkie. The rest of the lot is motley at best

Absolutely fantastic guys, great pics and sounds like a great time. This is exactly what the hobby is about and CP makes other forums look like kindergarten just opened.

The most fun one can have with pants on . My impressions of the gear is coming.........

ben62670

I would love to hear some lsi7's in a good environment with good equipment and cheap wires

heiney9

I had a brilliant idea this morning before I had my coffee. I have a pair of jumper cables in my front closet and I thought wouldn't those make absolutely stunning speaker cables? I'm serious, talk about amperage and voltage conduits. Big thick stranded copper. I'm sure I haven't thought this through and there must be some fatal drawback I'm not thinking of.

cfrizz

'Stands safely behind a brick wall as she watches H9 fry himself!'
:eek: :eek:

dkg999

heiney9 wrote:

I had a brilliant idea this morning before I had my coffee

H9 - was it still a good idea after you had your coffee?

madmax

So who is who?

dkg999

The good looking one is Michelle! The names of the others shall remain anonymous to protect the guilty!

RuSsMaN

I just need to know who a_mattison is, so I can chloroform him at the next Polkfest. At least point him out.

I figured a gal like Michelle would pick a good looking guy to run with, like, say, well, me. I don't see any svelt guys in the pictures.

Cheers,
Russ

heiney9

RuSsMaN wrote:

I don't see any svelt guys in the pictures.

Cheers,
Russ

Nor in the mirror...............I'm guessing

RuSsMaN

Ouch!

heiney9

working on the pics......

I'll switch to .JPGS and upload to photobucket and put a few captions on the pics to make it more user friendly.

heiney9

RuSsMaN wrote:

Ouch!

Sorry Russ......bad day at the office and I don't have a dog to kick.

opus

I guess my invitation was lost in the mail. Sure looks like fun:o

heiney9

My front room. Taller speakers on short stands Monitor 5b's with Epos ELS 3's on top. Inner speakers are my Lsi 9's in Cherry. Main gear is Nakamichi CA-5 preamp; Adcom GFA-545 amp; Adcom GDA 600 dac; Nakamichi MB2 cdp


H9 (myself) with a Rolling Rock. My brother Blake seated


dkg999 (Doug) and Michelle (a_mattison's wife)


5b's; Epos ELS 3; Lsi 9


dkg999 hooking up the Audcom tube pre and Parasound HCA-1000 and Cambridge 640cdp; Lsi 7's in the background


Parasound HCA-1000; Audcom pre; Cambridge 640 ready to go


dkg999 tweaking some more; Lsi 7's in the background


myself caught by a suprise flash


myself listening to the cool tube headphone rig dkg999 just received from Doro


Parasound HCA-1000; Cambridge 640; cool tube headphone amp and PS


Michelle getting into the headphone rig.



dkg999; H9; a_mattison

Hey, a_mattison why only 1 photo of yourself?? I don't like to see my mug on a computer either and somehow you got out of it until the last pic. If you have a few more really cool ones of gear feel free to e-mail it ot me and I'll post it.

That's more like it!