MEET IMPRESSIONS AND PICTURES - 2010 CanJam Chicago - Page 7

I'd love it if someone could get a good shot of the sheet of information that is sitting above Cavalli's new creation! 

Anyone there compared the LCD2 to the Stax flagship models? Does the LCD2 compare well, or Stax still rules?

My impressions are probably quite similar to many others above, but I'll chime in anyway.   I spent most of my time at vendor tables, and chatting with people throughout the meet.

The first highlight was listening to the demo version of the Westone ES5's.  It's quite good, and on my wish list.  Compared to the JH13 demo (an obvious comparison to make), I think it is comparable in detail, but has a little less 5 Khz (high mids) and a little less 50 hz (sub bass).  IMO it has great detail and is extremely flat.  It may even be more flat than the JH13's, though there is the obvious question of whether the 13 is hyped in those two regions or the ES5 is recessed.  I'll skip making an opinion on that and wait for subjective measurements or a general consensus once people start getting them.  I can say pretty definitively that the ES5's are excellent though and worth consideration against the competition.

The next highlight was the Liquid Fire (i.e. EHHA2) amp from Cavalli Audio.  Just excellent.  There's something about that particular design that I just love the sound of.  The original EHHA was one of my favorites, and this one is even better.  I listened with the LCD2's, but also tried it with my own Grado 225's to see how much the amp was contributing.  The Liquid Fire sounds excellent even with the 225's.  It's also on my wish list, though it's not likely to be an inexpensive amp.  Alex Cavalli said that their parts cost for the demo unit was pretty high (over $2K I believe).

The LCD2 was also excellent.  It has an amazing amount of detail, great imaging, and the best bass of any ortho that I know of.  Definitely a standout.

Tyll had his headphone measurement lab set up in its own room, and was gathering a sampling of headphones from the meet to do measurements on.  He said the LCD2 is one of the best measuring headphones he has ever tested, on par with the HD800.  He also did tests on many of the members' custom orthos.  My pair did pretty OK.  The Thunderpants by Smeggy (Colin's pair) did excellent.  It was the best of the hobbiest built headphones I think.  Tyll also tested lot of other headphones all the way from super cheap to very expensive.  One of the worst was a pair of Radio Shack ear clip buds that had almost 100% distortion and were freaking out the tone test by not playing the right frequencies.  It provided a good example to use if someone asks "Are expensive headphones really better than my $5 earbuds?".   The Sony Qualia also didn't do well considering its price.  I'm actually being diplomatic there, you can check out the measurements on that yourself.  Tyll said the best subjective price versus performance is likely the PX100-II, which is a much better headphone than the first version, and possibly the best headphone at its pricepoint, in subjective terms...  Overall, having the headphone measurement lab at CanJam was educational, and a great way to gather data on subjective measurements of headphones without Tyll having to buy every headphone himself.

Non gear highlights of the day were the live jazz performance this evening, some great conversations, and Giordano's deep dish pizza. 

That's all for now.  I'll make another post tomorrow about the things I forgot to mention and things I'll hear tomorrow....