Day 1 was amazing. Let's hear your stories.

I managed to make my way through roughly 1/3 of the CanJam room today. I'm taking my time since I'm here all weekend and there's only a few things outside of CanJam that have my attention. Here's what really stood out from my time among the headphone world.
 
As I made my way around the room the first area that really drew my attention was the Aurisonics booth. I wanted to get a little time with the Aurisonics Rockets. Those things are built like tanks and can probably take one heck of a beating while still delivering nice quality sound. I quite liked them. Then I took a little time to listen to the ASG-1Plus and the ASG-2.5. Between the two I preferred the 2.5 thanks to the larger soundstage and, as Dale put it, their "visceral" sound.
 

 
Now, you may be asking what I have in my hands in the photo above. You may not be. But if you're not, you'll probably want to know what they are after you hear this. Next month Aurisonics will be returning to Kickstarter for another crowdfunded headphone. The Aurisonics Rockets campaign raised over $200k and they're aiming to top that with these bad boys. They're called the Aurisonics Auris and Aurisonics is aiming to take the crown for wireless IEMs. That's right, they're wireless. As far as specific details go, I'm allowed to say that they will utilize Bluetooth technology and... that's about it. Heck, I wasn't even allowed to show more in the photograph than what you see, though I wish I could. One thing I can say about the Auris is that the prototype felt extremely comfortable in my ears. Seriously, I wish I could talk more about them because these headphones are going to have some really cool features that I cannot wait to use. If you like the sound produced by the current Aurisonics models then you'll no doubt enjoy the Auris. If you don't like anything in their lineup then these probably aren't for you, honesty up front. But I'm going to be one of the first in line on November 17th to back the Auris on Kickstarter.
 

 
Before the show I was planning to stop by the Pendulumic table after listening to Jude's review on the CanJam preview video. And on Thursday I had the opportunity to spend some time talking with Pendulumic themselves. Now I'll be honest, I was wearing my skeptics hat when I sat down at the booth to try out the Stance S1 wireless Bluetooth headphone. I trust Jude's opinions and he's never steered me awry before, but most of my past experiences with Bluetooth have left a lot to be desired. And I was more curious to hear the Stance S1 after learning the design process behind them but again, I was speaking with their VP os sales and lead designer who obviously loved their own product. But when I sat down at the table and listened I can say without doubt that these are indeed the best sounding Bluetooth headphones I've come across.
 
Bass lovers will welcome their rich low end but that's not to say that these pander to bassheads. The bass was well textured and bodied without being overly aggressive and dominating the rest of the range. Mids were nicely balanced but not quite as pronounced as either the low or high end. The treble was crisp and clean without having sharp attacks or any sibilance that I could detect while listening on the somewhat noisy show floor. Pendulumic stated that they improved the comfort over the original design of the Stance and I have to say that I found these very comfortable. They have both a tension band and adjustable arm lengths so even people with narrow heads like mine can wear it comfortably. In short, I'm predicting my wallet will find itself relieved of several dollars and that I'll be traveling home on Monday enjoying a new pair of wireless headphones on the journey.
 

 
And I'll cap off my day 1 report by talking a tiny bit about LH Labs. Yes yes, I'm sure you already know about the Geek Pulse so I'll keep this portion brief. First, the design. Many backers have been upset with the final design and early photos were less than flattering. Heck, even the one above isn't all that great looking. But in person it looks less DIY design than photographs have shown. It's stacked on top of the LPS in the photo and the two do look pretty nice together. They'll fit in perfectly at home on my desk. If you're not a fan of the design well I have good news. Gavin and Larry from Light Harmonic/LH Labs confirmed for me today that if you want to replace the knob you can at the expense of covering the IR port. If you don't need the remote capability it's a very simple process to change the knob for a larger one. Easy. They also mentioned that we may see swappable face plates in the future in case you don't like the current styling, but that wasn't a promise.
 
Second, the sound. I'm going to keep this brief because the product still has a few more tweaks in the firmware before it's 100% ready so this particular one isn't complete. I listened to a couple of tracks using the Alpha Dogs since that's one of the headphones I have at home and I'm pretty used to the sound. It was run SE off the Pulse Xfi. From my brief time it seemed that both the treble and the bass have nice extension and the sound is very natural across the board. It seemed to pair very well with the Alpha Dogs. I didn't try to mess with the TCM or FRM settings and I can't say how it would sound off the standard switched mode power supply. But from my short time with it at the show I'm starting to get a bit excited for when mine finally arrives. That's about all I want to say on the Pulse until mine arrives and I can spend time critically listening.
 
Then I ventured upstairs to where they were demoing the Pulse/LPS in a dual mono speaker setup. But the Pulse wasn't what I found most interesting in the room. They were demoing their next product which they're calling the Geek Keep. In a nutshell they're looking to save us from our massive mono block amplifiers that can heat a house while still delivering quality power to stereo speakers. They're deep-biased A/B mono amps and fit in an enclosure roughly the space of a shoe box or the LPS you see in the photo above. It's exceptionally small considering the prototype I heard was delivering 120W per channel while remaining exceptionally cool. I will absolutely be keeping an eye out for further details on the Keep and Gavin mentioned we should start hearing more details once the Pulse is in full production mode.
 

 
And before I go, here's a photo of the Blue Hawaii (BHSE) amp from the HeadAmp table. It was powering the STAX SR-009. It goes without saying that they sounded absolutely incredible together. And that purple... so pretty.

Thanks Axelcloris your impressions are much appreciated.  

uncola said:

  Thanks Axelcloris your impressions are much appreciated.  

Click to expand...

 
No problem, hope you found something interesting in the wall o' text. And I added in a brief section on the Pulse's sound. I apparently skipped it when I was originally typing. That tends to happen with stream of consciousness writing.

Rats, I could only attend Friday and missed out on the Aurisonics completely!
 
my hit list today included:
 
- Schiit Audio to hear the biggest (Ygg/Rag - utterly out of this world.  and my price range), to the smallest- Fulla.  a great intro product delivering 300mW into 32 ohms.
 
- Avatar Acoustics and iFi products.  now can't wait for the mini iFi line in 2015!
 
- LH Labs booth for Xfi listening (posted elsewhere)
and in room demo and Chat with Larry, Gavin and LH crew with some Geek Force members.
yes, Geek Stream sounded pretty amazing and is tiny/thin on the back of an iPhone!
 
- Oppo for some PM-3 listening (two sets were voiced a bit differently, 1 did sound more open/wide) and the HP-A2 (think that's the new model),
which was bigger than an iPhone.  it should be a direct competitor with Geek Stream.
 
- CEntrance for some mini-m8 listening and also discussions plans on i5.
 
- RHA for a listen to the T10i, nice metal molding for sure.  maybe a bit bass heavy for my ears upon first listen.
 
- visit to Resonessence to talk to Mark M about the upcoming Herus+.  added 3 filters and a button press!
 
- seeing Dr Fang in person at HiFiMan and having him bless my HE-560s was a treat!  couldn't get a real good ear seal on RE IEMs so missed my opportunity there for a comparison.
 
- Sony MDR-1A (new closed headphone) seemed to have some rich sound and full bass compared to my NAD HP50, but didn't have HP50 with me to listen side by side.
worth a second listen.
 
let's just say that waiting in line from 11a-12noon seemed longer than 12n-6pm today!
whew.

Do any of the exhibitors or any head-fiers have the Calyx M that I can audition tomorrow (Saturday), or am I out of luck this year?

I agree.
 
This is probably the best show out of the years I've attended.  Great open/relaxed layout with plenty of top-notch vendors and many new releases/prototypes.
 
Some highlights from Day 1, include:
 
iFi Retro
 


 
 
A multi-purpose, multi-function tube headphone/speaker amplifier that sounded very sweet, but at the same time detailed and full.  Very nice sound coming from my portable DAP, connected by bluetooth and through my HD650s, DAP/Cable shown in the first picture above, which it drove better than 90% of what I've heard the HD650s through; very impressive.  The Retro comes with two bookshelf size 2 way speakers that unfortunately weren't hooked up (being that it is in the headphone area); there may even be a subwoofer as well in the near future, which would make this quite the little bedroom setup that the even a spouse might compliment.  With the additions of tonal controls, plus their proprietary bass and holographic 3D sound management controls, the tweak-ability/use-ability of this amplifier is high.  I wish I knew all the specs, but it pushes 25 watts per channel and the bluetooth worked flawlessly from my DAP.  All in all, great sound coming out of this amp and in what some would argue as a more fashionable and timeless way with its old-school design/looks.
 
They also had a matching bamboo turntable that looked awesome, but unfortunately wasn't hooked-up either (maybe tomorrow).
 

 
In addition their component stack, which is a plug-n-play component type design/model, that is very cool and sounds very good.
 

 
 
VK Music
 
If you haven't checked out any of the DIY Elekit speaker/headphone amplifiers before, I highly recommend that you go and see Victor from VK Music in the side lobby.  He has some really great kits with him this year as well as a few new more portable solutions as well.  In addition, I highly recommend that you try out the Elekit TU-8200 DX, which is my current main amplifier and just sounds amazing through Oasis Speakers 8 inch single drivers.  Below are a few pictures; the single drivers shown below are made using no-other than gourds, very cool:
 




 
Mr Speakers - Alpha Prime
 

 
The Alpha Prime really did sound better to me than the Alpha Dog; not to dog on the Dog, as it is a great sounding closed headphone, but to me the Prime had more warmth with more body/weight to the sound/tone as well as being a bit more detailed than the Dog.  However, going for around a grand, is it worth the extra coinage... hard to tell as their are some fine peers in its price group, however I would say that after my brief audition with them today, I definitely would want the Primes over the Dogs; even though I could live with the Dogs, the extra sophistication/detail and the fullness of the sound of the Primes over the Dogs was noticeable.  Now for an extra $400 over the Dogs, how much that noticeably is worth to you is up to your ears.  Both are highly recommended.
 
Alpha Dogs with the Schiit DAC/AMP combo I used to compare to the Alpha Primes
 

 
More to come tomorrow, but below are a few additional pictures I took today:
 







 
Now to rest for round 2!! 

I'm dying to hear about the Geek Wave, though it's only the analog stage (which I'm not exactly sure how to interpret).

this thread is surprisingly dead.  I guess rmaf is not really the san diego comicon of headphones I thought it was

Most big news didn't show up online till mid-Saturday last year.

Day 1 for me - no photos.  Just too much to see.  Will try to take some photos today.  At the show with an old college friend who is mostly into large 2-ch rigs, so we're splitting time between CanJam and the RMAF rooms in the towers.
 
Biggest surprise of day 1?  How freaking great the Noble universals sound.  I have more IEM tables to hit today, but the Noble universal K10s were just stunning.  Doesn't hurt that they're beautiful, either.  Don't think I've heard such a beautiful sound stage before in an IEM.
 
Looking forward to today:  hitting the Schiit, Woo, and Cavalli tables for lengthy auditions.  Also must find the Von Schweikert rig set-up and dream of the day I can drop six figures on a system designed for the eight-figure home I don't yet own.  

Can't wait to hear what you think of the yggy

Can somebody take a listen to the new McIntosh Headphones and report back PLEASE! 

I went yesterday and it was my first CanJam. I was actually really impressed with the RHA T10i, with the few songs I listened to (Chvrches and Röyksopp & Robyn) it sounded quite good. The Pendulumic Stance S1 also had surprisingly good sound for a Bluetooth headphone, and it has a lot of versatility as well. I was able to meet Jude and a lot of other cool people, and it was a great experience all in all.

I wish I could come today and tomorrow...

Mod edit:  Content from CanJam 2014 announcement thread has been merged into this post.  

 

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Some pictures,





 

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Mini meet is starting. In the lounge area in canjam.

Here's my filled out card.