Here is how the main exhibition hall sounded, in binaural, on Sunday afternoon about an hour before closing time.
[video]https://youtu.be/5H3cGBfru1E[/video]
For those complaining about the noise levels, you should have totally went to the Under Amour fitting rooms in Studio II. lol
Anyways, I had a blast at this CanJam event. Shoutout to
jude and
third_eye for getting the event all in order! Also thanks to
muinarc for being the chauffeur around town.
^ Pink's hot dogs
^ An expensive, regular-quality, CD from Amoeba Music. Apparently this album is from 1969!
I had a very different set of things I wanted to do at this event compared to most visitors.
I wanted to visit Theoretica Applied Physics to check out their Bach-BM in-ear binaural microphones. If you guys are new to my YouTube channel, I tend to record things in binaural, so it's a unique experience. Theoretica's binaural mics go in the ear canal, so they can capture some of the sounds that the concha would reflect. My in-ear binaural microphones, and many others, sit in the concha itself, so those sounds aren't captured. To me, in the above video, the Bach-BM mics captured the size of the room much better than my mics. I was sitting down at their booth facing their banner, so the sound should be pretty dampened in front, and sounds from other people should sound above your head a bit.
I also wanted to visit Audio Precision since they were letting people measure gear: amps, DACs, headphones, earphones. Their systems cost upwards of $25,000 (probably another $20,000 for the H.A.T.S. mannequin too), so I took full advantage of the opportunity since there's no way I'd be able to afford that in my current state. I got pretty much everything I have at hand measured: STAX SR-207 (again), Etymotic ER4SR, my own custom Ultimate Ears Reference Remastered with a pair of sacrificial large Comply foam tips to create a seal in their in-ear coupler (thanks
Netforce!), iFi Audio iEMatch, Ultimate Ears buffer jack, Objective 2, Schiit Audio Bifrost Multibit, and my OnePlus 3 phone. Yeah, that's a looot of stuff. The sessions took around 2.5 hours to measure in total, and fortunately there wasn't anyone behind me in line, hahaha.
It was likewise really neat talking to the folks at Brüel and Kjær (B&K). They're veterans when it comes to acoustic measurements, as I visited their booth at the Audio Engineering Society convention. It was neat getting to learn about their gear, how they differ from those at Audio Precision, and what kind of scenarios their gear is used for. My background is in bioengineering and I used the LabVIEW software in some of my classes. To my surprise, the software B&K uses is made completely in LabVIEW with a customizable GUI. Holy cow that was a mindblow moment for me. The folks there also had a SPL meter and they measured the room to be around 70 dB SPL mid-Sunday, which isn't toooooooooo loud. I had my UE Reference Remastered measured by them too since they were doing headphone measurements as well. I'm still waiting for them to e-mail me the data.
^ B&K earns the "Best Freebie of the Show" award. Seriously, this backpack thingie is really, really high-quality: water-resistant exterior, water bottle mesh holder, zippered coin section on the Velcro-adjusted shoulder strap, padded pocket for laptop, front pocket, pen holder pocket, breathable padded back, reflector strips on the back...this thing is like a $30 bag!
The one and only thing I actually did want to hear at CanJam was the new V-MODA Crossfade Wireless II. I like the M-100 for what it is, but I love the M-80's overall smoothness more. I wasn't expecting much since the Crossfade Wireless II has the Crossfade moniker to it, and I didn't like the Crossfade LP/LP2 at all, but jeeze, I was blown away by its sound. If you take the physical build/appearance of the M-100 and its great instrument separation, the smoothness of the M-80's sound, and the bass amount of the Crossfade LP/LP2, you get the Crossfade Wireless II from what I heard. It was just so awesome and fun to listen to, but at the same time, more Modern audiophile-friendly than the M-100 to me. I wish I could have chatted with
valkolton like I did at CanJam at RMAF to send him my high praise. I was super impressed by it. I gave the M-100 to my brother, but if I need a gaming headphone, the Crossfade Wireless II just might be it.
^ I love the matte white version a lot more than the M-100's crème color, but if I get newspaper ink on my fingers, will that rub onto the matte finish easily?
I visited the Ultimate Ears booth since I recently purchased the UE RR. I had a good time talking to the representatives there about their True Tone technology and the works. I listened to the Pro 18+ and I thought it was good, but not quite my preferred sound signature. It was definitely a step-up in terms of overall cohesiveness and had better imaging, but the lows seemed boosted relative to the RR, and the treble shelved. I guess for a professional live artist singer, who would actually use the Pro 18+ as real in-ear
monitors, that kind of sound signature is the preferred one.
Apart from those things, I was taking photos of other stuff. I was at the
TSAVJason helping out, so I started my photo journey there. They had a lot of products available to listen to, but Cavalli's products were by far the most popular as that area of the booth always had a crowd forming. The Sony-Sony-Sony (MDR-Z1R, TA-ZH1ES, NW-WM1Z...I freaking hate their product nameZ) rig was also very popular. Cavalli had two working prototypes available to listen to. Tentative names, and what was printed on the PCB, are: Liquid Platinum and Liquid Ambiance. I think as what
warrenpchi was explaining, the Platinum is kind of like a Crimson and it's fully balanced, Ambiance is like a Tungsten and is single ended (at least in their current stages). Also their Liquid Tungsten is in a case now!
Cayin iDAC-6, HA-6, and HA-1A MKII
Questyle's upcoming CMA400i, and their reference Gold Stack with the Focal Utopia
Focal themselves had a gold version of their Utopias
Echobox Explorer...and
Liquid Tungsten lightbulbs lol
JH Audio
https://www.jhaudio.com/products/meet-bertha-ear-monitor
It's real!
On a more serious note: Lola
^ A super awesome, carved design
MrSpeakers Æon
Audeze had their new Sine open-back and LCD-Pro
bmichels when I was going around photographing stuff, an Audeze rep said not to photograph something that someone was listening to. Maybe that was it!
Astell and Kern had their KANN portable media player. It's a very pretty color in my opinion.
Overall, I had a really fun time at this CanJam event. I got to talk to a lot of folks who are pretty active on Head-Fi, the people behind the companies, and just friends in general. I think CanJam events are more than just headphone listening events. People don't talk about the things outside of the people and gear though, oddly enough. 64 Audio had a raffle thingie going on for their Fourte(?) in-ears, and right before the raffle was drawn, there was some weird, distorted, leaf blower kind of sound coming from the roof of the event. Most of the people on the opposite side of the room from 64 Audio were like "What is that sound???" and literally 10 seconds after that sound started, there was a girl/woman who shrieked really loud. A lot of people immediately got quiet and darted towards the source of the sound, myself included, since there may have been an accident or emergency event. It turns out, someone had just won the raffle and they shrieked in excitement. Talk about a heart attack moment.
Also, the free swag! I ended up coming home with three t-shirts from people: 1 from Cardas, 1 from Ultimate Ears, 1 from Audio Precision. Not to mention B&K's super utility backpack.
Aaaaaaand last but not least: Jude riding
moedawg140's Swagtron motorized scooter! : D
