[warrenpchi]

Does the copper bracelet at least help with aching joints?

No.

Which connector do you prefer?
I'm not an IEM guy, but all my IEMs are MMCX, always preferred that over 2 pin

My favorite IEM connector of all time is the shrouded 2-pin that Ultimate Ears used to use for their pro monitors. I think qdc still uses that, but I don't have any of their monitors. The pins formed the electrical connection, while the receptacle and enveloping shroud handled the mechanical connection.

It was simple and stable, though it was probably costlier to manufacture due to the increased complexity.

I don't enjoy connectors that try to combine electrical and mechanical connections into a singular mechanism, and MMCX is exactly that. It's especially grating to me as my reference Westone ES80 is MMCX, so I have to live with that on a daily basis.

That said, MMCX is not the absolute worst connector I've ever had to use. For those of you old enough to remember, I think we can all agree that the mini-BNC connectors from old HiFiMANs are pretty frustrating things.

Bro, the interconnect! It's a natural!

Make a bracelet/cable convertible and we're talking. Imaging being able to take multiple cables out by wearing them on your wrist.

Well, I was thinking of a daisy chain of adapters so that I can easily convert to/from 3.5/2.5/4.4.

 

[djentbat]

How dare people have a different opinion/experience than you

Let’s measure an IEM in an extremely noisy environment when the manufacturer clearly does not condone it and asked the person to stop. If you cant show respect to any vendor, there would be no point in Can jams. People like this ruin the point of the whole event. But sure if it’s your opinion to treat vendors rudely, you must be a lovely person….

 

[SemperMalum]

Let’s measure an IEM in an extremely noisy environment when the manufacturer clearly does not condone it and asked the person to stop. If you cant show respect to any vendor, there would be no point in Can jams. People like this ruin the point of the whole event. But sure if it’s your opinion to treat vendors rudely, you must be a lovely person….

To be fair, I think the person you're replying to wasn't the IEM measuring person; different person. Unless that wasn't what you were implying.

I believe they were in another thread and just super against the HE-1 sign ups.

 

[djentbat]

To be fair, I think the person you're replying to wasn't the IEM measuring person; different person. Unless that wasn't what you were implying.

I believe they were in another thread and just super against the HE-1 sign ups.

This individual responded to my comment about the measuring guy, not the sign ups.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Let’s measure an IEM in an extremely noisy environment when the manufacturer clearly does not condone it and asked the person to stop. If you cant show respect to any vendor, there would be no point in Can jams. People like this ruin the point of the whole event. But sure if it’s your opinion to treat vendors rudely, you must be a lovely person….

There are always two sides of the story, unless you've witnessed the actual interaction.

I'm sorry this interaction didn't end more pleasantly, but your recollection of events doesn't correlate with mine. I always ask everybody before I measure anything. As we discussed, I would have been much more interested to see impedance and distortion/waveform error than FR from a B&K rig. I'll admit you caught me off guard, because this was the first time I'd ever been told no, but at your request I stopped at impedance.

I've previously purchased IEMs whose prices are (almost) in the ballpark of STORM, but only did so after both listening and looking in detail at measurements. If I'm going to spend that amount of money, I want to do both the test drive and see the spec sheet. Those that don't see the need for the latter - please see paragraph #4 in my original post.

If you had been there, you would have seen that I was respectful. As requested, I did not take measurements beyond impedance, and even that hasn't been published anywhere.

 

[DenverW]

I was going to reply to the 'measurement-gate' comments, then thought, "why are we still talking about this when there are so many great canjam topics?"

So instead I'm going to mention the pitfall trap that was near the Austrian Audio booth in the form of a cord protector on the ground. I nearly lost it tripping on this, and I know that Warren got zinged by this too. How many people were so amazed by the sights and sounds of canjam that they took a stumble over this?

 

[SemperMalum]

I was going to reply to the 'measurement-gate' comments, then thought, "why are we still talking about this when there are so many great canjam topics?"

So instead I'm going to mention the pitfall trap that was near the Austrian Audio booth in the form of a cord protector on the ground. I nearly lost it tripping on this, and I know that Warren got zinged by this too. How many people were so amazed by the sights and sounds of canjam that they took a stumble over this?

At least twice. And then I felt embarrassed each time. But yeah, that was kinda a slip & fall lawsuit waiting to happen so thankfully no one got hurt. But protector ramp for the cables probably should be revisited in this case.

 

[Altes]

1. Delicate details of ambiance and fine note decay (likely EST's helping this)
2. Tuning swings closer toward Mason series
3. Bass delivery alters from subwoofer presentation to tighter and controlled presentation (less subbass)

These three elements add up to pure emotion conveyance, to the point I was in tears listening to female vocals. I could hear the strain in the voice, while it retained vibrancy with a more sustained decay. I could hear more air in the recording.

Do you know if these sonic qualities can only be heard when paired with the N30LE? E.g., what happens if Amber Pearl is paired with a good neutral source?

 

[bigbeans]

Do you know if these sonic qualities can only be heard when paired with the N30LE? E.g., what happens if Amber Pearl is paired with a good neutral source?

I did not try with a neutral source. Perhaps someone can chime in who tried it on the Lotoo Mjolnir. I only tried with DMP Z1 and Cayin N30 LE. I didn't try it with the N30AP variant. The N30LE was livelier, more aggressive compared to the warmth/smooth nature of DMP Z1. I preferred DMP Z1 but this is simply personal preference. It's phenomenal through either, the Amber Pearl is doing most of the work anyways as the source is merely tilting the direction.

 

[warrenpchi]

So instead I'm going to mention the pitfall trap that was near the Austrian Audio booth in the form of a cord protector on the ground. I nearly lost it tripping on this, and I know that Warren got zinged by this too. How many people were so amazed by the sights and sounds of canjam that they took a stumble over this?

Was on vacation and "attending" my first CanJam in a decade... NO WAY I WAS GONNA LET A SPEEDBUMP SLOW ME DOWN!

 

[Edric Li]

Do you know if these sonic qualities can only be heard when paired with the N30LE? E.g., what happens if Amber Pearl is paired with a good neutral source?

I heard the Amber Pearl with my Hugo 2. Not sure if I'm answering your question but yes, I can tell a difference between the N30LE, the Hugo 2 and the Mjolnir using the Amber Pearl. Matter of fact I can tell them apart with my $25 E500. My preference was Hugo 2 (w/ crossfeed) over Mjolnir over Hugo 2 (w/o crossfeed) over the N30LE. I didn't make this judgement based on the Amber Pearl, but on my E500 and various IEMs on the MusicTeck table.

There isn't and shouldn't be anything special about a IEM+DAP bundle. Cayin/UM would be shooting themselves in the foot if one only sounds good with the other.

 

[djentbat]

I was going to reply to the 'measurement-gate' comments, then thought, "why are we still talking about this when there are so many great canjam topics?"

So instead I'm going to mention the pitfall trap that was near the Austrian Audio booth in the form of a cord protector on the ground. I nearly lost it tripping on this, and I know that Warren got zinged by this too. How many people were so amazed by the sights and sounds of canjam that they took a stumble over this?

I came very close to dying... haha

 

[Alpexis]

Kallyste Amethyste + Final Audio D8000 Pro Limited Edition

Lovely read, txs so much for your impressions. Which source was used for the amethyste+d8kple?

 

[MusicTeck]

CanJam Socal 2023 Impressions

Best CanJam I've ever been to. The people, the vendors, the products, and the venue all just top notch. Shout-out to Head-Fi because it's difficult to have an event or product that gets better over time but this one is and our community is growing larger.

Objectives
I was/am in the market for the absolute best sound < 100K. For the most part, I would sit down at a booth an try to listen to the best and/or most expensive item in play (usually the same but not always).

Music Style
Pop Music (Michael Jackson, The Weeknd, Bruno Mars, Arianna Grande, Whitney Houston, Billie Eilish). Then Rap. Then Classical. Really wish more people would do this because I think the style of music you like really correlates with the type of headphones/amps you gravitate towards.

Caveats/Provisos/Quid Pro Quos

• I didn't use any of my own equipment. I just sat down and listened to what was available.
• When possible, I will mention the full chain of equipment. I usually didn't take the time to swap things out to figure out where the magic was coming from.
• Age Range: 35-45. Also extremely important to point out because our hearing is VERY different through different stages of our lives. Younger people may be more sensitive to treble because they can hear more >15Khz while older people cannot. Older people who have lost a bit of hearing may listen a little louder or be enchanted by more pronounced mid-range due to hearing loss in the higher frequencies.
• I listened to a lot but not nearly everything so this list isn't comprehensive
• Didn't get to hear anything in the ZMF room - there was always a huge line.
• My current amp is the Viva Egoista STX so I may be a bit biased to their offerings

Category 1 - Shut-up and take my money

• Kallyste Amethyste + Final Audio D8000 Pro Limited Edition.
  • This is the best sound I've ever heard from a desktop system. Ever, I've tried the Aperio, HE-1, Viva Egoista STX + X9000. But this was incredible. I came back maybe 4 times to make sure what I was hearing was correct but good lord was this amazing. The richness of tone. The engulfing sound-stage. The intimacy of the vocals. Amazing.
  • Also tried with the Susvara - sounded excellent but the volume knob was nearly maxed out. So maybe this isn't the most powerful amp.
• Elysian Annhilator 2023 + Hiby RS8 + Elysian Upgrade Cable
  • Dude. Dude. How is this possible from a portable system? It sounded like Whitney Houston was singing in my head. I know I may be effusive here but this experience was ineffable
  • Most of the songs on the DAP were Chinese songs I've never heard. Every. Single. Thing. Sounded Euphoric. The few English songs I had heard were some of the best I've ever heard them sound.
  • Can't remember the name of the upgrade cable but it started with a 'Chi'

Category 2 - Good Golly Miss Molly

• Sennheiser HE-1
  • As close to my speaker system as I've ever heard. Fantastic overall. Was being powered by a laptop running Tidal in a browser window -> internal DAC. Wish there was a better music source.
  • Might still consider buying but the items mentioned in category 1 impressed me even more
• Warwick Aperio
  • Also incredible.
  • Heard it at the Headphones.com area and the Warwick booth
  • If I had to pick, I think I liked the HE-1 a bit more. Both of these sound...perfect....for lack of a better word. Maybe too perfect. I found myself analyzing the sound instead of enjoying the music.
  • Cables on HE-1 and Aperio are too short for my use case and can't be extended. I'm not going to say that's a deal breaker because let's be honest, us audiophiles will do ridiculous things for top-sound.
  • No remote control for volume control - also not a deal breaker but annoying if you intend to keep you unit in a media console to leverage other top end components you may have ( I have a Grimm MU1 + power conditioner + cables near my media cabinet that I would want to use)
• Viva Audio 845 + Susvara + iBasso DAP
  • Mimic Audio Table
  • Viva had their own booth as well. But they had it plugged into a reel-to-reel player. It sounded okay but had music I don't really listen to so hard to gauge.
  • They had the Egoista STX on display but not for demo. Really wish they could have shown off this incredible amp.
• Ampsandsound Kenji + Audeze LCD-X
  • Also tried the Red October which was fantastic but in such a noisy environment, it was vert difficult to differentiate between the two
• QDC Anole V14
• Fir Audio Radon 6
  • Heard the electron-12 as well but I really liked the sound of this
• DMS Omega
  • Sounded fantastic. This is a steal at the price he's asking for ( $999 I think)

Category 3 - Could be Magic under different circumstances

• Mass Kobo 465
  • Many, many people were buzzing about this amp. I tried it twice but just couldn't include in the top tiers. The potential is definitely there but maybe a different source would have helped? Think he was using a $90 Topping.
  • A friend of mine bought one after only listening for 2 minutes. Once he gets it, hopefully can do a proper audition.
  • There is a 6-9 month wait if you ordered RIGHT NOW. I'm an American damn it, I want it now!
• Austrian Acoustics
  • Their headphones sounded really good but I think they were way more susceptible to the ultra-noisy environment. Would have loved to try them under more quiet circumstances
• Questyle CMA 18 master
  • Thought this sounded pretty good. The portable prototype also was also note-worthy.

O Brother, Where Art Thou

• Raal Acoustics
  • Really wanted to hear their offerings + amps
• Viva Egoista STX
  • As mentioned, it was on display but not on demo
• Headamp Grand Cayman
  • Heard that Justin unfortunately got sick and the amp usually travels directly with him so no dice.
• Hifiman Shangri-La Sr
  • Sadly, nowhere to be found.

Musings/Partings are such sweet sorry

• I'd been looking forward to this event for months. Sadly as you get older, things very rarely live up to the hype. But this did. It was amazing and is constantly a highlight of my year.

Very fun and informative impressions! And BTW, we have one 465 in the house, so you have to wait for 6-9 months if you want it now, LOL.

 

[zach915m]

Sorry for my tardiness on this! Had a wonderful time and really appreciate all of you who participated in my silly video: