Latest Thread Images

CanJam SoCal 2017 Impressions Thread!
Status
Not open for further replies.
Apr 8, 2017 at 4:17 PM Post #3 of 521
please share your thoughts on ak kann
 
Apr 8, 2017 at 4:33 PM Post #5 of 521
musicday said:
 
Exactly what I wanted to ask, thank you.
Click to expand...

hope they can test its balanced HO as that is where it being bulky can be excused
 
also does it have the same parametric eq as in ak380
 
Apr 8, 2017 at 5:32 PM Post #6 of 521
Patiently waiting for initial impression of Abyss Phi 
cool.gif

 
Apr 8, 2017 at 8:02 PM Post #9 of 521
The Abyss Phi stole the show for me. I listened to it at both the abyss table (Brooklyn dac,XI Audio amp) and woo audio room (emm labs dac, wa33). The sound was unreal. For a moment, I thought I was having auditory hallucinations listening to some chesky binaural recordings. Both my wife and felt the sound surrounding us 360°. The sound was also very clean (no distortion), transparent, and detailed. Treble was sparkly and bass was tight and impactful.

The woo wa33 was my second favorite of the show. It was running upgraded tubes and fed by a emm labs dac. The sound signature was different from my wes and wa5, which I would describe as having a bit warm and lush presentation. The wa33 sounded more neutral but this could be due to the dac. The overall sound had great presence, transparent, natural, pitch black background, and holographic. The treble and bass seemed to have great extension. The bass also had more slam than what I'm used to with the wes and wa5. I tried the utopia's on many systems at the show, and to my ears, they sounded best off the wa33.

Some random notes. Jack mentioned that there was a recent parts upgrade to the WES. The WES at show sounded more transparent and detailed than the one I have at home with the same stock tubes, but this may also be due to the dac difference.

I also learned that Justin from headamp is working on a new design for a electrostatic amp based on a SET design. Apparently, the new amp is a original design by Justin and not based on an existing KG design. Super excited to see what comes next from Headamp.
 
Apr 8, 2017 at 11:22 PM Post #14 of 521
Today I had the greatest single hour of head-fi experience of my entire life. I easily passed $100,000 dollars of gear over my ears in 60 minutes.
 
It was glorious. It was magical. It was CanJam.
 
I won't bury the lead. I was not lucky enough to score a reservation in the Sennheiser HE-1 (Orpheus) room, but on a lark, I stuck my head in the room prior to registration and asked if there had been any cancellations. I was told if I returned at 11:10, he would squeeze me in. So lucky.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 


I was run through several tracks, Norah Jones "Come Away With Me", "Diamonds On The Souls Of Her Shoes" by Paul Simon, and a few others, but it was Elvis Presley's "In The Ghetto" that put a smile on my face. What strikes me about the HE-1, is how perfect the bass is situated in the pocket between bloat and tightness. It's just dead-on accurate and it creates an emotional experience. It's a perfect headphone in every way. It's also more expensive than both our cars, combined. I will remember those minutes forever.
 
My next stop was Woo Audio. It was here that I got to audition the new WA-33. As a WA-5 loyalist, I was more than a little jelly about the new "flagship." What I fell into in the Woo room was an headphone orgy. I brought my HifiMan HE-1000 V2 to the party. But it was another Head-Fier that supplied the showstopper, a genuine K1000 circa 1992. Game on!
 


If you've never... the K1000 sits outside your ears, there is no seal. They sit like personal speakers for your head, and the soundstage is what this headphone is all about. They are a little harsh through the mid-range, but it's an immersive experience, and I was quite lucky for the timing. I got to A/B my HE-1000 with the Focal Utopia, and I'm relieved (from a pocketbook standpoint) that my HE-1000 v2 holds it's own, plus a little more against the spectacular Utopia. Both are worthy headphones and either are true Summit-Fi performers. Not pictured on the table and also participating in the events, the new Abyss v2. Simply an amazing array of listening in a very short time.
 

 
 
What? OH! The AMP! See? I did bury the lead.
 

 

 

 


In short, the WA-33 the best valve amp I've heard since the ALO Audio Studio Six. It's fantastic, and the pairing with my HE-1000 was better than my WA-5. The bass extension is on another plane, robust and tight. Spectacular detail and soundstage, stunning treble extension. I jumped through tracks by The Band and Cannonball Adderley's "Somethin' Else." Jack has every right to price to price this amp north of the WA-5, it's sensational. The bottom unit is the power supply and also the audio connection interface, which is different than the WA-5. And like the former flagship, the amp has speaker outputs, but 9 amps of power vs. 5 amps on the WA5. EDIT: I'm being told the speaker output may be a special order, at least initially. The rep I spoke with said it would be in the final production model, YMMV.
 
Next up, Mr. Speakers and their electrostatic Ether prototype. Unfortunately the tracks were not up to the quality of the rig. There were a bunch of 44.1 tracks available and they failed to deliver a knockout blow. But I have a sense that with the right source, this headphone might be very special. It was paired with one of my all-world all-time favorite amps, the Blue Hawaii. 
 


 


Makes me want to island hop. And as long as we're on the Summit-Fi topic, Here's the re-designed HifiMan Shangri-La which some snuck a peek at last CanJam. It wasn't operational when I was there, but I did get a little intel that Dr. Fang Bian will likely increase the time between updates on his headphones, to keep consumers happy. I think the man has earned the right to do whatever the hell he wants.
 

 
 
Back to Mr. Speakers-- they also offered up their new consumer-ish headphone, the AEON, in the main hall, and I left the table impressed.
 

 

 
Near Mr. Speakers was the Audeze table, and I got to audition the new Sine20 at long last. I super enjoyed them-- they're unique and I want a pair. The Tie Fighter look is hypnotic and it's very strange to have an open back in-ear. As I said, I want a pair! 
 

 
But I can't afford them just yet.
 
Audeze had the Chord Hugo 2 on the table (the Chord table was packed and stacked with folks, and I had a Blackhawks game to get to), which I'm so tempted to sell of my Hugo for-- I didn't get a good listen, thank goodness so my wallet will be safe. How did they make a charming DAC even more... charminger. Charmingly. Whatever. I'm sure it sounds great. Blah Blah Blah I have to not want it, but I do.
 

 
 

 
Another interesting headphone comes from Blue, the microphone maker. The articulating Skeletor look of the Ella was actually the winner of the comfort king award, in my book. A headphone that actually felt GOOD? Who knew? I put these in the B&W P7 category. Very comfortable, winning headphones. These are closed-back planars, by the way. 
 
 
 


My photo is a little "Blue". Why not? What else? Oh, great people at UE, that's Ultimate Ears. I've had a custom UERM for years now, since their introduction back in 1940 or whenever. Now they're even better (they loosened up the bass a bit and the treble frequencies are more extended) and they proved it to me. My UERMs are a tool, and they do their job well. Fun people on that table and they even took a set of digital impressions, just in case I win the lotto and buy all of this stuff. I also scored a swaggy UE T-shirt for cracking them up.
 

 
Not sure I'll make it back for day 2, but who knows? Great time today. Unfortunately the Blackhawks lost to the Kings in overtime across the street. Well at least we made the playoffs.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 3 (members: 0, guests: 3)
Back
Top