2015 Tokyo Fujiya Avic Autumn Headphone Festival Report
The big announcements this show were the Chord Mojo, Sennheiser HD-800S and Shure KSE1500 (the Grace Design M9XX was not at the show, being a Massdrop special), as well as the FitEar Air, which uses a Foxtex dynamic driver, and MrSpeakers officially launching the Ether and Ether C in Japan. Friends from ALO Audio, Westone, RHA, Chord, Shure had made their way over to enjoy the show and we spoke to people from all over Asia who had come too. Chord
I was aware as far back as CanJam SoCal that Chord were working on a smaller version of the Hugo. What I wasn't aware of was that they had, in the final design, answered every criticism of the Hugo, including of the price. They have made it vastly smaller, removed the bluetooth input, have it charge via USB, even during playback and without lowering SQ, isolated the USB and, most importantly, made it a heck of a lot cheaper. Probably the biggest criticism is that Chord don't have a matching DAP to go with it!I was lucky to be able to get one and run it over-night. At first listening, it didn't sound so great, but after being left overnight with music playing back and on the charger, it now sounds wonderful. In case anyone is wondering, I don't intend to use the AK240 with it, that is just crazy (I was using the AK240, by itself, when on public transport). It was all I had handy though to use for playback, other than my computer. Given how small the AK240 is for a full-featured DAP, it shows just how small the Mojo is, which, it turns out, is the size of the original AK100.
When I finally got back home and un-packed, I gave it an hour's listening with my HE1000s, which it drives surprisingly well. It is not a match for my ALO Audio Studio Six by any means, but it did a good enough job that I wouldn't hesitate to use the combo for casual demos of those headphones.
Sennheiser
When I met up with Jude at the event, he said he first had to go and drop back something he'd borrowed from Sennheiser. As we entered the Sennheiser room, none other than Axel Grel was there, preparing to give a talk about the HD800S. Once I found out what they were (I didn't know anything at all beforehand) I asked Axel if he'd shoot a quick video and talk about them. We literally had one minute before he had to go!I had a listen later on my AK240 rig. It was impossible to form an impression though, as my own HD800s use completely different equipment and cables and have damping added and that is all I can remember. A side-by-side comparison is most definitely needed.
Aurorasound
Karaki-san's HEADA is a lovely high-end amp which I reviewed here. What readers of that review may not know is that other than high-end gear, he makes a USB bus power solution, as well as a modified HiFace USB to S/PDIF converter. His latest products include a DAC in the same form factor as the converter, and a USB cable where the power wires aren't connected, so as to avoid noise being sent from the computer to the DAC or converter. The handy thing about his USB power supply is that it passes data of any kind straight though, so there is no need for a special version for DSD or other types of high-res files. Everything works perfectly, even formats that don't exist yet!Triode
A stalwart of Japanese hi-fi and a standard feature of many Japanese hi-fi stores, Triode make tube amps of many kinds, albeit neither cheap nor excessively expensive, though with the kind of precision and presentation that one would expect of a boutique Japanese manufacturer. This includes a headphone amp or two which have been long on my list of products to investigate.Northstar
Some years ago Northstar DACs were the rage on Head-Fi, giving a slightly smoother presentation than the Benchmarks and Lavrys that were the rage at the time. Their products have, like many other brands, made their way across from Europe to Japan and their latest Incanto DSD DAC, this time with headphone output, was no exception.DSD Streaming: Korg, Sony and others.
Sony, Korg, other manufacturers and major internet providers have collaborated alongside the Berliner Philharmonic to stream DSD of live concerts over the internet. In Japan, internet speeds are very fast (I have a gigabit fibre connection that maxes out Speedtest.net) so as unexpected as this seems, given the bandwidth required by DSD files, it is not impossible to realise here. The software can either output to your computer's inbuilt audio, or it can stream the DSD out to DSD compatible components.
http://dsd.st
Nmode
Nmode, a Japan-only manufacturer, demonstrated some serious gear at the show, with DSD-integrated amps and DACs and their regular balanced headphone amp solution.DITA
Danny and Desmond not only had prototypes of of their up-coming Dream IEMs, which will have detachable cables for the first time, but also a unique system currently in 3D printed prototype, of a changeable plug cable system. We've all had the hassle of deciding what termination to get custom cables for our IEMs but the DITA guys intend to remove this worry with their unique system. Making it both small and robust is going to be an interesting challenge.Here Danny talks about both new products.
VentureCraft
The makers of V-MODA's VAMP and well-known for their portable DAC/amps has come out with a DAP. A quick look at the specifications suggests that it includes everything and the kitchen sink, from PCM to DSD playback and every format imaginable. I think the only thing I don't recall seeing was SACD ISO. I had planned to go back and have a listen to the demo unit but sadly ran out of time.Questyle
This was my first experience with the Questyle DAP and an unexpected experience it was. Heavy and fairly large, it looks and interacts like a more shiny X5. But while it has a fairly simple UI and mechanical scroll wheel (which was very slippery and hard to turn and often had me accidentally touching the home button) it sounded quite good with both IEMs and full-sized headphones. At least one friend at the show said that if they could only have a portable rig, they'd take it purely for the SQ.Echobox Audio
Gilly87's distributor was on hand to demonstrate his unique products, including the first DAP that looks like a hip flask and "Titanium" IEMs.Satorex
The company from last show that came out with weird digital, or non-digital, or I still don't know what headphones was back with some lovely-sounding and inexpensive IEMs, complete with "Hi-Res" sticker. They also had aluminium-cupped prototypes on display that were less impressive, but likely to be inexpensive given the prices suggested at the last show.Ocharaku
Tea anyone? How about acorns, or an updated version of their best acorn-shaped IEMs, the Donguri. Still sporting quite a bright sound signature, which for me would limit them to old jazz and classical with their unique presentation. On the other hand, they had finalised the sound of their Chonmage, the first IEMs to be named after a hairstyle. Less expensive, the plastic-clad IEMs were also quite bright-sounding.MrSpeakers
Dan Clark was on hand with Kenzo Kono from Emilai to announce official distribution of the Ether and Ether C in Japan. As always, Dan hauled his Cavalli amp all the way from the US to ensure the best demonstration possible of his headphones. Dan thought it might be interesting if I were to borrow a pair of current production Ethers and compare them to my almost-final-production pair (a CanJam 2015 SoCal demo pair) and see how similar they are, so confident is he that his production of them has been consistent.Shure
A whole, large room was dedicated to the KSE1500, requiring tickets be picked up in advance, on which was a time slot when you could listen to them. No need if you met up with Jude though, as he freely let everyone have a go. Just what I needed at the end of Saturday when my feet were killing me. With Jude's AK380 as a source they were wonderful and very detailed, significantly more so than the Laylas I was using. They were best with Chesky's binaural recordings, including the soon-to-be-released Appalachians album, showing a clear, Stax-like treble and a surprising amount of mid-bass. My criticism of them would be a lack of low bass and mids that were a bit forward for many types of music. For listening to your Chesky, MFSL, Decca and the like high-quality recordings on the go they are going to be fantastic. Can you imagine being able to listen to 'stats on a plane?!? I didn't try the in-built DAC, but given how clear a difference there was between my fresh-out-of-the-box (and thus not burned-in) Mojo and Jude's AK380 is, source consideration is going to be big with them. Although they will be expensive at $3000, an AK240 or AK380 plus high-end CIEM rig is yet more expensive, so we can at least credit them with not being entirely unreasonable about the price, especially given the 8 years of research that went into them. Of course, an AK380 + KSE1500 rig would be....well, let's not go there. I reckon they'll be lovely with my now-run-in Mojo.Marshal Banana having a listen, and Jude with an "My precious! Nobody will take it from meeeeeeeee!" expression on his face.
