2015 Tokyo Fujiya Avic Autumn Headphone Festival Report
Westone
Hank Netherton of Westone was on hand at the show and we had a good chat about the latest in custom IEM tech, especially in the area of ear scanning and 3D IEM printing. I've covered JH Audio and Ultimate Ears to varying degrees and hope I can add Westone to the list as Hank told me about some of the technology they use in these areas.
Atomic Floyd
Aki Yamazaki From Atomic Floyd was on hand to demonstrate a new model of their IEMs. Here he is with Anakchan. On previous visits to their display I hadn't been so impressed by their models but the newer models surprised me with their sound quality.
MASS-Kobo
Masunori Masuda was on hand with no less than two pairs of HD800s which sounded fantastic out of the Model 404. I liked the combo even more than using his higher-end amp! The Model 404 had a degree of both smoothness and detail that was pure listening pleasure. If I didn't already have a main amp I'd be very tempted to get one of these.
Fostex
Someone remarked to me at the show that they didn't realise that the Hallmark IEMs were made by Fostex. Their parent company, Foster, makes a large variety of OEM headphones for various manufacturers. Most interesting this show was their collaboration with FitEar to make a pair of dynamic IEMs (see FitEar below).
Antelope Audio
Antelope Audio were only displaying one product at the show, their Platinum DAC. They have decided to give up selling the lower models and focus on their top-of-the-line model with it's optional Rubidium clock.
Audeze
LCD-4s! While the rest of the range was on display, I sat down to have a listen to the new, built-to-order flagship. A typical Audeze house sound greeted me, with warm mid-bass and somewhat mellow treble. People with deep pockets who want an upgrade to the LCD-3s are going to be interested in these.
Musae Lab
I was a bit surprised to find this company selling Wood-boxed components and a wood-cased DAP alongside pairs of their IEMs. It was heading towards closing time so unfortunately I didn't have time to sit down and give it a go.
Sony
As usual, Sony was on hand with not only their chief headphone engineer, Nao Tsunoda, but engineers from other divisions as well, including the department that makes their portable players. Here's a display case showing component parts
Jude with Nao, who introduced me to the engineers from other teams. Sony has a lot of interesting tech that I hope to cover in the future.
Linum
IEM connectors have always been something of a problem, so Linum set out to make their own, ideal design to work with their cables, shown here close up. They also had new cable prototypes on display for FitEar, alongside their cable comparison box. They have also been working on cables that have a lower resistance, as their regular cables use wires that are so incredibly thin that they can cause frequency shifts with some IEM/amp combinations. However their cables are so small, light and easy to manage that more and more manufacturers and enthusiasts are taking an interest.
FitEar
The FitEar Air was the latest pair of IEMs from this unique Japanese manufacturer. Partnering with Fostex, who makes the driver, they are FitEar's first dynamic driver IEMs. The sound signature was fairly typical FitEar, somewhat upper-mid forward and relatively light in the bass.
Justear
The Justear team, headed by engineer Tomohiro Matsuo was present at the show demoing their CIEMs. I was at their store the day before the show shooting a video of their order process, including some details of how they customise the sound for customers.
ASUS
Asus had their boldly-priced $1999 Essence III on display. Unfortunately they didn't have any high-end headphones to try it with, as I'd be interested to see how their flagship DAC/amp performs.
