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2016 Tokyo Spring Fujiya Avic Headphone Festival Impressions
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Apr 30, 2016 at 10:03 AM Post #6 of 77

The LAB 2 by Final Audio Design
Reminds me of the Piano Forte Series
 
Apr 30, 2016 at 10:42 AM Post #7 of 77
obsidyen said:
  Please audition TH-610...
Click to expand...

 
I felt it was somewhat "warmer" than the TH-900. For those who find the TH-900 sibilant, may want to take a look at the TH-610 as an alternative option. I did take a pic but it was all blur. Actually Fostex had these other TR-70, TR-80, & TR-90 which were pretty decent sounding for their RRP of $200. Comfort on the pleather was average but sound wise I thought they were pretty full sounding. Sadly pix of these were also blur but there are pictures in their dedicated thread. Meanwhile I also listened to the Fostex/Fitear TE100 collaboration. A little more about that later below.
 
1st stop for a few of us Head-Fiers who turned up early was the Sennheiser HE1 new Orpheus. These are really nice sounding headphones. Rich, really articulate, full sounding. Speed is as what one would expect from an electrostat - also very "ethereal". Kinda hard to fault this sonically speaking.
 

 
@Currawong couldn't resist getting 1st in queue :D

 
Darko initially declined but the force is strong with the HE1.

 
C3PO and R2D2

 
Outside the HE1 showroom was the chapel of which AK had just finished their presentation of the marriage between the AK380 and a recorder piggyback amp. I didn't get too much details about this but it does up to DSD5.6 recording off the mics. Later on at the AK desk, I found out that it could rip LPs too into DSD5.6.

 
Next was to hear what the fuss was all about. Afterall, the Ultrasone Tribute 7 was the poster headphone of choice for the Fujiya Avic 2016 Spring Festival. The Tribute 7 is naturally a tribute to the Edition 7. From my understanding only 777 will be made. Naturally I lined up and had a listen. What can I say, The Ultrasone house sound. After giving the Tribute a 7 a whirl, I ran to the Signature DJ headphones and...confirmed, an Ultrasone house sound. If you're a fan, you're a fan. If not...well, move along.

 

 
@audionewbi gave me a heads up about Waversa Systems where I met Junho Shin. Waversa is established in the fuller desktop setup but starting in the portable. I had a listen to their unit below. On the 1st day I was listening off my IEMs and it didn't go too well. On the 2nd day, Junho pulled me aide and this time had his HD800 plugged into it - much better. A more decent DAC/Amp. But for now it supports only PCM.

 
Pioneer prototype closed headphones. These were interesting. I thought they were reasonably full sounding too. It's like the TH900 but hey I hear mids! The different etching on the cups tweaks the frequency response on the midbass region and downwards. Apparently they're self/user swappable.



 
Now I head about the Opus #1 in the threads but only knew it by name. So I thought I'd give it a shot. Being spoilt by the AK, the UI initially did bum me a little - one has to select the balanced manually, etc.but anyhow after it got playing I thought they were nice sounding too esp for their planned asking price for approx $700. Playing DSD was pretty quick too. I like their dual microSD slots - why did AK drop that?
 

 
So recently I picked up the Ocharaku Akazakura (Red Sakura's) and have been using them almost daily whenever I'm too lazy to stack my KSE1500. Then 1 month later, the FLAT4-Ti is announced. Presumably these are more along the lines of the Kuro (I wonder if they replace the Kuros?). Anyhow, I had to give them a listen and as I would expect, they are mid to bright focused. Still decently articulate.

 
When I first saw the TE100s, I thought maybe they were to replace the TO GO!334 but I was wrong. These are hybrids where Fostex provides the dynamic driver and Fitear does the BA. They're more "warmish sounding".

 
Jude's AK300....touch no hear.


Mr. Speaker's Ether E's made it to Japan finally (well demo at least). Day 1....hey, treble is a little tame isn't it? Dan sniggers....well the room is somewhat noisy and these are open cans afterall....come back when it's quieter! Day 2, show was (not?) surprisingly quieter....oh there you are treble! So as a stats fan, I wanted to give these a shot. They're no Orpheus but they are quite nice full sounding. At least to my ears, they lean closer towards the SR-007Mk1 family than the SR-009. There were 2 Ether E's off different amps...the Liquid Lightning and the Blue Hawaii Special Edition. The Ether E's were tuned the same but it was interesting they were transparent that the differences in Amps (or the DACs behind them) were very noticeable. One to keep an eye out for - when the Ether E's go production.

 
So I stopped by oBravo as when I demoed the EAMT-3W and just didn't get it. Anyhow, Was given a better explanation of the AMT (pictured below), and the ERIB with the magnetic planar sitting on top of the dynamic driver (two pics below). Pretty neat stuff actually, despite the sound not really being my taste.


 
I also stopped by Fitear and saw Suyama-san's, Frankenstein portable Stax with custom IEM Acrylic. Didn't try it of course but boy, does he like to experiment! I also tried their 334 Studio Reference and...I love the sound. being a TG!334 fan It had the full sound I wished my MH335DW-SR had. I went back twice to listen to the MH334-SR. If you get a chance, go listen!


 
KuraDa posted on Twitter an interesting prototype which I had to try. Having heard past KuraDa headphones, they never really did anything for me but I had some time so why not. Anyhow these prototypes actually were quite articulate! I was pleasantly surprised. Naturally as one could guess "very open sounding". Placement of driver just over the ears is key though.
 
The square ones below on the other hand are close to or are final production. They didn't wow me as much as the prototype.

 

 
Other tried but didn't listen pix, the Final Audio Design Lab II. There was queue, I was tired.

 
LPs made a show too as usual. ClearAudio Concept :-

 
 
Other places I listened to which are worthy of mentioning is the the Audeze table where they had the updated LCD-4. I have to admit I don't remember much about the former LCD-4 but these were quite good sounding too. Almost like a cleaned up LCD-3F. Still very much an Audeze house sound though.  The other was the SINE. Although nice, I have to say I'd rather go for the Fostex TR-80.
 
Another worthy of mentioning is CampFire's Andromeda. They're 5 BA and they're very smooth sounding. It's a meaty sounding headphone and has that nice thick smooth rich signature (almost sounds like I'm describing chocolate!).
 
Apr 30, 2016 at 12:00 PM Post #8 of 77
Thanks, warmer than TH-900 is what I'm looking for. I liked TH900 bass but not its treble.
 
Also, HE-1 might just be the most beautiful headphone I've ever seen. I wish I could afford that.
 
Apr 30, 2016 at 5:37 PM Post #9 of 77
Campfire Audio Campfire Audio - Nicely Done. Stay updated on Campfire Audio at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.campfireaudio.com/ Support@campfireaudio.com
Apr 30, 2016 at 7:31 PM Post #10 of 77
Will add more comments later but in regards to Ether E, I agree with Sean they sounded quite a bit different from the 2 rigs.
Granted the LLT2 had an (excellent) Bricasti M1 driving it instead of (imo average sounding) Auralic Vega for the BHSE but I don't believe the source can make that much difference since we're definitely talking several dB difference in the upper octave.
Given the Ether E were a b. to drive (LL at full volume to get reasonable loudness, BHSE at 3PM or so), I'd venture to guess the load is quite high capacitance and quite demanding on the amplifier, hence likely HF roll-off on the LLT2. Dan could probably comment better once he's spent more time with the BHSE (as I understand he just received it).
cheers,
arnaud
 
Apr 30, 2016 at 7:54 PM Post #11 of 77
HP-A8 MK2 with no balanced output? come on Fostex... 
 
Apr 30, 2016 at 8:00 PM Post #12 of 77
May 1, 2016 at 3:28 AM Post #14 of 77
I knew about the Japanese version of head fi from a Japanese bbs.
http://ja.head-fi.wikia.com/wiki/Head-Fi_Japan
I am looking for opening the Head fi Japanese version :)
 
May 1, 2016 at 4:31 AM Post #15 of 77
Reports are rare, but very interesting 
beerchug.gif

 
Ali
 
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