I finally found some time to share my thoughts from the show and as a newbie. This was my first CanJam and RMAF even though I live in the Denver metro area. It seems I am always busy on the RMAF weekend. My first priority was to spend my time looking at CIEMs. I travel a lot for work, so I see a CIEM as one of the better uses of my funds as I will use them a lot. My next goal was to look at amps to upgrade my O2. I then wanted to just soak in as many headphones as I could. WOW... there was a lot to take in. I kinda wish I had kept actual notes on a lot of what I did check out.
CIEMs
This was the best opportunity ever to be able to listen to so many different brands in one place. I feel very confident in my choice based on my experience at CanJam. I was looking for something in the $500 to $700 range. There were a lot to listen to in this range. I didn't like the CTM offerings. I felt they lacked in detail and just didn't suit my ears. I didn't care for the JH Audio offerings in my price range. If I was spending at twice my level I would have given the JH offerings a closer listen. If I was spending double my budget I suspect no custom would compete with the Noble Kaiser 10. Ultimate Ears were all good, but they didn't speak to me in my price range. I quickly narrowed it down to the Alclair RSM and the Noble 4. These two were my clear cut stand outs. I was like WOW on both of them. I listened to them on Friday. When I went back on Saturday to do my final comparison and make my choice, the Noble 4 were no longer available to listen to at the Noble booth. This was a big disappointment as I really wanted to listen between the two and make my choice with my ears. This helped in my decision to choose the Alclair RSM with nothing else to compete with it. I just loved the detail and neutral sound that the Alclair RSM offered. I felt it was a very natural representation of the source material with a great sound stage. I will say that ultimately the Alclair were also going to come in at a better value. The great folks at Alclair were awesome in their help. The fact I was able to do custom face plates and art without an up charge and they did my impressions at the show really provided for some savings. It is awesome they provided this for folks at the show. I feel very confident in all my future dealings with the fine folks at Alclair. That alone gives me a great deal of comfort on such a large investment in a CIEM that I will drag around the country with me on my travels. Frankly I liked all of the Noble offerings with an even number. Like I said earlier, I was impressed with the Noble Kaiser 10. I think it offered a fair return for the premium in cost. All that said, I am confident I will be getting the best I can get for my ears for the money I am spending on the Alclair RSM.
AMPs
My lack of experience showed when it came to looking at all the amp offerings. I don't know if I came with a great strategy to demo amps at the show nor do I think I have the full knowledge to sort it all out. I will give my general impressions. I didn't spend a lot of time with all of the great offerings especially when it comes to some of the awesome products like Cavalli who just fall out of my price range for where I am at in the hobby today. I loved the offerings from Schiit. My time with the Asgard 2 reinforced my feelings that this amp would fit my needs in a budget that I am comfortable with. The Asgard 2 just looks like an easy call. I then spent some time listening and playing with the Ifi Micro amps with Dac options. My head was spinning at the offering from this company. I am thinking I could do an all in one option like the ifi Micro DSDS, Looks like a really flexible solution at a reasonable price. The Woo Audio amps were super cool and sounded great. I was impressed with Cavalli and Burson too. These were just beyond my price point today. I am now looking at the products from Schiit and ifi. I appreciate any other recommendations to confuse matters even more.
Headphones
It was awesome to have the opportunity to listen to all these great headphones. The Alpha Dogs were great. I do think the Prime in comparison was better, but I suspect that without a side by side daily comparison I would be happy with the Alpha Dogs. They were super comfortable and I was wishing I had spent my money on them instead of my HE-400s. I was also impressed by the improvements in the HE-400i over it's predecessor. The HE-400i seemed to offer a solid improvement on the sound of the 400 and it really improved the comfort. The comfort on my HE-400 are just not that great. AUDEZE... I don't think I need to say too much. I guess I now understand what all the hype is about. I could see myself being happy with any of them, but I think I would choose the X based on my meager listening. NICE. Then there were all the offerings by Sennheiser. I loved them. The 600, 650, 700, and 800 were all awesome. Based on my listening at the show I would purchase the HD 600 today instead of my Hifiman HE-400. I really like the 600 sound and found myself going back to it over the 650. I love my Sennheiser Momentum's for their sound and size, but it isn't the best headphone comfort wise for me. I was really impressed with RHA 10i. They fit my ears perfect. I am a big fan of RHA as I own the 750 and love them. I also have had a replacement done under warranty and the folks at RHA were awesome to work with. They really took care of me and I can't recommend them enough. There were many other great headphone offerings at the show including Sony, Oppo, Koss, .... and more.
This is my limited offering of my impressions from the show. I did meet some nice folks. I hope my fellow headfier Starfly was able to come to a conclusion on his search for a CIEM.
Glenn
Do they have official CanJam escorts to walk me around and keep me focused on paying attention to everything...or do I just follow the cool kids around and do whatever they do!!!
Next year, I need a better strategy...I missed half of the things I wanted to see, and hit MrSpeakers about 8 times... 
