[Moose246]

Fun Times, can’t wait for day 2

Favorite vendor was Spirit Torino. I actually like their new planar headphone centauri. It have a really good tone for acoustic instruments especially with bass drums and drums. Nice bass sound overall with acoustic instruments. Wish I could say the same for the electric guitar, but it was still pretty fun on rock music. Like classical orchestra more on it. I also enjoy the valkyria, but the bass on the drums didn’t hit the same for me compare to the planar one. Still, it also amazing for classical I didn’t enjoy the grey headphone at all (can’t remember the name). That grey headphone was not my cup of tea. Overall, I recommend people to try out the Spirit Torino booth if you haven’t, great headphones.

Other favorite vendor was the Fostex vendor. They had a vinyl setup and Rock Roll me in 2023 .


^Sennheiser HE-1



^DCS Lina Room




^ DCA Vendor










^ZMF room





^ ZMF new Headphone


^ Viva Vendor



^Fostex Vendor







^ Spirit Torino Vendor

Do you recall which DCA headphones were next to the Stealth in that DCS room picture? I listened to them and really liked them but didn’t get the specific model….don’t know if they're the Aeon Flow closed or maybe the 2 noire?

 

[johnnywelk]

Do you recall which DCA headphones were next to the Stealth in that DCS room picture? I listened to them and really liked them but didn’t get the specific model….don’t know if they're the Aeon Flow closed or maybe the 2 noire?

The ones in the picture are the Aeon 2 Noires. Really open sounding closed back.

 

[BarefootDyl]

HE-1 is one of the headphones of all time. More impressions later

 

[Moose246]

The ones in the picture are the Aeon 2 Noires. Really open sounding closed back.

I loved them. Already have a GSX-Mini so the audition was perfect.

 

[Saberpunch]

Do you recall which DCA headphones were next to the Stealth in that DCS room picture? I listened to them and really liked them but didn’t get the specific model….don’t know if they're the Aeon Flow closed or maybe the 2 noire?

They look like the Noire

 

[tvrboy]

Impressions round two:

DCA Corina: It’s unbelievable how much better this is than the Voce. It’s like going from Microsoft Flight Simulator 1995 to flying a real plane. Heard Corina back to back with Stax X-9000 and was impressed at how close Corina comes. The Corina’s soundstage is huge (wide and tall) and notes have a lot of weight. Not delicate and ethereal sounding like electrostats tend to be. Comparing with the DCA Expanse next to it, the Corina felt like sound enveloped me, while the Expanse felt like sound was in a fairly wide but narrow plane. Perhaps a bit less detailed than X-9000 but the room was noisy, so it was difficult to tell. I should note that I did not like the Corina on another setup, but that was probably more related to the gear used (LTA Z10 and a non-oversampling DAC) than the Corina itself. I feel like when I hear estats from a blue Hawaii or grand cayman they are the best headphones I’ve ever heard. From other amps a little meh.

X9000: X9000 with blue Hawaii was the best setup I heard at last year’s canjam, and I felt the grand cayman was equal or better. The notes have lots of fullness and body, and it’s probably the widest soundstage I’ve ever heard on a headphone. Of course, it goes without saying that the level of detail retrieval is amazing, second only to HE-1. It’s not missing anything anywhere, just right across the board. I tried this right after the HE-1 and my notes say “perfect except tone is unnatural compared to HE-1”. That’s not something you would notice without trying them back-to-back though. If I had 20K to spend on headphones this would be my setup.

HE-1: Underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time. Underwhelming because at the end of the day, it’s just a headphone. It didn’t redefine my paradigm of what music sounds like, and I feel like my modest home system takes me close to where the HE-1 is in terms of musical enjoyment. Diminishing returns apply here. Overwhelming because this headphone does two things very right. The first is natural timbre. It just sounds normal, kind of like a super HD-580. After two days of hearing headphones that are amazing in one area and poor in another, it’s refreshing to hear a headphone that just sounds perfectly normal and natural. The second is, of course, detail retrieval. Listening to drum solo from a well-recorded jazz session was otherworldly. The textures were so well-defined that you could almost see the skin of the drums vibrating.

Campfire Andromeda 2022: Not sure what to think about this one. I started a vocal jazz track and as the singing started, I heard every aspect of the vocals magnified and enhanced. Hard to describe but I felt like not only was I hearing more nuances of the song, but I could also hear the reverb from the concert hall. This was an amazing effect and I was almost ready to take out my wallet – unfortunately everything went downhill from there. Timbre was not very realistic and instruments all sounded on the “cold” side of the spectrum (sorry, using dumb audiophile language because I lack descriptive abilities). I felt like the performance of this headphone was all over the place. Really disappointed and I would love to get more time and figure out what’s going on here.

Ucotech RE-2: This was a huge surprise. I’ve listened to a few budget IEMs and shows and they generally sound pretty poor to me. I didn’t have high expectations but this one blew me away considering a hundred dollar price. It has a slightly warm tone that made guitar solos sound radiant – I wrote in my notes that a particular solo sounded better than a lot of $1000 headphones I listened to. Obviously it’s not going to equal $1000 headphones in other areas, but the RE-2 really gave me a lot of listening enjoyment. However, it's not a good choice for those who love bass.

Caldera: I listened to the Caldera a few times and was slightly underwhelmed. My expectations were set sky-high based on positive reviews I’ve read. It’s a great headphone, but definitely has its own sound signature, and its own set of advantages and disadvantages when compared to other flagships. I found the sound to be warm and forward, instead of on the colder and analytical side like Susvara (disclaimer: that’s just my subjective impression of Susvara). The Caldera had a great sense of impact and I believe it will be quite enjoyable with bass-driven pop music, music with drum solos, or anything where you really want to feel the music. On the flip side, I felt that detail retrieval was not quite up to the level of Susvara or X9000. I listened using the T+A HA200 amplifier, so your experience may vary with a tube amp.

Spirit Torino Mistral Pro: This was the second Spirit Torino I’ve ever heard. I felt it was a massive improvement from the Centauri. I wrote in my notes that the Mistral Pro is competitive in the $1000 price range, depending on what you are looking for. I felt the sound was clear and balanced across the FR range. There was little sense of impact or dynamism, and bass was light. Not my favorite, but I would be happy with this headphone as my daily driver

Spirit Torino Centauri: This was the first Spirit Torino I’ve ever heard. Whatever they are doing with this headphone is very wrong. It had a relatively dark sound signature with very low technical qualities (detail, imaging, note transitions, etc). I would take pretty much anything else I heard at the show over this. I can’t speculate on what the designer was going for but can only say that this will not appeal to most people. Shame as the headphone had amazing build quality and I can tell these guys are very passionate about their craft.

Arya Organic: I’m probably a bad source of information on this as I have never owned any HiFiMan products after the original HE-6, so I can’t compare it to any of the 3,278 prior versions. I thought that it was a pretty good headphone though! Overall, the sound was soft and there wasn’t a great sense of dynamism, but there were other appealing qualities. Even though the quantity of bass was a bit less than other headphones, I found the quality of bass very enjoyable on some bass-heavy pop music. Standout characteristics for me were tall soundstage and very clearly articulated treble. I think this headphone is a bit too soft and polite for my own tastes, but I can see why people like it.

Etymotic Evo: A two-sided coin, double-edged sword, or insert your own metaphor here. To test the bass, I started listening to the Evo with a jazz track that has a bass solo, followed by a drum solo. The results were really astonishing to me. I honestly felt that the bass texture and quality were as good as my MM-500. I absolutely love the bass performance of this headphone. On the other hand, vocals and piano sounded shrill or “cold”. I’d probably get used to this as I listened, but I feel a bit let down by the uneven performance of this headphone. As an ER-2 SE owner I can say that the nozzle is long and the fit you need to get good bass is deep, but not quite as deep as the ER-2. So those who have an aversion to shoving things in their ear canal may not like this one.

 

[number1sixerfan]

Sharing a few quick thoughts over the weekend, will update with more nuanced thoughts on the key items in my personal thread (in sig). As I mentioned in another post, this was my first CanJam ever and now, I'm just really ashamed lol. I'm not a big fan of crowds and tight spaces (even pre-pandemic, just a personal flaw lol), and that's a big reason I avoided a few. Chicago was so nicely setup, with plenty of people, but plenty of space and a very fluid flow between the seminars, multiple listening rooms and floor booth.

I didn't set out with any real major mission at CanJam, at least not gear wise. I just wanted to experience it and stop by the booths with interesting gear I haven't heard or where valuable conversation might happen, but mainly the former. I tried quite a few of the more TOTL things of interest, within the limited time I had. There were many things that I couldn't prioritize or that I intentionally didn't because I heard them before or weren't summit-fi. Not everything I listened to is mentioned here, but the things I think worth mentioning.

But before that, just want to acknowledge that meet settings are not conducive imo to making grand or absolute statements. The differences in chain, especially regarding the highly varying sources and amps, make it hard to make truly valuable statements even with gear you know intimately. I use "seemingly" a lot in the descriptions below as such--home demo is where it's at for more direct statements, just stating so you know that these aren't hard impressions. But the experience does provide a great window to understand how much something may peak your interest, and all in the same space. Highly valuable. Last thing to acknowledge is that this experience confirmed that differences in hearing preferences and perception are extremely important and may be more important than anything else lol. A bit more to share on that later.


What stood out most (to me):

• Spirit Torino Valkyria: this took the cake for me for all of CanJam. Very good timbre, and studio-like refinement. Good resolution (although not groundbreaking), but with warmth without smoothing over. The body of the sound was most addictive. The price is a bit steep, as still, for me they didn't strike me as being in that absolute premium top tier (R10, HE90, SGL Sr. etc.). But regardless, I listened to them multiple times and in multiple setups (at the Spirit booth and in the DCS Lina show room) and they were impressive each time. And towards the end of my day 2 at CanJam, others shared that as well. I would be interested in moving gear around absolutely if I found a pair for a decent price. (quite a bit of traffic mid-day, regular noise conditions)
  • The Centauri also seemed to be really good and I may have to go back and check them out again as I didn't get much time.
• Headamp Grand Cayman: I'm so glad I got the opportunity to try this amp, as well as to be able to meet Justin. Fits a lot into one form factor, which is pretty attractive. Used the Dave solo as a source, which I own, which is helpful in familiarity. Stood out as being generally in the same top tier range as with the DIY T2, which few amps belong in. Amazing amp, very resolving and well balanced, and that's what encouraged me to bring the SGL Sr. on the second day after hearing it the first with the x9000. There's some nuances and thoughts that I'll share between it and the T2 more in my own personal thread when I share more pics and thoughts. Would have probably been my highlight of the show if in the market for a new amp, it garnered a lot of attention deservingly so. (Early on both days, but especially good listening conditions Sunday)
• DCS Lina Stack and Show Room (Susvara primarily used): the DCS room in general was probably the most overwhelmingly polished experience of the entire show. (keep in mind I didn't get to see the Senn HE-1 room). The aura, the staff that were extremely available and knowledgeable. The presentation of the gear, bar none a great experience. Anyways, I found the Lina stack to be great overall. Seemingly near the same level of performance as my Dave/Mscaler (give or take for either). I really liked how it had more warmth and timbre *without* smoothing over detail. The resolution and clarity was still really strong, with a bit of added body and welcomed lusher tone. Dav/Mscaler in comparison is definitely a bit more spacious and holographic. The challenge here in comparison is the chain, and I suspect the DCS amp component is holding things back considerably. When it comes time, the Lina and a few DACs in the Lampizator line will be what I look to in-home demo in controlled circumstances (not soon). (quiet listening conditions, good setup in the room, but just a few people my first time. A bit more noise/traffic the second time with the A800)

Thoughts on others:

• Onkyo A800 "Master Class": so I got an excellent chance to hear these from @Saberpunch before heading out on day 1. They seemed very good overall immediately, especially for the price tag (around $400 I believe?). Pretty well balanced across the spectrum and very easy to listen to. The one knock on them, which to me, makes sense because of the price, is a clear lack of transparency and clarity. It stood out very quickly. I even grabbed the Valkryia briefly just to confirm what I was hearing--and as I mentioned before, the Valkryia isn't a far cry of clarity in the TOTL space and yet the difference was apparent immediately. I only mention this as some have called the A800 a TOTL budget killer, which I cannot disagree more with lol. The warmth and thickness of sound is a bit unnatural and takes away from clarity. But it IS very good for the price. I would LOVE to own them.
• DCA Stealth: I tried the Stealth on two different systems in the DCA showroom. I thought they seemed good overall. They seemed to be on a similar resolution level as the Expanse, with slightly stronger bass response (sub-bass and impact), and good bass overall, but not to the degree that I've seen quite a few describe them (which I've experienced the same with Expanse impressions). Very good overall positioning and staging for a closed headphone. The timbre seemed to be just ok, with a longing for a bit more body. I tried it on the two amps they had available, the RME ADI-2 Pro and Schiit Ragnarok, and had the same experience with both. For a closed headphone, I thought they were pretty good overall, but didn't seem to be as good as they are hyped on here imo (although I'm sure scales with better gear, definitely keeping in mind). Glad I tried them out first before a blind purchase.
• DCA Corina (w/BHSE): enjoyed this headphone, and it felt like somewhere near what the 009 and 007 has to offer in terms of level of performance, but would need more time to confirm. I didn't sense any deficiencies for a stat, but really balanced overall. Bass is always the question that comes to mind with new stats, and I'm sorry but... still closer to typical stat bass lol. Overall it came off to me as a better toned 009 like headphone, with a bit less technical proficiency (very slight). But again, would need to compare much, much more. (also, just fyi, I was nearly alone in the DCA room at the time, so great listening conditions)
• Headamp CFA3: this mighty and compact amp was very fun to listen to with the Susvara, which I know well. In the short time, it felt like it fully powered the Susvara to it's potential, having just done a speaker/headphone amp comparison myself recently for it specifically. It's something I may actually end up considering ordering.

I have other things written down to share and more thoughts on the above I'll share in my own thread when I have the time. But an amazing experience overall, and again, really.. really well organized and done. A great time with great people.

Also, only major regret: I only got like 3 pics lol. The ones in this thread... but that's because I was immersed in the experience, so it's a worthy tradeoff I guess lol. Attached the best of the group though.

 

[zach915m]

A few pics I took yesterday. It was awesome meeting people, the ZMF room was simply amazing, and the HE-1 is quite the experience. I wanted to get a short video of it turning on, because it’s just so cool how the tubes emerge, but I was pretty engrossed in the sound. Really enjoyed meeting Zach and Bevin from ZMF. Just super nice folks, and really supportive of the community and of my own efforts.

Looking forward to today.

Oh, and the Viva amp is absurd in the best possible way.

Great time so far. Everyone has been awesome. Only disappointment was the gorgeous blue Caldera I was eyeballing got snapped up in like six minutes.

Shouts out to @DeweyCH , he show me his very own headphone creation, the Lithium Alkali. The Lithium Alkali is a great headphone with excellent timbre. Instruments, particularly acoustic strings sound phenomenal. You can easily hear the plucks of the string without critically listening. The clarity is also nice and a good balance of bass. He informed me that he is selling his headphones for $600 with warranty, so if anyone is interested, make sure to message @DeweyCH to support our fellow headfier on his headphone creation journey.

Was an absolute honor to meet @DeweyCH in person for the first time after emailing and seeing you around for years. What an amazing headphone you've made and I look forward to hearing it more! Disclaimer - I'm grabbing one from him and it's sound is right up my alley of what I love with a big open and punchy yet musical sound. Congrats man!

It was also so awesome to see @Ray Samuels today. You're an all time legend and your Amps stand on their own with a sound I've never heard replicated. The new amps are a force and my intruder is still in perfect working order after all this time.

 

[Saberpunch]

Day 2 is over and so is CanJam Chicago. This was my first CanJam and did it exceeds expectations. This was such an amazing experience. I always go to these kind of stuff to only try out the gear, but it ended being much more. And that’s meeting 1st time faces, but familiar names. Talking to random people in lines, the vendors, and even finding kindling spirits. CanJam Chicago is an awesome event and I thank all the staff and volunteers that made this happen.

Day 2 favorite Vendor: Mimic Audio.
Mimic Audio easily had to e best gears in the shows. I am not into headphones anymore like I’m use to, but I always enjoy trying out new DACs and Amps. Mimic Audio have a extremely great R2R DAC called the SW1X DAC IV and it was the sweetest and most organic sound I ever heard. At the Sunday show, it was being amplified by a Viva electrostatic amp and the headphone was a Stax L700 II (don’t remember specifically the headphone, but I know it’s that). 1st time putting my head in that setup, I immediately recognized that beautiful R2R organic sound since I myself own a R2R DAC as well. But the SW1X DAC IV had some special characteristics that made violins melt my heart. It was easily the best gear I tried in the entire show. Another kudos to Mimic Audio is Chris. Chris was super enthusiastic and very enjoyable to talk to. His passion was raising the roof and talking to him about the products was a very enjoyable conversation that made me smile for the rest of the day.

Met some headfiers and even some people just came to an event because they heard about it. I mention earlier in the thread, but I enjoyed talking with DeweyCH about vintage headphones and his very own created headphone Lithium Alkali. I hope a lot of people tried his headphones because those headphones sounded fantastic.

Also spoke with a guy not from this forum, but he brought in his K1000. Very passionate guy and he got a serious setup with his K1000. He got some vintage amp to power those bad boys and 2 subwoofers. But it’s only in his home setup sadly. Gave me some idea for my setup.

Another highlight was meeting the legendary @number1sixerfan for the first time. Just like his post, he was very knowledgeable and a pleasant person to talk with. Was very glad I was able to talk with him in real life. He also made my Sunday morning, heck my entire weekend with a very pleasant surprise. In fact, that surprise exceeded my HE-1 demo session was my star of the entire show besides experiencing the SW1X DAC IV.

Ray Samual Audio was my 3rd favorite experience. Getting to finally listen to the legendary Sony MDR-R10 for the first time was such a treat. I loved every minute of it and that headphone deserves all the praises it gets. The Sony MDR-R10 is in fact one of the best dynamic headphones of all time even with today current headphones. Besides the MDR-R10, they have their new amp, the B-21 Raider. The B-21 Raider have such a clean sound output, really clean sounding amplifier. I talked to one of the guys helping out there and he told me a story of RSA. Hearing about how Ray procure the parts and how his amps have no wired is pretty amazing. My respects for Ray Samuel Audio have risen after the show. Of course their headphone test for the amp was in really good taste. RSA have the Sony MDR-R10, Stax X9000, Abyss 1266 Phi TC, and the Caldera. All while being driven in a CD Transport, which in my opinion is one of my favorite compare to streamers.

After that I plug my Onkyo A800 in various amps, but lets not extend this post any longer. I will post my Onkyo A800 impressions on various amps in the Onkyo A800 thread.

This was my first CanJam and honestly don’t know how to surpass this. I got to listen to Mystery headphones from a certain headfier, the Sennheiser HE-1 (which is hard to believe, but is not my highlight of the show), listen to the Sony MDR-R10 with a tube amp, Stax X9000, Spirit Torino headphones, listen to a great SW1X DAC IV setup, ZMF rooms with their cool gears and amps, and plug my Onkyo A800 into a lot of setups.

I hope everyone had a great time as well. If you didn’t go, you should come out next year!

Pics from the show:

^Headamp vendor

^ Ray Samual Audio Vendor

^ Lithium Alkali Headphone

^ Mimic Audio Vendor

^ Hifiman Vendor Day 2

 

[Chu]

Got two headphones crossed off my bucket list today, the K1000 and the R10.

Just some quick impressions. First, just the shock of seeing an R10 just sitting there. Waiting to be auditioned. Many thanks to RSA for bringing out a pair. After being severely disappointed by the Stax Omega yesterday, I was prepared for a similar experience here. Not so. I am putting this in the rare class of headphone that lived up to the hype for me. And after having a talk with the person working the booth was surprised to find out the secondary market on them has dropped from $11K or so to $8.5K or so. I wonder how low these can go.

The second was also a bit of a shock. A pair of K1000s at the Mimic Audio booth that some Head-fi'er had brought and graciously let me demo. The short version is that some of the most natural sound acoustic tracks I've ever heard, really do sound like speakers, and the low end is incredibly diminished. Still can't believe these were $200 headphones before they went out of production. The owner mentioned they listen to them with subs, which would go a long way to fixing these problems.

Still find it amusing that I saw more Susvaras, Utopias, K1000s, and R10s than Focal Clears which were very high on my list to demo. I can't really complain about that though!

 

[haasaaroni]

ZMF room, of course, was packed. They really needed a bigger space. I listened to several of their headphones for the first time, and really impressed. This may be a show purchase for me, but I have some questions and they were quite busy. I'll try tomorrow. Looking at Vérité or Atrium. They have ALOT of custom designs and I just want one!

Personally, any CanJam I go to is just an excuse to 1) listen to and gawk at the ZMF showroom, and 2) spend time with people from the Head-fi community. And I think a lot of people feel similarly, which is why their space is always so packed lol

 

[goodvibes]

Impressions round two:

DCA Corina: It’s unbelievable how much better this is than the Voce. It’s like going from Microsoft Flight Simulator 1995 to flying a real plane. Heard Corina back to back with Stax X-9000 and was impressed at how close Corina comes. The Corina’s soundstage is huge (wide and tall) and notes have a lot of weight. Not delicate and ethereal sounding like electrostats tend to be. Comparing with the DCA Expanse next to it, the Corina felt like sound enveloped me, while the Expanse felt like sound was in a fairly wide but narrow plane. Perhaps a bit less detailed than X-9000 but the room was noisy, so it was difficult to tell. I should note that I did not like the Corina on another setup, but that was probably more related to the gear used (LTA Z10 and a non-oversampling DAC) than the Corina itself. I feel like when I hear estats from a blue Hawaii or grand cayman they are the best headphones I’ve ever heard. From other amps a little meh.

X9000: X9000 with blue Hawaii was the best setup I heard at last year’s canjam, and I felt the grand cayman was equal or better. The notes have lots of fullness and body, and it’s probably the widest soundstage I’ve ever heard on a headphone. Of course, it goes without saying that the level of detail retrieval is amazing, second only to HE-1. It’s not missing anything anywhere, just right across the board. I tried this right after the HE-1 and my notes say “perfect except tone is unnatural compared to HE-1”. That’s not something you would notice without trying them back-to-back though. If I had 20K to spend on headphones this would be my setup.

HE-1: Underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time. Underwhelming because at the end of the day, it’s just a headphone. It didn’t redefine my paradigm of what music sounds like, and I feel like my modest home system takes me close to where the HE-1 is in terms of musical enjoyment. Diminishing returns apply here. Overwhelming because this headphone does two things very right. The first is natural timbre. It just sounds normal, kind of like a super HD-580. After two days of hearing headphones that are amazing in one area and poor in another, it’s refreshing to hear a headphone that just sounds perfectly normal and natural. The second is, of course, detail retrieval. Listening to drum solo from a well-recorded jazz session was otherworldly. The textures were so well-defined that you could almost see the skin of the drums vibrating.

Campfire Andromeda 2022: Not sure what to think about this one. I started a vocal jazz track and as the singing started, I heard every aspect of the vocals magnified and enhanced. Hard to describe but I felt like not only was I hearing more nuances of the song, but I could also hear the reverb from the concert hall. This was an amazing effect and I was almost ready to take out my wallet – unfortunately everything went downhill from there. Timbre was not very realistic and instruments all sounded on the “cold” side of the spectrum (sorry, using dumb audiophile language because I lack descriptive abilities). I felt like the performance of this headphone was all over the place. Really disappointed and I would love to get more time and figure out what’s going on here.

Ucotech RE-2: This was a huge surprise. I’ve listened to a few budget IEMs and shows and they generally sound pretty poor to me. I didn’t have high expectations but this one blew me away considering a hundred dollar price. It has a slightly warm tone that made guitar solos sound radiant – I wrote in my notes that a particular solo sounded better than a lot of $1000 headphones I listened to. Obviously it’s not going to equal $1000 headphones in other areas, but the RE-2 really gave me a lot of listening enjoyment. However, it's not a good choice for those who love bass.

Caldera: I listened to the Caldera a few times and was slightly underwhelmed. My expectations were set sky-high based on positive reviews I’ve read. It’s a great headphone, but definitely has its own sound signature, and its own set of advantages and disadvantages when compared to other flagships. I found the sound to be warm and forward, instead of on the colder and analytical side like Susvara (disclaimer: that’s just my subjective impression of Susvara). The Caldera had a great sense of impact and I believe it will be quite enjoyable with bass-driven pop music, music with drum solos, or anything where you really want to feel the music. On the flip side, I felt that detail retrieval was not quite up to the level of Susvara or X9000. I listened using the T+A HA200 amplifier, so your experience may vary with a tube amp.

Spirit Torino Mistral Pro: This was the second Spirit Torino I’ve ever heard. I felt it was a massive improvement from the Centauri. I wrote in my notes that the Mistral Pro is competitive in the $1000 price range, depending on what you are looking for. I felt the sound was clear and balanced across the FR range. There was little sense of impact or dynamism, and bass was light. Not my favorite, but I would be happy with this headphone as my daily driver

Spirit Torino Centauri: This was the first Spirit Torino I’ve ever heard. Whatever they are doing with this headphone is very wrong. It had a relatively dark sound signature with very low technical qualities (detail, imaging, note transitions, etc). I would take pretty much anything else I heard at the show over this. I can’t speculate on what the designer was going for but can only say that this will not appeal to most people. Shame as the headphone had amazing build quality and I can tell these guys are very passionate about their craft.

Arya Organic: I’m probably a bad source of information on this as I have never owned any HiFiMan products after the original HE-6, so I can’t compare it to any of the 3,278 prior versions. I thought that it was a pretty good headphone though! Overall, the sound was soft and there wasn’t a great sense of dynamism, but there were other appealing qualities. Even though the quantity of bass was a bit less than other headphones, I found the quality of bass very enjoyable on some bass-heavy pop music. Standout characteristics for me were tall soundstage and very clearly articulated treble. I think this headphone is a bit too soft and polite for my own tastes, but I can see why people like it.

Etymotic Evo: A two-sided coin, double-edged sword, or insert your own metaphor here. To test the bass, I started listening to the Evo with a jazz track that has a bass solo, followed by a drum solo. The results were really astonishing to me. I honestly felt that the bass texture and quality were as good as my MM-500. I absolutely love the bass performance of this headphone. On the other hand, vocals and piano sounded shrill or “cold”. I’d probably get used to this as I listened, but I feel a bit let down by the uneven performance of this headphone. As an ER-2 SE owner I can say that the nozzle is long and the fit you need to get good bass is deep, but not quite as deep as the ER-2. So those who have an aversion to shoving things in their ear canal may not like this one.

I liked the Evo with double flanges they had on hand. I didn't find them shrill but I used my own DAP. I could see that with some sources but they don't sound to have any odd frequency bumps with a VG octave to octave balance and have more info/refinement than I'd expect from a 2 way. The iem that I thought was the best midfi device, if you consider $1100 midfi, was the new 64 audio U4s. I listened with the M15 apex module which was a hair on the warm side but likely in most buyers wheelhouse. I suspect the m12 apex module would be just right for my personal preferences. Easily my fav 64audio when price is considered. I'd take it over many other more expensive offerings that I heard at the show. Listened to a few more costly things that were a bit more informative but they also called more attention to themselves with less even response or less cohesiveness, which for me, takes away from focus on the music. I was hoping someone would have a few of the flagship Oriolus, Elysian, Aroma models but I didn't see them. My favorite from the past couple audio shows in Chicago were the Empire Ears Odin. I think the Evo and U4s both represent VG value and performance in their ranges if their sig is in your wheelhouse. Very cohesive without noticeable sudden aberrations like too noticeably sparkly highs or extra big bass.

 

[paradoxper]

First public candid of me since 2019, to boot.

With the caveat that I was feeling hyper critical and you can never get enough time with headphones at CanJam:
The HE-1 was great but not mind-blowing in the way I expected. I was in the first group to demo and everything was just perfect. Not in your face, not too laid back, etc. I played a few tracks I was intimately familiar with and came away pleased.
Biggest surprise was Spirit Torino. The Pulsar was very technically flawed but so much fun I didn't care. The mistral had the best tonal balance and flavor to my ears but not as fast or aggressive as the Pulsar. The Valkyrie was too bright and didn't handle diverse enough music to be worth the price tag but like the others very fun.
ZMF headphones had the fattest bass at the show by far. I preferred the Caldera over the Atrium (the two big draws to their room for me) and they have a unique sound signature. Build quality, comfort, and aesthetics on all their headphones was spectacular and photos don't do it justice. One of the guys working for ZMF was kind enough to hand people headphones at their behest so big kudos to them for customer service. Not as fast or well imaged as I was hoping (vocals got a bit lost in the fat bass and death metal got a little confused) but there's no saying you couldn't get a Verite too. The room being packed made me a bit anxious to sit down much longer for critical listening so I'll have to find a way to give them more time. I liked the Caldera a lot.
DCA: The Corina is noticeably better than the Voce but they're both well-rounded (the latter is a touch sibilant and unnatural in the highs) and a good first into electrostats. S Not as natural as the X9K or tight as the Carbn, but the Corina was still very solid. It seems like faint praise, but being competent against Stax and the Carbn so early in making estas is not an easy feat.
The LCD-5 and Carbn were my favorites for planar and electrostatics, respectively. Nothing stood out in the Carbn, in the sense that everything was just right if a bit dark. Comfort, build, aesthetics were all top notch. LCD-5 was fast, had great bass, separation, imaging, and detail. I didn't get much time with it because I was waiting for my HE-1 demo but I'm glad I got the chance.
The X9K with the Grand Cayman was excellent. Slightly hard edges on the highs and not as euphonic or natural as the SR-007 to my ears but the comfort, aesthetics and neutrality were superior. Really love the weight and replaceable cables but it could use a self adjusting headband like its little brother.
The T+A Solitaire P were another "just right" headphone. Thanks to Jeff at the Mimic table for letting me use his phone because I forgot my USB cable for the dongle.
I only heard the Susvara from the Hifiman table but it was about what I expected. Great imaging, very competent tonal balance but a little too polite and laid back for my tastes.
The only headphone I really disliked was the Fostex TH-909. My first high-end headphones were the Denon AH-D7000 (originally manufactured by Fostex) so I hoped they'd be similarly enjoyable but I took them off after 20 seconds. Way, way too bright and sibilant.
My favorite for the show is the Carbn for sure. At $4500 it's a better buy than the X9K and could be your one headphone if you're okay with an estat only system.
I also briefly auditioned the Cross zones at the Mimic table but can't be sure what I think of them. They clearly need more power than my phone could provide at max volume.

Yes. A return. While I am done with CanJam and general Head-Fi meets. I did my time with plenty of LA crews as well as some cranky HC folk.
I am now the cranky. But I am fulfilled with my gear.

 

[Fantanest]

Finally had the chance to hear the HE-1 with my wife. Now she is suggesting me to sell all my gears and make a down payment.

 

[skeeb23]

HE-1 is one of the headphones of all time. More impressions later

Nice to see I wasn't the only one there with a notepad! I always felt weird breaking it out in front of the reps, but my memory is poo at times!