[texx2818]

Fun day at CanJam. Spent a lot of time in the ZMF room. Zach, Bevin, Kevin and Katherine were so friendly and helpful. Came close to buying a beautiful mango Caldera, but held myself back.

Great sound was also to be found at the Linear Tube Audio table. Their new “entry level “ amp sounded great.

Also checked out the Violectric amps, which were punchy and fun.

Also the Sennheiser HE1 was a bit mind-blowing

I was weak, and definitely left the ZMF room with a GORGEOUS set of Lava Burst Atriums.

 

[DrunkPimp]

With the 11/11 sale, I’m looking to potentially pull the trigger on a first set of proper headphones… Anyone know if they have a Moondrop blessing 3 at any of the booths?

Don’t know how people feel about sharing IEM’s, but free Starbucks on me if I can try someone’s blessing 2 or 3

 

[texx2818]

With the 11/11 sale, I’m looking to potentially pull the trigger on a first set of proper headphones… Anyone know if they have a Moondrop blessing 3 at any of the booths?

Don’t know how people feel about sharing IEM’s, but free Starbucks on me if I can try someone’s blessing 2 or 3

I’d probably say if anyone did it would be Bloom.

 

[markel]

This was my first Can Jam. I strongly urge anyone in DFW who didn't attend today to attend tomorrow. I had high hopes, but it was even more fun and engaging than I expected.

Before I jump into the day, just wanted to respond to one of the questions about Focal and Susvara. Everything under the sun wasn't there, but for me, it covered more than I could handle in one full day. Although Focal and Hifiman didn't have exhibits, I found a Utopia and Susvara to audition.

When CanJam opened at 10AM, I started at the Bloom Audio booth and was one of the lucky ones who got a B/A goodie bag. I also had a chance to compare the DX320 Max with my personal DX300 Max. I liked the DX320 Max a bit more than my DX300, but it was only slightly better.

Then I ended up at the Chord booth for a long time, trying out the Dave and the TT Scaler and had a nice long conversation with Rob Watts. Since I use a Hugo 2 as the DAC in my main system, I really enjoyed the chance to test out the Dave with and without the scaler. Not surprisingly, the scaler makes a significant difference.

Then, it was off to the DCS room. Everyone there was very helpful and humble about such expensive gear. I spent a long time with the Lina stack, the Bartok (with Apex and headphone amp) and the Rossini (with the Lina Amp). It was an audiophile moment. I listened to the same song about 20 times comparing all three. All day I used my DCA Stealth's as my reference headphone and as I moved up the chain, the Stealth continued to be more resolving with the DCS systems. DCS also had lots of high-end headphones, including the Susvara, Abyss TC, LCD5, Meze Elites, and others. I could have spent the whole day in the DCS room.

Since I have some Verite Open's and the Pendant SE, I took a few minutes to thank Zach for my one-of-a-kind ZMF headphones. The ZMF room was full of headphones, amps, and dacs, and there was lots of energy in the room.

I didn't realize it was past lunchtime, and as I walked down the hall, I noticed someone holding four boxes of Zoli's pizza, which is my favorite pizza in Dallas. I asked if I could have a slice and ended up eating lunch with some of the head-fi'ers running the show. I got to test out Ethan's UM Unique Melody Multiverse Mentor IEM's and his Hiby RS8, which were both incredible.

After lunch, I caught the tail end of Jason Stoddard's seminar and chatted with him for a few minutes afterwards. I thanked him for all the Schiit in my house and, as expected, he was nice and down-to-earth.

Then, I stumbled into the Kinera booth. I tried the Loki and it was very special, and then Sebastian let me audition the prototype Verdandi. I liked the Verdandi so much, I wanted to buy the prototype. It felt like I could listen to the Verdandi all day long without my ears hurting, since everything was smooth, without losing punch and refinement. It's on the top of my IEM wish list.

I had chatted with another attendee earlier in the morning and he told me not to miss the Warwick Acoustics booth. Warwick had a cool soundproof booth and they have two electrostatic headphones, with bundled amp/dacs. The Bravura (about $6k) and the Aperio (starting at about $33k) were in the booth for audition. The Bravura was the first electrostatic headphone I tried, and as I auditioned a selection of tracks, almost everything sounded good. Even poorly recorded or bright 1980's tracks, sounded good. Then I moved up to the Aperio and it was by far the nicest headphone I've ever auditioned (dream wish list!). I'm not sure how to describe it, but if that's all I listened to at Can Jam, it would have been worth the trip. At one point, I was listening to a track from The New Sound of Maria Callas singing Carmen and I thought the sound was coming from somewhere in the room, rather than from the headphones.

I didn't mention lots of other interesting conversations and listening experiences. Overall, a great day. Thanks to everyone who was there!

 

[Lippy]

I absolutely had to buy the Monarch MK3. I swear, I think they outperform my Odin.

Can you elaborate on why you think they outperform your Odin, please?

 

[djentbat]

Anyone get to try the Empy II? How was it??

 

[markel]

Anyone get to try the Empy II? How was it??

I tried the Empy II and compared it to the Elite, which I own. I liked the Elite better. It has a different sound signature which is more lush than the Empy II, but I didn't do an extended session. It was more buyer's remorse, since I recently bought the Elite and wondered if I should have bought the Empy II. So after a quick comparison, I'm still a very happy owner of the Elite.

 

[djentbat]

I tried the Empy II and compared it to the Elite, which I own. I liked the Elite better. It has a different sound signature which is more lush than the Empy II, but I didn't do an extended session. It was more buyer's remorse, since I recently bought the Elite and wondered if I should have bought the Empy II. So after a quick comparison, I'm still a very happy owner of the Elite.

I know it may be hard to tell in a loud environment but which one images a bit better?

 

[saxpiano]

I absolutely had to buy the Monarch MK3. I swear, I think they outperform my Odin.

how did you feel about the mkiii vs the mkii? I had a hard time pinning down exactly what the differences were, but both sounded great.

 

[markel]

I know it may be hard to tell in a loud environment but which one images a bit better?

Sorry, I didn't do any critical listening on the Empy II. It was just a quick listen and compare between the Empy II and the Elite, and I clearly liked the Elite better. Hopefully, someone else can weigh in with more detail.

 

[jugpapa]

Anyone had success using the promo code on 64audio website? DALLAS23 doesn't seem to be working for me

 

[texx2818]

Can you elaborate on why you think they outperform your Odin, please?

I’ll write a little ditty tomorrow, I’m boozing at the Quorum bar now lol

 

[saxpiano]

With the 11/11 sale, I’m looking to potentially pull the trigger on a first set of proper headphones… Anyone know if they have a Moondrop blessing 3 at any of the booths?

Don’t know how people feel about sharing IEM’s, but free Starbucks on me if I can try someone’s blessing 2 or 3

I have to check which version I have but I know I have some Blessings with me. My recollection is that they're the 2's but I have to verify and I'm away from my backpack at the moment. I'll look but I am pretty sure they don't have tips on them, so you might need to source those.

 

[driftingbunnies]

I had a great time at CanJam Dallas. It didn't seem as busy as other CanJams but that meant none of the stations took a long time audition and one day was enough to hear basically everything.

Standouts for me:

1. dCS room. I had a fun time comparing the different stacks and seeing if I could tell the difference between the DACs (Lina, Bartok, Rossini).
2. Senn HE1. Definitely an interesting experience. It's unfortunate that I couldn't spend more time by myself but it sounded good. Not sure if I would pick that over the dCS stack though since I'd be able to use the dCS stuff for speakers as well
3. Stax X9k. Very different experience from most other headphones. It has this effortless-ness but I can see as some people considering it unnatural at times.

Other impressions:

1. Metaxas - interesting pieces but too expensive to be considered seriously. Sound quality wasn't mindblowing
2. Spirit Torino - Tried their new planar. Interesting build but not my sound
3. Midgard- OK for a cheap stack. Might be worth it for a work setup
4. MJ3/Ygg stack - VC not really my sound profile so didn't care much for this setup unfortunately
5. Atrium on Decware - great looking gear. Fun to listen to but the ZMF room had some connection issues so didn't really get to spend too much time. ACs sounded pretty well rounded for a closed back. Bokeh was fairly comfortable but sound was just ok for me.
6. Woo audio - WA23 Luna's knob is a stunner. Didn't get to try it with nice headphones unfortunately.
7. Meze Empy 2 - comfy. still too compressed for me
8. Fostex - the new model is pretty nice. Sound was fun and looks pretty nice.
9. Audeze CRBN - Not as exciting as stax imo. at a low price, might be a good one to have but I think I would rather have 009.
10. Chord DAVE - bigger than I thought. Used with Empy so I don't know if it was really a fair evaluation.
11. Empire Raven - quite large and bassy. I think a little too bassy though.

Hope you guys enjoyed Canjam! I know I did. Hopefully we had a large enough showing so we can continue to have it in Dallas. Thanks to the head-fi team for coordinating everything!

 

[crmiller]

I don’t think I got to half of the booths or any rooms today and I was there from door open to close. I had a big breakfast so I wouldn’t have to leave for lunch. The seminars rocked. I’m going to have to be more disciplined tomorrow to get through my list of “must listens”. I’m happy to have had the opportunity to hear so many components that are otherwise impossible to hear like the Warwick systems, the Spirtit Valkyria, and the Linear Tube Audio amps. I will probably pick up a Schiit Magni Unity when they come out. And the Meze Empyrean 2, although that’ll take a while longer.