It was the other way around for me, so you are guessing correctly.
Perhaps they got the model names wrong?
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CanJam Dallas 2023 Impressions Thread (November 11-12, 2023)
- Thread starter AxelCloris
- Start date
Perhaps they got the model names wrong?
I got to the Quorum at about 9 and got all checked in (they let me put stuff in my room even though I wasn't staying until that night, very nice of the Marriott). It was a ton of fun, met some awesome people, drank ENTIRELY too much Saturday night at the bar, and left with two pairs of headphones. It was completely awesome overall. Here are my impressions of what I heard:
Headphones
ModHouse Tungsten: I immediately went over to Mimic to check these out with all the hype around them. I played them on the Naim they had set up and left very...unimpressed. I couldn't get a lot of volume to them, and the noise level when I was playing them was quite high, so maybe it was that. I had similar thoughts on the Double, I really just didn't leave thinking that the bass was very impressive. Could've been a product of the area. The build quality felt very 3D printer and not in a good way. Final Score: 5/10
Abyss Diana MR: This was the most disappointing of all. I was so excited to try an Abyss headphone finally. I went over to Woo, and boy...these were wildly underwhelming. Shrill, missing bass, and did not seal whatsoever on my end with the bass ported or normal pads. Possibly Woo was not feeding them correctly, as they had it on the Woo Tube Mini, which had a strange ringing noise in the background that would not go away. Final Score: 3/10
Abyss 1266: I listened to one song on these and could not stand the way they fit on my head. So I don't have a lot of impressions. Final Score: 0/10
Abyss Diana TC: I much preferred these to the MR. Still not much bass, but seemed much less shrill than the MRs, which just could not handle metal treble whatsoever. I played Peter Gabriel's Red Rain on DSD off my A&K on these with the big Woo stack and left very impressed. I still do not like the way these fit. Unfortunately, I went to CJ hoping to buy a pair of Dianas and left without them because as much as I liked the TC, the fit was bad. Final Score: 7/10
Stax L700: Went into these with zero expectations and these blew me away. Not a ton of bass, but everything sounded smooth and effortless. I loved the fit, surprisingly. These sounded smooth, and wonderful. Very much like my electrostatic speakers at home. Final Score: 9/10
Stax SR-009: These were a little odd, I thought they sounded great, but the highs were very sibilant and sharp, I thought the 700s were far superior. I thought they felt a little cheap for the price, as well. I liked everything they had to offer except for the treble spike. Final Score: 7/10
Hifiman Susvara: I have never heard these, so really wanted to try them, and thought they sounded great! Build quality lacking a bit, yes, but they sounded very natural with gobs of bass. Final Score: 8/10
Audeze CBRN: These were the best EStats I heard all show. Effortless and punchy when needed, they really had a ridiculously large soundstage. I would've loved to hear these in a quiet room. I don't have much to say because these hit everything I wanted from them. Final Score: 9/10
Audeze LCD-5: I am an Audeze fangirl, so these were a big one I wanted to test, and they did not disappoint. Personally, I like the old school design of the LCD-2, so I am a little bummed to see them leaving that design in the past. But these were lovely headphones. The bass was punchy and thick, I also heard a soundstage which the 2s do not have much have. I really pushed these to their limit with some Black Metal, and these had no issues, and asked for more. I already have a pair of Utopias, but these are on my radar as something I might buy and sell my Utopias for. Final Score: 9/10
Audeze MM-500: Personally, I'm not a fan of overly neutral and natural headphones, I much preferred the LCD-5s, but these were still nice nonetheless. Final Score: 7/10
Meze Empyrean II: Easily the worst setup at the show, but they had them in the Woo room and the dCS room, so I did get to hear them in their proper glory. Personally, I don't like the sound signature of Meze, but these had a bit more punch than usual. Comfort and build quality is obviously off the charts, I still don't like their aesthetics much but these were probably the Mezes I heard all show. However, can I complain about their booth? They had a couple stations, but you had to share listening with someone else? And it was just so loud over there, I just kind of left dissatisfied. dCS room and Woo did the Empyreans well. Final Score: 7/10
ZMF Atrium Closed: I went into the ZMF room completely blind, having never listened to anything from them or knowing anything about them...holy crap! The ZMF Atrium have a ridiculous amount of bass punch, but are so well balanced and warm, I just want to snuggle up with them. You could feel the texture of the music, I have never experienced anything like these before. The build quality was exquisite, hand made and absolutely gorgeous. Did I buy the purple stained Atrium Closed? I absolutely freaking did and have ZERO regrets. Pic attached below. I have never heard closed backs like these. Again, wow. Everyone was lovely, lifetime warranty...I mean, this is a premium product from top to bottom, zero hype. Final Score: 10/10
Sennheiser HE-1: I mean...pure bliss. Never heard anything so effortless and eloquent. I couldn't pick out any strengths or weaknesses, because they just sounded perfect. That's really all I could say. GORGEOUS equipment, and Eric was wonderful. Don't have much else to say, but wow. Final Score: 10/10
IEMs
Empire Ears Raven: I own the Odins, so I made a beeline for the Ravens. I was skeptical of these, but I have never heard such bass in a headphone before. Ever. Everything else was balanced and forward, but the bass was so immense that's all I remember from them. Also, very very large, not sure I liked the sheer size of them. Final Score: 8/10
64Audio U12T: A bit...boring. I mean, precise as hell, and there is no pressure in the ears at all. Smooth, detailed, natural...not necessarily my thing, but I was impressed at the sheer reference level of them. Also, they are so light, it's pleasant. Final Score: 7/10
64Audio Volur: Most disappointing IEM I tried, by a significant margin. Everything seemed distant, tucked back away, way too dark. Going from the 12T and my Odins to these was...not the best look. Final Score: 3/10
Thieaudio Monarch MKIII: I have been incredibly skeptical of ever spending such money on ChiFi before, but these absolutely stunned me. I go back and forth between them and my Odins, and it's damn close. These have better bass than the Odins, close to the Ravens, and everything seems so immediate and visceral. Top tier PRAT, they just seem on top of everything, with no distortion. I think the Odin have a smoother top end, these have that ChiFi shouty nature, but man, just *chef's kiss*. These and a Perseus came home with me. Final Score: 10/10
Fir Audio E12: Bass cannons! And not much else. Felt very cheap. Not a big fan of the shrill high ends, Peter Gabriel's So album is known for some sibilance, and these were borderline piercing. I think these were missing some sub bass as well. Final Score: 4/10
Campfire (?): Tested a bunch of Campfire stuff, and left unimpressed with them. Can't remember which was which, tbqh. No thanks.
Noble K-XM1: Very immersive with pummeling bass, a bit light in the sub bass but overall a well balanced IEM that was fun. Final Score: 8/10
Booths/Rooms:
Woo/Abyss/STAX: Pleasant room with great people. Great setups, had very little WiFi interruptions. I had some issues with the Woo Tube Mini, which had a strange ringing that John said went away with time as they warmed up, but it never did. Woo products are truly works of art. I don't really subscribe to amps sounding different, but the Luna was something to experience, and the WA2 is just beautiful overall. The Fireflies amp...beautiful. Loved all the gear they had to audition and how easy it was to swap around.
ZMF: What can I say? Amazing people, amazing headphones, fun environment, a RIDICULOUS amount of amps and headphones...just a spectacular experience. The WiFi was miserable off and on, so I don't know how to fix that, but I struggled quite a bit with Roon on their WiFi. But the amount of special edition and headphones they had was a little overwhelming.
dCS: Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. The room, employees, gear all felt like stepping into an exotic car showroom. Everyone was so friendly, no issues with anyone being snooty, just a top tier experience. As for the gear, well...it was awesome to hear such fun stuff, I went around the room, but it all was indiscernible to me. I don't see the value of these, but gorgeous stuff. The DAC having such a low resolution screen is...an odd choice.
Mimic: Holy crap. They had every headphone you could ever want to demo, with every amp I swear ever...the Naim wasn't really working which was disappointing as I own it and wanted to test the Tungstens on it, but otherwise, incredible. I wish they weren't in the main room, it really devalued some headphones.
Schiit: The employees looked miserable and the Yggy had some channel imbalance with my Utopias. So I didn't do much listening.
LTA: None of their amps sounded right on my Utopias, everything felt very far and distant to the point of wanting to make sure the amp wasn't out of phase. I was looking to be impressed but wasn't. The Prosper Cables guy manning the booth was awesome.
Meze: Terrible setup. If you wanted a proper audition, go to somewhere else.
Bloom: Lovely employees, had tons of gear to buy, didn't care how long you took to audition, had a dCS stack out, I mean...just everything. I spent so much time at their table, and can guarantee they'll be my headphone store of choice moving forward. Got my Monarchs from them.
Warwick: Have never liked their stuff, and spent probably 15 minutes trying to get Roon to connect before I bailed. Disappointing.
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Really missed seeing Focal, Hifiman and HeadAmp, three that I really wanted to hear.
Got way too boozed at the bar, so Sunday was a fairly short day for me. The hotel was gorgeous, but the elevator system was bunk...What, why build a better mouse trap????
Shirts being cash only made me sad........
If you came behind me and saw lots of black metal and industrial on the Roon iPads...I apologize LOL.
Was GREAT! Hope they do it again.
Headphones
ModHouse Tungsten: I immediately went over to Mimic to check these out with all the hype around them. I played them on the Naim they had set up and left very...unimpressed. I couldn't get a lot of volume to them, and the noise level when I was playing them was quite high, so maybe it was that. I had similar thoughts on the Double, I really just didn't leave thinking that the bass was very impressive. Could've been a product of the area. The build quality felt very 3D printer and not in a good way. Final Score: 5/10
Abyss Diana MR: This was the most disappointing of all. I was so excited to try an Abyss headphone finally. I went over to Woo, and boy...these were wildly underwhelming. Shrill, missing bass, and did not seal whatsoever on my end with the bass ported or normal pads. Possibly Woo was not feeding them correctly, as they had it on the Woo Tube Mini, which had a strange ringing noise in the background that would not go away. Final Score: 3/10
Abyss 1266: I listened to one song on these and could not stand the way they fit on my head. So I don't have a lot of impressions. Final Score: 0/10
Abyss Diana TC: I much preferred these to the MR. Still not much bass, but seemed much less shrill than the MRs, which just could not handle metal treble whatsoever. I played Peter Gabriel's Red Rain on DSD off my A&K on these with the big Woo stack and left very impressed. I still do not like the way these fit. Unfortunately, I went to CJ hoping to buy a pair of Dianas and left without them because as much as I liked the TC, the fit was bad. Final Score: 7/10
Stax L700: Went into these with zero expectations and these blew me away. Not a ton of bass, but everything sounded smooth and effortless. I loved the fit, surprisingly. These sounded smooth, and wonderful. Very much like my electrostatic speakers at home. Final Score: 9/10
Stax SR-009: These were a little odd, I thought they sounded great, but the highs were very sibilant and sharp, I thought the 700s were far superior. I thought they felt a little cheap for the price, as well. I liked everything they had to offer except for the treble spike. Final Score: 7/10
Hifiman Susvara: I have never heard these, so really wanted to try them, and thought they sounded great! Build quality lacking a bit, yes, but they sounded very natural with gobs of bass. Final Score: 8/10
Audeze CBRN: These were the best EStats I heard all show. Effortless and punchy when needed, they really had a ridiculously large soundstage. I would've loved to hear these in a quiet room. I don't have much to say because these hit everything I wanted from them. Final Score: 9/10
Audeze LCD-5: I am an Audeze fangirl, so these were a big one I wanted to test, and they did not disappoint. Personally, I like the old school design of the LCD-2, so I am a little bummed to see them leaving that design in the past. But these were lovely headphones. The bass was punchy and thick, I also heard a soundstage which the 2s do not have much have. I really pushed these to their limit with some Black Metal, and these had no issues, and asked for more. I already have a pair of Utopias, but these are on my radar as something I might buy and sell my Utopias for. Final Score: 9/10
Audeze MM-500: Personally, I'm not a fan of overly neutral and natural headphones, I much preferred the LCD-5s, but these were still nice nonetheless. Final Score: 7/10
Meze Empyrean II: Easily the worst setup at the show, but they had them in the Woo room and the dCS room, so I did get to hear them in their proper glory. Personally, I don't like the sound signature of Meze, but these had a bit more punch than usual. Comfort and build quality is obviously off the charts, I still don't like their aesthetics much but these were probably the Mezes I heard all show. However, can I complain about their booth? They had a couple stations, but you had to share listening with someone else? And it was just so loud over there, I just kind of left dissatisfied. dCS room and Woo did the Empyreans well. Final Score: 7/10
ZMF Atrium Closed: I went into the ZMF room completely blind, having never listened to anything from them or knowing anything about them...holy crap! The ZMF Atrium have a ridiculous amount of bass punch, but are so well balanced and warm, I just want to snuggle up with them. You could feel the texture of the music, I have never experienced anything like these before. The build quality was exquisite, hand made and absolutely gorgeous. Did I buy the purple stained Atrium Closed? I absolutely freaking did and have ZERO regrets. Pic attached below. I have never heard closed backs like these. Again, wow. Everyone was lovely, lifetime warranty...I mean, this is a premium product from top to bottom, zero hype. Final Score: 10/10
Sennheiser HE-1: I mean...pure bliss. Never heard anything so effortless and eloquent. I couldn't pick out any strengths or weaknesses, because they just sounded perfect. That's really all I could say. GORGEOUS equipment, and Eric was wonderful. Don't have much else to say, but wow. Final Score: 10/10
IEMs
Empire Ears Raven: I own the Odins, so I made a beeline for the Ravens. I was skeptical of these, but I have never heard such bass in a headphone before. Ever. Everything else was balanced and forward, but the bass was so immense that's all I remember from them. Also, very very large, not sure I liked the sheer size of them. Final Score: 8/10
64Audio U12T: A bit...boring. I mean, precise as hell, and there is no pressure in the ears at all. Smooth, detailed, natural...not necessarily my thing, but I was impressed at the sheer reference level of them. Also, they are so light, it's pleasant. Final Score: 7/10
64Audio Volur: Most disappointing IEM I tried, by a significant margin. Everything seemed distant, tucked back away, way too dark. Going from the 12T and my Odins to these was...not the best look. Final Score: 3/10
Thieaudio Monarch MKIII: I have been incredibly skeptical of ever spending such money on ChiFi before, but these absolutely stunned me. I go back and forth between them and my Odins, and it's damn close. These have better bass than the Odins, close to the Ravens, and everything seems so immediate and visceral. Top tier PRAT, they just seem on top of everything, with no distortion. I think the Odin have a smoother top end, these have that ChiFi shouty nature, but man, just *chef's kiss*. These and a Perseus came home with me. Final Score: 10/10
Fir Audio E12: Bass cannons! And not much else. Felt very cheap. Not a big fan of the shrill high ends, Peter Gabriel's So album is known for some sibilance, and these were borderline piercing. I think these were missing some sub bass as well. Final Score: 4/10
Campfire (?): Tested a bunch of Campfire stuff, and left unimpressed with them. Can't remember which was which, tbqh. No thanks.
Noble K-XM1: Very immersive with pummeling bass, a bit light in the sub bass but overall a well balanced IEM that was fun. Final Score: 8/10
Booths/Rooms:
Woo/Abyss/STAX: Pleasant room with great people. Great setups, had very little WiFi interruptions. I had some issues with the Woo Tube Mini, which had a strange ringing that John said went away with time as they warmed up, but it never did. Woo products are truly works of art. I don't really subscribe to amps sounding different, but the Luna was something to experience, and the WA2 is just beautiful overall. The Fireflies amp...beautiful. Loved all the gear they had to audition and how easy it was to swap around.
ZMF: What can I say? Amazing people, amazing headphones, fun environment, a RIDICULOUS amount of amps and headphones...just a spectacular experience. The WiFi was miserable off and on, so I don't know how to fix that, but I struggled quite a bit with Roon on their WiFi. But the amount of special edition and headphones they had was a little overwhelming.
dCS: Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. The room, employees, gear all felt like stepping into an exotic car showroom. Everyone was so friendly, no issues with anyone being snooty, just a top tier experience. As for the gear, well...it was awesome to hear such fun stuff, I went around the room, but it all was indiscernible to me. I don't see the value of these, but gorgeous stuff. The DAC having such a low resolution screen is...an odd choice.
Mimic: Holy crap. They had every headphone you could ever want to demo, with every amp I swear ever...the Naim wasn't really working which was disappointing as I own it and wanted to test the Tungstens on it, but otherwise, incredible. I wish they weren't in the main room, it really devalued some headphones.
Schiit: The employees looked miserable and the Yggy had some channel imbalance with my Utopias. So I didn't do much listening.
LTA: None of their amps sounded right on my Utopias, everything felt very far and distant to the point of wanting to make sure the amp wasn't out of phase. I was looking to be impressed but wasn't. The Prosper Cables guy manning the booth was awesome.
Meze: Terrible setup. If you wanted a proper audition, go to somewhere else.
Bloom: Lovely employees, had tons of gear to buy, didn't care how long you took to audition, had a dCS stack out, I mean...just everything. I spent so much time at their table, and can guarantee they'll be my headphone store of choice moving forward. Got my Monarchs from them.
Warwick: Have never liked their stuff, and spent probably 15 minutes trying to get Roon to connect before I bailed. Disappointing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Really missed seeing Focal, Hifiman and HeadAmp, three that I really wanted to hear.
Got way too boozed at the bar, so Sunday was a fairly short day for me. The hotel was gorgeous, but the elevator system was bunk...What, why build a better mouse trap????
Shirts being cash only made me sad........
If you came behind me and saw lots of black metal and industrial on the Roon iPads...I apologize LOL.
Was GREAT! Hope they do it again.
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Hey CanJam guys and gals! I want to start off by saying CanJam Dallas was a great show and I sincerely hope it gets another shot next year.
Not my first audio show or meet up, but it was my first CanJam. What an absolute treat. I had a bit of a different experience than most others at the show because I brought my entire family of 5, to include myself, my wife (who needs to get a head-fi account) my 2 elementary aged daughters and my 3 month old son. It was my sons first audio show, but my daughters have been to a few before, most recently the Schiit/Emotiva Texas Cheap Audio Round Up in Austin last summer. My girls love listening to different cans, especially if they can find the Beatles, or more importantly, Taylor Swift. So the goal of this show was for me to listen to a few things that have been on my list, but more importantly, it was a mini vacation for the family to hang out at a nice hotel and enjoy time together. So CanJam was a smashing success in that regard.
So before I get into audio impressions that most people care about, I'd just like to talk about some of the other great parts about the show, and everything that Jude and his wonderful team did right.
Great location scouting. The hotel was great. It was super coinvent to come down the elevator and flow into the convention area. It was in a great spot in the DFW area to go grab some great food. And the price of rooms compared to the quality of the digs was fantastic. Kudos to the scouting team.
Second, the people. My kids were playing all day Saturday and Sunday between occasional listening when there were open stations with no lines and they weren't robbing anyone of audition time. So many of the staff were fantastic with my kids. There were multiple security officers that loved talking and laughing and entertaining my girls, and kept finding them throughout the weekend to check in on how they were enjoying the show. Awesome. Then there were the Head-Fiers that were volunteering at the check in counter that were playing with them during lulls, and they loved that.
Then there was the fantastic vendors there. The wonderful guys at Bloom were awesome with engaging them in audio. Both of my girls had Dekoni Audio caps they were repping by midday Sunday because of the nice guys at Dekoni and Bloom. They love those caps and repped them throughout all of central Texas on the 5 hour trip home yesterday. Thanks guys!
Schiit was great as always and my kids loved the Syn and new Magni (as did I, but more on that later).
Zach and Bevin (ZMF) were awesome and allowed my kids to take more than a few John Lennon and other audio related stickers.
Noble Audio was also fantastic. Jim, Kai, and Fumie were awesome to talk to, they make great stuff, and let my kids try some awesome Japanese chocolate cookies. Unfortunately, they left them slightly unsupervised with the bag, and the contents promptly disappeared. I guess that speaks to the quality of the cookies.
So in summary, the weekend was great as a family event, and I can't wait for the next opportunity.
***Audio Impressions***
***Pre-amble*** Okay, so I went to listen to a bunch of stuff, but what ended up happening was we went to the black hole that is the ZMF room, and that killed most of Saturday. I brought my Atrium Closed Olive to the show to try on a bunch of different tube amps. My wife saw all the amazing cans ZMF brought and wanted to try them all. She said they sounded good, and she enjoyed the music. But when she tried on the Auteur Classic, she said the music sounded emotionally engaging and she had trouble taking them off. Then she tried a bunch of different amps with them and took a bunch of notes (I'll see if I can get her on the board for her impressions) and found an amazing set of Auteur Classics with a pink/maroon/purple resin and purple hardware with rose gold metal accents and she was in love. She tried them with everything, A/B'd them with my Atrium Closed as well as Atrium opens, Caldera's, VC's, Verite Open, you name it. The Auteur Classics won for her hands down. I spent a lot of that time playing with kids, so I didn't get many impressions that day. Which is fine, we went to have fun with audio, and we did in spades. At the end of the day, she set the cans down and decided to sleep on it. We were in ZMF at 10 am promptly the next day to buy them, and she got there just before another gentleman came in to buy the same set. Apologies to whoever that was. My wife said she would have been devastated if she didn't get to keep them, and felt an attachment and magic connection to them, so to whoever also wanted them, at least know they went to a good home. So now we have his/her ZMF's hanging at my desk while we figure out a rig for her desk. Fun problems to have.
Show Highlights for me
LTA.
I started with the MicroZotl. I really liked it. Then I moved over to the new Velo. The new LTA Velo is fire. Just an incredible experience. I went back 3 times throughout the weekend to listen to it. It was my second favorite thing I heard all weekend. It trounced the MicroZotl, and is cheaper to boot. Just and incredible amp. I tried it with my Atrium Closed, LCD-5, the new Meze (can't remember it's name), Atrium Opens, Caldera's, and my wife's new Auteur Classic. Everything sounded great on it. It had detail, it had speed, it had open space, it had bloom to the notes, but most of all it just sounded effortless. Music just flowed like a river out of it. It really paired well with all the ZMF offerings, and not surprisingly, I preferred my Atrium Closed with it. If you have a set of ZMF's you need to hear this amp, it was just an incredible synergy. Then I slid over to the Z10E. That was the best thing I heard all weekend. Period. And what a product. I was floored to see it does normal headphones, speakers, pre-amp, and the stunner, electro-stat! All in one box! And it took everything I loved about the Velo and gave me more. More space, more detail, more smoothness, more flow-y river effortlessness. I tried it with all the headphones listed above as well as Stax 007 and 009 I believe. The Stax sounded great, I really couldn't complain, but I then went back to the Atrium Closed and Calderas, and thought they both beat the Stax with similar speed and space, but more bottom end, so it sounded like a fuller experience throughout the frequency range. Money and space no object, the Z10E would be my end game amp. But in the real world, the Velo is sitting at the top of my list for my next audio purchase.
Schiit.
Full disclosure, I'm a Schiit-head. I'm listening to my AC's on a Gumby into Lyr 3, my wife has a Hel on her desk, and my 2 channel rig has 2 Tyrs, a Yggy, a Freya+ and a Skoll in it. And that's just my current setup. So I feel really acquainted with their stuff. I heard the MJ3 prototype at a Corpus meet last xmas and remembered it sounding very tubey for a solid state amp, and also very fast and controlled. I liked it a lot. I was excited to hear it again. I was surprised to find it wasn't to my taste this weekend. I was using balanced into my Atriums, but it was a noisier environment, I'm not sure which settings were set on the front of MJ3, and the EQ was on and pretty well adjusted. I had a line behind me to listen to it, so I heard 3 songs and left, meaning to give it another listen later, but I never got around to it. I really owe it another listen at some point. But. The new Magni! Wow! That little guy was awesome! A real highlight of the show. I put the gain to high and plugged in my Atriums and it had so much authority, but the word that kept popping up in my head while listening to it was warm. As in tube-like warmth. It almost had tube magic in a tiny, highly affordable, solid state dac/amp! It was a (very surprising) highlight of the show for me. Really, really good.
Other impressions.
Woo Audio Tube Mini
I really wanted to hear this setup. I spend half the year on the road in hotels for my jobs in the shipping industry, so it looked like a product designed for me. I tried it with my Noble Sultans. The guys at Woo said I was the first guy to try it with IEMs and were curious as to how noisy it may have been. I only had the volume up to maybe 6 or 7 and it drove my Sultans fantastically well. Dead quiet, no observed tube hiss or noise on sensitive IEMs. So that was great. Also, it was a stunning product to look at, and it was in a really nice stand/power enclosure that displayed it very well and showed off the wonderful tube glow. But. For my IEMs, it sounded a little scooped in the mids and thin. I was really surprised. I really wanted that wonderful tube-y goodness, and for my limited listening session, I was missing the mids. The Woo guys said I should stop by with my ZMFs and try that, but I don't bring my ZMFs in my rollie bag on the road with me, so while it is likely great at driving full size cans, that wouldn't be my use case, so I didn't try it.
ZMF Caldera
I really wanted to listen to this one, and I was able to multiple times in different rooms. I liked it a lot. But. I preferred my Atrium Closed. I love the way my Atrium Closed have loads of detail, dynamics, imaging, but are also fun with a little bit of a bass bump, and those signature lush mids that ZMF has. The Caldera felt like it had everything my Atrium's have, but a bit less romantic and fun. To me it was like looking at a super model that you know is objectively attractive, but she just doesn't do anything for you. I get why people would really like them, but Atriums just grab me and have a special sauce that I didn't get with the Caldera. The Caldera were a very good In-n-out Double Double. My Atrium Closed are a Double-Double Animal Style. They just have that extra bit of special. Some people don't like animal style, and there's the Caldera for that. I happen to love it, so I'll happily stick with my Atriums.
Noble.
I tried the new Ronin and really enjoyed it. Very similar in sound signature to my Sultans, and gorgeous enclosure. I seek lush mids first, with good resolution, slight bass bump and treble sparkly, in that order. The Ronin had it all. But I love my sultans as IEMs, and the Ronin's were not different enough to feel like a must buy for me. What I did buy was their awesome new dac/amp balanced "not-dongle." It looks like a little T intersection that plugs into your phone and allows the balanced 4.4 to connect at a 90 degree angle. It's tiny, it sounds great, and it's only 80 bucks! Sold! I also loved their new standard cable that comes with a quick disconnect that allows you to swap from 4.4 to 3.5 on the fly with the same cable. Super practical, and it sounds great. I bought one of those as well. I also heard a few other neat new Noble things. They have an awesome new 700 dollar-ish with the new silicon driver (I think it called XM1, I believe it's the same tech Creative Labs was debuting there as well) but the cool part is the amps are internal to the IEMs, and you just plug it straight into your device and go, no dongle or anything. They sounded really nice, but a little thin to me, but I went in the wrong order. I listened to a bunch of cables on my Sultans, then listened to the Ronins, then the new self driven IEMs, so of course they didn't sound as good as flagships, but still very nice.
Dekoni.
Their travel full size headphone bag is great! Lots of padding, internal cable compartment, shoulder strap attachment. My wife bought one for her new ZMFs and we both love the quality and thoughtfulness of it. Plus the guys working there were great!
Conclusion:
It was a great event that I really hope has the opportunity to become a regular occurrence. Thanks to Evan, Alex, Jason, and all the team at Schiit. Thanks to Zach, Bevin, Kevin, and Katherine of ZMF for being such great hosts. Thanks to Jim, Fumie, and Kai for allowing us to hang at Noble and chat. Thanks to Jacob from LTA and Jeremy of Prosper Cables for allowing us to keep coming back and listening to all the great LTA goodness. Thanks to Jude and team for bringing this rodeo to town. Please keep Texas in mind for future CanJams. Dallas was great, but San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and Corpus Christi are all great spots too if you wanna shake it up next year.
Thanks guys, let's do it again.
Pictures to follow.
-Brandon
Not my first audio show or meet up, but it was my first CanJam. What an absolute treat. I had a bit of a different experience than most others at the show because I brought my entire family of 5, to include myself, my wife (who needs to get a head-fi account) my 2 elementary aged daughters and my 3 month old son. It was my sons first audio show, but my daughters have been to a few before, most recently the Schiit/Emotiva Texas Cheap Audio Round Up in Austin last summer. My girls love listening to different cans, especially if they can find the Beatles, or more importantly, Taylor Swift. So the goal of this show was for me to listen to a few things that have been on my list, but more importantly, it was a mini vacation for the family to hang out at a nice hotel and enjoy time together. So CanJam was a smashing success in that regard.
So before I get into audio impressions that most people care about, I'd just like to talk about some of the other great parts about the show, and everything that Jude and his wonderful team did right.
Great location scouting. The hotel was great. It was super coinvent to come down the elevator and flow into the convention area. It was in a great spot in the DFW area to go grab some great food. And the price of rooms compared to the quality of the digs was fantastic. Kudos to the scouting team.
Second, the people. My kids were playing all day Saturday and Sunday between occasional listening when there were open stations with no lines and they weren't robbing anyone of audition time. So many of the staff were fantastic with my kids. There were multiple security officers that loved talking and laughing and entertaining my girls, and kept finding them throughout the weekend to check in on how they were enjoying the show. Awesome. Then there were the Head-Fiers that were volunteering at the check in counter that were playing with them during lulls, and they loved that.
Then there was the fantastic vendors there. The wonderful guys at Bloom were awesome with engaging them in audio. Both of my girls had Dekoni Audio caps they were repping by midday Sunday because of the nice guys at Dekoni and Bloom. They love those caps and repped them throughout all of central Texas on the 5 hour trip home yesterday. Thanks guys!
Schiit was great as always and my kids loved the Syn and new Magni (as did I, but more on that later).
Zach and Bevin (ZMF) were awesome and allowed my kids to take more than a few John Lennon and other audio related stickers.
Noble Audio was also fantastic. Jim, Kai, and Fumie were awesome to talk to, they make great stuff, and let my kids try some awesome Japanese chocolate cookies. Unfortunately, they left them slightly unsupervised with the bag, and the contents promptly disappeared. I guess that speaks to the quality of the cookies.
So in summary, the weekend was great as a family event, and I can't wait for the next opportunity.
***Audio Impressions***
***Pre-amble*** Okay, so I went to listen to a bunch of stuff, but what ended up happening was we went to the black hole that is the ZMF room, and that killed most of Saturday. I brought my Atrium Closed Olive to the show to try on a bunch of different tube amps. My wife saw all the amazing cans ZMF brought and wanted to try them all. She said they sounded good, and she enjoyed the music. But when she tried on the Auteur Classic, she said the music sounded emotionally engaging and she had trouble taking them off. Then she tried a bunch of different amps with them and took a bunch of notes (I'll see if I can get her on the board for her impressions) and found an amazing set of Auteur Classics with a pink/maroon/purple resin and purple hardware with rose gold metal accents and she was in love. She tried them with everything, A/B'd them with my Atrium Closed as well as Atrium opens, Caldera's, VC's, Verite Open, you name it. The Auteur Classics won for her hands down. I spent a lot of that time playing with kids, so I didn't get many impressions that day. Which is fine, we went to have fun with audio, and we did in spades. At the end of the day, she set the cans down and decided to sleep on it. We were in ZMF at 10 am promptly the next day to buy them, and she got there just before another gentleman came in to buy the same set. Apologies to whoever that was. My wife said she would have been devastated if she didn't get to keep them, and felt an attachment and magic connection to them, so to whoever also wanted them, at least know they went to a good home. So now we have his/her ZMF's hanging at my desk while we figure out a rig for her desk. Fun problems to have.
Show Highlights for me
LTA.
I started with the MicroZotl. I really liked it. Then I moved over to the new Velo. The new LTA Velo is fire. Just an incredible experience. I went back 3 times throughout the weekend to listen to it. It was my second favorite thing I heard all weekend. It trounced the MicroZotl, and is cheaper to boot. Just and incredible amp. I tried it with my Atrium Closed, LCD-5, the new Meze (can't remember it's name), Atrium Opens, Caldera's, and my wife's new Auteur Classic. Everything sounded great on it. It had detail, it had speed, it had open space, it had bloom to the notes, but most of all it just sounded effortless. Music just flowed like a river out of it. It really paired well with all the ZMF offerings, and not surprisingly, I preferred my Atrium Closed with it. If you have a set of ZMF's you need to hear this amp, it was just an incredible synergy. Then I slid over to the Z10E. That was the best thing I heard all weekend. Period. And what a product. I was floored to see it does normal headphones, speakers, pre-amp, and the stunner, electro-stat! All in one box! And it took everything I loved about the Velo and gave me more. More space, more detail, more smoothness, more flow-y river effortlessness. I tried it with all the headphones listed above as well as Stax 007 and 009 I believe. The Stax sounded great, I really couldn't complain, but I then went back to the Atrium Closed and Calderas, and thought they both beat the Stax with similar speed and space, but more bottom end, so it sounded like a fuller experience throughout the frequency range. Money and space no object, the Z10E would be my end game amp. But in the real world, the Velo is sitting at the top of my list for my next audio purchase.
Schiit.
Full disclosure, I'm a Schiit-head. I'm listening to my AC's on a Gumby into Lyr 3, my wife has a Hel on her desk, and my 2 channel rig has 2 Tyrs, a Yggy, a Freya+ and a Skoll in it. And that's just my current setup. So I feel really acquainted with their stuff. I heard the MJ3 prototype at a Corpus meet last xmas and remembered it sounding very tubey for a solid state amp, and also very fast and controlled. I liked it a lot. I was excited to hear it again. I was surprised to find it wasn't to my taste this weekend. I was using balanced into my Atriums, but it was a noisier environment, I'm not sure which settings were set on the front of MJ3, and the EQ was on and pretty well adjusted. I had a line behind me to listen to it, so I heard 3 songs and left, meaning to give it another listen later, but I never got around to it. I really owe it another listen at some point. But. The new Magni! Wow! That little guy was awesome! A real highlight of the show. I put the gain to high and plugged in my Atriums and it had so much authority, but the word that kept popping up in my head while listening to it was warm. As in tube-like warmth. It almost had tube magic in a tiny, highly affordable, solid state dac/amp! It was a (very surprising) highlight of the show for me. Really, really good.
Other impressions.
Woo Audio Tube Mini
I really wanted to hear this setup. I spend half the year on the road in hotels for my jobs in the shipping industry, so it looked like a product designed for me. I tried it with my Noble Sultans. The guys at Woo said I was the first guy to try it with IEMs and were curious as to how noisy it may have been. I only had the volume up to maybe 6 or 7 and it drove my Sultans fantastically well. Dead quiet, no observed tube hiss or noise on sensitive IEMs. So that was great. Also, it was a stunning product to look at, and it was in a really nice stand/power enclosure that displayed it very well and showed off the wonderful tube glow. But. For my IEMs, it sounded a little scooped in the mids and thin. I was really surprised. I really wanted that wonderful tube-y goodness, and for my limited listening session, I was missing the mids. The Woo guys said I should stop by with my ZMFs and try that, but I don't bring my ZMFs in my rollie bag on the road with me, so while it is likely great at driving full size cans, that wouldn't be my use case, so I didn't try it.
ZMF Caldera
I really wanted to listen to this one, and I was able to multiple times in different rooms. I liked it a lot. But. I preferred my Atrium Closed. I love the way my Atrium Closed have loads of detail, dynamics, imaging, but are also fun with a little bit of a bass bump, and those signature lush mids that ZMF has. The Caldera felt like it had everything my Atrium's have, but a bit less romantic and fun. To me it was like looking at a super model that you know is objectively attractive, but she just doesn't do anything for you. I get why people would really like them, but Atriums just grab me and have a special sauce that I didn't get with the Caldera. The Caldera were a very good In-n-out Double Double. My Atrium Closed are a Double-Double Animal Style. They just have that extra bit of special. Some people don't like animal style, and there's the Caldera for that. I happen to love it, so I'll happily stick with my Atriums.
Noble.
I tried the new Ronin and really enjoyed it. Very similar in sound signature to my Sultans, and gorgeous enclosure. I seek lush mids first, with good resolution, slight bass bump and treble sparkly, in that order. The Ronin had it all. But I love my sultans as IEMs, and the Ronin's were not different enough to feel like a must buy for me. What I did buy was their awesome new dac/amp balanced "not-dongle." It looks like a little T intersection that plugs into your phone and allows the balanced 4.4 to connect at a 90 degree angle. It's tiny, it sounds great, and it's only 80 bucks! Sold! I also loved their new standard cable that comes with a quick disconnect that allows you to swap from 4.4 to 3.5 on the fly with the same cable. Super practical, and it sounds great. I bought one of those as well. I also heard a few other neat new Noble things. They have an awesome new 700 dollar-ish with the new silicon driver (I think it called XM1, I believe it's the same tech Creative Labs was debuting there as well) but the cool part is the amps are internal to the IEMs, and you just plug it straight into your device and go, no dongle or anything. They sounded really nice, but a little thin to me, but I went in the wrong order. I listened to a bunch of cables on my Sultans, then listened to the Ronins, then the new self driven IEMs, so of course they didn't sound as good as flagships, but still very nice.
Dekoni.
Their travel full size headphone bag is great! Lots of padding, internal cable compartment, shoulder strap attachment. My wife bought one for her new ZMFs and we both love the quality and thoughtfulness of it. Plus the guys working there were great!
Conclusion:
It was a great event that I really hope has the opportunity to become a regular occurrence. Thanks to Evan, Alex, Jason, and all the team at Schiit. Thanks to Zach, Bevin, Kevin, and Katherine of ZMF for being such great hosts. Thanks to Jim, Fumie, and Kai for allowing us to hang at Noble and chat. Thanks to Jacob from LTA and Jeremy of Prosper Cables for allowing us to keep coming back and listening to all the great LTA goodness. Thanks to Jude and team for bringing this rodeo to town. Please keep Texas in mind for future CanJams. Dallas was great, but San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and Corpus Christi are all great spots too if you wanna shake it up next year.
Thanks guys, let's do it again.
Pictures to follow.
-Brandon
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I saw you around, thought it was awesome your kids came! And the baby!
It was a pleasure breaking bread with you sir, and yes, I am now a Zoli's convert!
Yes you do, you most certainly do!
Sorry I couldn't roam the floor with you, but I was working this show. Come to SoCal, I'll see if I can add a CanJam pin to your collection!REALLY? I was just looking at the HB1 last week, as I've recently picked up a Sennheiser dongle that enables AptX and AptX Adaptive for my iPhone, and now I'm curious to try out all kinds of stuff with it.
Wow, thanks for coming out!
Are you guys mostly into 2-ch or is it a pretty even mix?Holy... no wonder you were so busy at the show! That's gotta be close to some kind of CanJam record!
Yeah, when the smaller differences are all that's left, they become everything.
Geoff, it was a pleasure meeting you! Keeping my fingers crossed that we'll see each other again soon, and maybe even listen to stuff together!
I purposefully avoided listening to that, and Jim knows why!
It was pure joy seeing your family there Brandon, I'm glad they had a good time! And I'll be honest, even as an audiophile, I gotta say that hearing Taylor's "August" on a good rig is absolutely wonderful!
CanJam Dallas 2023 was fun and enlightening. First one for me, so it went a little erratic. Seemed like endless options, talk to someone for the first time, and have to change your plans and try the suggested new gear. Wish I had one more day, I still missed a lot of gear I wanted to demo.
Shout out to Noble, Sennheiser, and ZMF. I got lost for a while at their booths. And the dCS stacks are incredible.
Sennheiser HE-1 is a piece of art, that happens to also produce beautiful sound. Wonderful moment to see and hear it.
Please Please Please! host another Dallas CanJam! (it could even be closer to Tarrant county)
Thank you to everyone who worked hard to get this event off the ground. It was a fantastic weekend.
Shout out to Noble, Sennheiser, and ZMF. I got lost for a while at their booths. And the dCS stacks are incredible.
Sennheiser HE-1 is a piece of art, that happens to also produce beautiful sound. Wonderful moment to see and hear it.
Please Please Please! host another Dallas CanJam! (it could even be closer to Tarrant county)
Thank you to everyone who worked hard to get this event off the ground. It was a fantastic weekend.
I don’t know if this was an oversight of Mimic or it just ended up plugged there by users.. but that unit can’t power the Tungsten. At all. The fact
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