CanJam Dallas 2023 Impressions Thread (November 11-12, 2023)

[heliosphann]

I also tried a ModHouse Tungston, and it felt cheaply made and I couldn't get it to a listenable volume, not even on a Ferrum Oor. I then tried a Spirit headphone and after 30 seconds I couldn't stand it, so I moved on. Same with the Fostex 900/909 (I thought they would be painful, but turns out they were just boring and unexceptional), and Senn HD820 (I really REALLY wanted to like it).

Something had to be really wrong if the Ferrum Oor wasn't powering the Tungsten well. I believe @goldwerger said that was a stellar pairing. #CuratedCoupling

 

[goldwerger]

Something had to be really wrong if the Ferrum Oor wasn't powering the Tungsten well. I believe @goldwerger said that was a stellar pairing. #CuratedCoupling

I did, It can. It is.

I simply disagree (I also think it is beautifully made).

 

[sp33ls]

hi i would sign up for an Austin CanJam without question

Speaking of, I can't be the only one who would love a PNW CanJam like Seattle/Bellevue/Portland... absolutely gorgeous in the summer.

To me the lesson of all this is that once you have a setup you really like, and you get to the point that it is hard to find any way to improve on it, you legitimately can't improve on it, not by much anyway, no matter what price you are willing to pay.

This is the way. ZMF & Bottlehead Crackatwoa OTL [upgraded] is just about as good as I've been able to find. In this hobby, moar $$$$ != moar better.

 

[kumar402]

DAC like Yggdrasil need some warm up time and may be the reason why the combo including such DAC may sound bright and shrill to begin with. In controlled env with good source these DACs perform better.

 

[Tom Yum Goong]

If I ever go to the US, it will be to visit CanJam! Looks and sounds like a blast

I mean, JamCan London is pretty great and not a 10+ hour flight away.

 

[AudioDuck]

Speaking of, I can't be the only one who would love a PNW CanJam like Seattle/Bellevue/Portland... absolutely gorgeous in the summer.

+1 on that request!

Sounds like we should chat about having coffee and audio/music chat @sp33ls !
(I’m East of Seattle and PNW4Life)

 

[NovaFlyer]

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

It was great seeing you and family enjoying CanJam so much...truly shows how much the hobby is family friendly.

Also enjoyed chatting with you at the Noble booth about international travel.

This was my first CanJam and I attended with my 25 y.o. son. I flew in from Maryland and he flew in from Denver. It was a fantastic event we both had a blast. I want to give a shout out to the organizers for putting on such a great show (despite wonky wifi). I thought the venue was perfect, though elevator operation left something to be desired. The vendors were all welcoming, helpful and very friendly. It was a great opportunity to meet so many fellow audiophiles and especially to visit and listen to so many different headphones, amps and IEMs.

Like so many attendees, I spent a lot of time at ZMF’s room over the two days, as did my son. I also enjoyed meeting Zach, Bevin, Kathy and Kevin. I had a couple of good conversations with Zach and Bevin and I happily came away with a pair of Atriums. Thanks again to Zach & Bevin!

Listening to any cans in ZMF’s room or in the main area was a wee bit challenging, give the ambient and unavoidable noise (it was quiet in DCS’ room). I made good use of the volume knob. Despite the noise, I fell for the Atriums, though I really liked listening at the Audeze table and Meze as well. What a treat to listen to headphones before making a purchase! I have two Verites and an Aeolus, all of which were purchased based on reviews and discussions on Head-Fi and elsewhere. Oh, no regrets! Someone mentioned the poor setup for Meze and it was very loud – over the three different times I visited their table. I also appreciated the folks at Bloom Audio. They were very patient as listened to the A&Ks. Lastly, I look forward to attending another CanJam, maybe New York. I know that NYC is well attended by vendors.

---

It was great meeting you and your son, chatting at the registration booth before Sunday's opening. Glad you enjoyed Dallas, NYC is in March and not that far up 95 for you. Just a tip if you decide on NYC - I drive up, park at Newark airport and take the train from there.

 

[jugpapa]

So... the best I've ever heard STAX headphones sound was with an MSB rig (MSB Select DAC and their reference stat amp). I won't mention prices here, but let's just say that it makes an HE-1 seem mid-fi.

MSB Select.. Jeez I'll have to get another mortgage. Well at least I'll listen in peace then since my wife will divorce me and take my cats away.

 

[Mumbles06]

Also enjoyed chatting with you at the Noble booth about international travel.

Thanks, I enjoyed chatting with you as well!

 

[jugpapa]

The code in the email is DALLAS23, but last I checked it wasn't working for me. I also tried "DALLAS23", quoted, and playing with the cases, but no luck.

I have written to support and waiting for their response.

hi friends, anyone happen to have a link for the 64 audio discount from the show? i signed up for the raffle and it said an email would be sent with the discount. i was looking for the email because i was going to buy a u4s, but i can’t find an email. any assistance on this would be greatly appreciated!

DALLAS23 should work now. They emailed me back mentioning the IT team fixed the issue.

 

[AudioDuck]

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.

Fantastic write-up, thank you so much for sharing, Brandon! Great to hear your whole family got to go and enjoyed the event.

Lesson I learned a while back and see examples of regularly: Never sleep on ZMFs- grab what you love when you can, otherwise it is likely to be gone.

 

[KG Jag]

Warren -- don't forget GA's own Alan Jackson and give Junior Brown, the pride of Austin & Tulsa, a spin.

 

[acohen001]

It was great meeting you and your son, chatting at the registration booth before Sunday's opening. Glad you enjoyed Dallas, NYC is in March and not that far up 95 for you. Just a tip if you decide on NYC - I drive up, park at Newark airport and take the train from there.

Likewise. I hope to make it up there in March.

 

[ItHz]

Thanks to the Head-Fi crew, all the exhibitors, and the venue staff for putting on this event! I had a great time at my first CanJam

Shout out to the folks from ZMF and dCS. Both were very friendly and their show rooms were fun places to hang out and geek out over great gear.

Brief impressions:

• Abyss Diana TC w/ Woo Audio WA23 & PHANTOM DAC - No amount of adjustment made for a comfortable fit, and I was left with a gap beneath my ears that may have affected the performance. Light on bass. Detail retrieval seemed about on par with my ZMF Calderas, but it had a dryer and more neutral sound with more emphasis in the highs. The WA23 is absolutely beautiful in person!
• Abyss 1266
  • dCS Rossini DAC, Lina Clock, and Lina Amp - I did not really enjoy this combo -- pianos sounded harsh, but the bass was the closest to feeling physical that I've ever heard.
  • Woo Audio WA33 & PHANTOM DAC - More enjoyable! Good detail retrieval and dat bass! the highs were still a little too pronounced for my preference.
• Final Audio D8000 w/ Phonitor XE - A nice listen. Nothing jumped out as surprisingly good or bad. After a few minutes I started to feel the clamp on my jaw but maybe further adjustment could have fixed the fit.
• Focal Utopia 2022 w/ T+A Audio 200 DAC (I think) - Very nice. Reminded me a lot of Caldera+Red October. The soundstage was bigger than I expected -- but my expectations weren't that high.
• Hifiman Susvara w/ dCS Bartok APEX, Lina Clock, Lina Amp - I liked this more than I expected. Really engaging, more bass than expected but can see why people say it’s light. On Viva La Vida by Reuel, the synth strings sounded more real than I’ve ever heard!
• Meze 99 Classic w/ Astell&Kern ACRO CA1000 - Nice for the price, but overal kind of "thin" sounding.
• Meze 109 Pro
  • Chord DAVE - Really, really good! I can absolutely see why the Meze has gotten so much praise.
  • Woo Audio WA6 & PHANTOM DAC - Also really nice!
  • Woo Audio TUBE mini - Not good synergy, IMO. Mids sounded thin and highs were harsh. Glad this wasn't the first pairing I tried.
• Meze Empyrean w/ Ferrum stack - Very nice. Can see why it was such a darling, and super comfortable.
• Meze Empyrean II
  • Woo Audio TUBE mini - Very nice. It made me want to put on soft music and just chill, and it's just so comfortable.
  • dCS Lina stack - The chill vibes are still strong here, electric guitars and bass are good but the chill still overrides the thrill.
  • Chord DAVE - A little different flavor than the Lina stack but a fabulous simple evening chill setup.
  • Ferrum stack - The chill vibes are getting familiar, maybe that is why it was a little easier to click with more exciting music or maybe the Ferrum has some magic ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • LTA Velo & unknown DAC - The chill vibes are back. Really enjoyed this pairing.
• Meze Elite w/ Ferrum stack - Heard this right after listening to the Empyrean I & II on the same stack and would characterize this one as the "audiophile" of the three siblings. A little cleaner, a little more discerning, and invited me to listen closer to the music.
• Modhouse Tungsten w/ iFi iDSD + iCAN - Enjoyable bass, but overall not really my preferred tuning and the soundstage seemed a little unpredictable to me.
• Sennheiser HD 800S
  • Sennheiser HDV 820 - Massive sound stage and very delicate sound. A little light on the bass but I really enjoyed this more than I expected.
  • dCS Lina stack - A great pairing, IMO. I kept slipping out of critical listening to just enjoy the experience.
• ZMF Aeolus
  • ZMF/Decware OTL & iFi iDSD - A fun aesthetic with its VU meters, sprouting wires, knobs, and tubes; and it sounds really good too! Not quite my cup of tea, sonically, but there is no denying its prowess. I've owned an Aeolus for years -- it's warm and utterly enjoyable.
  • ecp Audio DSHA-3F Ravenwood & Holo Audio May - I only got a few minutes with this combo and it was excellent. It had the tube-y warmth that I crave and has me seriously considering jumping on the next run of the Nitsch reincarnation.
• ZMF Auteur Classic
  • ZMF/Decware OTL & iFi iDSD - Really nice, reminded me of the Atrium Open with a soundstage presentation kind of like the Verite Open.
  • Aegis - Wow! This is a great amp with this headphone. It was really popular so I didn't get to listen with other headphones but I'm optimistic it would be gone well.
  • Feliks Audio Envy & dCS Lina DAC - Very similar character to when used with ZMF/Decware OTL.
• ZMF Bokeh
  • ZMF/Decware OTL & iFi iDSD - Didn’t love this pairing. Sounded dry and lacking “fun”, high end was a little harsh.
  • Chord Mojo 2 - Much better pairing, IMO. Still kinda dry but didn’t feel that it detracted from the experience, and high end was smoother.
  • (Note: The two impression above were from different sets. See Zach's following post about tuning the Bokeh.)

Stand outs & surprises (in no particular order):

• Meze 109 Pro - I was shocked by how good this headphone is. IME it requires a bit of source matching -- really wish I had been able to try this with the Mojo 2 -- but then it is a very rewarding listen without breaking the bank.
• Sennheiser HD 800S - Not the newest, sexiest HP on the scene but everyone should hear it at some point.
• Aegis tube amp - Such a fantastic amp! It fits my sonic preferences so well, and I've only heard it bettered by one other -- at 5x the price

I'm already looking forward to my next CanJam!

 

[zach915m]

ZMF Bokeh

I should mention in the thread as well, and we tried to communicate it during the show but it can be tough to talk with everyone-

The Bokeh will come standard with a protein pad and perforated titan mesh as stock, I find this fun and middle ground tuning that is slightly U shaped.

There will be an option to have a tuning kit and other pads in a leather/suede hybrid and all suede format as well as solid titan mesh and ofcourse no mesh.

So basically you can tune the sound from fairly fun, fast and exciting (protein no mesh) to very linear (suede with any mesh to tune treble to taste).

We had Bokeh's in numerous configs in the room and it was hard to keep track of them for sure.

Thanks to all who came by to listen we had a blast, Bevin, Katharine and Kevin all say thanks as do I we appreciate you all.

Edit: and yes lots of people asked about Caldera Closed, I have made good progress and feel hopeful to have a debut at Canjam NYC. As with any of this stuff, no promises