Back home now and had time to compose some thoughts. I don't want to bore everyone with a wall of text so will keep it to the highlights:
1) Debut to e-stats and going all in
Some of you may know that I write for TechPowerUp in the
Headphones and
Audio categories, among other things, for the last year or so. I've been a predominantly dynamic driver over-ear headphones guy most of my life before trying out IEMs and planar headphones of various types, and have been lucky to experience some of the very best in the planar world today that better matched my music preferences too. But there still was a question remaining about whether electrostatic headphones would be my true end game (if there is one), and I was even offered a few different e-stats to try out and review. I went in to CanJam aiming to get my first e-stat experience after having already talked a bit with Audeze, Hifiman, and a couple of other headphone and amp makers, and that led to this:
After numerous hours with three Audeze CRBNs, the Stax SR-X9000 (and bonus Lambda Pro), twoHifiman Shangri-La Srs and a Jade II, as well as sources including the Headamp Blue Hawaii Special Edition, the Eksonic T2, the Stax SRM-700S, and the Hifiman Shangri-La Sr. amp, I made a decision and got in touch with Headamp. Thanks to both
@Makiah S and
@justin w. I went back home with that very BHSE above and then Hifiman loaned me the available Shangri-La Sr. headphones to take with it. This will be a fun weekend coming up, and now I am prepped for e-stat headphone reviews too!
2) Get exposure to more high end gear
Given my relatively recent entry to the >$500 world of headphones (outside of the Sennheiser HD820 I bought and sold quickly), I wanted to listen to more of the higher end stuff that these shows are really useful for. This included headphones from the likes of Abyss, Dan Clark Audio, Focal, Meze, and Spirit Torino in addition to sources from Chord, dCS, Caying, Zahl, and many more. There were also true flagship IEMs from Noble, Vision Ears, 64 Audio, JH Audio, MMR/Jomo Audio, and a few one-off units from brands including Elysian Acoustic Labs and Subtonic in addition to those I've already heard, and this was a lot of fun too. I wanted to see more participation from vendors and more suites too, although DCS came in handy here. Some of my pre-conceptions were thrown away after this weekend, including how well planars can sound off full tube amplifiers too! The Hifiman Susvara off the Feliks Audio Envy in particular was a combination I will keep thinking about, and this is coming from the guy who ran his Susvara demo unit off the Hifiman EF1000 for months too. In general I also felt more likely to pony up the cash for expensive headphones and desktop sources rather than expensive IEMs and DAPs given how quickly the portable market is evolving and a sense of FOMO/feature of the month attached to it.
3) Meet people and get to know others
Arguably the most important thing achieved whereby I had faces now to associate with names and email addresses, and also was able to meet many others who partake in this hobby. Some are extremely charismatic (Danny from RAAL-requisite and Mark from HiFiMAN come to mind immediately) whereas others didn't let language barriers get in the way of nerding out on driver composition in headphones/IEMs and electrical circuitry in sources. Likewise, the Head-Fi crew did a great job I thought and chatting to them also provided insight on how guys with years/decades of experience still relate to their guilty pleasures despite having access to basically everything.
@jude in particular is way more chill in person than I thought he would be too, and I'll have to look for that Asha Bhosle recording of Ave Maria because of you!
4) Some other things that left a lasting impression
In no particular order:
- Campfire Audio Supermoon for a slammy balance
- Meze 109 Pro for arguably being the best new <$1k set in a while
- Elysian Acoustic X for showing me what Sonion ESTs IEM drivers are capable of
- Subtonic Storm for actually justfying the hype being built around it
- Focal Utopia for showing how how dynamic drivers can still hang around, if not best the rest
- InEar Prophile-8 for providing a musical touch without breaking the bank too much
- Jomo Audio Prototype F for its unique haptics drivers and provided tactility
- Spirit Torino Twin Pulse and Valkyria Titanium w/binaural choir recordings for an ethereal experience
- xMEMs proof-of-concept drivers for keeping the nerd in me happy
- Cayin HA-300MK2 for showing me how tubes are supposed to really sound
- Zahl HM1 for getting added to my wishlist of parts for easy A/B testing of various things
- RAAL-requisite SR1b + different pad openings on the RALL CA-1a for showing me perhaps e-stats aren't the end game either
- LETSHUOER Conductor for its wacky tuning most people hated and yet many absolutely love
- Noble Audio for the honest discussions on how smaller brands in the West have to change their working philosophy when competing against ChiFi
- dCS Audio for creating a pretty cool DAC with interesting filters and crossfeed tech that I'd like to see implemented in more accessible sources
Some random photos to end this post, including the first few from the night before CanJam London even began:
Whoops I hit my 25 images/post limit so these will have to do!
