[Tex Irie]

Thank you to everyone providing impressions or information about what caught your attention at CanJam London!

 

[mainguy]

Not a lot of IEM impressions in this thread it seems.

I literally just tried IEMs exclusively and had a great time.

Elise Audio corner was top tier, they were all fab guys and could direct you based on preference.

I was really impressed with Nightjar & Symphonium audio. They nailed something I'm finding really irksome in chi fi iems, timbre. For me in a lot of iems vocals sound like they have an edge or just don't quite sound natural, same for string instruments, and anything with that 'organic', recognisable timbre. Somehow all the iems on this stand were exceptional in this category, even the 1k price point.

Singularity - Just the best DD iem I've tried in this price class. Amazing bass, but also entrancing mids and great overall detail. I preferred this, personally, to Monarch MK iii and any iem i've tried at this price including my own Andromeda.

Crimson - Same as above, but a different sound signature. It was the debut of this iem, a more balanced tuning than Singularity with BAs in there (although they won't reveal what is powering it, I'm pretty sure it's got BAs handling at least the highs). Maybe I'm wrong. Either way this is a big Monarch MK iii contender for people who want that balanced sound.

Storm - Just the best iem I've heard personally. Not my favourite (that's Trifecta, for raw fun & madness). I'd defo take Storm over anything i tried at the QDC stall, V14, VX, etc, by some margin.

Duality (or something, prototype) - Double DD iem. Amazing bass. Less balanced than Singularity though to me, I think I prefer Singularity over all. But Duality (or double bassality idk what they called it) has astonishing bass quality and quantitiy.

Anole V14/VX - I find QDC iems a bit, boring? They wow my brain but don't really get me involved in the music and receptive to that side of the listening experience. I don't see much point of going for these when Monarch, Crimson, etc exist.

 

[Imusicman]

Not a lot of IEM impressions in this thread it seems.

On my way home with my wife. Just spent two days here. Great CanJam. Impressions to follow

 

[Cabbages]

Great canjam experience all around, it was nice meeting everyone who stopped by the Elise booth!

Some short impressions of the IEMs which stood out for me when I had a chance to sneak away:

QDC had a prototype/engineering sample of their upcoming Anole V15, I personally own a pair of V14s so was excited to try them. The difference I think is just an added DD, there was also no tuning switches (not sure if thats final or just for the proto) But it was everything I love about the V14s but with better bass quality and kick to it. Defs a bit more engaging aswell in comparison.

Doublearity/Duality prototype - The big brother of the singularity, features two DDs. Some amazing bass, I admittedly am not that much of a bass head - for example the fatfreq range doesn't work for me. Yet these were amazing, great clean bass not muddy at all and the highlight was sort of the bass "feel" its got such a great sort of rumblyness to it or tactility as chang calls it.

Aful had 2 prototypes out both very impressive for their configs:
One was a single BA prototype which for a single BA was pretty stellar, the mids and highs were good but the bass was quite lean.
The next was a 14BA prototype which was amazing - the P8 can be a bit boring to some but this 14BA proto was quite engaging and fun defs a good one all around.

Kinera also had quite a few IEMs on display but the one that attracted me was the Kinera Celest Pheonixcall - retailing for about 130USD with a pretty interesting driver config (1 DD + 2 BA + 2 Micro Planars) was absolutely amazing for the price - the tuning just ticks all the boxes for me and it definitely punches way above its price category. Something I'll probably pick up sometime in the future

 

[Imusicman]

Not a lot of IEM impressions in this thread it seems.

Spoiler alert. Quite a few surprises. IEM’s on my radar that didn’t quite deliver and several IEMS’s that weren’t that did

 

[netwiz]

Thank you for the additional context.

What had been puzzling me was that if someone was red/green like you are, when you look at the user manual you will see the red/green transposed, and similarly when you look at the Hugo you will again see the red/green transposed. If the two transpositions are consistent in both the user manual and the Hugo, then you should in theory still be able to use the Hugo - the fact that you see different colours to me is irrelevant, as long as you can see a consistent set of colours on the Hugo/manual.

Or am I misunderstanding something?

The colours aren't transposed, they look the same. Things that look obviously different to you, look the same to me. If you do a Google search there are sites that show what colour blind people see.

 

[Imusicman]

On a separate note ABBA Voyage on Saturday night was excellent

 

[alota]

No electrostatic? Someone tried the iem from spirit?

 

[vsg28]

No electrostatic? Someone tried the iem from spirit?

Love or hate set with very weird fit. I couldn't get the nozzle to go in properly with the cable still going to over the back of the ears, so will refrain from saying how I heard it in the absence of a perfect/good seal. A fellow audiophile I know liked it enough to purchase it on the spot on thanks to a generous show discount (MSRP is $1000 I believe).

it was still better with the improper seal than the new Spirit Torino open-back planar magnetic headphones though. Yeesh, that was probably the worst thing I heard all weekend. Shoddy design and construction too.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Love or hate set with very weird fit. I couldn't get the nozzle to go in properly with the cable still going to over the back of the ears, so will refrain from saying how I heard it in the absence of a perfect/good seal. A fellow audiophile I know liked it enough to purchase it on the spot on thanks to a generous show discount (MSRP is $1000 I believe).



it was still better with the improper seal than the new Spirit Torino open-back planar magnetic headphones though. Yeesh, that was probably the worst thing I heard all weekend. Shoddy design and construction too.

I'd love to read more about these IEMs

 

[Rockwell75]

I literally just tried IEMs exclusively and had a great time.

Elise Audio corner was top tier, they were all fab guys and could direct you based on preference.

I was really impressed with Nightjar & Symphonium audio. They nailed something I'm finding really irksome in chi fi iems, timbre. For me in a lot of iems vocals sound like they have an edge or just don't quite sound natural, same for string instruments, and anything with that 'organic', recognisable timbre. Somehow all the iems on this stand were exceptional in this category, even the 1k price point.

Singularity - Just the best DD iem I've tried in this price class. Amazing bass, but also entrancing mids and great overall detail. I preferred this, personally, to Monarch MK iii and any iem i've tried at this price including my own Andromeda.

Crimson - Same as above, but a different sound signature. It was the debut of this iem, a more balanced tuning than Singularity with BAs in there (although they won't reveal what is powering it, I'm pretty sure it's got BAs handling at least the highs). Maybe I'm wrong. Either way this is a big Monarch MK iii contender for people who want that balanced sound.

Storm - Just the best iem I've heard personally. Not my favourite (that's Trifecta, for raw fun & madness). I'd defo take Storm over anything i tried at the QDC stall, V14, VX, etc, by some margin

Duality (or something, prototype) - Double DD iem. Amazing bass. Less balanced than Singularity though to me, I think I prefer Singularity over all. But Duality (or double bassality idk what they called it) has astonishing bass quality and quantitiy.

Anole V14/VX - I find QDC iems a bit, boring? They wow my brain but don't really get me involved in the music and receptive to that side of the listening experience. I don't see much point of going for these when Monarch, Crimson, etc exist.

Great impressions! I heard Duality in prototype form in NYC...great IEM but I preferred Singularity also.

Whenever I hear someone talking about some great new IEM only to find it doesn't have any DDs:

Spoiler alert. Quite a few surprises. IEM’s on my radar that didn’t quite deliver and several IEMS’s that weren’t that did

Nice I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

 

[Audio Addict]

Anything new on the electrostatic headphone or amplifier side?

 

[c3po]

I hope to hear impressions of whatever new HEDD headphone is there, if such a thing is there.

It is, sounds great, much lighter and better headphone attachment giving a superior variable support. I think they should do well as the biggest criticism on the old Hedd was the weight, that’s no longer an issue.

Great firs day!
My personal highlights:

High-end: Chord Dave + M Scaler --> Primavera tube amp --> DCA Expanse = unreal, the high end really does deliver.

More affordable: Chord Qutest + Anni stack = I'm a Chord fanboy and this combo really worked for me, seriously considering it.

Headphones / IEMs: many amazing listens including aforementioned Expanse, ZMF Atrium (on the Chord stand), Susvara (at Elise Audio), 64 Audio Nio; but the one that stood out was the Focal Bathys, because it's by far the best ANC headphone I've heard, SQ wise. Pricing is either a little too expensive compared to wireless competition (Sony, Bose, Apple etc) or good value compared to wired competition. Kind of tempting...

One disappointment was the Audeze CRBN, not because it's bad in any way - I thought it was every bit the high end headphone - but because this was the first electrostat I'd ever heard and I didn't quite "get" it. Felt it wasn't that different from the other stuff on offer. Maybe it was just ear fatigue by then...

High-end: Chord Dave + M Scaler --> Primavera tube amp --> I agree absolutely stunning sound, I listened on Elite’s.

 

[vsg28]

Anything new on the electrostatic headphone or amplifier side?

iFi Phantom is better than I thought it would be. I especially liked the customizations on xBass (10/20/40 Hz) and xSpace (30/60/90°), and there are some neat tweaks for e-stats too. But I'm still not happy with some of the user experience hassles and the LTS Z10e isn't that far off.

 

[Gaspode]

Not sure why the quote didnt work - this was to someone asking about my response to tha Atriumms.

It wasnt that the ZMF Atrium Closed weren't good - they just didnt match the tonallity and comfort of the Stellia for me - I was tempted but the Focals were just (for me) better.

Note - I was there specifially to find my new closed back drivers - so didnt really spend to much time with opens. So I cant really say if the Atrium opens would have faired better. But I need some thing I can wear in company

(Unity Atom HP just sort of happned along side that lol)