[gr8soundz]

Thanks for the impression, would like to hear more about Dekoni Audio Blue and if possible, the comparison with T60rp.

EDIT: check out this post:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/fostex-t60rp.857690/page-9#post-14055881

 

[Giraku]

* Meze EMPYREAN - one of the stars of the show, at least hype-wise. First, the design is gorgeous. I think almost everyone agrees on that (I know that it is very subjective). In term of comfort - those are one of the most comfortable headphones I have ever put on my head! Now to the important part… how is the sound? To my ears, and I know others made similar comments, they sound a lot like the Mr. Speakers AEON. Since I love my AFC - that is a good thing. Compared to the AEON, not a direct A/B with quick back and forth mind you - I think the new Meze are a little better. More detail and better bass while remaining very smooth and pleasant. Also keep in mind they were driven by high-end Amp (Cayin HA-300)… I never auditioned the AEONs with that amp. Would I pay 4-5 times the price of the AEONs for those? Absolutely not! IMHO those are $1000-1200 headphones. Not $3000-3500 headphones!

Agreed. I had a big expectation. The design is great especially the gold one. And it was comfortable with 2 different detachable ear pads (one was thicker with velour inside and the other was thinner with leather all the way). They said they are still fine tuning the pads. They also said that this is a special concept production so that the number of production will be limited

Now, the sound...nothing special, especially thinking about the price range. I prefer my HE1kv2. If the price is less than 2k (<1.5k is ideal), this may have a potential to be a hit (limited number production helps there).

 

[BunnyNamedCraig]

I had a very fun time! I don't know about you all but my time at CanJam went by QUICK.

Here are some random pics I shot from the trip. Good time seeing friends from the industry, listening to great stuff, and hanging with buds!

(Shot from a buddies room. Wow I had a hard time looking down, not going to lie...)

(Shout out to Cheeky's! Me and my buds couldn't even find this place in ChinaTown at first. Man it was worth it though.)

(HD660. Totally my cup of tea. I wish I could have A/B’d it with my HD600 but I didn’t feel like trying to keep track of it the whole day.

(HD820. Senn was pretty much swamped with people wanting to hear this guy!I listened for a few minutes to try and give others a try. Everyone’s take away seemed to be that it sounded more like an open back. I concur... between it and HD800s, I heard differences but wss mainly listening for how open it sounded. I was impressed in that regard!


(New colors for the wireless Focal Listen! This green really caught my eye so wanted to snap a pic. So so CHIC!)

(My buddies pizza FAIL. In his defense the cap did just fall off. I cracked up when he tried to scrape it off. Not happening haha. This was the pizza place across the street from CanJam. They were nice to give him a new slice. Shout out to their hospitality and their great slices)

(The Meze Empyrean. Thing is totally gorgeous)

(Mr. Speakers Voce. WOW. I am doing a small write up on this in the Voce thread. Steely Dans album “The Royal Scam sounded excellent out of this...)

(Johns of Bleecker st. It’s now a tradition for me and my friends to go here every year. Fresh basil on this pie is banging! I am not going to lie folks, I ate pizza while I was in NY probably twice a day ha. )

(Juniors. This place does have some beast cheese cake... right across the Marriott as well)

I have more pics but I’ll dump them around the appropriate threads. Just wanted to share some of my experience with you all. If you can make it to a CanJam I highly recommend you go. Listening is just a small part of the fun experience

 

[Zachik]

Total of 500 unit to be produced @ $3000+/per, given the previous flagship is only $309? This is nothing but a business strategy of attempting to break into the high-end market, and that is all. More precisely, recouping the initial R&D investment, but more importantly, trying to make a name of themselves by letting the owners or reviews of the $3k Empyreans to discuss about it, thus plowing the road for the future products.

This is not a business strategy to just break into the high end market like I also assumed. They put a ton of research and development into this new model from the ground up. This has the makings of being an extraordinary headphone up there with the best of the best. Considering the price of some of the flagships these days I think $3,000 is actually reasonable for this level of performance and quality.

By comparing with other similarly priced products from other companies, it only gives it a "me-too" status, and done reasonably well. However, the overall flagship war is very unhealthy as it is. So what another "me-too" product does is nothing but, well, "me-too", and the "$3000 reasonable" is relative to an "unreasonable" environment.

Given reasonably enough funding, many improvements can be done, like the Enpyrean. But it's still based on the existing plannars tech, thus "improcements", unlike the entry of plannar to when we only had dynamics to the mass. So its galaxy away from the iron-man suit that only Tony Stark can make.

I think we all understand that substantial R&D effort and cost went into those. Meze basically have several options to choose from:
1. Price Empyrean very high to recoup all R&D costs. Assumption is Empyrean will be selling limited / small quantities. Seems like Meze chose this one, and the limited 500 unit is a nice trick to help those 500 sell quickly (or so they hope).
2. Price those at $1000-1500 where most (me included) feel that is their rightful place in the current market (accounting for other alternatives, etc.). Obviously many more units would sell, but profit on eat would be smaller. Meze needs to figure whether or not this option would net them more or less money.

Now, if Meze wants to make a statement, and squeeze themselves into the high-end tier - option 1 is the fast but risky way to go. If Empyrean flops - they'll never get into high-end... option 2 could be used to elevate themselves to a higher level but not quite top-notch, and use Gen 2 for that last push. Longer plan but less risk of falling on their faces.

Anyhow, that is the way I see it. Hopefully Meze would succeed either way, and hopefully a (much) lower priced model would follow utilizing the same technology.

 

[Zachik]

Thanks for the impression, would like to hear more about Dekoni Audio Blue and if possible, the comparison with T60rp.

Unfortunately, I am not familiar with T6RP (or T50RP for that matter).
The Dekoni had a nice sound signature - warm and smooth, with very meaty bass.
The design is obviously very similar to the T50 / T60, other than the blue color
The earpads are definitely a big improvement to the original. I did audition it a while ago (RMAF 2017), not for very long, so hard to compare sound signature. Comfort wise the Dekoni is definitely better from what I recall. Their pads could be a little bit bigger (for my bigger ears), but they're definitely comfy enough (and for people with smaller ears that would be perfect).

 

[miceblue]

Just a few photos for now. The new platform only lets you upload photos with a dimension less than 4000 pixels, so I'm not sure how these will turn out.

 

[youngarthur]

Thank you for all these impressions, and people taking the time to post.Being retired, I could never afford to travel from N/E Scotland to visit,so this has given me a good idea, as to whats going on.

 

[Zachik]

Just a few photos for now. The new platform only lets you upload photos with a dimension less than 4000 pixels, so I'm not sure how these will turn out.

OMG!!! A 2-headed man at the studio's controls!!!

 

[miceblue]

OMG!!! A 2-headed man at the studio's controls!!!

Yeah man! You need one head for headphone listening, another for speaker listening. That's how you're supposed to do the SonarWorks test. : P

 

[Galm]

Some of my photos from the show:

https://imgur.com/a/JAh0w

Mostly amps and stuff in this album, I'll organize headphone stuff some other time.

 

[Majestic Eagle]

I will write up my impressions later, but for now I am curious:
The most time I have spent was at the CTM table. Cesar and Sandra (I believe I got the names right) are VERY nice people. Very patient and knowledgeable!
Anyhow, I spent an hour going back and forth between the CT400 Pro and CT500 Elite trying to decide which to order... I am very curious to know what difference did you hear between them. Both sounded great (way better than the CT300 and for some reason a little better than the CT-6 to my ears), and I do not think one can go wrong with either, but I am still curious what did YOU like better with the CT500 over the CT400?

Personally bought the CT500's when on sale this year . Really enjoy them and the price could not be beat .Seemed to have a fuller sound than the CT400's . Listened to all their gear at their office a couple different afternoons in Orlando both times liked the CT500 better than the others .Brought my music alive better ....hope that helps .

 

[Onemanrock]

Really liked the 1964 tia 12s and i enjoyed Advanced m5 dynamic i believe (if not m4 furtherest right) which was as close as you can get to the 1964 tia t12 for a fraction of the price.

Did enjoy the Campfire cans and the higher focal forget the name.

Thanks Giuseppe for the free headphones.

Thank you for stopping @ our booth!

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

My vote goes to Cascade. In fact, I bought one at CanJam special price.

Did you get to hear the Ultrasone yet?

 

[LoryWiv]

Thank you for stopping @ our booth!

The folks from Advanced Sound were great. They also have a forthcoming bluetooth IEM model 3D which I heard the demo of at their booth. It's a hybrid with two balanced armatures and one dynamic driver. Some other enhancements as well. Not sure when it will be available but my brief listen was very favorable. Good clarity in the mids and treble without sibilance along with that satisfying visceral dynamic driver base. Overall a coherent sound as well. Would love more detail about features and availability. It would be great if the cable had a 2 pin option to increase versatility with other IM's and perhaps a bit longer battery life than their previous Bluetooth IEM, but in any case my first listen whet my appetite to learn more...thanks!

 

[Giraku]

Did you get to hear the Ultrasone yet?

Unfortunately, it's delayed. I don't know when mine will be delivered.
At CanJam I found one booth demoing the Edition 15, but it was connected to a balance cable (XLR) and their amplifier was not working at that time. So I could not listen...