[tdx]

I hope in future we have more DAC manufacturer joining the show.
In CanJam I felt DAC took a backseat and many even decided to keep it under the table.
I tried Susvara with Ferrum Oor and it was just off sounding and then I saw dragonfly Cobalt being used as DAC and I tried Susvara with Feliks amp with Aurender A20 before it so was difficult to say how Oor would have compared to Feliks amp as DAC were different and were miles apart in price point.
I would have loved to try Rockna, Weiss, MSB etc. Not sure if those were there.

What was your impression of the Envy/Aurender combo? Very surprisingly to me, it was the best sound I heard all day at CJ, even beating much more fancy/expensive setups. But i couldn't really tell if it was the Aurender bringing the magic, the Envy, or the intangible synergy between them. Would love to know what you thought.

 

[Contrails]

Sorry to piggyback off this but in the ZMF room there also was an amp that looks similar to this but looked like there were 2 mini oil drums strapped to the side of it. Anyone know what amp that was? Forgot to take a pic of it.

Airmid OTL would be my guess. Might wanna follow Lordgwyn.

 

[Farrellc]

Sorry to piggyback off this but in the ZMF room there also was an amp that looks similar to this but looked like there were 2 mini oil drums strapped to the side of it. Anyone know what amp that was? Forgot to take a pic of it.

I believe it was a modded Decware CSP3: https://www.decware.com/newsite/CSP3.html

 

[msing539]

Sorry to piggyback off this but in the ZMF room there also was an amp that looks similar to this but looked like there were 2 mini oil drums strapped to the side of it. Anyone know what amp that was? Forgot to take a pic of it.

Modded Bottlehead.

 

[G8torbyte]

Sorry to piggyback off this but in the ZMF room there also was an amp that looks similar to this but looked like there were 2 mini oil drums strapped to the side of it. Anyone know what amp that was? Forgot to take a pic of it.

I believe it was a modded Decware CSP3: https://www.decware.com/newsite/CSP3.ht

I got a pic of it when I tried it out on Saturday. It looks like a DIY Bottlehead kit with some super-size capacitors. Atrium-closed was pairing nicely with it.
I have a Decware CSP3 on order. Just a heads up, Decware's order list is really back-logged. My order was put in last April'22 and I may be waiting another six months or so till they get to it. On the bright side Zach said he worked it out with Decware to have some collaboration units ready when he announces the release.

 

[Mentanalyste]

Interesting. I had fairly inverse impressions. while still distinctly a closed back, i found them much more normal and "open" sounding than either stealth (too heavily damped to sound truly open imo) or VC (the crazy standing cup resonances always make me super aware im wearing a closed back). I also didnt have any issues with the trebble, but that part I may have missed since I heard it back to back with Diana closed that had that massive like 8k peak they are working on.


IMO, they are different enough for the LE to confortably be a different can much more so than just pads. The extended 5k shelf of the pro is greatly tamed on the LE and the stage is larger and more dynamic with a richer tone then the d8kp. I also honestly think they are a step up in technicalities, but exactly how much is hard to say given canjam being canjam.

T2 vs GC vs STX VS 3es (elite) basicaly stright up come down to preference imo. All similar performance tiers with different trade offs. Of the chains at the show the stx was my persona favorite, but I seriously want to hear the T2 with better tubes and a better dac. That seemed to realy be on the edge of greatness for me but was just missing a little level of control in the mids and sub-bass

Thanks for the feedback @eskamobob1

We don’t have comparison between these 3 fabulous amplifiers: the VIVA STX, T2 and Grand Cayman.

I personally fell in love with the VIVA STX (having been the lucky owner of a VIVA 845 I know only too well the quality of these products).

Could you give us a quick comparison on these three products according to you, despite the fact of being in an a CanJam event and not having the identical DAC ?

 

[mattiastomas]

I got a pic of it when I tried it out on Saturday. It looks like a DIY Bottlehead kit with some super-size capacitors. Atrium-closed was pairing nicely with it.
I have a Decware CSP3 on order. Just a heads up, Decware's order list is really back-logged. My order was put in last April'22 and I may be waiting another six months or so till they get to it. On the bright side Zach said he worked it out with Decware to have some collaboration units ready when he announces the release.

Yes! This is the one! I thought it sounded amazing with the Atriums!

 

[Mediahound]

Did you guys hear the Bathys is pronounced ba-teece?

Just like Focal is pronounced Foe cal, because they’re French.

 

[dougms3]

Sorry to piggyback off this but in the ZMF room there also was an amp that looks similar to this but looked like there were 2 mini oil drums strapped to the side of it. Anyone know what amp that was? Forgot to take a pic of it.

Was it this?

 

[mattiastomas]

Was it this?

Yes!

 

[alxw0w]

Was it this?

Water reservoir

 

[G8torbyte]

Just like Focal is pronounced Foe cal, because they’re French.

My daughters like to say chamomile in a French accent as "Sha-mama-lay." I am part Cajun so I don't mind

 

[msing539]

Just like Focal is pronounced Foe cal, because they’re French.

Yeah, now I have to guess on the other ones...

Ooo-too-pia
Still-leah
Kill-eeer
Ray-dee-unce
Eeee-lec

 

[zach915m]

Shoot... I was hoping for my wallet to escape CanJam mostly unscathed. Would you happen to know if the tubes were stock?

Oh yes the Decware Taboo! It had stock el83 driver tubes, but I did replace the rectifier with a weird AZ13 (? I'll have to check this one as it was adapted to 5u4g) and an amperex Holland ecc88.

Sorry to piggyback off this but in the ZMF room there also was an amp that looks similar to this but looked like there were 2 mini oil drums strapped to the side of it. Anyone know what amp that was? Forgot to take a pic of it.

Modded Bottlehead.

That's my man Kevin's (I don't know his head fi tag) modded bottle head. He wanted to get large oil caps on it and he somehow found a way! Hes modded some other parts of it too, really an amazing sounding bottle head!

 

[Mediahound]

At shows your most likely listening at a much higher volume than you would at home. Due to all sorts of reasons, one of them is background noises.

As a rule of thumb, I wouldn’t drop from my list any bad experiences.
I think it usually goes one way, meaning if you had a good experience with some setup, do try it later after the show. But not the other way around.

I can say from my own personal experience, that I really did not like the Valkyria when I heard it at a show, and today the Pulsar is the favorite headphones in my inventory.
Also, I wasn’t impressed at all with the Warwick Bravura, but I had another listen to it at home, and really appreciated its quality.

Usually at shows we are impressed by setups that have some kind of a wow/impressive presentation, some of those can later turn out to be a colored flavor or over fatiguing.

Yep, and there are some headphones that 'show' better than others. For example Meze, they have a mid/upper bass boost that wow you at shows but then when people get them in their homes, they realize the built-in bass boost may be too much and actually interferes with the lower mids performance.

A trade show floor model is just not conducive to headphone listening tests at all. If it were up to me, each vendor would actually have a small sound isolation booth that you go in to for listening.