CanJam @ RMAF 2018 Impressions (Oct 5-7, 2018)

I was planning on getting the 64 Audio A12t or N8, but this ier-z1r hype has me rethinking things, but I have owned sony IEMs before and none have fit me well even if the sound was good to great and had to sell it because I just couldn't live with it despite how much I liked the sound.

 

I wonder if they've modified the sound since I'd heard it at CanJam NYC 2018 in a quiet room. Great fit, finish, overall sound, but too rolled off under 50 hz.

 

Wow, this https://www.redscapeaudio.com thing may be interesting. I personally feel that adding "binaurality" to ear- or headphones may be the way to go. Currently completely no info on the website though.

 

Co ty mowisz?

 

Very interesting ! thank you.

Did you had a demo of this system ? can you comment ? is it a piece of hardware or just software ? If it is just software then I guess a PC/Mac is needed, and it can't work when using a DAP or a music server ?

 

I've just seen it on the photos of our friend here, named Effusion, whom I somewhat "quoted". Wanted to test it myself but to no avail, no info on the website.

 

I believe it was a combo of hardware (head tracking) and software and it was PC/Mac only, no consoles or DAPs or whatever.

 

Yes, the Redscape Audio was very interesting and very cool indeed!

I'm not surprised that there isn't much info yet, as I believe they indicated that it wasn't released as of yet, but would be very soon. They were thinking it would be around $200 or so for the software and the hardware, but that could change. The hardware is just this little plastic box that straps to the headband of any headphone and then uses a long USB cord to run along the headphone cable and into the computer. As of right now it is Windows only, but they are hoping to have a Mac version soon too. The little plastic box contains various instruments, like a compass and gyroscope, etc. in order to relay real-time tracking information back to the computer and the software. Thus, anyway you move your head, once you have centered using the software, will change/affect the sound to that direction.

It is really cool and seemed to work really well. I tried it out on an action movie they had going, and switching back to "normal" mode really showed how fun it was with movies, everything was just 2D after turning it off. I also tried it out on their music setup and it was really cool there too, but probably more of genre specific thing or by album for me. It really opens up the sound and didn't seem to degrade it at all either, but I think I may prefer it more on live recordings compared to studio albums in general, but if I had a studio album that I wish was live, it would work really well here too. At least it gives you options and you can toggle it on and off as you wish.

Also, in my short time with it, I preferred the tracking with the movie more than with the music. Not that it was bad with music or anything, but just made more sense to me with the movie, as you are watching a screen in a certain direction, etc. With music, it would be cool with some classical stuff and others that have a big stage presence, as you could center and then hear the different sections as sort of a crazy 3D imaging environment, that might put you more into the music hall than other solutions.

Audeze also has something similar, but I really like that you can use any headphone you wish to with this solution.

As a side note, the owner used the EQ options in the software to really tame the HD800s, so it's a pretty cool all in one solution if you already apply a little EQ using similar software.

Hope that helps, but let me know if you have other questions, I might be able to help answer them since I did demo it, but I am no expert in the product unfortunately.

EDIT: Thought I'd throw in a quick funny story about these from the show I just remembered. The owner and I had a bit of a chuckle because of how crazy cool the technology of the tracker is and he wasn't exactly sure how the tracking would respond at certain points during something such as an airplane flight. After that I couldn't help it, just imagined falling asleep with tracking turned on, flying over the Bermuda Triangle, and then waking up suddenly to a carousel of insanity as the internal stability of tracker goes on the fritz! Would be pretty funny, who knows, maybe even a bit scary! Anyway, very cool technology and I also signed-up for their mailing list at the show, which is probably the best way to currently get new information about these for those who are interested.

 

Did anyone attend the MQA talk at RMAF? The MQA folks in the audience ruined what could've been an interesting presentation. I was looking forward to a non-biased critical evaluation of MQA, but the constant interruptions and finger pointing was sad behavior (you can see this begin at the 13 minute mark). As Chris Connaker said at the end, "Why don't we talk about something less controversial, how about Kavanaugh". For further reference, here is the video.

 

Yeah, the MQA plants in the audience were incorrigible.

 

Did you try all 3 Auris amps? What did you think was the best one?

 

That was hard work to watch... Not sure they could have been any more rude or belligerent if they tried. Completely ignoring his points arguing in circles. He must have some serious patience to not have just walked out on them!

Does cement my decision to never use MQA though if it is filling those schiitheads pockets.

 

Yup, I did try all 3, but I didn't spend a lot of time with them and only out of the headphones they had supplied at the table, which were top of the notch to say the least. Although I'm not positive on the model numbers/names, I preferred the big amp that was on the left of the table, especially with the new Meze's. It was very luxurious and complemented them well. It also did well with the HiFiMAN Susvara, although I felt that the HiFiMAN was almost 2D compared to the Meze on this amp, which was much more open and spacious. I felt that this amp was the best I heard at the show with the new flagship Meze Empyreans. The middle amp at their table was also very good, just not quite the refinement of the first, but I remember preferring the Susvara out of this one. It also seemed to be a bit faster in speed than the big brother. I didn't spend much time on the third amp though, the one all the way on the right of the table, it was the one that was black with black leather, as it didn't entice me like the other two did right away. I think this may have been due to the source at the time and my limited experience with what was on the playlist. It also appeared that everything was running out of a quality DAP and not a standalone system CPU, etc.

Wish I could give you more specifics and impressions with a headphone I'm familiar with, but I can say that the build quality of the amps is absolutely beautiful and they sound very much the part as well. Prior to the show I was unaware of Auris as a company, but they make some very nice equipment, including speakers. I know I for one would love to own one of their amps after seeing them at the show and will be interested as more impressions/reviews come out.

 

The big amp on the left cost 8000 euros.

 

I went to the Sony table to check out the new crazy media player. It was cool because one of the design engineers (I believe his name was Tomo) was there and I got to talk about the system design. I listened to the MDR-Z1R and enjoyed it (as always - I own the z1r and am a big fan). These were set up with the high end Kimber cable and sounded really, really good. I wish they had more song selections though as I had to revert to Abbey Road for reference.

After enjoying that listen, I asked what else they were showing besides the media player and their new Z7. I hadn’t even noticed the IEMs as I don’t use them... I decided to give the IEM-Z1R a listen. Woah. Double woah! The last time I had listened to in ears was about 4 years ago and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. These were coming off their portable player and sounded huge. I listened for awhile longer and then went over to cascade and tried the andromeda s to get another reference point. Ok this is how I remember in ears sounding... back to Sony and again omg what are these? I asked for a SE cable and tried them right off my iPhone to make sure the Sony player wasn’t doing any dsp magic. They didn’t sound as magical, but the elements were all still there. I’m looking forward to seeing how these are received once in the wild, because my first impressions were completely awesome and surprising.