Part 2 of 4
During the "speaker tower" run through, I came across the Woo Audio and Abyss Headphones room, where they were featuring the new Diana Phi.
I gave the Diana Phi a listen on a Mytek system that I wasn't familiar with. With music available through Tidal, they sounded pretty good to me overall, minus being a bit sizzley up on top. I'm not sure if these are open-back, or closed-back. Despite that, they sounded pretty closed-in to me, but had great imaging abilities; instruments were very easy to point out in the soundstage.
What I really didn't like about them though were the fit of the earpads on my head. My head is pretty round and I'd describe the Diana Phi's fit as trying to put a ^ shaped headphone on a circle; it doesn't work very well. The original Diana headphone was next to the Diana Phi, and the fit of the earpads was even worse. For a headphone being touted as super thin, I think Abyss headphones (for both the Diana and the AB- lines) really needs to consider how headphones' ergonomics work on a head. The original AB-1234 headphone always felt like it was going to fall off my head.
^ Diana
^ Diana Phi
Although not related to headphones directly, Dragonfire Acoustics was also in the "speaker tower" run. Dragonfire Acoustics is a project idea started by Dr. Dragoslav Colich, who is the co-founder and head of research and development at Audeze. Therefore, it should be obvious that they were debuting a pair of planar magnetic near-field monitor speakers. Of all the things at RMAF, this was probably my favorite system.
Weilding 10" x 5"(?) planar magnetic drivers with a 2 Tesla push-pull configuration, the panels are super thin but heavy, and they designed the speakers so they can be angled to your liking, or even folded flat for storage. The neat thing about these speakers is that they come with a microphone that you can use to calibrate the speakers' sound via DSP to correct for any room anomalies, so you can get a pretty flat frequency response where you might be sitting while listening. A subwoofer is required though as these speakers only go down to 250 Hz.
Sonically, they're very articulate, "big"-sounding, and can easily fill a room with sound. Even if you're off-axis, the sound is still quite good as demonstrated by my binaural video below. I really enjoyed the sound I was hearing out of them considering their size.
The downside is that the speakers themselves cost $5000, and if you want to have the subwoofer, that'll cost you another $450. And if you want their DAC/amp that does additional DSP, that'll cost you another $3000. In short: it's not a cheap system to own. Another downside is that the audio can sound a bit funky if you're not exactly in the sweet spot where the microphone was used to calibrate the system. In the video above, I kind of move my head in an out of the sweet spot a few times. I should also note that while sitting in the chair, my head was slightly below the sweet spot (I would have to had squat in order to get into the right area), so the audio doesn't represent a perfect situation.
Anyway, after a day of the "speaker tower" run, many Head-Fiers went out to eat at a local Mexican fusion restaurant, Los Chungones DTC.
AxelCLoris and friends split an order of the "Bad Ass" rattlesnake queso appetizer. It was quite tasty! I've never had rattlesnake before. In terms of the actual food, I ended up getting a fish taco that tasted not-fresh, and a lamb-neck taco that was actually quite delicious. I had a jolly-ol time hanging out with familiar friends, and new ones. After interacting with him on Head-Fi for the first time 4 years ago asking about the Ultimate Ears Reference Monitor, I finally got to meet
@Mike Diaz.
^ Bad Ass Queso
^ fish taco [it looks better than it tasted]
After dinner, most of us walked back to the Marriott to have drinks and socialize.
@Stillhart had an Alclair Electro 6 Driver in-ear earphone going around at this time for people to try out. Having heard the EnigmaAcoustics Dharma D1000 before, the Electro 6 Driver had a very similar kind of sound, which is a good thing. It carries the same kind of electrostatic treble that's known to be super smooth but still detailed, and it also carries the same property that I find in e-stats where I can turn up the volume really loud without the sound falling apart or becoming too strident.
It does carry the D1000's weakness though in that the frequency response seems to sound a bit disjointed between the midrange and the upper-midrange/treble from the crossover frequencies of where the balanced armature drivers meet the electret drivers. All in all, it's a really solid in-ear that I would enjoy listening to. Two thumbs up for me.
On the next day, us Airbnb folks decided to eat breakfast at the Corvus Roasters cafe at the Marriott. I ended up getting a blueberry croissant that was a bit too dry and bready for my tastes, an actually-delicious BoBo's coconut, almond, and chocolate chip oat bar made in Boulder, CO, and a Fuze brand kiwi juice that has a lot of vitamins and minerals in it (perfect for someone who's travelling away from home).
At RMAF, there's 2 areas for the CanJam booths: there's an outer corridor area near a bar, and there's the main ballroom. The outer corridor this year had both CanJam and RMAF booths, so the area was much more busy-looking than years past. I decided to go to the ballroom since I wanted to try the new HIFIMAN Jade II system. Immediately at the front entrance where the FiiO booth was, I ran into none other than The Admiral: David Robinson. I had just watched an interview of him regarding his watch collection, so we talked a bit about watches before I let him be.
At the HIFIMAN booth, it was pretty much empty this early in the morning. Plugging in my Shanling M3S (which was my source throughout the CanJam event) into the Jade II's amplifier via 3.5 mm to RCA cable, I put the Jade II on my head and was immediately impressed.
^
Seyanaaaaaa~
^ note the color change reflection on the Jade II's diaphragm due to the nanoparticle coating on the diaphragm's surface
^ the amplifier has a pretty solid, and unique construction
This is getting a bit ahead of the game, but after CanJam closed on Sunday,
all of the people I talked to were equally as impressed with the Jade II system. I'm thinking (and this might be a stretch) that the Jade II will be what the Andromeda is to in-ears for the electrostatic headphone realm; it's seriously that good I think. I have not heard such universal agreement on a headphone/earphone since the Andromeda, so I think it's worth a listen if anyone gets the opportunity to do so.
Sonically, it's not the best e-stat out there, so it's not a giant killer. Then again, neither is the Andromeda. The overall sound signature is warm and inviting, without sounding the least bit harsh, and lacking any big holes in the frequency response to my ears. Hotly-mastered Japanese anime recordings I played back weren't ear-piercing bright; cymbal crashes and hi-hat notes in rock songs weren't overly sizzley; male vocals were full-bodied without sounding thick; electronic music had nice sub-bass extension and mid-bass presence without being overbearing. The imaging and instrument separation was pretty much on-par with my STAX SR-207, and that's not something I hear often. The soundstage was likewise, a little on the small-medium size, reminding me a bit of the newer Lambda STAX headphones.
The Jade II is a very, VERY solid system overall. It gets two thumbs up from me. My only serious complaint about the system isn't actually the price, but the gain of the amplifier. I asked the HIFIMAN reps there, and even Dr. Fang Bian when he was at the booth on Sunday what the amplifier's gain is. To put the amp in perspective, I used the entry-level STAX SRM-252S for many years and I've never had to turn the volume knob past 12 o'clock with a 2 VRMS input. My M3S outputs a 2 VRMS line-output into the Jade II amp, and I needed to use the volume knob at a good 2-3 o'clock level for average listening levels. The SRM-252S has a 58 dB gain, so the Jade II's gain is obviously much lower than that. That, or the Jade II headphones are very inefficient.
HIFIMAN's table had their array of other headphones on display, but to be honest, I wasn't really interested in them and didn't really give the others a listen. I'm not a big fan of HIFIMAN's newer headphones all looking alike. Sundara, HE-5 SE, HE-6 SE all basically share the same chassis.
^ were it not for the name stamped on the side, you wouldn't be able to tell which one is which
The HE-1000, HE-1000 v2, HE-1000 SE, Edition X, Edition X v2, Ananda, and Arya all share the same chassis with different colors, and are less distinguishable now with the black themes.
^ I gave the Arya a listen on the Manley amp and it reminded me of the HE-1000 but a bit brighter/sharper. I didn't give it a serious listen though, so my impressions are to be taken with a U-Haul of salt.
^ The Shangri-La Jr. shares a similar chassis to the Susvara.
I stopped by the Focal booth since it was basically right behind me at the HIFIMAN booth and I gave the Elegia a listen. I'll make this clear right here and now, this is NOT a Clear. If you own a Clear, or know the Clear's sound, to me they don't sound very similar next to each other. I was expecting the Clear's sound from the Elegia, and was left disappointed. For what it is though, as a closed-back headphone, it's quite spacious-sounding. The bass on the other hand sounded quite boosted and bled into the midrange for my tastes, and I didn't even like it very much with some hip-hop tracks. It was also a bit too bright for me. The Utopia for me has always sounded too bright, with the Clear sounding acceptable. The Elegia sounded in-between the two for me.
I know
Jude measured the Elegia, but my impressions were before I saw them (let's be honest, how many people check Head-Fi while they're having fun at a CanJam at RMAF event?).
After the Focal booth, I visited the EarSonics booth which was also right next door. I've never really been a fan of their in-ears to be quite frank. I gave their new Grace in-ear a try and found it super sibilant and bright. I didn't enjoy it at all and it left my ears ringing a bit afterwards.
^ I do appreciate the layout of their booth though. It's easy to find information about their products, and very organized.
