Alright, time for another day in Singapore and now officially part of Canjam SG.
Again the great crew together along the show and meeting up for an amazing lunch at a restaurant inside the Pan Pacific. As the CJ tradition there was the official Watercooler picture with everyone.
CanJam Day 1 - The Opening of the Amusement Park
Aful Flagship Prototype - Full sounding, deep and rumbling bass, could have a bit more detail on the mid bass, but just being nitpicking. 3D soundstage, not too wide, but also not narrow, feels like a concert venue instead of a stadium or studio. Drums sound amazing. Guitars are full and engaging. Very musical. Good hight on the treble, tonality is slightly out for higher pitched guitar notes. BCD driver may be the one helping with the reverb extension.
Aful Cantor - Is a well known IEM in the sub 1k region and a good reference for the new prototype. It is more spacious and open. but definitely more Brighter and may please the people which likes more elevated higher frequencies. Bass is tight and controlled but lack a bit of thickness, same for upper mids. The prototype sounds like all that was addressed, but then it may please a different public than Cantor. This one being Harder to drive as well.
Aful Polarnight - The only earbuds I had a chance to test and what a surprise, I’m really glad I did. These because the best earbuds in my small collection instantaneously. It sounds deep and wide. upper mids and treble sound textured and defined, never fatiguing. All these things are basically what earbuds struggle to deliver without constant adjustments to fit. I stopped for a one song at the end of the day and ended up spending 2h enjoying Roger Waters’ “Amused to Death” and “Is This The Life We Really Want?” Albums.
Volk audio Etoile - Reminds the pre-odin EE sound with better and more controlled bass and treble. Textured mids and sparkly treble, but not fatiguing at all. Mid bass rollover sounds fast and slightly extended. Snares, cymbals and hats sounds accurate. Imaging and separation on Slayer sounds about right. Death voice of the soul shows the spiky guitar chords without being fatiguing. Hans zimmer sounds airy with good transitions and bass/treble extension. Could be more open. A bit congested in the lower mids.
APX V3 Prototype - Polythia bass sounds good, mids are forward and good texture, but the “tss” sound is very intrusive and takes the attention from everything else and becomes fatiguing. You can hear that almost all the time. Hard competition for APX In today’s market. APX when for bright on V1 to bassy on V2 and now “this”.
Nostalgia Pendragon - Nothing bad to say, also not much good. For me, the best Nostalgia I demoed. Heavy mid bass, forward upper mids and treble, great for fast female vocal like Polyphia ABC. A bit wide soundstage, not too wide. It’s just good nothing special to stand out in the price range market.
Noble Shogun - Good and tight bass, not overwhelming, less than Mysticraft tribid and other warm and bassy IEMs around, best treble out of a Noble I heard, not too much and not fatiguing. Reminds of Mentor sound. Leans toward the top frequencies, but still warm. Not too wide soundstage, but not bad. High hats still sounds congested in Slayer’s “Chasing Death”. Death’s “Voice Of The Souls” is not fatiguing, guitar sounds warm. Definitely the warmer Noble from memory.
Noble REX TWS - I went to Noble specially for this one as I need a new good sounding TWS (I’m bored of my APP2). But found out it’s too bright for me actually. Maybe I didn’t get a good seal. I have to give it another try.
Traillii Ti - Love the look and feel. Remarkable sound, better than OG, upper mids it’s more in my liking. Not much to say from what people already know. Classic. Good to lower down my defences agains Trailli OG and give it another chance. But I think there are better things these days, specifically considering this investment.
Traillii Ti Dragon - More open sounding, separated vocals and more 3d. One of those surprises on how they keep finding opportunities to squeeze performance out of something people already love. Out of the three, this is the Traillii to get, when price is no question and if you’re one of the lucky ones to find one.
Alpha&Omega Omega - Textured and controlled bass. Good mids but lacks consistency in fast paced songs, forward vocal. Imaging and separation is close to the head, narrow, not much depth. Still a bit of “ts” but more defined than Nostalgia Pendragon. All in all, didn’t get my full attention and stayed in the “Good” grade.
Alpha&Omega Fulgrim - Bassy and warm. Good treble, but lacks a bit of resolution. Tactical mids, wide and holographic stage. Good separation. Imaging has good blend, but I would want more notes definition in the mids. Understandable the likes of it, but at this price range, the competition is delivering more.
FatFreq Quantum w/ soundstage module - Like the FF house sound, but with this module it gets elevated extremes being bright and bassy. Guitars are full and strong. Good for polyphia metalic/acoustic with heavy drums. Even the “less” bassy module is still quite strong on the mid bass. Would like to spend more time to understand better the sound direction on this. Design is questionable to say the least.
Mysticraft Hex - Many people already talked about this and it is definitely the star of the show. it sounds lovely with instrumental metal. Separation, definition and resolution are the worlds that always come to mind when I remember Hex. I’m glad I had multiple opportunities to listen to this and in various environments to confirm it was not an impression from the busy show floor.
Mysticraft Tribid - This is one of the best IEM I heard under 1.5k. Balanced IEM with elevated bass and defined treble. A clear evolution from Pilgrim and an small step behind Annihilator. Competition should keep an eye on this one. for 999$ it will be hard to beat. The design on the show was in clear shell without details, but the final design will be metal shell. Let's wait and see what Lee will come up with.
Yu9 Que - One of the big surprises of the show and one of the best below 500$ IEM I heard in quite some time. It has a mild V sound, warm lower mids, good deep bass and slight forward treble. Engaging and musical. Nice rumbling and reverb in Dark Tranquility "Faithless by Default". Vocal slightly back, strong guitars, slightly out my head stage. Could be more detailed on the lows if I'm being nitpicking. But perfect balance for an everyday driver. (Prototype design, final faceplate with be machined aluminium)
That's it for now folks, see you on Day 2 - The Final Cut.
Alright, time for the last piece of this long Journey and the final good bye to my first Canjam and the amazing experience I got there.
As usual another meet up with the crew and lots of fun during the day. Highlight to the Lunch time where we had some sort of freaking spicy and mouth numbing Chicken (Fried Chicken Mala). Thanks team but never again.
CJ Day 2 - The final cut
YoungSe Wukong- Balanced with an elevation in bass, light sounding vocals, no hiss, more mids focused, surrounding stage and imaging. Separation is ok. Nothing extending out at this point. I will spend more time later on a full review. (Eminem Godzilla)
Juzear x Zeus Defiant - Good and strong mid bass, when the band comes in, it comes slightly bright but not too forward, male vocal sounds forward, but not bad. Mid-Bass is the main point here. Guitars sound ok. Need more time with it to understand it better.
7Hz Asteria - Slipknot has a bit higher mids forward. High hats sound a bit lacking detail. Vocal sounds accurate. Would like to have more texture on the upper end. Understandable for people that want to focus on the upper end. Polyphia’s Playing God sounded great. Really accurate and engaging. Deep mid bass. Polyphia’s ABC vocal sounds slightly out of the head, but a bit of ts sound. Aside from that, it’s good.
7Hz Batagor prototype - Polyphia’s ABC have Vocal forward, more open and wide stage than Asteria, good textured mids. Deep mid bass. Still a bit “ts” sound as all 7Hz to me. Treble also sounded a bit congested.
Hercules “Entry level Prototype” - for this price, one can’t go wrong, reminds me of pilgrim with more mid bass. Better for instrumental than full busy metal like insomnium, which it gets a bit congested. Vocals forward that reminds Moses.
Hercules Moses - insomnium in this IEM sounds as one of the best around, deep mid bass, vocals on the right place for these songs and treble extended enough to keep engaging. Good speeds on the DDs, but it may struggle to keep up with fast paced tracks. Polyphia’s ABS has female vocal right in my ears, but 3d. Deep mid bass. Detailed drums. Still V/U shaped like most of the releases this year.
VE XCON - Finally some innovation that got my attention. The active Crossover using a magnetic disk switch actuator (it’s hard to explain this in a couple words). but is like a micro disk that you can remove or install to switch between crossover tunings. When using the switch cover it has deep sound, textured, forward vocal, treble presence. Deep mids. When removing the modules it gets wider and brighter, vocals gets thinner. Abc vocals gets peaky, but will definitely please vocal forward people on better recorded albums. More details and sharp notes. (PS.: Just me or the marketing math doesn't match?
)
Jomo Viper Prototype - Forward and textured vocal, imaging well around my ears, detailed, good sub and mid bass, pushed back lower mids. Can get spiky. What I use to call “Professional tuning”, in this case a really well done tuning. PS.: The spiky treble is due to the wireless boxes artists uses that is way too compressed, so the spiky treble is compensated and brought to the right level when using those receivers. All in all, it’s a great set that I would like to spend more time with. (Yes, I have a crush on those Pro tuning IEMs)
Jomo Serenity - Great textured bass. Fast even on Insomium, but a bit on the limit. Vocals and treble sounded amazing and textured, a bit more details and resolution would be welcomed. ABC sounds on the limit of the treble as expected for this song, but never crossing the line. Imaging and separation on the guitar sounds well placed and layered. Layering is the word. Holographic stage. Prettier in person than in pictures. Great Fit.
Dita Ventura Silver - Mild V tuning? Open sounding, ok texture on the midbass and deep low end. Everything above 1kHz sounded too much on my face and a few dBs above the limit. (I’m sad i missed the black tuning as apparently that was the start of the show for some)
Dita Prelude - Fit iss amazing, has that forward upper end from Dita. but i would say that it is a step on the warm sound for Dita. For a 1DD IEM designed to be an EDC without breaking the bank, I think Dita delivered it.
Flipears Aegis - good low end , deep mid bass, spiky treble but not fatiguing. Vocal slightly forward , a bit congested but very engaging (Poliphia’s “ABC”). Insomnium’s “Lilian” is deep, heavy and textured. Foo Fighters’s “Dirty Water” has deep kick drum and Good vocal.
Flip Ears prototype - Straight better than aegis, better controlled mid bass, vocal more open and better treble details. Blended and musical upper mids. It worths to try have a demo on it when available.
Flip Ears Legion - First word in mind is “good”, not much to nitpick on it. great balance in general. Strong upper bass and lower mids, fast bass. Female vocal just out of the head. Detailed treble with just enough sparkling. Would place it in the “Warm balanced” group. For its price it is a great contender, specially when you put the craftsmanship in the equation.
Cayin RU9 - From the Sources point of view, this is the one that got most of my attention. I had RU6 and RU7, but never really liked Dongles, when I saw this new RU9 it got my full attention straight away. Great idea in making a MagSafe “Dongle”, in this case fully fitted with all the tech you want ( e.g. Real tubes, Bluetooth,
RU7 DAC AKM AK9943S (thanks for the correction
@Gold Fox ), Line out, 4.4mm… you name it) and it sounds great for a dongle, RU7 on steroids. I can’t wait to see this on the market and get my hands on one.
Raal Immanis - Hands down the star of the show to me. But not the headphone by itself as we couldn’t test that, but the whole system with latest headphone interface and a Viva AMP+DAC setup. For those “performance without a price limit” pocket and mindset, find a way to demo this. Staging is just mind-blowing…
Now a bit of my cable experience from this new brand. In general the craftsmanship is just top notch. And, the guy behind it has really good ears.
@needtosleep is also a legend as a person.
NightCraft Nocturne - Is his current Top cable, with a worm copper signature reminding a mini orpheus of some sort.
NightCraft Cu2 Prototype - This is a new prototype that he just got in time for the show (together we Ag2 below). Hands down my top one cable for price/performance in Nightcraft range and many other brands. I have this one on my short term purchase. it has a natural and wide signature which diverge a bit from the traditional copper, but still deep extension on the lower notes. It just matched well with every IEM I tried and with my library.
NightCraft Ag2 Prototype - This would be a wider and more neutral signature compared to Cu2, more clarity and space between instruments. It goes really well with loose DDs (UM Amber Pearl) tightening up without losing the texture and musicality. It is a great complement for Cu2. If one can afford, buying this pairing will cover most of one’s use case with happiness included the pack
That's all! See you on a future CanJam somewhere 
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