[bmichels]

 
yup and my favorite headphone from the show, followed closely by the LCD XC.  Also surprised how good the K10 is, I thought I was gonna like the Layla a lot more bore but I think the K10 is really good.

 
Will be very interested to hear comments from people who listen to it.  
 
Indeed, I just got a LCD-X but it is so HEAVY that I can't be happy with it. The weight/lack of confort ruin (for me) the excellent sound.
 
So i wonder if the ETHER could provide me a much better confort WITHOUT sacrifying the sound quality of the LCD-X ? 

 

[Trager]

I didn't get to really characterize the Ether, because I experienced it with wildly differing setups. It sounded pretty fantastic on all of the above, and was very comfortable, but I couldn't really compare it to the LCD-X. Also, the LCD-XC was beautiful and gave me feelings of want.

 

[wahsmoh]

   
Will be very interested to hear comments from people who listen to it.  
 
Indeed, I just got a LCD-X but it is so HEAVY that I can't be happy with it. The weight/lack of confort ruin (for me) the excellent sound.
 
So i wonder if the ETHER could provide me a much better confort WITHOUT sacrifying the sound quality of the LCD-X ? 

The comfort was way above the Audeze line and the Hifiman HE-560 too. I thought the sound faired similar to the LCD-3 series in the way it images and has such control and power to it when fed with a good source and amp.

 

[drfindley]

  Wahsmoh, I totally had the same problem, and not just at Hifiman. I prefer to test phones with a mix of rock, jazz, and acoustic, and it was incredibly hard to find listening stations that had solid big band recordings (which push phones way beyond the typical bop jazz, IMO). Kudos to the guys who had TIDAL going as a backup.

I would have loved it if there was a decent internet connection up there (it was a hotel, so chances are low) and everyone using Tidal as their source.
 
I may bring a laptop to my next meet to just to make sure I'm getting good sourcing (and matching my home listening experience)

 

[AGO4]

I've read nothing about the Enigmacoustics Dharma.  Was it there and did anyone spend any time with it, i.e., impressions?

 

[reeltime]

  Hmm, I must have been at a different event then?
I would not know a Mr. Speaker headphone if it came up ans bit me. Does it look exactly like the Audeze ones? If so, that would explain that.
Oppo only had the HA-1 as far as I saw, Fantastic amp/dac! Sennheiser only had The urban line, the wireless one and HD600, HD800 and HD 650 when I was there. There where no HD598 or 558 or anything else. I still found talking to the rep and learning about the company history interesting though.
I disagree with trickle-down economics for lack of hard evidence.
Agreed, good folk there.

 
That's the MrSpeaker Ether, and it was one of the show's best new headphones.  Sorry if you missed it, it was really special.  
 
Pretty certain Oppo had the PM-3 ($399) there-- and they definitely had the HA-2 -- a steal at $299.  
 
HifiMan had the HE-400 ($399) on the same table as their flagship HE-1000 ($2999).
 
I saw a bunch of headphones of various grades on the Sennheiser table.  I didn't spend time there since I own the HD-800, but their wireless models are hardly bank-breakers, and the HD600 ($300) and HD-650 ($350) are bargains and entry products into the head-fi arena.  Were there a ton of $199 dollar headphones?  No.  But this isn't CES, it's CanJam, so I don't know what price points you were hoping for.
 
Audeze had the nicely priced EL-8 ($699)-- and while we're discussing trickle down-- Both the HD-700 and EL-8 come directly from the higher priced models.  
 
So those are a few of the reasons why I think the complaint doesn't hold water.

 

[wahsmoh]

I missed it.(Enigma Acoustics Dharma) The raffle is about to start soon. good luck!

 

 

[Trager]

I didn't have any problems using TIDAL, including testing it out on the Echobox DAP. Not sure if they had their own hotspot going up or if they were using the hotel's network.
 
AGO4 -- I loved the Dharma-1000, but that's not my usual ballpark. I listened to it a little while after falling in love with the LCD-XC, and I remember thinking that the Dharma could hang, at a significantly lower price point. Unfortunately, I wasn't experienced with the other cans Enigma had to show off their Athena amp, or I would have been able to give a more thorough set of impressions and comparisons. What I did get was that the Dharma-1000 had great texture and detail on vocals, and really solid decay on acoustic guitar. I ran it up against some big band (Duke meets the Count) and was torn between the crazy energy of the horns and the lovely separation and soundstage. The hybrid setup really gave some slam and extension on the drums, too.

 

[bmichels]

Since the HUGO TT has now balanced XLR line-out, I wonder if those 2 XLR can also be used (with an adaptor) to drive in balanced mode a headphone ? 
 
If YES, then will this provide better SQ or at least higher output for hard to drive headphones ? 
 

 

[arnaud]

Really enjoying reading the candid impressions. A bit of a cold shower for some of the gear in contrast to some hyper-excited early posts but I suppose that's the double edge sword of exposing gear in a relatively noisy environment.

 

[icebear]

  Since the HUGO TT has now balanced XLR line-out, I wonder if those 2 XLR can also be used (with an adaptor) to drive in balanced mode a headphone ? 
 
If YES, then will this provide better SQ or at least higher output for hard to drive headphones ? 
 

 
I am not sure about the Hugo TT but I did ask the same question about my e20 DAC and they recommended the headphone output and not the line output as the latter provides the voltage to be amped but not enough current to drive a headphone, especially hard to drive ones.

 

[DPogster]

@reeltime, totally agree. There were a number of midfi and entry level phones/in ears. Hifiman had both the 400i and 560 as well as re400 and re600 very good bang for the buck. Agreed with sen as they had the urbanite series, momentums, and wireless systems as well as hd600/700/800 but sadly no in ears. There was also the Philips table which had their fidelio line up and the new dJ phones. There was RHA in ears who's in ears start at 40 and top of at 200. Also a newer company Atomic Floyd which did have an interesting in ear that I tried out, Superdarts supercharged which had nice mids but were a little hot in the treble department but interesting non the less. Also, mass drop had the Akg k7xx as well as red Audio Technicas to try out. Just had to look.

 

[DPogster]

Unfortunately, I did not get to try the Dharmas and it was one that I really wanted to demo :mad: still kicking myself for this miss. Would love to here some impressions from those that had a listen.

 

[JeffA]

  I've read nothing about the Enigmacoustics Dharma.  Was it there and did anyone spend any time with it, i.e., impressions?

I just posted a few comments about the Dharma in the Dharma impressions thread.

 

[Kamakahah]

The Dharma still needed work IMO. It was a prototype and we discussed some of the changes to come, specifically build quality.
I didn't find them very comfortable as they were, hopefully that will change.
I should have spent more time taking some detailed notes, but I could only attend Saturday so getting around was important.

They left me with a, "that sounds good", impression, not great.
I wouldn't pay the price tag currently, but I think that could change as the product gets closer to the production version.