First and foremost, thank you to all the organizers and volunteers for their hard work to put CanJam 2015 together. Having attended my first meet back in 2007 at / near LAX, it's been awesome to see how this hobby has grown / evolved with new vendors and technology.
Looking forward, I humbly submit that the vendors and organizers of CanJam 2016 need to be more ambitious next year in scale and demo rooms. Granted, this year's event was much larger than last year's at the Westin -- more rooms, upstairs speaker focused rooms, member meeting room, and the outdoor tent. But IMO even that wasn't enough given the traffic, human density, and consequent background din. We headphone geeks are a social lot, and we like to gab just as much as zone out in our own private audio space.
The "THE Audio Show", held next month in Irvine is an example of the other extreme -- one vendor per room, multiple floors, conference rooms, etc. It's an ideal one-to-one experience, but more necessitated due to each vendors' speaker demos. Obviously there's commensurate cost, as every room is no doubt shouldered by each respective vendor to keep the overall attendee cost under $20 / day.
We're not at that point yet, but approaching it in a non-linear uptick I'd say. As technology and performance have improved, gear prices have launched in the past few years, and so each purchase is a very serious research / demo undertaking. If I'm considering a multi-thousand dollar purchase for one headphone or one DAC or one amp, I want to spend abundant time with each component, and I would have loved to have had a more intimate, calmer setting for the demos.
But again, no complaints in any way, only appreciation for everyone's hard work. Just that vendors need to recognize that Head-fi has clearly broken through "hobby" status into considerable big business, and they need to offer serious focused demo opportunities if they're going to charge serious $$$ for their wares.
Quick equipment impressions:
Chord - Hugo TT - I own a Hugo, and the TT sounded fantastic as expected, more punchy, more forward midrange. But a non-starter for me at $5k.
Mr. Speakers Ether - amazing. I kept going back and forth with my HD800 and preferring the Ether with different amps. I kept thinking how technology has certainly evolved.
Centrance Skyn - sounded a lot better than I was expecting, given its size and price point. I own the M8, and the Skyn sounds livelier, more musical, with just as much power.
Echobox - playing streaming Tidal, it sounded way way better than my LG G3. Hope they get the pricepoint right.
Cavalli - what more can be said? incredible gear, both the Crimson and the Gold match so well with my HD800 and the Ether.
Rag / Yggy - runs hot as hell, sounds great, irritating tick tick volume pot but once you get it locked in, that issue is pretty much moot.
Hifiman HE1000 - sounded really really good, but as with the TT, it's too out $$ there for me to consider.
Abyss powered by Moon Neo 430HA - whoa, pretty great sounding, deep bass, but again with head shaking pricepoints
Auralic Taurus & Headamp GSX-MkII - both still sound stellar, just not as FOTM sexy as a year ago. Similarly the Senn HDVD800 amp, sounds fine, great WITH Senn cans. Otherwise just ok with my LCD-X, and as such, way overpriced.
Enigma Dharma and glass amp - sounded good, would like a much longer listen with the final product.
We're in amazing times, technology and AQ wise. I just hope it's not a bubble with untenable pricepoints that'll drive people away.
