[yage]

I'll post more impressions later, but I wanted to post what was my favorite moment at any CanJam so far...

Wow, truly moving story. I'm glad there are people with a passion for research in these sorts of domains.

With respect to colorblindness, would the EnChroma glasses work for you?

 

[weirdfishes]

  Finally recovered from Saturday. Here are a few scattered impressions. I've added spoiler tags to avoid the giant post and any possible quoted replies. 
 

Cavalli Spark -

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

I'll start by saying that I haven't heard a Cavalli product that I didn't enjoy. I've also never purchased one either, but I'd like to and thus the Spark made my must see list. I didn't get to demo it out of my own DAC so I'm not overly confident in giving impressions. It was hooked up to an AK240, I think. Anyway, It sounded great. Hooking up some JVC-FX850s and I noticed just how much the sound was able to tighten up. It seems that the Spark was able to focus the sound of the 850 to a level I hadn't heard before. Again, I take my own impressions here with a grain of salt. My only problem with the spark is the size. It's "portable"...kinda. The thing is pretty thick with large corners. There is no chance in hell it's going to fit in my pocket comfortably, and this is coming from a guy who shamelessly sports his cargo shorts everywhere. If I were to strap a phone to it, then I would definitely call it a brick. I would consider this somewhere between portable and transportable depending on how one plans to carry it. Maybe I need to invest in a man purse or a sweet fanny pack. 
P.S. I loved the Cavalli Shirts. @warrenpchi You'll have to tell me how I can procure one. 

 

 
The final version of the Liquid Spark will be about 4mm thinner and about 1cm shorter and just about the same width, with rounded corners. So hopefully that will work better with your cargo shorts.

 

[Kamakahah]

The final version of the Liquid Spark will be about 4mm thinner and about 1cm shorter and just about the same width, with rounded corners. So hopefully that will work better with your cargo shorts.

Nice! That's excellent news. Can't wait to see it.

 

[The Piper]

We are planning to have the Milo in production within the next 2 months. The chassis needs a little tweaking in terms of the ability to assemble with greater accessibility to assembly to keep the retail price at the target price of $1499.00.. The form  and look should not change. At this point it is the chassis tweaks and finished PCBs are the only things keeping us from starting production. Plans are to offer it in gloss black and silver metallic. Thanks to everyone that took the time to stop by and give it a listen and thanks especially for the feedback on the aesthetics.

 

[Stillhart]

  I'll post more impressions later, but I wanted to post what was my favorite moment at any CanJam so far.
 
My wife is deaf in one ear. Many years ago, she was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, which is a relatively rare, benign tumor on the acoustic nerve. It had been radiated, but grew after a few years, and eventually had to be surgically removed. Unfortunately, the surgery required the sacrifice of her left acoustic nerve (vestibulocochlear nerve), leaving her 100% deaf on the left side.
 
(We're quite the pair: She used to be an interior designer, and I have significant colorblindness. I'm a headphone audio enthusiast, and she's deaf in one ear.)
 
I'd seen a couple of videos about Stephen Ambrose's Active ADEL, and spoke with Steve (@Canyon Runner) from 64 Audio at CES about Active ADEL (aka "bubbles"). Here's one of the videos I saw:
 

 
Some key differences: The young lady in the above video has moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears. My wife's right ear is outstanding, but her left side is, again, 100% deaf.
 
A key similarity: My wife's response was a lot like the lady's response above.
 
My wife loves music, every bit as much as I do. Her personality is one of serenity, calm, acceptance, so she has literally never complained of her situation, and has simply learned to enjoy music (and life) through her one good ear. Stephen and Steve placed the earpieces in my wife's ears. They asked me to pick some music on my phone, so I played Pharrel's "Happy." She immediately started crying happy tears, mixed with emotions from having forgot what it was like (for over ten years now) to hear music the way she used to. She said it was like the music was filling her head again--like she was hearing from both ears. (This is not what's happening, and I encourage you to watch the videos about it and/or read more about how it works.) We switched to stereo microphones, and tested directionality. While she'd have to be trained to localize perfectly, she was sensing changing direction as I walked around the table talking.
 
Stephen then asked her (as we were running late for a dinner reservation) if she wanted to hear it again, and she jumped at the chance, and asked me to play "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning," performed by Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks on God Don't Never Change: The Songs Of Blind Willie Johnson, which is one of her favorite songs right now.
 
The music started, and the tears started flowing again. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
 
Stephen asked her if she wanted to be involved in their ongoing work at Vanderbilt, as they continue to develop, perfect, and productize the technology. Of course, the answer was YES. I'll get her down there as often as they want to see her. It doesn't hurt that Nashville is such a groovy place, especially for two music lovers like my wife and me. Before we left, my wife practically jumped out her chair to hug Stephen. I had to hug him, too.
 
Thank you to Stephen, Steve, and 64 Audio for your work on this, and for letting my wife hear music rather like she used to more than ten years ago. We'll see you in Nashville.

 
Thanks for sharing this, Jude.  When is this expected to be available to a wider audience?  I'd love to get it for my mother-in-law.  That was such a touching story and video.  

 

[lurkusmaximus]

I totally agree with you on the 1More's. Ordered mine as soon as I got home. Nothing in this price range compares. Incredible value for your money.

 

[Evshrug]

My wife is deaf in one ear.
...
Here's one of the videos I saw:




Some key differences: The young lady in the above video has moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears. My wife's right ear is outstanding, but her left side is, again, 100% deaf.

A key similarity: My wife's response was a lot like the lady's response above.
...
Thank you to Stephen, Steve, and 64 Audio for your work on this, and for letting my wife hear music rather like she used to more than ten years ago. We'll see you in Nashville.

*Dots indicate places where I snipped out part of the quote for length, read Jude's full post*

Jude! I'm pleased but not surprised... but this was the first time your wife tried a 1964/ADEL? I don't think the active prototypes were available yet, but I sat and was getting fitted with the entry-level U4+ADEL, when a guy came up and started crying and laughing as well. Pretty much the same story as above, audio enthusiast but only able to hear from one ear... but with the ADELs, he was able to hear for the first time in years. It was WILD to be there for that, I was seriously happy for the dude. I happened to remember that Etymotic had made an app for iPhone that lets you switch from music to listening to your phone's mic and environmental sounds (so you can have conversations without taking earplugs out, and I think even monitor ambient volume dB and control how loud you hear) which made the guy really happy too.

I was seriously impressed and happy with the technical quality of even the cheapest universal 1964/ADEL... My first experience with a different company's CIEM wasn't so great because my ear impressions were very loose (the 1964 universals with foam tips felt more comfy than my personal CIEMs), but I hope to get a pair of CIEMs from 1964 one day from a much better ear impression.

 

[Evshrug]

I totally agree with you on the 1More's. Ordered mine as soon as I got home. Nothing in this price range compares. Incredible value for your money.

I didn't get to hear those... Did you hear the Alclairs? I really liked those too, also very well priced.

 

[FFRESPONSE]

I'll post more impressions later, but I wanted to post what was my favorite moment at any CanJam so far.

My wife is deaf in one ear. Many years ago, she was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, which is a relatively rare, benign tumor on the acoustic nerve. It had been radiated, but grew after a few years, and eventually had to be surgically removed. Unfortunately, the surgery required the sacrifice of her left acoustic nerve (vestibulocochlear nerve), leaving her 100% deaf on the left side.

(We're quite the pair: She used to be an interior designer, and I have significant colorblindness. I'm a headphone audio enthusiast, and she's deaf in one ear.)

I'd seen a couple of videos about Stephen Ambrose's Active ADEL, and spoke with Steve (@Canyon Runner
) from 64 Audio at CES about Active ADEL (aka "bubbles"). Here's one of the videos I saw:




Some key differences: The young lady in the above video has moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears. My wife's right ear is outstanding, but her left side is, again, 100% deaf.

A key similarity: My wife's response was a lot like the lady's response above.

My wife loves music, every bit as much as I do. Her personality is one of serenity, calm, acceptance, so she has literally never complained of her situation, and has simply learned to enjoy music (and life) through her one good ear. Stephen and Steve placed the earpieces in my wife's ears. They asked me to pick some music on my phone, so I played Pharrel's "Happy." She immediately started crying happy tears, mixed with emotions from having forgot what it was like (for over ten years now) to hear music the way she used to. She said it was like the music was filling her head again--like she was hearing from both ears. (This is not what's happening, and I encourage you to watch the videos about it and/or read more about how it works.) We switched to stereo microphones, and tested directionality. While she'd have to be trained to localize perfectly, she was sensing changing direction as I walked around the table talking.

Stephen then asked her (as we were running late for a dinner reservation) if she wanted to hear it again, and she jumped at the chance, and asked me to play "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning," performed by Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks on God Don't Never Change: The Songs Of Blind Willie Johnson, which is one of her favorite songs right now.

The music started, and the tears started flowing again. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Stephen asked her if she wanted to be involved in their ongoing work at Vanderbilt, as they continue to develop, perfect, and productize the technology. Of course, the answer was YES. I'll get her down there as often as they want to see her. It doesn't hurt that Nashville is such a groovy place, especially for two music lovers like my wife and me. Before we left, my wife practically jumped out her chair to hug Stephen. I had to hug him, too.

Thank you to Stephen, Steve, and 64 Audio for your work on this, and for letting my wife hear music rather like she used to more than ten years ago. We'll see you in Nashville.

I am speechless, very touching video and your own story. Best of luck to mr. Ambrose

 

[GrouchoMarx1933]

The 1More's felt far too forward for me. I could only listen for a short while before having to stop.

 

[Dean Seislove]

I am speechless, very touching video and your own story. Best of luck to mr. Ambrose

My thoughts exactly. A story that goes way beyond headphones, and one that makes me appreciate innovators, once again. 

 

[Packdemon]

For my first ever CanJam event, I have to say that I had a great time. Everyone was so nice and there was so much to listen too and stuff to talk about. And that's what I want to discuss mostly, so most of what I'll talk about is a majority of my personal experience at this years CanJam SoCal event, and partially impressions/criticisms/advice (impressions rather than reviews because in my opinion I have to listen to something for very long before I can give a review) for some of the product and vendors that I saw at CanJam.
 
It was great talking with Pete Carini of Beyerdynamic. I approached him and told him about how I make custom headsets out of their Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro using their more premium drivers as well as their most well sealed comfortable earpads and headbands, and in some cases Audeze LCD earpads. He was very keen on listening to what I had to say and even tried out my headphones, and he told me who I should contact if I want to do business with Beyerdynamic. I brought my parents along for the event. and both me and my father agreed that we enjoyed the Beyerdynamic lineup of headphones the most out of the entire event. So many improvements have been made to their existing flagships in their second generation doing much to improve the sound quality and for me more surprisingly how comfortable they were! I mean the T5p.2 and T1.2 were really comfortable, more comfortable than their Gen1 counterpart that used real leather, which to me was shocking! Out of all their headphones I was the most blown away by the sound of the T1.2, but the DT1770 and T5p were close seconds. All the dampening done to reduce the T1's brightness was just as Beyerdynamic claimed it would be while still having the headphones maintain all their original sound.
 
A big shout out to the guys who were over at the Bruel & Kjaer exhibit, I brought along with me 5 of the headphones that I had modified and they let me test every single one, and in some cases some of them multiple times! To have done all that must have took all their patience, but at the very least they were very interested in my most successful mod out of the 5 headphones I brought, done to one side of my friend @DecentLevi's SoundMAGIC HP100 to compare with the not modded side (I actually reversed the mod at the event just to test this). The mod smoothed out the bass frequencies and reduced their harmonic distortion, as well dampen the treble.I think it turned out to be the best closed-backed headphone that I have ever tried, and I'm sure @DecentLevi will be satisfied with the results! Still, I was disappointed when I found out that some of my other headphones had great harmonic distortion problems, but upon gaining that information I now what to set out to fix! Again, I can't thank the guys over at Bruel & Kjaer enough, they were a funny bunch and I had really taken a liking to the group.

Over at the Mr Speakers exhibit I had the pleasure of listening to two of the best headphones at the meet, the Ether and Ether C. They had the best soundstaging that I have ever heard in both their respective open- and closed-backed categories, and I have no other words to describe the experience of listening to Adele's song Hello on them other than the word: "full". The music just sounded so full that it was like I was listening to no one else but Adele and her accompanying instruments. And the imaging on the Ether was just so dam* good that I could just hear everything right where it should have been. The Ether has definitely become my now favorite open-back headphone.

I apparently wasn't the only one, but I was a little disappointed by the Shangri-la demo at the Hifiman exhibit. I'm not sure if it was the selection of tracks available that were bad, or if they were poorly recorded. All I can say is it wasn't bad, but it didn't amaze me either. I guess I'll have to wait to listen to the final product before I can reach a verdict. And I am sorry that I offered no constructive criticisms, I honestly don't know what advice to give here, but I'm sure that there are many others that share my opinion that do have advice to offer.  
 
At the Astell&Kern exhibit I got to try what has now become my favorite IEM of all time (though I have not got into customs yet), the AK T8iE. In terms of comfort and sound nothing I have tried has come close, and @jude was right about the eartips being shaped like darth vader helmets and being supple enough to slip into his ears very easily. They fit so comfortably that I just wanted to walk home with them I was pretty tired by the point that I had tried the AK T8iE, so I'm not sure what it was about the sound that I had like, I just know that I enjoyed them more than any other IEM that I have ever tried.

I was really interested in the adjustable physical bass technology of the Taction Technology exhibit. This concept in particular is one that I am a particular fan of. At my setup at home, I have multiple bass shakers on my chair as well as a subwoofer at my feet, and they are for when I want that physical immersion when I am either playing a game or watching a movie with my headphones with their bassports completely closed (this is with my custom Custom One Pro w/T1 drivers headphones) since I already have enough sonic bass. So as a physical bass lover, I am glad to see this technology being implemented on headphones that you can actually take on the go (unlike my chair).Though I'd like to see the physical bass drivers (not the amp though) being moved to the bass on the earpads with enough dampening that it doesn't cause the earcups themselves to rattle. I'd also like seeing this technology being sold separately in the form of earpad for other manufacturer's headphone. How this could possible be done is making them for headphone manufacturer's whose headphones come with a detachable cable, and then you produce a specific cable to be sold with the earpads that split/share the channels leading to the port for the headphones and individual left/right channel ports for each earpad. Yes, I think you should sell earpads that have their own ports and unique cable to other headphone manufacturers. It would be a popular add-on to existing headphones similar to the modmic, though used be limited to the number of headphones that you could make this available to. Last helpful advice that I can give is that along with the adjustable physical bass, you should also give your headphones adjustable sonic bass as well.

I never got the chance to try it, but at $13,000 I think the Chord Electronics Chord Dave should have a balance output.
 
It was very fun listening to classical music on the SR-009 at the STAX exhibit. Everything about the STAX room and those there seemed calm and refined. Like they were all after the perfect experience. While listening to classical music on the SR-009 is fun, the SR-009 is not trying to be fun, it is very serious/analytical sounding. The soundstaging, while not as good as the Ether in my opinion, was very still good and the imaging was very detailed enough for me to be able to spot out individual instruments in an orchestra. 
 
For me what was the most interesting at the Sennheiser exhibit was actually the HD 630VB​. This had a much better implementation bass adjustment than the one from the Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro that I am used to. The bass dial is easy to locate and reach while the headphone is on your head, bass adjustment is very gradual, and there is only one dial to control both sides. I have many bass loving friends and family members (my brother in particular) that I would either have no problem recommending these to or to simply buy it as a gift for them. Oh, and did I mention that these would make an excellent gift?
 
The people at the Cavalli Audio exhibit were very friendly and coincidentally very helpful to me. I came around here to both tryout their amps, and to test the SoundMAGIC HP100 that I modified (dampening it, sealing it, and giving it a detachable balanced cable) for @DecentLevi to use it on the some amp he has back home, the only problem was that I wasn't sure which one that was. And while I was mentioning Levi, the guy behind the Cavalli table actually recogized who I was talking about, and let me know that he uses the Liquid Carbon. So I tested out the modified HP100 on both the Liquid Gold and Carbon, and it was honestly a great pairing for both.
 
I got to talk with David Wu of the Torque exhibit, and he was a pretty cool guy. We had a conversation about both the new filtering earpads that he was working on, and the mods that was doing. He offered me a lot of contructive criticism, and taught me quite a bit how sound fitering working and how it was different than the bassports form the Custom One pro body that I was using to adjust sound. Overall, while I was pretty hard set on my ideas before, he made me realize that there are many different things I need to consider and how some of my way of doing mods are not that effective, but that if I wanted to continue there's affordable gear I can use to test my headphones at home.
 
The guys over at the JDS Labs exhibit were nice enough to let me measure my Element next to theirs to make sure that it wasn't having of noise issues that I thought it had. Maybe I have a problem with the wiring at my home or it just the noise floor that I am hearing, but I now know that it is not my Element that is causing an issue.

Something that I thought was pretty fun, was that I actually got to show off the HP100 that I modified to @Jack C of the TekFX exhibit, who was also the one managing both SoundMAGIC and FiiO products at the table. We talked about my modified HP100 and how the HP150 is very similar to the HP100 with not that many changes (thus making also making it a good candidate of my HP100 mod). I told him how I had managed to reduce the distortion in the bass and smooth the curve. I let him listen to the modified HP100 which he thought was very good and a definite improvement, also letting his colleague try. I then got to showed him graphs of the soundsignature/distortion of the HP100 before and after of the mods, and while he was already very amazed before it was here that he had taken a significant interest.He gave me his contact information saying that I should message him all the details. I honestly didn't expect for my HP100 mod to be some good, as it was just a med for a friend, but it ended up being the best out of all my works. 
 
In the end, me and even my parents (who are not acquainted with the community) had a blast. I will definitely be attending all nearby Head-Fi events this year and will be looking forward to CanJam SoCal next year.

Both Channels Modified HP100:



Right Channel Modified, Left Channel Mod Reverted HP100:



 

 

 

[DecentLevi]

Thanks for the kind words @Packdemon. I've been meaning to let everybody know how awful I felt about missing CanJam this year and I wanted to say hello again to @jude. I've been dealing with some personal things at home and haven't had time for Head-Fi lately, but feel that will all change in due time. I'm glad you all had a spectacular time and hope to see you folks again sometime! 

 

[Stillhart]

Originally Posted by Packdemon /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
snip
 
The people at the Cavalli Audio exhibit were very friendly and coincidentally very helpful to me. I came around here to both tryout their amps, and to test the SoundMAGIC HP100 that I modified (dampening it, sealing it, and giving it a detachable balanced cable) for @DecentLevi to use it on the some amp he has back home, the only problem was that I wasn't sure which one that was. And while I was mentioning Levi, the guy behind the Cavalli table actually recogized who I was talking about, and let me know that he uses the Liquid Carbon. So I tested out the modified HP100 on both the Liquid Gold and Carbon, and it was honestly a great pairing for both.
 
snip

 
That was me.  Sounds like you had a great time, thanks for the great writeup!  And thanks for letting my check out your modded HP100.  I had that headphone for a long time and I loved it.  I think it's great that someone thought to mod it and that the mod came out so well.  It's a very underappreciated can!
 

  Thanks for the kind words @Packdemon. I've been meaning to let everybody know how awful I felt about missing CanJam this year and I wanted to say hello again to @jude. I've been dealing with some personal things at home and haven't had time for Head-Fi lately, but feel that will all change in due time. I'm glad you all had a spectacular time and hope to see you folks again sometime! 

 
I was surprised that you didn't come this year, I'm sorry to have missed you.  Hope everything works out for you soon!

 

[Netforce]

Small tid bit about the noise level people were talking about earlier. When I was at the Rha table we had one gentlemen testing out the T20i and whipped a pair of earmuffs! He had some serious dedication to hear the iems lol!
 
Of course this most likely couldn't be applied to over ear open back cans and can pretty much only be used for iems which certainly aren't everybody's cup of tea. In my eyes and ears CanJam is fantastic for getting a taste of new gear I wouldn't expect it to give a fully accurate representation of a pair of cans with the passive noise level. The individual hotel rooms were fantastic for exhibitors who made those arrangements but it certainly wouldn't expect it to be feasible to ask all vendors to shell out the cost for individual hotel rooms or even to pass on the cost to individuals. THE Show Newport has a majority of exhibitors in rooms to show off their speakers but that certainly is a different case and does make me feel rather disconnected when I generally have to move room to room. CanJam did have a number of vendors in a room but it was easy to move table to table demoing gear in my experience.
 
I believe for the San Fran meet in July in the wikia office there is sound proof booths or there are plans to grab some. Soundproof booths would be nice for all meets and shows but is honestly unrealistic for our events.
 
Events can be attend for strictly listening to cans, for meeting and socializing, etc etc and I think that is the beauty of CanJam was to meet up with old friends and make new friends. I maybe hit up 10 tables during my time in between the Rha table and the registration table and it was honestly my favorite headphone event by far!