deserat
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2015
- Posts
- 145
- Likes
- 91
Sigh. I wish I was impressed... but let's be real here. There was not a single listening station except the HE-1 that impressed me. I'm 100% certain this isn't a result of the audio gear. It had more to do with the base decibel level of the rooms and the more often that not, inconsiderate person standing behind me yelling at a friend or a rep so they could even be heard. The only rooms even worth trying were the TOTL room, the woo audio room, and the HE-1 room. The main hall was a waste of time. My ears are still ringing from turning volumes up so I could listen.
Main Hall
Crowded, and unacceptably loud. Near the end of the day it thinned out. So loud most of the time I couldn't tell you the difference between a Stax-009 and the HiFiMan HE-500. Not worth attending except for the talking with Reps. Chord Reps were amazing, Mr. Speakers Reps were unpleasent, Focal Reps were arrogant, Schiit Reps seemed very aloof but were very perceptive and quickly answered the few questions I had.
TOTL Room
Really? Really? Quite room? Really? Ok let's get this straight.A room facing the main Atrium of convention center isn't going to be quiet. Especially with the door open. Even less so when every curious person who wanders in is having a conversation in the room. The listening stations placed directly against a walls so as to perfectly reflect every sound directly at you. One directly in front of the door, and directly against a wall. The 15 minute session, was more like 2 1/2... after I found any music I knew, and didn't have somebody in the room talking. Most of the music was very obviously just somebody preference. No gold standard audiophile recordings. Amazing amount of 80's and 90's pop. I spent time with the Yggy, Blue Hawaii, Electrostatic and the Gumby, MJ2, Ether - couldn't tell you the difference.
HE-1
About an 8 minute audiogasm. I suspect it could have been better. This really was the highlight of the day. The rep set the room up reasonably well given the extremely poor placement of the room itself - again open to the atrium and directly next the main stairway. The seat was opposite the open door, a banner dampened the noise reflection in the room the rep was very quick to move any conversation outside the room. I knew what the tracks in the room would be and had listened to them repeatedly on my Gumby, HDVA 600, HD 800 system. What I heard in that room, even with the base noise level as has high as it was, blew me away.
Woo Audio Room
I was on edge of purchasing a WA8 when I walked in. Especially given the deals Woo was offering at the show. I walked out without doing so. There were 3 WA8's hooked up in the room, each with a different source. But the everytime I tried to listen somebody was having a loud conversation next to or behind me. The room host, just let 'em be loud. Again, directly facing the Atrium, with the full volume of a Bar, a Restaurant, and the hallway bleeding in to the room.
Seminar Rooms
This really had me wondering What the organizers were thinking. They were quiet. It would have been great if the TOTL, Woo, and HE-1 rooms were back there. You could have put all 3 in the Seminar room and it'd have been a better experience. This room was in the hallway behind the listening rooms. It was quiet and - well empty - because NOBODY WENT INTO THE SEMENAIRS BECAUSE NOBODY WENT TO LISTEN TO SOME RANDOM PERSON TALK. THEY WHEN TO LISTEN TO EQUIPMENT. The sound quality and decible levels were great, and there was not a single piece of audio equipment to be found.
Over All
I won't be wasting my time going to SoCal CanJam 2018. It's pretty clear the organizers put no thought into event. If I was an exhibitor I'd be pissed, because it's a crappy venue to showcase equipment. I'm guessing the exhibitors spent more than $15 to be there and while they got to be in front of a highly targeted demographic, the venue got in the way of the message. That message being the quality of sound. Again, I couldn't tell you difference between a STAX-009 plugged into a Blue Hawaii and an HE-500 plugged into a HiFiMan amp. I'm guessing there is a difference, but... having heard them both... I'm still guessing.
Crowd
The attendees were generally pretty cool. I had brief conversation with random people and I really enjoyed that. There were headphone enthusiast from rank amateur to gold ears. Mostly they were fun to talk to and enjoy. There was that L.A. rudeness though... people who would just stand at the empty station next to you and talk at high volume. That was hard. But people were mostly considerate and cool. It was neat to see some of the rockstars in the community around.
Suggestions
I'm pretty disappointed. That's obvious right? But I hate being critical without offering suggestions. So here it goes.
A) Break the main room up into multiple rooms. There were just do many people making to much noise
B) At least pretend to dampen sound or care about acoustics even a tiny bit.
C) Space out the vendors. Or just space things out.... so there are less people per cubic foot. Less people means less ambient sound.
D) DO NOT PUT THE QUIET ROOMS IN THE LOUDEST SPOT IN THE HOTEL. I can't even imagine how that happend. If I was Woo, Mr. Speakers, or Sienhesser I'd be demanding a refund on that room rate.
E) If it takes more money to make the above happen raise the ticket price. Look, those of us who went are looking at spending or have spent between $500 and $50K on audio gear, a luxury item. The exhibitors are targeting an audience who are making well above the poverty level, well above the national average income. This is L.A. the minimum wage is $15 an hour. Lunch is $15. I spent more for parking than to get into CanJam. Public Transport was the same price as CanJam.
In Summary
I walked in hoping to understand the difference between products. I'd hoped to be wow'd by things I've not been willing to spend money on sight unseen. I was specifically looking to hear a product others reviewers have me very interested in and would have spent money at the show to buy. I left secure in the knowledge that I have the best Headphone system in the world, because everything short of the HE-1 sounded terrible in that environment.
Main Hall
Crowded, and unacceptably loud. Near the end of the day it thinned out. So loud most of the time I couldn't tell you the difference between a Stax-009 and the HiFiMan HE-500. Not worth attending except for the talking with Reps. Chord Reps were amazing, Mr. Speakers Reps were unpleasent, Focal Reps were arrogant, Schiit Reps seemed very aloof but were very perceptive and quickly answered the few questions I had.
TOTL Room
Really? Really? Quite room? Really? Ok let's get this straight.A room facing the main Atrium of convention center isn't going to be quiet. Especially with the door open. Even less so when every curious person who wanders in is having a conversation in the room. The listening stations placed directly against a walls so as to perfectly reflect every sound directly at you. One directly in front of the door, and directly against a wall. The 15 minute session, was more like 2 1/2... after I found any music I knew, and didn't have somebody in the room talking. Most of the music was very obviously just somebody preference. No gold standard audiophile recordings. Amazing amount of 80's and 90's pop. I spent time with the Yggy, Blue Hawaii, Electrostatic and the Gumby, MJ2, Ether - couldn't tell you the difference.
HE-1
About an 8 minute audiogasm. I suspect it could have been better. This really was the highlight of the day. The rep set the room up reasonably well given the extremely poor placement of the room itself - again open to the atrium and directly next the main stairway. The seat was opposite the open door, a banner dampened the noise reflection in the room the rep was very quick to move any conversation outside the room. I knew what the tracks in the room would be and had listened to them repeatedly on my Gumby, HDVA 600, HD 800 system. What I heard in that room, even with the base noise level as has high as it was, blew me away.
Woo Audio Room
I was on edge of purchasing a WA8 when I walked in. Especially given the deals Woo was offering at the show. I walked out without doing so. There were 3 WA8's hooked up in the room, each with a different source. But the everytime I tried to listen somebody was having a loud conversation next to or behind me. The room host, just let 'em be loud. Again, directly facing the Atrium, with the full volume of a Bar, a Restaurant, and the hallway bleeding in to the room.
Seminar Rooms
This really had me wondering What the organizers were thinking. They were quiet. It would have been great if the TOTL, Woo, and HE-1 rooms were back there. You could have put all 3 in the Seminar room and it'd have been a better experience. This room was in the hallway behind the listening rooms. It was quiet and - well empty - because NOBODY WENT INTO THE SEMENAIRS BECAUSE NOBODY WENT TO LISTEN TO SOME RANDOM PERSON TALK. THEY WHEN TO LISTEN TO EQUIPMENT. The sound quality and decible levels were great, and there was not a single piece of audio equipment to be found.
Over All
I won't be wasting my time going to SoCal CanJam 2018. It's pretty clear the organizers put no thought into event. If I was an exhibitor I'd be pissed, because it's a crappy venue to showcase equipment. I'm guessing the exhibitors spent more than $15 to be there and while they got to be in front of a highly targeted demographic, the venue got in the way of the message. That message being the quality of sound. Again, I couldn't tell you difference between a STAX-009 plugged into a Blue Hawaii and an HE-500 plugged into a HiFiMan amp. I'm guessing there is a difference, but... having heard them both... I'm still guessing.
Crowd
The attendees were generally pretty cool. I had brief conversation with random people and I really enjoyed that. There were headphone enthusiast from rank amateur to gold ears. Mostly they were fun to talk to and enjoy. There was that L.A. rudeness though... people who would just stand at the empty station next to you and talk at high volume. That was hard. But people were mostly considerate and cool. It was neat to see some of the rockstars in the community around.
Suggestions
I'm pretty disappointed. That's obvious right? But I hate being critical without offering suggestions. So here it goes.
A) Break the main room up into multiple rooms. There were just do many people making to much noise
B) At least pretend to dampen sound or care about acoustics even a tiny bit.
C) Space out the vendors. Or just space things out.... so there are less people per cubic foot. Less people means less ambient sound.
D) DO NOT PUT THE QUIET ROOMS IN THE LOUDEST SPOT IN THE HOTEL. I can't even imagine how that happend. If I was Woo, Mr. Speakers, or Sienhesser I'd be demanding a refund on that room rate.
E) If it takes more money to make the above happen raise the ticket price. Look, those of us who went are looking at spending or have spent between $500 and $50K on audio gear, a luxury item. The exhibitors are targeting an audience who are making well above the poverty level, well above the national average income. This is L.A. the minimum wage is $15 an hour. Lunch is $15. I spent more for parking than to get into CanJam. Public Transport was the same price as CanJam.
In Summary
I walked in hoping to understand the difference between products. I'd hoped to be wow'd by things I've not been willing to spend money on sight unseen. I was specifically looking to hear a product others reviewers have me very interested in and would have spent money at the show to buy. I left secure in the knowledge that I have the best Headphone system in the world, because everything short of the HE-1 sounded terrible in that environment.
