I had a great time at canjamsocal. It was a clean, modern venue. Backpacks and distractions necessitate wide passageways and it was a very comfortable, large space to negotiate. The overall location was great with plenty of food options. I was inside about four and a half hours. I often used my phone’s music and oppo pm-3s.
Audioquest: This was probably my favorite booth due largely to my current needs. I own a DFB and am interested in the nightowl, DFR, and the jitterbug. The three different people I spoke with were very professional and articulate. The nightowl is very comfortable, with good soundstage, and smooth sounding. The red is noticeably better than the black—everything improves, including bass. Not sure if the jitterbug did anything. The violelectric amp seemed to work very well with the nightowls. Enjoyed two fruitful visits to the audioquest setup. Thanks for your hospitality guys.
Chord: Very nice guy manning the chord station helped me listen to the mojo. A full sound. Perhaps a little smeared in comparison to the dragonflies. Perhaps this perceived smear changes as you use better file sizes, but my phone and PM-3 liked the clarity of the dragonflies better. Won’t necessarily rule out the mojo in the future when I venture into DSD.
Darin Fong Audio: Darin was a true gentleman and a pleasure to talk to. His software mimics loudspeakers of your choice, inside your headphones. He had half a dozen cans to listen to during a short, clear demo. I can see myself using his software for movies and will happily do so as I won the raffle for said software. I have a one bedroom apartment, and although it’s a large living room, for aesthetic and spatial reasons I am unable and not interested in setting up more than two loudspeakers. Even in a dedicated room it’s hard to get enough area for multiple identical, large loudspeakers. I don’t even want to put a center speaker in my room. I’m sure my downstairs neighbor doesn’t want to hear a subwoofer either so you can see why Darin’s demo was a valuable one to me.
Focal: Listened to a wonderful Naim Utopia pairing that was “just right.” It felt neutral and accurate and I enjoyed listening for a long time. It didn’t make me melt or drop my jaw. I just felt the music was conveyed the way it was supposed to be.
Mr. Speakers: Smooth sound out of aeon, flow, and flow c. The cups on the flow c fit my ears way better than aeon. Very kind help behind the table at the Mr. Speakers booth. The music interface was the best I experienced at the show: large screen and fast music selection response. Had been curious about the Mr. Speakers liquid carbon pairing for some time and it did not disappoint. Long-time listenability with that combo.
Schiit: Very accessible and drool worthy looking set ups called to you at this booth. Didn’t have to wait in lines. Enjoyed extended listening sessions with gungnir, molnir 2, and (I think) aeon; and also yggy, rag, and ether flow. First impression that comes to mind is again the obvious one: smooth because of those mr. speakers cans. My oppos loved the schiit gear as well. My impression of schiit amps is that they do no harm and they handle difficulties with aplomb.
Sonoma Acoustics: was really interested in this dac amp headphone combo because I think it looks handsome in pics and I think electro stats are possibly my ultimate goal due to my classical music loving tendencies. Comfortable to wear, but also the most open headphone I tried on the day, so ambient noise was just too much for me to be able to make an assessment. So much noise went in from the outside that I can’t even make a guess how these sounded and that was with the volume knob turned past 12 O’clock. The two guys manning the station were helpful and knowledgeable.
Sony: Great experience with kind, cool people helping out. Located in the same corner as Sonoma but all were closed cans and I had no problem picking out the wonderful musical details in their products. Listened to their flagship cans, portable player, and desktop amp. That is pretty much a cream of the crop setup with great musicality. Was impressed with their noise cancelling cans and their sound quality.
The Source AV: Listened to a qp1r with my headphones and the meze 99 classics. Also listened to the questyle 600 amp with my headphones. Very good experience overall. I could be very happy with the dap and/or desktop amp. They use different chips but the sound in both was very likeable to my ear. The meze made the music fun and lively and I was glad to finally discover what the hype was about. I think the meze are probably priced about right. I was grateful for being able to try a bunch of different gear at the source av’s booth.
Wells Audio: listened to the new and improved, very soulful sounding abyss through the wells amp. The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, and I have promises to keep. And one of those promises is that though the abyss sounds lovely, dark, and deep, I just cannot justify that eyesore with that kind of cost. Abyss, were I rich, you still shall not enter the confines of my abode with thy homely presence however holy present thy sound may be.
I wish I had had more time there to record some further impressions, but I was grateful for what I did hear and see. I should point out something about atmosphere noise. I tried to focus on closed cans because I wasn't going to get much from open cans in that environment. It's nice to hear this stuff of course, but the reality is you need a lot longer to properly judge this equipment anyway. My takeaway from meets is that hearing stuff in short bursts with noisy distractions can be nice occasionally, but is far from definitive in determining whether someone say, likes the DFR better than the mojo. What is unquestionably valuable is being able to see the gear live instead of through a professional photo online, to pick up an amp and feel its heft, to see how the knob turns, how the buttons feel, etc. It's also nice to have a conversation with an owner rather than back and forth question and answers from customer service. I know those are givens but when I read some (very few) reviews complaining about the noise I just want to say: be a little realistic and grateful for what you Can get out of it. Thanks for a fantastic experience canjam organizers. You should be very proud.
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