[ranfan]

The Final Audio tips are great. I was lucky enough to get a pair from last CanJam, they are solid. Fit perfectly, comfortable, and have quality material (nozzle, and tip). I wonder if they gave away some there too? IMO, they could sell them for what they're worth. Best tips I've had.

 

[DrunkSaru]

Yes they are here. Sounds pretty good but the clamp is heavy other than that pretty comfy. Hard to judge headphones here because so noisy. I just don't like that they have a proprietary cable and amp.

I thought they sounded amazing. But amazing only if you like it's sound signature which IMO leans very close to reference. I think the best way to put it is, it was like the Sennheiser HE1 but slightly less detailed and more boring. But one of my personal liking is that boring reference sound. Everything is so accurate. That was BTW, my 2nd stop for Saturday, and I was chatting with the guys there for a while. Dave actually invited me up to his room for a quiet listening experience and I should have taken up on his offer but like my others here, I really wanted to check out some other booths. My stupid self thought, Oh this is a boring sound, I have a feeling no one is really going to check this place out... and it was kinda true for most of Saturday because I didn't see a whole lot of people there. So my plan was Sunday, I should be good. Sunday Morning stopped by the booth, said hi to Dave, and then asked if the offer was still good, he said yeah as long as it doesn't get too busy. I wanted to listen to ZMF's booth because I missed it Saturday, so I went there. When I finished up, Jude was there talking to the guys. 10 min later, a crap ton of people surrounded the booth, a little while later, I didn't see Jude or Dave. hummm.... Anyway, I ended up loving the Sonoma because of it's detail and accuracy. I have to go find a place now where i can try to get more time listening to it. 

 

[Layman1]

Actually, now there are two! Did some research, Pioneer has the XDP-30R "Private", while Onkyo has the DP-S1 "Rubato". Both similar budget versions of their respective older brothers, the XDP-300R, and the DP-X1A.

Wow, I didn't know about the DP-S1 'Rubato'! Do you know how much that will cost?
Interesting times.. A budget frenzy!

 

[raypin]

Was talking to Chris (designer for 64Audio) and Bogan (CEO of 64Audio), who says they are making a bunch in the next few weeks, and will start shipping ASAP.  I would have thrown down the money but I got a ton of other stuff for review.  Was in my top 5 IEMs there for sure, and I look forward to owning a pair.

Mm..I was told by the Singapore dealer that the orders placed during last year's Black Friday sale and up to February will be receiving their Fourtes very soon. So, those of us who preordered last March (CanJam SG) will have to wait 3 to 5 more weeks. First-in, first-out (as it should be). I am excited but in no rush. I'd like to receive a non-defective unit because warranty returns will be a hassle from where I am.

 

[CracKinGDucK]

Mm..I was told by the Singapore dealer that the orders placed during last year's Black Friday sale and up to February will be receiving their Fourtes very soon. So, those of us who preordered last March (CanJam SG) will have to wait 3 to 5 more weeks. First-in, first-out (as it should be). I am excited but in no rush. I'd like to receive a non-defective unit because warranty returns will be a hassle from where I am.

I am just a Fourte BF buyer wondering to see if there are more reviews of Fourte before mine ships. Obviously mine is not shipped

 

[azerty6713]

  I am just a Fourte BF buyer wondering to see if there are more reviews of Fourte before mine ships. Obviously mine is not shipped

 
Same here, i received an email  6 weeks ago announcing me the shipment will be in the 1~2 weeks if all is ok.
Since, no news.

 

[Mediahound]

  My main goal was to listen to as many headphones as I could and I pretty much got to most of them. My preferences are for the more musical smooth sound. I find most "High-End" too bright and analytical. I ended up purchasing a pair of Sony MDR-Z1R after going back to listen to them countless times. Incredibly musical and comfortable. I can't believe they are closed headphones. Perfect for the office. I also thought their lower cost MDR-Z7 was also very good. They sound good coming from my A&K AK70. Better sound at the Sony booth from their Walkman and DAC/Amp but they were even better at the Woo room with their tube amps. I also liked the $4500 Abyss in the Woo room. But we are looking at the law of diminishing rooms when comparing the two.

The Z1R's are nearly perfect for that

 

[moondabor]

First headphone meet up of any kind for me. Color me impressed. Ended up buying a Chord Mojo there and now a huge fan of Final Audio IEMs. HE-1 was an experience on it's own.

 

[DrunkSaru]

  My main goal was to listen to as many headphones as I could and I pretty much got to most of them. My preferences are for the more musical smooth sound. I find most "High-End" too bright and analytical. I ended up purchasing a pair of Sony MDR-Z1R after going back to listen to them countless times. Incredibly musical and comfortable. I can't believe they are closed headphones. Perfect for the office. I also thought their lower cost MDR-Z7 was also very good. They sound good coming from my A&K AK70. Better sound at the Sony booth from their Walkman and DAC/Amp but they were even better at the Woo room with their tube amps. I also liked the $4500 Abyss in the Woo room. But we are looking at the law of diminishing rooms when comparing the two.

I ended up sitting at the Sony booth for most of Sunday comparing headphones of what they had as well as the ones I brought that I was familiar with. Told the guys at the booth, "i'm going to sit here so it looks like your booth is busy.." hehe. Sony's booth was dead. Anyway, spent a couple of hours listening to the same songs through my portable device as well as through their stuff, balanced, unbalanced, etc. Overall, I was very happy. Except for the Z7. That one for the price sounded like garbage. But trying to let my own bias interfere, I did test it out for about 30 min. I can see how those can appeal to those who listen a lot of electronic music to me, I just feel like they took some existing parts of previous generations, blew up the drive to 70mm and put it together. Didn't feel refined at all in the sound. IF those were selling for $200, or even $300, I might be okay with it. Those are my thoughts on the Z7. I don't know the right audiophile terms to use since everyone I talk to seem to have a slightly different definition of each word so I will use my car knowledge analogy, in case anyone here likes cars.

The Z7 was like Kia Forte. You sit in it and you're like ooooo, nice looking interior, seats feel comfy, but you go on a 5 hour road trip and the seats are horrendous, feels like you're sitting on concrete and making your back ache. You first step on the accelerator pedal and get that quick oomph of torque and you think, oh, kinda sporty, but you're going around a corner and need that extra power so you step on it and it feels like an old Buick boat. I just felt like with each genre of music I listened to with the Z7, i thought it was going to be good but then was disappointed afterwards or the somewhat opposite of I listen to something and I think it sounds terrible but later see how it can excite someone (but still not my taste). 
 
The Z1R to me was one of those where I had to do a double take..like when you see a girl walk by and she looked kinda average but then as she passes by you, you see in your peripheral vision something so you look back and realize she's actually really hot, or what ends up happening in LA a lot for me, realizing that she was some famous person. The Z1R, the more I listened to it, the more gems I end up finding, not in the sense of "oh I don't remember hearing this sound at this part of the music" because my reference songs i am very familiar with and have listened to them with several different headphones, but rather the "oh, that's an interesting way that it just made that sound, and it works." Best way to explain is taking a popular song that you absolutely adore and then someone makes a remix/interpretation and it sounds different but still really really good, but in this case, that change is a lot more subtle. 
 
Anyway, I think my next pair of headphones I buy will be the Sony wireless 1000's. Enjoyed the sony's the most with V-moda coming in 2nd but I have to re-listen to Audio Technica's wireless again. Even though the guy said his Nexus 5X supported AptX-HD, I have the same phone and unless you're on dev preview of O, there is nothing that states the 5X will even support regular AptX. When I connected my 5X, it sounded not great. It sounded better with my S7 which does support Aptx, not HD though. I also checked the guy's phone and he did not have the dev preview on his phone so I think I have to re-listen to those cans at another time. HOpefully by next year, Android will have released "O" so I can use LDAC. Won't need the headphones until then. and while I wait, I will save up for the Z1R. 

 

[DrunkSaru]

  First headphone meet up of any kind for me. Color me impressed. Ended up buying a Chord Mojo there and now a huge fan of Final Audio IEMs. HE-1 was an experience on it's own.

I didn't realize it but I had apparently become a little teary eyed after listening to the HE1. My friends who were waiting for me were like "OMG, he cried". I just wanted to say "it was the most impressive thing I've ever heard to where I could not find any flaws even if I wanted to." 

 

[Mediahound]

As an aside, it would have been nice for our Head-Fi usernames to be on the badges rather than just our names. I've started using my real pic in my profile here now too, which can help.
 
 So many people I saw and even talked to at CanJam, I didn't know who I was talking to until they said their username and then I was like - 'Oh yeah, I've seen your posts on head-fi and even sold stuff to you/bought stuff from you before' etc.  And a lot of folks I spoke to didn't know that I'm Mediahound on here...

 

[imperialblue]

I'm what @Mediahound calls a lurker and only post when I feel like I can add something that hasn't been said.
 
I think I'm in the unique position of having owned the KSE1500 and having heard the Tia Fourte so I thought I could provide a quick comparison.
 
The KSE1500 sounds beautiful - so smooth and pleasant - you could listen to them all day.  But only with an external DAC.  I found the included DAC to be sharp and it was only when I used my Ayre QB-9 DSD as an external DAC did the KSE1500 really shine.  But I ended up selling my KSE1500's because I wanted them for portable use and carrying around the DAC/AMP unit for non reference quality sound ( especially at that price point) was annoying.
 
Since then I switched to the AudioQuest DragonFly Red ( with jitterbug.  Sold my Chord Mojo after being floored by the AudioQuest Red's performance ) paired with the AKG K3003 ( non microphone edition).  And I have been very happy with that combo for portable use.
 
And then I heard the Tia Fourte.  It is incredible.  It was the highlight of the show for me.  The sound is so engaging and euphoric and I was just rocking my head to every song I threw at it ( The Weeknd, Chris Brown, La Roux, Tom Petty).  I used my own AQ Red/Jitterbug and not the Chord Mojo.
 
For reference, I tried the new Noble K10, JH Audio Layla, UERR, and UE18.  The one that came close to the Fourte for me was the new K10 but I found the Fourte to better in terms of clarity.  The K10 sounded very good with 3/4 songs I threw at it - but the Fourte sounded awesome with 4/4).
 
I got home yesterday and promptly placed an order for the Fourte.

 

[mrspeakers]

Thanks to everyone for stopping by, and for the feedback on the Quiet Room.  
 
We didn't realize when we planned the room that it was literally over the Atrium.  Happily, while some sound did bleed in it was at least a LOT quieter than typical show conditions, even if "silent" didn't quite come to mind.
 
Regarding source material, on Saturday morning we were rushed during setup due to some system issues.  As a result we didn't realize the laptop driving the Yggy on the Blue Hawaii didn't have a fully loaded library and in fact there were even a few 128K and 320K files on the drive we had to delete.  Apparently the music library hadn't copied over correctly to the local drive. 
 
If you were into 80's punk like The Stranglers, Killing Joke or Gang of Four you probably liked the music, but it wasn't until sometime after 12 we realized the library wasn't loaded and got Tidal running for everyone else!  Not ideal!  We've learned our lesson for our next Quiet Room at Axpona!

 

[bacon333]

Best in show for me was probably the Tia Fourte. I was completely enveloped into the amazingly natural sound. It wasn't as detailed or textured as the U18 but it conveyed a very addictive and musical sound regardless of genre. Comes to show...it's not about the number of drivers but the tuning and overall design.
 
I've posted a few photos here along with a few other comparisons:
https://audiobacon.net/2017/04/10/photos-from-socal-canjam-2017/

 

[Gibson59]

I thoroughly enjoyed my first Cam Jam!  Really can't express enough what a treat it was to be able to see, touch and of course listen to all of the amazing gear I had only read and dreamed about.  Warning, please excuse my excessive hyperbole!
 
Impressions... (I attended Sunday)
 
Every high end headphone I have always wanted to try, through a variety of different audio chains.  Of course there were a number of more budget friendly options as well, but those tend to be a bit more accessible so it was really mostly the summit-fi gear that I took advantage of comparing.  While not a perfectly quiet listening environment (who really expected that though?!?), it was plenty good to be able to discern the overall difference in sound characteristics between the heavy hitters.  For me the environment (background noise etc) was reasonable enough that I felt I was able to critically listen and get really true impressions of everything.  The headphone/IEM standouts of the event for me were the Hifiman he1000 v2, Focal Utopia, ZMF Eikon, the tia Fourte and needless to say the Sennheiser HE 1... what an experience that was.
 
I've got to lump some praise on the ZMF booth.  Zach and his lovely wife were both so friendly, down to earth and helpful.  I'm absolutely rooting for their continued success, they deserve it!  I thoroughly enjoyed both the Eikon and the Atticus.  I can't say that i prefer one over the other.  I can see the value in owning both for all the reasons that have been discussed at length on Head-Fi... in short, the Eikon is incredibly neutral and could absolutely serve as my reference headphone, while the Atticus adds just a bit more energy that i can imagine reaching for again and again for certain genres.  They're both gorgeous and incredibly comfortable, which are very important factors to me.  For the record, I really don't enjoy closed back headphones, but these had me wanting to keep coming back for more!
 
The amp standout for me (that i can actually afford) was the ifi Pro iCan amp, which was hooked up to an impressive Holo Audio Spring "Kitsne Tuned Edition" DAC that was equally incredible, but unfortunately a bit out of my price range.  I am in the market for he1000 v2s and the iCan drove them with ease!  I listened to the he1000 v2s at every booth i could and this audio chain from the Kitsune booth was by far the most enjoyable to my ears.  Ironically much more so that at Hifiman's own booth.  Also very nice chatting with Tim and Dawn from Kitsune Hifi.  They shared a wealth of knowledge and let me play as long as I wanted.
 
The Schiit setup was great.  Very cool to be able to listen to all of their DAC/amp combos through a variety of high end headphones.  I currently have a Bitfrost Multibit and Lyr 2 stack at home so being able to audition my headphone contenders from my exact setup was so incredibly valuable for me.  
 
One of the mind blowing experiences was at the 3d audio booth.  I apologize as i don't remember the gentleman who worked the booth (and was the engineer behind the products) nor his company's name, but it was just across from the Hifiman booth.  Listening to his demo of 3d audio sounds literally brought chills up my spine (when a whisper sounds like it's centimeters from your ear and you can feel the breath... Wow!).  I don't think this is a completely novel technology, but his implementation of recording it through in-ear microphones seems pretty genius to me!  I can imagine so many applications for this type of visceral sound reproduction.
 
I could go on gushing about other gear, but i'm sure others will cover it.  
 
One final thing that was arguably the most special part of my day, was being able to bring a couple people to this event and share my ever-growing audiophile passion with them.  My fiance absolutely supports my endeavors into high-end audio, but yesterday she really understood for the first time what it's all about.  She learned a ton, and listening to her describe what she was hearing, what she liked (ZMF Atticus) and didn't like (HD800s), was just so cool.  I also brought my best bud who is a long time audiophile, but mainly listens to his records (Linn Sondek owner) and CDs at home through speakers, and hasn't learned much about advances in headphones since 2001 when he bought a used pair of Grado RS2s.  He knows audio (former sound editor for films), and he was absolutely blown away by the variety and quality of headphone-specific gear.  He's my only friend who could have truly appreciated this event as much as I did if not more!
 
My only suggestion for improvement would be to echo what someone already mentioned which was to include head-fi usernames on the name tags.
 
Sorry for the long post but i'm still on a high from the event.  A BIG thanks to everyone at Head-Fi as well as volunteers who put this event on.  I'm so glad I took a moment to chat with @jude who was as friendly and knowledgable as his online presence would lead you to believe.  Jude, great meeting you!  Btw I was the one in the black Miles Davis shirt and my buddy had the older generation Grado RS2s with black "sock" covers on the pads.