[csglinux]

I must try to be less skeptical. Sorry. I'd just come away from reading this:

 

[DecentLevi]

I would be fond of seeing your skepticism disappear if you get the chance to try the HEDDphone one day.

In other news, a caution for anyone looking for a good deal on the previously mentioned iFi Micro Black Label DAC + Headphone amp. The one listed on the Lownine website for 1/10th the normal cost is reportedly not a trustworthy site. In contrast to the above headphone from a very established German company that makes speakers used in professional studios, that listing actually is too good to be true.

 

[Vitaly2017]

This was my first canjam, and it was a ton of fun. I am only going to write impressions about the things I was hearing for the first time, and listened to long enough to form thorough impressions. Warning: I am pretty picky and not afraid to be harsh on some of the community's favorite products.

The Bad:

Mr Speakers Voce: Incredibly thin sounding, very poor timbre and dynamics. Has a similar sound to many of the top end stax headphones that I despise. Sounded artificial.

Mr Speakers Ether 2: Maybe the worst sounding headphones I heard at the entire show, regardless of price. It sounded so wrong I don't even know where to begin. I don't know how someone can engineer a planar magnetic headphone to be so midbassy and warm. The upper mids were extremely veiled and distant sounding. Treble sounded washed out and grainy.

Jomo Trinity IEM: This thing was absurdly warm. Sounded like the Ether 2 in IEM form. Upper mids were veiled, treble was almost non-existent. Maybe the worst dynamics of everything I tried at the show.

Headamp BHSE: This amp was very compressed, especially in the treble. May even be part of what made the Voce and 009S they were demoing sound so bad. I brought along my Sennheiser HE60 (my personal favorite headphone ever) to the show, and the BHSE made even it sound bad. Compared to the KGSSHV at the Kaldas table, it sounded horrible.

Woo Audio WA8 and Topaz: These little portable amps seemed to have something wrong with them. I'm not sure if Woo had something wrong in their chain from their tablets, but these amps were clipping very easily. Even at only 8/10 on the volume knob and loud tracks would start clipping very badly.

The "Okay":

Focal Stellia: Honestly, I expected this to be worse than it was. It still had a good bit of the nasty bass bloat that plagues almost all closed back headphones, but the mid range wasn't as affected as I was expecting it to be. I still would not recommend them though, especially at $3000.

Sony MDR-Z1R: Similar to the Stellia, I expected to hate these. Was pleasantly surprised, and actually liked them a bit more than the Stellia. Mid range and vocals sounded surprisingly good for a closed back, and the bass was less bloated than the Stellia. Still a bad deal at $2000 though.

Meze Empyrean: Somewhat acceptable tonal balance, but with a plasticky timbre and slightly muddy bass and mids. Build quality is top notch, but I wasn't a fan of the headband and it didn't fit my head correctly.

Jomo Flamenco IEM: Much better tonal balance than the Trinity, but still severely lacking in dynamics.

64 Audio Mystery IEM: Good staging, but with etched, unnatural treble. Far too bright for my tastes. The bass sounded boosted and loose/slow, very little punch. Mid range was recessed and a bit thin sounding (almost every BA IEM has this problem).

Sony IER-Z1R IEM: I had high expectations for this highly-hyped IEM, but was very disappointed. Many people brag about its "amazing" bass, but I found that to be its biggest weak point. Its supposed to be a big beefy dynamic driver supplying the bass, but it sounded like an underpowered BA. The bass was slow and not punchy or dynamic. Thankfully though the treble was nice and smooth, and staging was impressive. Mids were still thin like with most IEMs.

Audeze LCD-4: Good resolution, decent dynamics. Very poor tonal balance just like every Audeze LCD product.

Hifiman Shangri-la Jr: Insane resolution. Maybe the most resolving headphone I've ever heard, especially in the mid range. But it was a bit sibilant and bass light. Timbre was a bit artificial as with *most* estats.

Hifiman Jade 2: I liked this a little bit more than the Shang jr even though it was significantly less resolving. It was slightly more sibilant than the shang jr, but also had more warmth.

Rosson Audio RAD-0: Expected it to sound like an Audeze, but it didn't. Seemed to have a much better tonal balance, but it was super compressed. Also very uncomfortable with a strong clamp.

The Good:

Raal Requisite SR1A: I *think* this was good. Hard to tell because the man running the booth was also choosing all of the music. The staging was very good and the mid range sounded good on most tracks. I nearly put these in the "Okay" category though, because when he did play one song that I was familiar with, they sounded a bit off and a touch too bright. Take this impression with a grain of salt.

64 Audio U12t: Even though these are all BA, the bass on these was far superior than the IER-Z1R, and basically every other IEM I heard at the show. Mid range was still a bit thin/recessed though.

Dunu Titan-6: Including these here just for their value per dollar. The low end and mid range was very well balanced for an IEM at $140. The treble was a bit unnatural sounding but I didn't consider it bright. I thought it was objectively better than their flagship DK-4001 which costs $900.

Kaldas Research Conquest RR1: Incredible value at $500. Somewhat natural timbre unlike STAX. Had a healthy amount of bass and low mids. However, the treble was a bit harsh and unnatural sounding. Wouldn't call them bright though.

The Great:

Heinz Electrodynamic Designs HEDDphone: HEDD was not an official exhibitor at the show, but one of their employees was attending and brought along one of the two HEDDphone prototypes they have built. Man, this thing was incredible. Fantastic staging, dynamics, and detail. It was a bit recessed in the mid range, but not overly so. It did have a bit of a metallic timbre, but those who enjoy electronic music may like this. This thing will make every Audeze and Hifiman planar magnetic headphone obsolete on release. I'm not sure if I will be buying one due to its tonal balance not being my cup of tea, but I can still appreciate its greatness.

LB-acoustics Mysphere 3.2: WOW. This is what I have been looking for. This thing sounded like a true HD800 killer to me. It had a very diffuse-field tuning, except with an extremely lush sounding mid range. Being that it is an open design similar to the AKG K1000 (and designed by largely the same group of people as the K1K), of course the staging was incredible. If there was anything about it worse than the HD800 it would be detail. I've already ordered a loaner from LB-acoustics to demo at home.

(EDIT)
Sennheiser HE-1: I can't believe I forgot this one in the original post! Anyway, the HE-1 was great. Fantastic with technicalities, and a sound signature that will be extremely pleasing to most listeners (research shows this too ). But alas, it is tuned to be a bit too harman for me. I prefer less bass. HE60 still reigns supreme to my ears.

Did you had a chance to listen to empire ears valkyrie? How do they compare to others?

 

[McMadface]

I actually really wanted to check out the HEDD and am disappointed that I didn't track it down. The way I understood it, moving air 4x faster can be thought of as displacing 4x as much air as a similarly sized driver in dimension. The folds create more surface area with which to interact with the air in the front volume. When dimensions increase, surface area increases exponentially -- A=πr^2, a 60" screen is 4x as large as a 30" screen. It suggests that the AMT driver may be faster since it has to travel less to displace the same amount of air. There's less acceleration and excursion necessary to generate the same SPL so it's able to change directions in less time with less distortion. Once again, pure conjecture on my part.

 

[Cevisi]

Will there be a canjam munich next year ?

 

[MadDane]

I actually really wanted to check out the HEDD and am disappointed that I didn't track it down. The way I understood it, moving air 4x faster can be thought of as displacing 4x as much air as a similarly sized driver in dimension. The folds create more surface area with which to interact with the air in the front volume. When dimensions increase, surface area increases exponentially -- A=πr^2, a 60" screen is 4x as large as a 30" screen. It suggests that the AMT driver may be faster since it has to travel less to displace the same amount of air. There's less acceleration and excursion necessary to generate the same SPL so it's able to change directions in less time with less distortion. Once again, pure conjecture on my part.

Well said.

 

[third_eye]

Will there be a canjam munich next year ?

The “CanJam” at Munich High End in 2018 was not affiliated with Head-Fi (CanJam Global) in any way. The full list of Head-Fi’s CanJam Global shows can be found at www.canjamglobal.com.

 

[csglinux]

I actually really wanted to check out the HEDD and am disappointed that I didn't track it down. The way I understood it, moving air 4x faster can be thought of as displacing 4x as much air as a similarly sized driver in dimension. The folds create more surface area with which to interact with the air in the front volume. When dimensions increase, surface area increases exponentially -- A=πr^2, a 60" screen is 4x as large as a 30" screen. It suggests that the AMT driver may be faster since it has to travel less to displace the same amount of air. There's less acceleration and excursion necessary to generate the same SPL so it's able to change directions in less time with less distortion. Once again, pure conjecture on my part.

Nice post @McMadface I agree about the area. For me, the jury's still out on that highlighted part though. I'd like to see THD measurement comparisons with a good electrostat.

Here's the thing... The net displacement and speed of the air molecules in front of the diaphragm has to be exactly the same as that of any other driver, otherwise either amplitude or frequency (or both) would be off, so the net excursion of the diaphragm must be the same - the "AMT" driver is just swapping some portion of the normal motion of the diaphragm for lateral compression/rarefaction of the folds. In other words, they'll be swapping azimuthal-mode distortion for planar-mode distortion. And it's a 100% certainty it will also have comb interference effects from the folds. But maybe these folks would argue that's not as audible as other types of harmonic distortion? I can see why low frequencies might be an issue though - you have to move a lot of air to achieve a good sub-bass, and there's probably not much total air volume in those folds.

I'm not judging this thing on SQ, because I haven't heard it. But the marketing seems (and I'm putting this as politely as I can) overly optimistic. Remember how excited everybody got about the ADEL technology that was going to cure people's hearing loss? We don't hear so much about that now, do we?

 

[gr8soundz]

Nice post @McMadface I agree about the area. For me, the jury's still out on that highlighted part though. I'd like to see THD measurement comparisons with a good electrostat.

Here's the thing... The net displacement and speed of the air molecules in front of the diaphragm has to be exactly the same as that of any other driver, otherwise either amplitude or frequency (or both) would be off, so the net excursion of the diaphragm must be the same - the "AMT" driver is just swapping some portion of the normal motion of the diaphragm for lateral compression/rarefaction of the folds. In other words, they'll be swapping azimuthal-mode distortion for planar-mode distortion. And it's a 100% certainty it will also have comb interference effects from the folds. But maybe these folks would argue that's not as audible as other types of harmonic distortion? I can see why low frequencies might be an issue though - you have to move a lot of air to achieve a good sub-bass, and there's probably not much total air volume in those folds.

I'm not judging this thing on SQ, because I haven't heard it. But the marketing seems (and I'm putting this as politely as I can) overly optimistic. Remember how excited everybody got about the ADEL technology that was going to cure people's hearing loss? We don't hear so much about that now, do we?

Except HEDD isn't the only company making this claim. Obravo also claims their AMT headphone driver moves air (5x) faster. Why would two established companies (not startups or crowd-funding campaigns) make false 'marketing' claims?

 

[csglinux]

Except HEDD isn't the only company making this claim. Obravo also claims their AMT headphone driver moves air (5x) faster.

What do you think the air is moving 5x faster than?

Why would two established companies (not startups or crowd-funding campaigns) make false 'marketing' claims?

I think that's obvious. Plenty of people fall for exaggerated claims and hype.

 

[MadDane]

What do you think the air is moving 5x faster than?

Duh... that s so easy.. Antimatter, of course!

 

[Mediahound]

Great day!

So who's using who's video?

 

[x RELIC x]

So who's using who's video?

The music is WAAAAY too loud in these videos. Just a pet peeve of mine.

 

[third_eye]

Well said @DecentLevi. I'm really looking forward to hearing the HEDDphone at CanJam London in a few weeks!

 

[Buddhahacker]

It would be cool if we can have a large event like this in the South (hopefully Florida). The southern states have been underserved over the years and without the hype and attention of a CanJam like event it is hard to get folks excited about audio and headphones/IEMs. I suspect the South is an untapped reservoir of potential customers who have never purchased any mid to high end audio.