[xirxes]

Was that your may? I was there when it was hooked up. So very good.

No that was my buddy Kyle’s. He needed to check on A/B with his dac to decide between Red October and nautilus.

 

[dsrk]

I'll do a more in depth summary once I'm back home but here is an attempt at a hot take while the joy and impressions of my first CJ are still fresh in my mind. What an experience! Unless mentioned all listening done through my SR25ii.



Favorite IEMs heard: Tritecta & Ragnar stood above the rest for me. Ragnar may be the closest thing to a bonafide Traillii competitor I’ve yet heard. And I absolutely loved Trifecta and I’m ashamed to admit that it was only morbid curiosity that prompted me to listen. Super coherent and massive stage & sound with a delicious dynamic & natural timbre that is free form veil or any weirdness. Single DD lovers should take a serious look. Treble can be a touch aggressive but everything else about this totally hit the spot for me. Is it overpriced? Sure but so is every IEM over $3k. All things considered it holds it’s own well imho. Other greats: Odyssey, Mentor and Thunder.







Source of the day: Tie between the RS8 and the WM1ZM2-- Sony sexy is a thing. The RS8 has a beautifully seductive and analogue tonality...it is a perfect match with my Supermoon. Software seems a little laggy and buggy to me at times.





Disappointments: Diva didn't impress me-- which is too bad because that was the one IEM I’d squirreled away funds for and thought I might buy. The bass was too boomy on the max setting and on the middle setting it sounded like a low-res Supermoon with limp bass and marginally more seductive mids. SP3K seemed mediocre coming from RS8 and didn't do the Odyssey any favors to my ears.

Other random points:

1) The Aroma Ace is a great all BA IEM, as is the Oriolus Mellianus-- both are overpriced though.

2) Traillii may very well still be the GOAT-- it knocked my socks off today, and through my SR25ii no less.



3) The Annihilator is mostly a great IEM— hearing it’s treble the RS8 was a thing to behold. But the bass is too weak and loose for it to be a top tier IEM for me.

4) I loved the Fourte and it's my presently my favourite 64 IEM. u18t is just as sterile as I remember and Trio is still too thin and bright for me.



5) I heard an OG Andromeda for the first time ever in the form of a pacific blue edition and I absolutely loved it. I think I may even prefer it to the 2020...would need to a/b. Hiss free through my SR25ii.



6) Ode to Laura wasn’t great with my Supermoon-- it totally nerfed the bass. Ironically this may have made me a full on cable believer. I talked to Eric (another great guy) about this and we figure the gold plated copper of my Victoria may offer the perfect synergy with Supermoon. We talked about the Jewel and he said it’s the IEM he uses to tune but that he wouldn’t listen to it for enjoyment. That’s basically how I see it.

7) The Stax 009 & Blue Hawaii is the greatest headphone/IEM product I've ever heard. And it's not close. Well actually Susvara is a close second. I couldn’t bring myself to listen to anything else for like an hour after I heard it.



8) Mentor is the best UM product imho and I went through most of them. Indigo didn’t do much for me, and honestly neither did Red Halo.




9) Biggest surprise was this small Singaporean company called FatFreq. They make some killer IEMs with top tier bass. Watch for these guys.





@HiFiHawaii808 @discord and all the other Cooler members I was privileged to meet today are great people. Was a beautiful and exhausting couple days.

Also Musicteck/Andrew is the Goat of Goats.



Sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight home and that’s all I have time to write now.

Thanks for the great impressions!!! RS8 seems to be getting great feedback.

 

[Drak3]

there were lots of singaporean based companies at the event.
i tried the fatfreq iems.

 

[Bret Halford]

there were lots of singaporean based companies at the event.
i tried the fatfreq iems.

Did you try their Grand Maestro and Maestro SE? I'm really curious about how those two compared...

 

[Drak3]

Did you try their Grand Maestro and Maestro SE? I'm really curious about how those two compared...

i tried only the sakura and the grand maestro..
the table was crowded. didn’t get the chance for the maestro se

 

[adrianm]

6v was better?

Yes, considerably. Not enough to make the Lina amp good though.

 

[Bret Halford]

i tried only the sakura and the grand maestro..
the table was crowded. didn’t get the chance for the maestro se

Nice! How did you find the Grand? I hear it has an open back option, was that installed on the show unit?

 

[nonamerat]

Some more of my quick notes....

- CRBN was more enjoyable than I expected. Not sure I would buy an amp just to have them though.
- Susvara is good. No surprise there, but you never know until you try I suppose. I would have never purchased these without hearing them first, but now I will likely get them. Most reviews don't focus on my taste of music so I wrote them off as classical or easier listening focused, but they really do great across the board.
- dCS was good, but was missing character. I think if you are looking for an ultimate representation of how a headphone and recording 'should' sound, this is for you. If you want to find that perfect synergy to fine tune sound to your liking you probably want to look elsewhere.
- LCD-5s vary a LOT from source to amp
- LTA was my overall surprise highlight. Both the MZ3 and Z10e need more attention. These are excellent.
- ZMF continues to make epic headphones. I own the VO and will now pick up the Atrium as well once I upgrade a tube amp.
- Speaking of upgrading the tube amp. Nautilus is my tube amp of choice. Clean, detailed, extended, looks nice, yes please.

 

[LoryWiv]

No

Any impressions about the AK SP3K?

I listen to the new odyssey IEM through it and the result was superb sound, but difficult to say if it was the SPK3k , IEM or both. Would have to listen with a broader range of iems to form a conclusion but certainly no slouch

 

[Asterisk3095]

This was my first CanJam, and I had an amazing time trying out some great gear, and talking to some wonderful people. I'll definitely be attending CanJam next year as well!

A like a lot of the gear, and am definitely going to compile my thoughts into a more comprehensive format later, but this is what i can say right now:

My favorite headphones (in order) were the HEDD Audio HEDDphone, Raal Requisite CA-1a, and Rosson Audio RAD-0. Honorable mentions (in no particular order) go to the Auribus Acoustics Everest, Meze 109 Pro, T+A Solitaire-P, Focal Clear MG, and Warwick Acoustics Bravura.

My favorite amplifiers were the Cayin IHA-6, Schiit Folkvanger, and Raal Requisite VM-1a. Honorable mentions go to the Hifiman EF400, xDuoo TA-26, and Schiit Vali

 

[NovaFlyer]

ZMF’s room is ever so slightly busy at the moment…

And it was like that pretty much the entire show, if not more crowded at times. A testament to the great gear ZMF has, and the awesome interaction by Zach, Bev and the entire team there.

 

[warrenpchi]

Will post more later, just got to the After Party at TSAV.

 

[NovaFlyer]

Ok Feliks Audio, you’re on my radar!

Did you also try the Feliks Envy, several were at the show? I tried it with the Maze Elite, just awesome.

 

[Odin412]

What a fabulous CanJam! After a couple of rough years during the pandemic CanJam is back in full swing, and what a return it was! Lots of exhibits, world premieres, and two days of nonstop fun. Here are my subjective impressions. I should tell you that I’m very treble-sensitive, so keep that in mind while reading my impressions.

• Focal Utopia. I thought that the original Utopia was a spectacular headphone in many ways, but maybe a little bright and a tad bass-light. The new version improves on the old one: Better bass, smoother treble and maybe a little more body to the midrange. I was very impressed. It looks beautiful too. I tried it with the new Feliks Audio Envy 300B amp (a superb combo) and the dCS Lina stack. I don’t have the ears or the experience to pass judgment on a $30K headphone playback system, so I’ll just say that it sounded very good indeed.
• Audeze CRBN. The background for this headphone is interesting and inspiring – medical technology repurposed for music listening. I tried this with an LTA amp and the new Woo Audio ES8 amp. It’s quite light and very comfortable. It sounds very good and has real bass, and I thought that the midrange had a bit more body on the Woo Audio amp.
• Audeze LCD-5. I heard this with a Sennheiser amp and an ampsandsound tube amp (not sure which model – it had a beautiful wood case). The LCD-5 is much lighter that I’m used to from Audeze, and it’s a monster in presenting details from the recording. If you’re looking for a relaxing listen, these aren’t the headphones that you’re looking for. If you want to really listen into a recording, however…
• ZMF Verite Open. I heard this with the new Schiit Folkvangr amp and the Yggdrasil OG DAC. The Folkvangr is a very impressive-looking amp with its many tubes, and it sounds wonderful with the right headphone, and the Verite Open loved this amp. Neutral? Absolutely not. Lush, seductive midrange? Yes. Oh God, yes. A must-audition combo. I also heard the Folkvangr with the Sennheiser HD 800S (good, but not like the Verite Open) and the Beyerdynamic DT 990 (super clear, but too bright for me). There was also a Schiit Urd CD transport hooked up to the Yggdrasil, so I had to play a CD just for fun. The CD tray on the Urd feels very sturdy and the Urd sounded very nice too.
• Schiit Lyr+ with Bifrost 2/64 DAC and Sennheiser HD 800S. The Lyr+ is a very nice-looking amp. I’m not a huge fan of the HD 800S (less bright than the original HD800, but still too much for me) so I need to visit the Schiitr to spend more time with it using headphones that I know better to see if it’s worth upgrading from my Lyr 3. Initial impressions are very promising.
• Focal Celestee and Radiance with SPL Phonitor 2 amp. The Celestee is the replacement for the Elegia (I think) and it looks stunning in blue leather. Focal has really nailed the design and tactile feel of their new headphones. They look and feel like the true luxury products that they are. I really enjoyed the Celestee headphones. The Radiance has more bass, and it’s up to you if you prefer that sound (and are willing to pay the premium to get the Bentley logo, of course). I was also very impressed with the Phonitor amp – it seems to be a bit of a bass monster. All the headphones that I heard with it had just stellar bass response. And it wasn’t just closed-back headphones – I also heard this amp with the Focal Clear MG and was very impressed with the bass.
• Meze Empyrean Elite with Woo Audio WA8. It feels strange to use such a physically small amp as the WA8 to drive a full-size headphone, but the WA8 is more powerful than it looks. I wasn’t overly enamored with the first Empyrean (I felt that the treble was disjointed from the rest), but the Elite version sounds better to my ears.
• Rosson RAD-0 with Feliks Elise. The Elise is a very nice tube amp and it drove the RAD-0 very well. The Rosson sound reminds me a bit about early Audeze models – a bit warm with strong bass. I also heard this amp with the Meze 109 Pro, but I prefer the Rosson. Upscale Audio also had a very cool-looking Pathos amp that I tried with the Abyss Diana headphones. Very nice dynamics, but maybe a bit too much treble for me.

That’s all for now. I’ll add a part 2 in a bit.

 

[Dellwolf]

Anyone else in SNA, John Wayne Airport right now? I got here a bit too early for my flight, so have have 2 hours to kill now.