[DiscoProJoe]

Fun question: who's the cute gal on page 10 of our CanJam SoCal brochure?

What brand and model of headphones are these?

 

[warrenpchi]

Fun question: who's the cute gal on page 10 of our CanJam SoCal brochure?

What brand and model of headphones are these?

No idea who she is... and that appears to be a Labtec Elite 835.

 

[wazzupi]

No idea who she is... and that appears to be a Labtec Elite 835.

I think he was referring only the headphones perhaps ?!? Lol

 

[Edric Li]

I'm so glad that I haven't pulled the trigger on a hpa-01m on the used market

 

[Shecky504]

Another fantastic SoCal CanJam experience! Some of the highlights in my opinion (when driven by my DX320):

Empire Ears x Astell & Kern Odyssey: I hear it as a mix of the Odin and EVO, it is definitely on the warm side but has excellent balance across the spectrum. The W10 bone conduction driver really pulls everything together and creates a super wide soundstage with excellent separation. I posted more thoughts about these in the Empire Ears thread.

FATfreq Maestro (non-SE): I demoed these near the end of the day Sunday and the left channel was a bit blown but I could still hear the tuning well enough and enjoyed these the most out of the other offerings from FATfreq. The fit wasn't the most comfortable but perhaps just takes some more time to figure that out.

Unique Melody Multiverse Mentor: Excellent tuning for an all BA + BC with exemplary bass. Wished it had a bit more mids but it's a tough match since my all BA is the VE Phonix.

Noble Viking Ragnar: Unique tuning with a focus on the mids. While more revealing, I don't remember the bass being too lean and wished I had more time with these.

Campfire Supermoon: One of the best I've heard from Campfire and it can handle a good variety of genres. While not perfect and not the most natural across the spectrum, it's a fun listen and I enjoyed these more than the Trifecta.

Eletech Socrates 8 cable: Looking forward to this release. It paired extremely well with my VE Phonix and did some magic to the vocals while maintaining a natural sounding and extended treble with deep lows. To my ears it even topped the PW Audio First Times pairing with the Phonix, sounding more present and engaging.

Hifiman Edition XS: Demoed these at the very end of the show but was pleasantly surprised how nice these sounded even through my DX320. On the warmer side but with fun and engaging bass that didn't bleed into the mids. A great value for only $499 that seemed to punch well above its price point.

Lots of decisions to make, gear to list and new toys to hopefully play with!

 

[AlwaysForward]

It was great to come to my first CanJam this past Sunday afternoon, to meet a lot of friendly and helpful music fans, and to check out some IEMs.

In 2017, I attended Head-Fi's New York Spring Meet, where I set up a table and showed off the dual-listening setup of my portable headphone rig with DiscoProJoe's Rockbox EQ Presets, where I can make my V-Moda M-100s sound like a big car stereo. (Lots of Head-Fi'ers checked it out at that time, including @jude , @bozebuttons , @Monsterzero , @MikeZhao , and many others.)

I was happy that @jude remembered me from that meetup five years ago when chatting with him on Sunday at CanJam SoCal, and was also glad to chat with @bozebuttons 's friend @Frank I !

In late summer last year, I temporarily moved back to the U.S. (from lovely Chongqing, China) to study music production, vocal performance, and DJ'ing at an electronic music school here in Los Angeles, called Point Blank. (I plan to finish my studies next March, and then go back to East Asia somewhere next spring where my favorite types of music tend to be the most popular.)

Anyway, I'd like to get a good pair of IEMs within the next several months for DJ'ing and live performances. My ears are sensitive to mids & highs (but not to sub-bass and lower mid-bass), and I've always worn earplugs with rubber inserts when frequenting nightclubs, live shows, and sporting events. My hearing is really important to me and I don't want to mess it up with unprotected live performances.

I'm concerned that my longtime, trusty, closed-back, over-ear V-Moda M-100s.........won't muffle outside noise well enough at these events. I'm afraid I'd have to crank up the volume of my M-100s so much while DJ'ing (in order to hear what I'm doing with the music) that I can't hear the details in the treble, mids & bass -- which I adjust constantly throughout the performance to keep it sounding good. And then, on top of that, I'd have to go home with terrible tinnitus and hearing loss. Hmm...that sounds like fun, doesn't it?

So...I need a good pair of IEMs with sound quality that's as close to that of my V-Moda M-100s...as the current level of technology allows for.

I didn't have enough time to check out the majority of IEM brands at CanJam, but my first (and most important) stop was at the Jerry Harvey Audio booth. I'd seen a lot of good things about this brand and was curious to plug some pairs of them into my portable rig (with my Rockboxed iPod Classic containing my custom EQ-preset app...tethered to a Cayin C5 amp).

It was at this listening booth where I auditioned JH Audio's brand-new Sharona model. Of all of the several brands and models of IEMs I tested at CanJam, this was the only one that mostly met my standards for sound quality.

It had a quite well-detailed sound with good-sounding bass and mids, and with fairly-decent treble that all came together and worked pretty well, and that didn't have any issues with power handling and X-max (as a lot of over-ear headphone models tend to have with my portable rig...such as the Sennheiser HD 650)! ha

All in all, the JH Sharonas produced about 80% of the sound quality of my M-100s. For IEMs, this is passable for me.

By contrast, the other models of Jerry Harvey only sounded like they had about 45% of the sound quality of M-100s, the Kinera Freyas I tried later had about 35%, and the Meze-brand model...just 30%.

All the IEMs I heard at CanJam besides the Sharonas had really harsh treble that seriously lacked detail and sounded like one-note wonders.

So after getting home that evening, I read online about the special technology that's been put into the Sharonas (with its 16 balanced drivers per side and "Quad Supertweeters"), and it all makes sense.

(On a side note, I also checked out the Nuraphones at the Nurasound booth, and was pleasantly surprised at how well they rival my own portable rig with M-100s! Amazing sound, although I still prefer my own setup for several reasons. Headphones that run on batteries also tend to scare me a bit. For example, what if I'm working on a song at my computer for a long time, or what if I'm in the middle of a huge live performance..........and the battery goes dead? Oops.)

So it looks like in the next several months, I'll have to end up purchasing two big-ticket items: a pair of the JH Sharonas, and a Pioneer XDJ-XZ DJ deck-and-mixer set.

Unless anyone has some good suggestions for IEMs that are closer in sound quality to the V-Moda M-100 than the JH Sharona is, then that's where my "purchasing compass" is pointed at!

Needless to say, I'm really glad to be getting into music production and DJ'ing at this present moment with technology at the level it's at.

Now to conclude this long post...if you'd like to hear what I've done thus far, here's my second single I just released three months ago:



My vocals come in at around the 1-minute mark. (It's an '80s / '90s-style soft-rock piano power ballad.) Written, composed, produced, mixed, mastered, and performed all by......me......using Ableton software, Native Instruments' Kontakt plugins, and a simple MIDI keyboard. Used a small studio room at the music school to record my vocals.

On YouTube, you can open the description underneath the video to see the lyrics and other helpful links.

And also, here's a link to my 33-minute "final performance" from my intermediate-level DJ course, which I performed on Monday last week:

https://tinyurl.com/3e4frtjh

(There's also a Word file with a lot of info, such as the playlist and my methodology.)

It was recorded directly from a pair of Pioneer CDJ-3000 decks and a Pioneer DJM-900NXS2 mixer...to my laptop using Ableton. I made a few simple, minor edits to it, wrote a detailed documentation, and then submitted it for my grade in that class.

The classroom speakers were just playing at a medium level and weren't loud enough to damage anyone's ears, so I've always used my lovely M-100 headphones for that.

If you're in a hurry and just want to hear the best few minutes of it, then start playing it from the 7:05 mark and listen to it for three minutes from there. I was totally testing out the IEMs at CanJam with this particular song mashup playing!

Anyway, it was great meeting everyone and I hope to attend more Head-Fi events in the future whenever it's possible.

-- Joe Goodson (a.k.a., DiscoProJoe)

Dude. I have tried a tonne of DJ options. The Sennheiser HD-25 is genuinely it. For reference, I have the M100 master and AKG37 at home to compare. I've tried the pioneers, a few jbl, the Austrian Audio x15 and ATHM50x(good DJ set).

Just by the HD25 and be done. Then buy a good set of earplugs. Not crap ones, something more pro.

Either custom hearing protection or Earasers. I keep the Earasers on my keychain at all times. They allow you to keep the details.

 

[Aramaki]

Yes, very frustrating and it is an understandable burn out from the pandemic. But you take a risk when being around that many people. As an ICU and ER nurse, I know that there will always be risks but the risks are worse right now.

I think I was the only one wearing an N95 mask, saw some KN95's.

 

[catom]

I think I was the only one wearing an N95 mask, saw some KN95's.

I had a KF94 but have to admit it felt a bit futile after a while. The United States I think deemed the pandemic over. I just keep getting boosted and try to keep myself and family protected best I can (my wife is a doctor, so we've been pretty religious about masking and all). Given time, it will eventually be no different than the flu. Myself, my wife, and children have somehow avoided getting it (or we got it and didn't know) while everyone else we know pretty much has. All vaccinated, all were fine. I'll take some tests soon, a few days after the event. Already had a cold (and I'm sure, I tested several times/days as did the kids from whom I got the cold from) to begin with though and I swear every single cold, headache, cough, sore throat...You think it's COVID finally catching up with you. Then you test and you're ok. It is fatiguing.

At the end of the day, you can't let it ruin life for you. If you are able to get vaccinated, then rest in the comfort that you likely won't get seriously ill. Everyone in a crowded space touching and sharing headphones? Yea, totally bad spot to be even with a mask. So why go? I was wondering if this was the year to go to CanJam or to wait. With things coming down from a wave, I figured it was a good a time as any. I'm glad I did go. Even if I got COVID, it may be almost impossible to point the finger at the event. Could come from almost anywhere now.

Let's put it this way, it's not all bad, maybe you got some new headphones to enjoy while you quarantine. If you could choose only one pair of headphones to lock yourself in a room with for 10 days or so, which would it be?

 

[Aramaki]

I had a KF94 but have to admit it felt a bit futile after a while. The United States I think deemed the pandemic over. I just keep getting boosted and try to keep myself and family protected best I can (my wife is a doctor, so we've been pretty religious about masking and all). Given time, it will eventually be no different than the flu. Myself, my wife, and children have somehow avoided getting it (or we got it and didn't know) while everyone else we know pretty much has. All vaccinated, all were fine. I'll take some tests soon, a few days after the event. Already had a cold (and I'm sure, I tested several times/days as did the kids from whom I got the cold from) to begin with though and I swear every single cold, headache, cough, sore throat...You think it's COVID finally catching up with you. Then you test and you're ok. It is fatiguing.

At the end of the day, you can't let it ruin life for you. If you are able to get vaccinated, then rest in the comfort that you likely won't get seriously ill. Everyone in a crowded space touching and sharing headphones? Yea, totally bad spot to be even with a mask. So why go? I was wondering if this was the year to go to CanJam or to wait. With things coming down from a wave, I figured it was a good a time as any. I'm glad I did go. Even if I got COVID, it may be almost impossible to point the finger at the event. Could come from almost anywhere now.

Let's put it this way, it's not all bad, maybe you got some new headphones to enjoy while you quarantine. If you could choose only one pair of headphones to lock yourself in a room with for 10 days or so, which would it be?

Getting COVID is one thing but having long COVID is even worse.

 

[GadgetryTech]

Anybody have details on Fatfreq Grand Maestro? (Impressions, Price, driver config etc)?

Not sure if people answered you yet as I'm going through this thread from start to finish. The Grand Maestro was a blast to listen to. After listening to the Mini 1/2s for a while, I enjoyed them because they had a pretty unique and fun sounding profile without be too boxy sounding or creating too much sibilance. The Grand Maestro's special sauce came in resolution. They still had that signature bass punch that dug deep, but I found the detail retrieval to be much better than I expected considering the tune. I checked out so much gear I can't recall the price but I believe it was nearly four times the price of the Mini 2 (don't quote me on this though!). I'm not sure it'd be worth 4 times the price, but the overall performance was exceptional.

 

[sup27606]

it's not all bad, maybe you got some new headphones to enjoy while you quarantine. If you could choose only one pair of headphones to lock yourself in a room with for 10 days or so, which would it be?

Hey! I don’t want to lock myself in a room with headphones on. Losing the sense of smell is bad enough. Don’t want to lose my hearing too.

Shhh … don’t tell anybody. I will sneak in a pair of LCD-3s.

 

[hifixman]

Need impressions on the Enleum HPA-23RM I can't believe I missed it at the show...

I did some briefly in my post and just added a bit more for ya

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/can...ead-september-17-18-2022.964899/post-17149291

 

[561915]

How did you find the VZR transients to stack up with the kilobuck stuff?

Kilobuck transients are generally faster but the difference is not huge. Maybe 10-15%. Tuning also matters. Dan Clark Expanse has insanely fast transients but the tuning makes it less enjoyable to me. Also Focal transients are not as quick as people make them out to be. Planars are still generally faster but it would be wrong to call Focal slow.

 

[jamato8]

Kilobuck transients are generally faster but the difference is not huge. Maybe 10-15%. Tuning also matters. Dan Clark Expanse has insanely fast transients but the tuning makes it less enjoyable to me. Also Focal transients are not as quick as people make them out to be. Planars are still generally faster but it would be wrong to call Focal slow.

I think a lot depends upon the amp as well and the synergy of amp and headphones.

 

[DiscoProJoe]

No idea who she is...

Hmm...perhaps it's just an AI-generated image, then? Maybe she's too good-looking to be true!

I can just hear some guys on here thinking, "Wow...I'd give up my Sennheiser HD 800's if I could have a compatible girlfriend or wife who looks like her!"

Dude. I have tried a tonne of DJ options. The Sennheiser HD-25 is genuinely it. For reference, I have the M100 master and AKG37 at home to compare. I've tried the pioneers, a few jbl, the Austrian Audio x15 and ATHM50x(good DJ set).

Just by the HD25 and be done. Then buy a good set of earplugs. Not crap ones, something more pro.

Either custom hearing protection or Earasers. I keep the Earasers on my keychain at all times. They allow you to keep the details.

Thanks for the suggestions; I'll have to check some of them out if I can. I've personally never really been a fan of the Sennheiser sound, though.

For more than 7 1/2 years, V-Moda M-100s have been the only headphones I've used for anything, and so they are what sound "neutral" to me. Anytime I put on another pair of headphones at the music school or just about anyplace, the other models sound dull, thin, not very deep, and seem like the treble doesn't sound right.

I can't imagine a music world without my beloved M-100s.

So for DJ headphones and/or IEMs, everything is always compared to the original M-100 as a "standard" in my little world.

I'm also curious if any over-ear or on-ear headphones can actually isolate noise as well as IEMs. When going to most nightclubs, I usually have to push my rubber-insert earplugs into my ears most of the way so the super-loud environment doesn't hurt my ears. My ear canals are long and narrow, too, if that has anything to do with it.