[SemperMalum]

A fun show as always… it’s great to be seeing folk again…

Dan, you were super pleasant even though I unintentionally interrupted you on the way somewhere near the VZR booth. Still, was a pleasure to meet you.

This is exactly how I felt about them too

Yeah. I think your notes about the difference absolutely echo my experience. My friend ended up loving the Austrian Audio Composer the most.

I'll be honest, as well, I checked your notes about the Modhouse. I actually preferred the Single sided version as I felt they were warmer/had more bass vs the double aided which felt more towards the neutral side.

Both were great at the Mimic booth which was fun to visit. But I'd have probably been happier with the Single ended version.

In a way, to me anyways, it felt like the Heddphone 2 were comparable to the Modhouse Tungsten Double while I think the Composer were similar to the Modhouse Tungsten Single.

On an additional note, first CanJam was great. I managed to knock out a LOT of my list on the first day and the second day was split better between hanging out and demo'ing. Will post my full impressions and some of my photos to share.

Shout-out to everyone that ran this awesome event and extra shout-out to the awesome Headphones.com crew; they were my first booth and everyone there is super crazy friendly, helpful and, even though one of them brought the rain , really feel like proper ambassadors to this convention.

 

[djentbat]

Dan, you were super pleasant even though I unintentionally interrupted you on the way somewhere near the VZR booth. Still, was a pleasure to meet you.



Yeah. I think your notes about the difference absolutely echo my experience. My friend ended up loving the Austrian Audio Composer the most.

I'll be honest, as well, I checked your notes about the Modhouse. I actually preferred the Single sided version as I felt they were warmer/had more bass vs the double aided which felt more towards the neutral side.

Both were great at the Mimic booth which was fun to visit. But I'd have probably been happier with the Single ended version.

In a way, to me anyways, it felt like the Heddphone 2 were comparable to the Modhouse Tungsten Double while I think the Composer were similar to the Modhouse Tungsten Single.

On an additional note, first CanJam was great. I managed to knock out a LOT of my list on the first day and the second day was split better between hanging out and demo'ing. Will post my full impressions and some of my photos to share.

Shout-out to everyone that ran this awesome event and extra shout-out to the awesome Headphones.com crew; they were my first booth and everyone there is super crazy friendly, helpful and, even though one of them brought the rain , really feel like proper ambassadors to this convention.

The heddphone 2 felt like a warm version of a meze product if that makes sense. Where the detail is there and the sound signature doesn’t have anything really leaning one or the other, a non fatiguing heddphone. (Personally not my cup of tea on planars that do this like the elites, caldera.. etc) but the warm ness made me enjoy them.

For the tungsten I personally wouldn’t say the single was warmer, I think it just reduce the treble a bit to make other details pop on the headphone that was already there.


It’s incredible that it’s the same exact driver,the difference is just that they have one or two magnets

 

[SemperMalum]

The heddphone 2 felt like a warm version of a meze product if that makes sense. Where the detail is there and the sound signature doesn’t have anything really leaning one or the other, a non fatiguing heddphone. (Personally not my cup of tea on planars that do this like the elites, caldera.. etc) but the warm ness made me enjoy them.

For the tungsten I personally wouldn’t say the single was warmer, I think it just reduce the treble a bit to make other details pop on the headphone that was already there.


It’s incredible that it’s the same exact driver,the difference is just that they have one or two magnets

That would make sense with the treble being reduced. I didn't get a chance to spend more time with them as I know someone was super interested in trying them out so I rushed through but that makes a lot of sense.

 

[Hiker816]

You know why Sennheiser had signups? People wanted to hear it in a quiet environment. I guarantee it would have been a much less pleasing event if they were just in the main event room. Even Warwick’s soundbooth wasn’t perfect conditions, though a fantastic option to dramatically reduce sound from the rest of the room.

And that Warwick sound booth had quite a long wait most of the day. No material waiting with Sennheiser's signup.

 

[McCheese]

I'm terrible at impressions but I'll give it a shot. This is everything I remember hearing.

• Symphonium Crimson: Excellent dynamics, and although I've heard that it's bright it didn't seem excessively so to me.
• Eletech Ode to Laura: more beautiful in person than any photograph can capture, but rather warm and did not complement Storm well. Bonus points though for making me realize cables can make a significant difference.
• Eletech Baroque eartips: very soft and comfortable, sounded good enough, might buy.
• Nightjar Singularity: it's hard to believe this IEM is just a single DD. Wonderful bass, but also wonderful everywhere else.
• Nightjar Duality: a highly accurate and resolving bass cannon. Incredibly fun but not overwhelming.
• Letshuoer S15: decent tonality, but plasticy planar timbre.
• Mass Kobo 475: Frankly didn't hear a difference between 320Max alone and 320Max feeding into this.
• Mass Kobo 465: Not entirely sure how to describe what I heard with this, but it's certainly an experience. Best I can say is that it really pushes imaging into focus. Tested with Storm and Susvara, although I have no reference for Susvara on anything else except the CMA18 at the show.
• Mass Kobo 433: Similar to the 465, although more subtle.
• Focal Utopia 2022: I guess this is nice if you like warmth, but it was too much of that for me and not enough upper mids/lower treble. Not sure what amp/dac was feeding into it.
• Truthear Nova: one of the real winners of the show. Astonishing that you can get such great sound for such a price. Truthear has shown that high quality IEMs don't need to be expensive.
• Moondrop Blessing 3: Very thin sounding upper mids/lower treble. Like so thin I kept wanting to turn volume up to try to compensate, but it didn't work. It was just louder thinness.
• Elysian Annihilator: biggest disappointment of the show. Excessive poorly controlled bass, and whispy upper treble that doesn't really add much to the sound. The rest wasn't particularly impressive either.
• Elysian Diva: better bass than Annihilator, lovely vocal focus although it's very singer-dependent. I liked this better than Anni.
• Nightjar Sovereign 2W: really opens up Storm's soundstage over Mira 2W that I have and adds an additional feeling of "clarity." Much more flexible and soft to the touch than Mira 2W.
• Nightjar Sovereign 4W: like 2W but better, although not enough so to overcome the additional cost and ergonomics issues. It's a heavy and thick cable although it is flexible.
• Philphone: wonderfully dynamic, best open back headphone for bass I've heard.
• QDC Anole VX: Felt that this had good tonality and incredible detail especially with DUU switch configuration. Timbre was slightly weird.
• Warwick Acoustics Aperio: I don't really know, it sounded okay but it didn't impress me like a headphone system that costs half as much as a luxury SUV should. I probably should have tried this in the booth and not at the Headphones.com tables but I don't think it would have changed my opinion much.
• 64Audio U4s: Would recommend for the price, quite detailed sounding and decently balanced tonality.
• 64Audio U12t: Like the U4s but even more detailed.
• 64Audio Volur: Many impressions say the bass is great. Mine says the bass bleeds over into the mids too much. Some impressions say the treble is too much, but I didn't think so.
• Lootoo Mjolnir: Sounds pretty decent although they only had a single Dua Lipa track to test with and I didn't know if I was allowed to try hooking up my own source to it. It's not really something I'd buy but for what it is it seems good. Rather expensive though.
• Vision Ears VE10: Pretty good, actually has a midbass focus I felt but it wasn't excessive.
• Dunu Glacier: A friend asked me to try this one. It's quite good. I don't remember anything else about it though.
• Drop x Grell OAE1: Decent staging but very sibilant.
• FatFreq Grand Maestro: quite nice, well textured bass, the rest is fairly balanced and decent sounding but not really all that exciting either.

 

[goldwerger]

very quick notes from today (more detailed show impression to follow hopefully soon when back home). Just some select anecdotes from a much fuller day:

ZMF Bokeh - upcoming closed-back targeted at ~$1k price point, with mobile use case - tuning significantly improved from prototype showcased at CanJam Chicago. Mostly notable, lower bass and sub-bass were increased, and overall clarity and soundstage are otherwise great. Should be excellent value at this price point (with really very limited alternatives at this tier level, so very well positioned)

Austrian Audio “The Composer” - very worthy entry to market. Very fast (attack and decay), well extended FR. ”estat like”. Lacks some weight and density, especially with their B class amp. Would be interesting to try on tube amp

HEDDphone2 - finally got a quieter demo. To me, good overall but not as great as I wanted it to be. Warm presentation which I didn’t connect to as much with (I generally do like warmer tuning). I missed the goose bumpers I get in first 10 seconds when something moves me).

Audio-Technica AKWG limtied edition headphones - stay tuned for my pad rolling story.. but if you heard it as shown, it can transform with some ZMF love (TBC)

Otherwise - lots of amp testing for the Tungsten (across both days) which I’ll cover in detail in a review for it to keep this focused on thread topic

great seeing so many of you. Really love the human connection and corridor conversations more than anything else in this show!

 

[nieveulv]

Wondering if there something wrong with the elysian annihilator they using for demo...... It enters everyones most disappointed list.

The AA composer and Heddphones 2 are indeed intriguing. Waiting for some impressions on the eletech purgatorio! That one looks great

 

[Edric Li]

Some IEM highlights and letdowns (price not in consideration):

- 64 Audio U18s: best of the show for me for the second year in a row. Beautiful midrange and balance, and this is with the unassuming cable they have on. They are still not taking my money though (see rant below)
- 64 Audio Volur: probably the best bass of the show. Deep sound stage. Probably the most emotional IEM 64 has ever made. I noticed that it was hard to get a seat at their booth, because people seemed to be taking their time with the Volur. And as I got my turn, I understood why; I kept on listening, and was hesitant to switch songs. I thought 64 is going to screw up another Tia driver model (I didn't like any previous 64 models that don't have numbers in their names), but no, it was great.
- UM Amber Pearl & unnamed prototype: Both sounded fine. The prototype was slightly better. Didn't check if they were better than my previous UM favorite. I'm not sure how much of the good sound (and cost) is due to the PW Audio cables.
- Vision Ears VE10: My second favorite of the show. Classic VE tuning, warm and engaging midrange, now with deep bass and deep stage. The sound is somewhere between the Phonix and the VE8, which is great place to be. They come with a fancier cable than VE8/7/6, so I made sure the improvement didn't come from the cable. I swapped the VE10 cable onto the VE8, and the VE10 is indeed still better; deeper bass and deeper stage.
- Monarch MK3: A warmer MK2. Probably my third favorite of the show. Beautiful midrange and balance. A tad more top and bottom end than I'd like, but I can live with it. At $999 it is an insane deal, but see my rant below.
- Jomo Impulse TI: probably the best bass of the show, together with the Volur. I prefer the Volur because the TI's treble can be a bit too exciting at times.
- DUNU Mirai: I forgot what it sounded like, but it was good. Good to a fault I guess, to the point of being forgettable. DUNU, I hope this is obvious, but I expect to pay less for it than the current models because it is made from acryclic, not more.
- Truthears: I knew Moondrop and truthears can move a lot of products during the show, but I was still surprised by the sheer volume. By the end of the day they were running out of products to display. During my ~20 mins audition at the Truthear table, 3 pairs of Truthears were sold on the spot. They were ~$50 products, granted, but they were purchased by folks who probably have just auditioned $5000 systems. I myself listened to the HE1 for 30mins before stopping at the Truthears booth, and walked away with a pair of Truthear Zero.

- EE Raven: I can deal with insufficient treble as long as there is adequate pinna boost (e.g. Etymotic). I can deal with insufficient pinna boost as long as there is adequate treble (e.g. JH/UE). But the Raven has neither. To make it worse, add EE's signature big bass to the mix. Now my music is suffocating.
- UE Premier: my expectation was low (given Live) but holy sht. The most muddy and congested sounding IEM of the show.
- Elysian Acoustics: Annihilator sounds like a slightly more transparent Beats by Dre. Gaea has no bass (the terrible eartips they had on that were impossible to remove likely contributed to that). Diva's midrange sounded boxy (too much 1khz).
- Softears Enigma: boxy
- VE Aura: I was probably overhyped for this one. An attempt to make the EXT sound more like the VE house sound was made. The result is still too bright for me.
- QDC: was on the hype train when they came out around 2015. The selling point was that you get the UE sound for less, but somehow they never grew out of it. The entire lineup sounded boxy. The more expensive models offer better transparency on top of the boxiness.
- Nostalgia Audio Camelot: if by nostalgic you mean boxy. Probably needs a different cable.
- Campfire Chromatic Series: The staff was very friendly and helpful. The lower end ($500!!) of this series sounded muddy. The upper end of this series sounded muddy and had either too much or too little bass. Maybe a better cable would fix it, idk.
- Ambient Acoustics MAD24: the second most muddy and congested sounding IEM of the show.
- Spirit Torino Twin Pulse: It doesn't sound bad at all, but the person who designed this clearly has not worn a large bullet-shaped IEM (like my Intime Sora, or Monster Turbine if you are old school) in his/her life. The large metal decor on the back side of the IEM pulls the IEM out of my ears no matter how I wear it.
- Moondrop Solis II: It doesn't sound bad at all, but the edges around the faceplate are so sharp they can probably cut finger. What happened to the nice casing used on the lower end models?

Neither highlights nor letdowns but deserve a mention:

- Flipears: The staff was very friendly and helpful. The line up sounded very decent, but somehow every model missed the mark for me by a bit here and there.
- Ice Lab Prismatica: Very solid sound. Don't like the sound of the Sonion driver. Same reason I didn't like the EXT.
- Nightjar Singularity: Insane sound for a single DD. Great bass. Slightly too bright for me.
- Subsonic Storm: Was told this is going for $5000-6000. I will not pay that much for it but it is a good and, as advertised, reference sound. Slightly too bright for me.

Rant (at IEM companies):

MAKE MMCX IEMS! This has nothing to do with which connector is superior, MMCX or 2-pin. Every major headphone company (Senn, Beyer, AKG, Sony, ATH, UE and Shure) uses a coaxial connection in their IEM products. If you believe your marketing team figured out something that the Senn, Beyer, AKG, Sony, ATH, UE and Shure's marketing teams had not figured out, congratulations. Just know that there is *a* demand for coaxial connection. If you make your great sounding IEM available in MMCX/PentaconnEars/A2DC, you literally have a monopoly among those with this demand.

 

[Tex Irie]

In reflection, 2 days almost doesn't feel like enough time to check out everything! CanJam SoCal 2023 was a blast! Thank you Head-Fi Staff, Exhibitors, Attendees, and the Irvine Marriott Staff. Back to life.... Back to reality....

Special thank you to Jim & Fumie Moulton absolutely beautiful people and I enjoyed our conversation.

@Sebastien Chiu thank you, absolute honor to meet you in person and chop it up for a while.

Big thanks to Andrew & Leo from @MusicTeck always a pleasure to have conversations about IEMs with you gentlemen.

Special thank you to this wonderful Irish Couple that I discussed the Unique Melody prototype with. I didn't catch your names but it was a pleasure to meet you two.

Thank you to Dr. Bian from Hifiman. It was an absolute honor to meet you as well! Thank you for the conversation Sunday morning.

Thank you to Logan and Fillip* from 64 Audio. I really got into the Volür, U18s, and Trio..

Thank you to the lovely folks at the QDC booth.

Thank you Chris from Lucid Audio. I appreciate the product demos.

Lastly thank you to the guys from Fat Freq. I will certainly be purchasing one of your IEMs. I love the enthusiasm.

I'm looking forward to a few products namely the Kinera Imperial Loki (western tuned variant), Kinera Imperial Verdandi, Aroma Audio Fei Wan, 64 Audio U18s, Questyle CMA 18 Portable, Noble Audio Viking Ragnar, Noble Audio Kublai Khan, Oriolus Monachaa, iFi Audio xdsd Gryphon, Fiio M15S, Fiio Q15, and Fiio Q7 amongst the dozens of wares I have tried over the weekend.

Truly impressed as there is something for everyone at all price points. Good Night!!

 

[Asterisk3095]

Another year, another CanJam~

Had a lot of fun at this one, and met a lot of cool people!

 

[tamtrum]

SoCal Canjam was great. I was most impressed by the new Truthear Nova and I was able to purchase one at the show. Pleased with the fit, much more universal fitting than the Truthear Zero Red. Compared to the Zero, the nozzle is shorter and has a smaller diameter

Nova on the left, Zero Red on the right

Sound wise it sounds like an undamped blessing 3 with a bass shelf. Moving forward, I’d urge anyone looking for blessing 3 to instead buy a Nova. I was able to get @Precogvision to measure my Nova on his 711 coupler:

And here’s a bonus comparison plot that others may find interesting:

I was also able to snag a Nightjar Sovereign Symphony cable from the show which I will be doing a more formal write up later, but man I didn’t think a cable like this would make such a difference with my Subtonic Storm or even my newly acquired Truthear Nova.

 

[xianghao123]

50th anniversary VS 60th anniversary

 

[deep2285]

In reflection, 2 days almost doesn't feel like enough time to check out everything! CanJam SoCal 2023 was a blast! Thank you Head-Fi Staff, Exhibitors, Attendees, and the Irvine Marriott Staff. Back to life.... Back to reality....

Special thank you to Jim & Fumie Moulton absolutely beautiful people and I enjoyed our conversation.

@Sebastien Chiu thank you, absolute honor to meet you in person and chop it up for a while.

Big thanks to Andrew & Leo from @MusicTeck always a pleasure to have conversations about IEMs with you gentlemen.

Special thank you to this wonderful Irish Couple that I discussed the Unique Melody prototype with. I didn't catch your names but it was a pleasure to meet you two.

Thank you to Dr. Bian from Hifiman. It was an absolute honor to meet you as well! Thank you for the conversation Sunday morning.

Thank you to Logan and Fillip* from 64 Audio. I really got into the Volür, U18s, and Trio..

Thank you to the lovely folks at the QDC booth.

Thank you Chris from Lucid Audio. I appreciate the product demos.

Lastly thank you to the guys from Fat Freq. I will certainly be purchasing one of your IEMs. I love the enthusiasm.

I'm looking forward to a few products namely the Kinera Imperial Loki (western tuned variant), Kinera Imperial Verdandi, Aroma Audio Fei Wan, 64 Audio U18s, Questyle CMA 18 Portable, Noble Audio Viking Ragnar, Noble Audio Kublai Khan, Oriolus Monachaa, iFi Audio xdsd Gryphon, Fiio M15S, Fiio Q15, and Fiio Q7 amongst the dozens of wares I have tried over the weekend.

Truly impressed as there is something for everyone at all price points. Good Night!!

How was the Kinera Imperial Venrdandi, could you please elaborate.

 

[prawdziwysimone]

Dunu Glacier, Dunu Mirai & Truthear Nova. I'd be grateful for any impressions

 

[Rockwell75]

Well once again a CanJam has come to a close and I'm left in a bit of an exhausted daze to gather my thoughts and feelings after an epic roller coaster of a weekend. My aim with this post is to hopefully capture something of the magic that always goes hand in hand with a CanJam event, however I know that will be in vain for the most part-- there is no way in mere pictures and words that one could capture the fellowship, excitement, adventure, thrill and, above all sheer joy that invariably attends these shows. As with demoing gear there is no substitue for being there and experiencing it for yourself-- one must taste the fruit to know the flavor. I'm going to try something a little different with this impressions post and provide a more general narrative of the whole event, beginning with my journey to Irvine, California where the show is held. As such gear impressions will be only a part of what follows, and possibly not even the most important part as I and many others have found that the the gear is actually a strong second to the human bonds and connections which take place at a CanJam and which I suspect are what ultimately keep us all coming back. For example, I had a lot of fun on the show floor on Saturday but I'm already way more nostalgic for the adventure many of us went through afterwards which which began with a group of Coolers trying to get a table for 20 for Korean BBQ and which lead to an awkward segue into a loud sports bar where some of our party gave up & went somewhere else and those who persisted through the gauntlet of sports bar hell were eventually given a table at Baekejong Irvine where we enjoyed many laughs and feasted on cheese and corn (among many other great things)...you had to be there.

One thing that was definitely apparent is that our Cooler family is growing and thriving-- more so with each show. A group of us were invited to a preview of the show floor on Friday evening by @warrenpchi and we had a chance to talk to @jude for a few minutes during which time he expressed his appreciation for this thread and community and how it reminds him of the Head Fi days of old which were more defined by fellowship and community. It meant a lot to hear that from him as that is indeed always been the prime aim and strength of our Cooler familiy.

A few caveats regarding my show impressions.

1) IEMs are my wheelhouse so that is where I spent like 99% of my time.

2) There was SO MUCH stuff at this show-- it was simply overwhelming. Jude was telling us that the IEM contingent at these North American shows is finally catching up to the shows in Asia...and this was certainly evident. There was a super abundance of portable gear in every row, including many brands I'd never heard of. There would be no way to see all of it in two days so I had to use my time efficiently, which meant I that I gravitated towards stuff in keeping with my own tastes and inclinations and had to leave a whole bunch out. I would probably take me like 3 CanJams to properly digest everything just at this one show.

3) We are indeed living through a golden age of portable gear. In the ultimate sense everything I tried was excellent, with much of my impressions and thoughts being a matter of splitting hairs according to my own tastes, biases, perceptions and sensibiliites.

4) Ironically, the show environment is a poor setting for demoing new stuff. The noise, excitement, brisk pace...all make it hard to properly assess anything new. While I tried to be as efficient as possible, spending the first day taking it all in and the second more focused on stuff that really caught my attention, everything I say here should be taken with an appropriate grain of salt and I reserve the right to totally reverse my opinion on something pending further demos down the road.

So on with the recap of this wonderful weekend.

CanJam SoCal for me began on Friday on a beautiful day with a flight into my old hometown of Vancouver BC.



I had a couple hours to kill at the aiport and I wound up standing behind a woman who had something written on the backside of her pants.



I kind of chuckled at the import of that statement and half expected her to turn around with a shirt that said "Never Be The Same Again".

Upon arriving at the show a number of us met up for a delicous dinner at a local noodle house:


Pictured: @warrenpchi @NovaFlyer @HiFiHawaii808 @Natesdailies @goldwerger @Zachik @buke9 @emdeevee, John Marshall and a couple ladies.

The next morning I woke up to some beautiful SoCal skies.



A group of us gathered in the lounge for breakfast and I got to experience two early show hightlights.

@HiFiHawaii808's Viking Damascus:



The Damascus through the LP6 stands as one of the most perfect IEM presentations I have experienced anywhere. Techicnically exceptional with great understated bass and some of the airiest and most well extended treble I've heard. I found the Ragnar too bright and lacking bass but the Damascus fixes both those issues, which I suspect are related as I found it to have an increase in perceived bass presence which took some of the focus off the treble thus making more tenable to me. This could also have something to do with the magic of the LP6, which happens to excel in this dept.

Following that I was finally able to cross something longstanding off my bucket list when courtesy of @bigbeans I was able to finally demo the DMP-Z1:



Through my Trifecta, utter perfection and as it turned out nothing I heard in the actual show was able to top this combo for me. DMZ-Z1 + Trifecta synergize perfectly with each other-- pure analogue perfection. It's well known that Ken Ball used the WM1Z to tune the Trifecta and when you hear this most refined and beautiful of all Sony products (which is itself a super charged 1Z) it's totally believeable.



Finally, came time for the show itself...




First up for me was the Oriolus Manachaa (I think it's called).



When I heard there was going to be an Oriolus 4xDD at the show my excitement went through the roof and I probably overhyped myself a little for it. I went back to it 2-3 times throughout the show and eventually settled on it as a solid mid-centric set with great timbre and extension on both ends. Mids are skewed towards the uppers and at times I found it just a bit too much energy in that region. Unlike Trifecta I think you have 4 drivers doing different areas of the FR-- this IEM was not that big. Technicals and staging were ok. Highlight of this set is good bass, great timbre and seductive female vocals.

Next up I got to hear this mythical combo:



Amber pearl is a stunning IEM (sonically-- none of us were that fond of the color combo). This is my favorite UM IEM to date with arguably the breathiest and most seductive mids and vocals I've ever heard. In objective terms this was probably the best IEM at the show, even if, lacking a DD, it doesn't quite fall in line with my own tastes. Amber Pearl takes much of what I didn't like about the Mentor (bass & tonal balance) and fixes it as well as adding a hefty dose of its own secret sauce. Down side is that you're either paying $13k for a combo package or $8k for the IEM...eerrrm. UM also had a new prototype there and I made the mistake of listening to it right after the Amber Pearl...not good. It sounded awful in comparison, with glassy mids and an incoherent sig overall. YMMV etc.

While I was at it I did some a/b'ing with these two titans.



While I understand the accolades the N30 is getting the LP6 is still the superior sounding player to my tastes. N30 is a dash more technical, analogue flavor is comparable, but the LP6 has tighter & better bass and consistently gives me a more emotive response. I a/b'd these players with my Trifecta as well as the Amber Pearl. Amber Pearl, as with the Mentor, sounds positively stunning through the LP6.

Next up was the VE Aura.



As others have said Phonix LE with DD bass is pretty much what this is. Flat-ish sound, solid foundation of non-intrusive DD bass, VE midrange goodness. A little...dull? perhaps...but a very solid mids & bass set.

Next on my hit list was the VE 10, which did not disappoint.



I absolutely loved this. As I said elsewhere it kind of sits between the VE8 and EXT. More bombastic than the Aura, warm & syrupy sound, great mids. Compared to the Monachaa the midrange focus was a little further down the line, making it more of a male vocal specialist than a female as I found with Monachaa.

I also got to try the much-discussed EE Raven.



My first reaction was that the Raven is straight-up excellent. The first IEM that captured everything I love about the EE sound without falling into any pitfalls of overloaded upper mids (Evo, Odin) or overwhelming bass (LX). Tonal balance top to bottom was just right for me and the stage was nice and holographic. In many ways the Raven is not too unlike a hybrid version of the Trifecta. Incidentally I came in the next day and tried it with the RS8, and thought it sucked. The sound became congested and 2-D and a little lifeless. I plugged it back into my LP6 and all was well again. Clearly there is some great synergy there...though the LP6 does tend to elevate everything plugged into it.

Next up I heard the Storm with what I believe a NightJar flagship cable:



Great sound and it was interesting to hear Storm again. I certainly understand the accolades it receives and would probably go on record saying that it's the quintessential reference IEM out there-- beautiful transparency, inoffensive sound and magnificent technicals. Mids are a little dry for me and great BA bass is still BA bass. I also got to hear the Duality prototype, which I really really liked. Ultimately though it sound like a super charged Singularity with a larger sound and more bass. Not sure it will make my "buy" list as for me it's a little redundant alongside my Singularity.

A couple great surprises...

Campfire Audio turned up with their new "chromatic" series". This is the first CanJam I've been to where the brand has actually been present, which was a nice surprise. I was originally going to pass over these IEMs but I decided to sit down and listen to the Bonneville and Cascara (sp?). The latter is a decent $500 single DD with typical CFA bass driven sound. More technical and better extended than I was expecting. Not something I need but a solid bass-dominant single DD at its price point. The Bonneville, which I pre-judged as a Solaris clone, totally knocked my socks off. It's similar to the Solaris in its staging, technicals and timbre, but it's got more and arguably better bass, and is less fatiguing up top. This IEM I think finally earns the title "Andromeda with bass". A tremendously fun and engaging listen and one that was not even on my radar heading into ths show.



Fir Electron 12



This is another IEM that was not really on my radar at first but which totally blew my mind. The Electron 12 is a 12mm single DD prototype from FIr. Excellent top to bottom extension, massive sound, great and satisfying bass response and a surprising amount of air. The 64 Audio Volour (sp?) which demoed alongside it sounded a little flat and dull in comparison, though is itself a very competent IEM in its own right. The Electron 12 will likely stand alongside the Singularity as the best single DD I've ever heard. I'll be buying it some day.

I also got to hear @theveterans' Pacific Blue Andromeda once again and once again I marveled at how relevant it is and how good it sounds all these years later.



I also heard the new Aroma flagship. It struck me as a more exciting Jewel with more energy up top and down below. My impressions ranged from totally loving it (which many I talked to did) to finding it a little fatiguing up top.

I'm not sure what this is exactly but it was noteworthy to me that reel-reel tape players are still a thing.



On day 2 I secured myself a session with the legendary Senny HE1:



This thing deserves all the accolades it gets and is one of the most stunningly natural presentations I've ever heard...though I have very very little experience with full size so my frame of reference is minimal. The whole package here is quite a marvel.

In the room me at the time was this vintage Sennheiser product:



It requires a lot of power but it sounds surprisingly good and natural in the mids with no bass to speak of. Sennheiser's house sound has evidently not changed much over the years.

The look of someone who has found his end game:



Towards the tail end of the show I went and introduced myself to Caleb from CFA and expressed my long-standing admiration for the brand. I also brought up that interview of his I often cite where he nailed the differences between BA and DD sound. Lastly, I showed him my Trifecta/LP6 setup and let him try it. I think he was more than a little blown away by how good the LP6 sounds.



I tried the Bonneville again and became even more infatuated with it-- preferring it even to the VE10 on day 2. Incidentlly, according to Caleb, it contains a new bass driver they have just developed. I was even able to secure a purchase of one of the floor units of the Bonneville, with a full purple complement. I officially have the first of these out in the wild as it's not officially released for a couple weeks yet.



Top 5, new to me at show, no order:

1) Fir Electron 12
2) Campfire Bonneville
3) Unique Melody Amber Pearl
4) Oriolus Manachaa
5) Vision Ears 10

That's about the sum of my weekend. An epic time all things considered and one that will linger in my heart for a while. As has been said it is the human connections that make these shows truly memorable. Shout outs to the cooler family, which is growing with every show. Much heartfelt thanks and gratitude for @HiFiHawaii808 for everything he does for me and the group. Thanks to @emdeevee for picking me up at the airport. I really enjoyed getting to know you this weekend. Another shoutout to @bigbeans-- it was nice to finally meet you in person and our profound and lively conversation Saturday night touched me deeply and will not soon be forgotten. Until the next CanJam