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The Winter Headphone Festival mini was held on February 10, sponsored by Fujiya-Avic. The event was held at Station Conference Tokyo near Tokyo Station.
For the first time in many years, the registration system was abolished at this year's event, and the venue was so crowded that it was difficult to pass through.
The main exhibit at final is the high-end headphone D7000 which will be released on February 29. The price is 398,000 yen. The D7000 is a flagship model that differs from the D8000 in sound character. (D8000 will stay in the product line up)
The D7000 features the "Pina Align Diffuser" place between the ear and the diaphragm. It seem that sound would be better if there were nothing between the diaphragm and the ear, but the point is that the sound from the diaphragm does not hit the eardrum directly, but first hits the outer ear(Pina). For this reason, the sound airflow to the outer ear is ideally shaped by passing it through a diffuser that follows the shape of the outer ear. "Pina alignment" means that. They say the result in a smoother sound with fewer peaks and dips.
I actually compared the D8000 and D7000 for a listening test. Although both have a similar overall sound, the D7000 has a distinctive reproduction of vocal and instrumental sounds, and the D8000 has a unique smooth quality. It is a unique sound reproduction.
Fostex exhibited the TH808 high-end headphones, which will go on sale this February 10 in Japan. This model was developed based on the company's top-of-the-line TH909 open-type dynamic headphones.
The TH909 is expensive at 319,000 yen, while the "TH808" will cost 187,000 yen. The same diaphragm is used as in the TH909 but there are differences in the damper design and cables. The housing is made of solid black walnut, a high-grade wood.
The sound quality is extremely high, and I was amazed at the wide soundsatging in classical music, and the sharp drum attack in jazz.
(red one is TH909, bottom one is TH808)
STAX exhibited its new entry-level model SR-X1. The price is yet to be determined, but it is likely to be around 100,000 yen for the combination with electrostatic drivers . The traditional small circular ear speaker is said to have been reconstructed with a modern design concept.
The driver is a newly designed medium-sized circular unit, which is not only smaller in size, but also has minimized the joints between parts in pursuit of accurate sound.
This is fairly lightweight and easy to use. The sound quality had a old STAXish goodness in the mid-high range, but the overall sound was subdued.
The Pixel booth exhibited unique portable audio accessories. This is a product from a new portable audio accessory brand called "LEPIC," which is a derivative brand of Dignis, another accessory brand.
One of the products that the attendees mentioned that they wanted was the "DAC POCKET," which can be used to attach a stick/dongle DAC to a smartphone with MagSafe. If your phone is not MagSafe-compatible, you can attach an equivalent ring to your phone with other accessories before attaching the DAC POCKET. In terms of size, the largest DAC accommodate up to AK HC4. The price is about 3,000 yen.
The FiiO CP13 "real analogue" cassette tape player was the most interesting product on display at this year's event. It is scheduled to be sold in Japan for around 20,000 yen.
I actually listened to the sound using the latest earphones, DITA AUDIO' Project M, and was surprised at the high sound quality. I enjoyed clear, high-quality music reproduction with little hissing noise from the tape. Vocals sounded clear and pleasant. The Project M is a very capable earphone, but the fact that my old cassette tape player didn't sound good may be due to the fact that the earphones were underdeveloped.
To my own surprise, I thought it was a malfunction because I could not play the cassette tape even though I pressed the button, but in fact I did not notice that the A side was already finished. I took out the cassette tape and flipped it over, and it played smoothly. I used to use a cassette tape player as usual, but I wonder if that much time has passed.
For the first time in many years, the registration system was abolished at this year's event, and the venue was so crowded that it was difficult to pass through.
The main exhibit at final is the high-end headphone D7000 which will be released on February 29. The price is 398,000 yen. The D7000 is a flagship model that differs from the D8000 in sound character. (D8000 will stay in the product line up)
The D7000 features the "Pina Align Diffuser" place between the ear and the diaphragm. It seem that sound would be better if there were nothing between the diaphragm and the ear, but the point is that the sound from the diaphragm does not hit the eardrum directly, but first hits the outer ear(Pina). For this reason, the sound airflow to the outer ear is ideally shaped by passing it through a diffuser that follows the shape of the outer ear. "Pina alignment" means that. They say the result in a smoother sound with fewer peaks and dips.
I actually compared the D8000 and D7000 for a listening test. Although both have a similar overall sound, the D7000 has a distinctive reproduction of vocal and instrumental sounds, and the D8000 has a unique smooth quality. It is a unique sound reproduction.
Fostex exhibited the TH808 high-end headphones, which will go on sale this February 10 in Japan. This model was developed based on the company's top-of-the-line TH909 open-type dynamic headphones.
The TH909 is expensive at 319,000 yen, while the "TH808" will cost 187,000 yen. The same diaphragm is used as in the TH909 but there are differences in the damper design and cables. The housing is made of solid black walnut, a high-grade wood.
The sound quality is extremely high, and I was amazed at the wide soundsatging in classical music, and the sharp drum attack in jazz.
(red one is TH909, bottom one is TH808)
STAX exhibited its new entry-level model SR-X1. The price is yet to be determined, but it is likely to be around 100,000 yen for the combination with electrostatic drivers . The traditional small circular ear speaker is said to have been reconstructed with a modern design concept.
The driver is a newly designed medium-sized circular unit, which is not only smaller in size, but also has minimized the joints between parts in pursuit of accurate sound.
This is fairly lightweight and easy to use. The sound quality had a old STAXish goodness in the mid-high range, but the overall sound was subdued.
The Pixel booth exhibited unique portable audio accessories. This is a product from a new portable audio accessory brand called "LEPIC," which is a derivative brand of Dignis, another accessory brand.
One of the products that the attendees mentioned that they wanted was the "DAC POCKET," which can be used to attach a stick/dongle DAC to a smartphone with MagSafe. If your phone is not MagSafe-compatible, you can attach an equivalent ring to your phone with other accessories before attaching the DAC POCKET. In terms of size, the largest DAC accommodate up to AK HC4. The price is about 3,000 yen.
The FiiO CP13 "real analogue" cassette tape player was the most interesting product on display at this year's event. It is scheduled to be sold in Japan for around 20,000 yen.
I actually listened to the sound using the latest earphones, DITA AUDIO' Project M, and was surprised at the high sound quality. I enjoyed clear, high-quality music reproduction with little hissing noise from the tape. Vocals sounded clear and pleasant. The Project M is a very capable earphone, but the fact that my old cassette tape player didn't sound good may be due to the fact that the earphones were underdeveloped.
To my own surprise, I thought it was a malfunction because I could not play the cassette tape even though I pressed the button, but in fact I did not notice that the A side was already finished. I took out the cassette tape and flipped it over, and it played smoothly. I used to use a cassette tape player as usual, but I wonder if that much time has passed.
