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This was my first CANJAM and I must first thank all involved in the preparation for a first class job, and the many presenters for allowing us all to hear and see their equipment.
This conference is truly remarkable in its presentation of the top tier of equipment, set up by its users who mix and match their equipment to give its best sound, as they hear it, not like commercial sellers, who mainly want to present their own product lines. Even more remarkable is the diversity of equipment on display and the fact that those present are given such freedom to play around with this equipment.
I was blown away by the fact that most presenters set up their displays, often with $5 0-10K or more of equipment and then just walked away and allowed others to treat this stuff as their own.
So CANJAM was a great opportunity to get to learn about whatever drives you in the headphone audio sphere.
For me personally, in addition to putting on a display to compare the Sigma Pro with the Sigma/404,
1) I wanted to audition the bigger electrostatic amps,1;
2) I also brought with me an Omega 007mK2 to compare with the Mk 1 ;
3) I wanted to hear several other electrostatic phones such as the Sennheiser HE 90, and HEAudio and
4) I wanted to hear some of the better dynamic phones such as the AKG K1000 and Sennheiser 800.
As regards the Sigma Pro vs the Sigma/404, while the Pro is very good, the 404 is a notably better, other than the 404 taking a bit longer to warm up than the Pro. It has more bass and importantly more treble, which given the serious treble roll-off of all Sigmas, is a major improvement. One of the listeners aptly described the 404 as more "refined." The Pro has, by default more mid-range and may work better for some music that needs that kind of bost, but generally the Sigma/404 goes from slightly to significantly better on most material
THE BIGGER AMPS
I spent some time hauling the Sigma/404 around to various bigger amps. Because MIKEYMAD was set up right next to me I spent more free time listening to his Singlepower Amp than anything else.
(picture by amp)
For me, the more interesting comparison was the 007's with the Sigma/404. In my own set-up with a Stax 717 amp, the 007 Mk2 is definitely a more dynamic phone, i.e. there is more loud/soft contrast, what some people would call pace rhythm and timing (PRAT), more accurate tonality, and more stable imaging. However, with MIKEYMAD's amp, the Sigma/404 improved marekedly, and the differences between these two phones became much less obvious. Certainly the Sigma/404 was still rolled off at the top end compared to the 007, but in other respects it became a much more detailed phone, with of course the deep soundstage given by the forward-mounted drivers, that no other phones, other than the AKG K100 attempts to provide.
Bear in mind that the Sigma/404 is an even harder phone to drive than the Omega, because it is even less efficient. One of the more striking things I noted was that with the big amp some of the high notes in my test record by the tenor Pavarotti, which sounded harsh on the 717, really opened up and became much smoother with virtually no distortion. As well there was a marked increase in ambient information, although in some instances maybe too much. All of the Sigmas tend to emphasize ambience possibly because of their lower mid/upper bass boom.
I listened to 4 or five other big amps, another Singlepower the size of a car engine and 2 Blue Hawaii's and again could easily hear the advantages of these amps over the 717. The Blue Hawaii BHSE however seemed more punchy and drier, a quality which worked well with the Sigma/404 in reducing the boominess mentioned above.
2) As regards the MK 1 and Mk 2 007, I feel pretty comfortable saying there was not much to choose between them. The Mk 1 is a great set of phones, but so is the Mk2, at least as I use them, with the flattened spring in the ear cup, as Spritzer has described, and with the ear pad turned so that the circular portion is behind the ear. Of these two mods, I would say the spring mod is most important for smoothing out the treble and bass peakiness that otherwise appears.
3) I was able to get brief listens to the Sennheiser HE90 and the HE Audio stats. To me they both looked and sounded somewhat the same, very airy and clean. But I didn't really get enough time to make comparisons between them or with my 007mK2 or Sigma/Pro.
4) I finally had a chance to hear some better dynamic rigs. Firstly again because of MIKEYMADS proximity I heard his AKG K1000. A fascinating little phone, somewhat like the Sigmas in conception with the forward mounted drivers (although dynamic). The sound was adjustable by swinging the drivers in and out from the ears and this changed both the soundfield and frequency response. These were a lot of fun to play with. I would have thought that an enclosureless phone would have a lot of problems from the back wave coming round to cancel the front wave, but these worked quite well.
I also heard a number of Sennheiser 650 and 800 set-ups. The balanced set-ups by Headroom were notably better than the unbalanced set-ups. Their balanced 800 set-up was surprisingly close to the best 007 set-up, possibly with a bit more dynamics although not so much as you would really care. However, Headroom used a formidable looking Krell top loadng CD player which may very well have added to some of the quality of this set-up.
On balance I was left admiring the quality of these dynamics but not wanting to change over. While most of the top-tier systems whether electrostatic or dynamic seemed to be moving towards a similar sound, there was still a residual graininess to the dynamics which would annoy me after many years of stat sound. Certainly most of the top dynamics had better dynamics but not the clarity that even the cheaper electrostatics have. The best ones were also more expensive than the cheaper stats and were moving into the 007 and Stax amp price territory, although not as costly as an 007 with a Blue Hawaii or Singlepower amp.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
There were a lot of Stax 007's in evidence but few Stax amps. I don't recall seeing any Stax tube amps or even many transistor amps.
As regards tubes, is it really not possible to make a transistor amp to rival the amps like the Blue Hawaii?
Is the AKG K1000 design something that could be copied with stat drivers. What about some 404 drivers? Even better, what about some 007 drivers mounted this way???
Anyway it was a great experience and I had time on Saturday night to attend a production of the LA Opera, a very fine production of La Traviata, after attending 2 previous doubtful productions (Rheingold and Valkure) and an outright mess (Butterfly). One of of four isn't that great for a major company. I hope the Lakers can do better in the finals.
This conference is truly remarkable in its presentation of the top tier of equipment, set up by its users who mix and match their equipment to give its best sound, as they hear it, not like commercial sellers, who mainly want to present their own product lines. Even more remarkable is the diversity of equipment on display and the fact that those present are given such freedom to play around with this equipment.
I was blown away by the fact that most presenters set up their displays, often with $5 0-10K or more of equipment and then just walked away and allowed others to treat this stuff as their own.
So CANJAM was a great opportunity to get to learn about whatever drives you in the headphone audio sphere.
For me personally, in addition to putting on a display to compare the Sigma Pro with the Sigma/404,
1) I wanted to audition the bigger electrostatic amps,1;
2) I also brought with me an Omega 007mK2 to compare with the Mk 1 ;
3) I wanted to hear several other electrostatic phones such as the Sennheiser HE 90, and HEAudio and
4) I wanted to hear some of the better dynamic phones such as the AKG K1000 and Sennheiser 800.
As regards the Sigma Pro vs the Sigma/404, while the Pro is very good, the 404 is a notably better, other than the 404 taking a bit longer to warm up than the Pro. It has more bass and importantly more treble, which given the serious treble roll-off of all Sigmas, is a major improvement. One of the listeners aptly described the 404 as more "refined." The Pro has, by default more mid-range and may work better for some music that needs that kind of bost, but generally the Sigma/404 goes from slightly to significantly better on most material
THE BIGGER AMPS
I spent some time hauling the Sigma/404 around to various bigger amps. Because MIKEYMAD was set up right next to me I spent more free time listening to his Singlepower Amp than anything else.
(picture by amp)
For me, the more interesting comparison was the 007's with the Sigma/404. In my own set-up with a Stax 717 amp, the 007 Mk2 is definitely a more dynamic phone, i.e. there is more loud/soft contrast, what some people would call pace rhythm and timing (PRAT), more accurate tonality, and more stable imaging. However, with MIKEYMAD's amp, the Sigma/404 improved marekedly, and the differences between these two phones became much less obvious. Certainly the Sigma/404 was still rolled off at the top end compared to the 007, but in other respects it became a much more detailed phone, with of course the deep soundstage given by the forward-mounted drivers, that no other phones, other than the AKG K100 attempts to provide.
Bear in mind that the Sigma/404 is an even harder phone to drive than the Omega, because it is even less efficient. One of the more striking things I noted was that with the big amp some of the high notes in my test record by the tenor Pavarotti, which sounded harsh on the 717, really opened up and became much smoother with virtually no distortion. As well there was a marked increase in ambient information, although in some instances maybe too much. All of the Sigmas tend to emphasize ambience possibly because of their lower mid/upper bass boom.
I listened to 4 or five other big amps, another Singlepower the size of a car engine and 2 Blue Hawaii's and again could easily hear the advantages of these amps over the 717. The Blue Hawaii BHSE however seemed more punchy and drier, a quality which worked well with the Sigma/404 in reducing the boominess mentioned above.
2) As regards the MK 1 and Mk 2 007, I feel pretty comfortable saying there was not much to choose between them. The Mk 1 is a great set of phones, but so is the Mk2, at least as I use them, with the flattened spring in the ear cup, as Spritzer has described, and with the ear pad turned so that the circular portion is behind the ear. Of these two mods, I would say the spring mod is most important for smoothing out the treble and bass peakiness that otherwise appears.
3) I was able to get brief listens to the Sennheiser HE90 and the HE Audio stats. To me they both looked and sounded somewhat the same, very airy and clean. But I didn't really get enough time to make comparisons between them or with my 007mK2 or Sigma/Pro.
4) I finally had a chance to hear some better dynamic rigs. Firstly again because of MIKEYMADS proximity I heard his AKG K1000. A fascinating little phone, somewhat like the Sigmas in conception with the forward mounted drivers (although dynamic). The sound was adjustable by swinging the drivers in and out from the ears and this changed both the soundfield and frequency response. These were a lot of fun to play with. I would have thought that an enclosureless phone would have a lot of problems from the back wave coming round to cancel the front wave, but these worked quite well.
I also heard a number of Sennheiser 650 and 800 set-ups. The balanced set-ups by Headroom were notably better than the unbalanced set-ups. Their balanced 800 set-up was surprisingly close to the best 007 set-up, possibly with a bit more dynamics although not so much as you would really care. However, Headroom used a formidable looking Krell top loadng CD player which may very well have added to some of the quality of this set-up.
On balance I was left admiring the quality of these dynamics but not wanting to change over. While most of the top-tier systems whether electrostatic or dynamic seemed to be moving towards a similar sound, there was still a residual graininess to the dynamics which would annoy me after many years of stat sound. Certainly most of the top dynamics had better dynamics but not the clarity that even the cheaper electrostatics have. The best ones were also more expensive than the cheaper stats and were moving into the 007 and Stax amp price territory, although not as costly as an 007 with a Blue Hawaii or Singlepower amp.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
There were a lot of Stax 007's in evidence but few Stax amps. I don't recall seeing any Stax tube amps or even many transistor amps.
As regards tubes, is it really not possible to make a transistor amp to rival the amps like the Blue Hawaii?
Is the AKG K1000 design something that could be copied with stat drivers. What about some 404 drivers? Even better, what about some 007 drivers mounted this way???
Anyway it was a great experience and I had time on Saturday night to attend a production of the LA Opera, a very fine production of La Traviata, after attending 2 previous doubtful productions (Rheingold and Valkure) and an outright mess (Butterfly). One of of four isn't that great for a major company. I hope the Lakers can do better in the finals.
