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Link to part 1
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Link to part 2
Now onto part 3. I headed out to Akihabara (electric city) in Tokyo. This area is known for store after store of everything electronics, anime, cosplay, maid café, etc. A pretty wild place to visit but this time I am only here for one thing!
Potafes by e-earphone
This is the show I was really looking forward to because I have never been to Canjam or any other audio shows before. Two days, three stories of exhibit halls, in the middle of Akihabara. Let’s go!!!
Just a few minutes from the train station, you are greeted with this cool entrance by Audio-Technica. There was a live youtube stage straight ahead.
First, I headed to the bottom floor, to the furthest corner. There I found the Elysian table and I got to listen to Anni23 for the first time. Oh man, what a nice sounding set! I immediately recognized the bass character as Foster DD like DC Ti fresh in my memory from Fujiya-Avic audition. When I pointed that out to Lee, he acknowledged that it is the same Foster driver as DC Ti tuned differently. Very nice. While DC Ti is a big analog-sounding set, Anni23 is a distinctly multi-driver set with excellent resolution, separation, and tasteful overall balance. The bass sounds much more linear than Diva without bleeding into the mids. I found Diva to be too scooped in the mid-bass and prefer Ani23 by a large margin. The vocals are clear and present. Not too forward nor too back in the mix. Treble has a nice note weight and texture which adds to the realism of steel instruments. I ended up going back multiple times to the Elysian booth to hear the Anni. I must say that this was one of my favorites from this show. Thanks, Lee for a great conversation, insights, and auditions!
I took a picture of the next table by Effect Audio (below). Coincidentally, this gentleman in the green shirt was our fellow WC member
@ranfan ! It probably took us another 30min of texting before we introduced ourselves!
@JordonEA greeted me here and I got to try the new Fusion 1. While it looks similar to Code 23 in the background, Fusion 1 is a very soft coaxial-style cable. The ergonomics didn’t bother me at all (but keep in mind that I am ok with the thickest cables around like PW Orpheus and Brise 8 wire). The sound of Fusion 1 leaned a little bit too much silver for my taste. Good clarity, extension, and punchy bass with a touch of warmth. Little behind in resolution compared to TOTL cables. There’s a lot of competition in this price bracket so I think it will come down to fit and taste.
Next stop was the Kinera Imperial booth. On the table far right is Loki (international version). I had no prior knowledge about this IEM but my friend insisted on trying. This audition was probably overshadowed by the strong character presented by Anni just before. To me, Loki sounded like a well-tuned neutral upper-mid-tier set with good resolution,
maybe $2k range (oh I looked up and it’s 3k+…)? The first thing I noticed was the clean upper mids to treble. Good fast transients and punchy bass. Maybe a little bit on the sharp side. For me, it didn’t have the note weight that I want for instruments. Not bad but it didn’t stand out for me.
Next, I visited the Brise booth. They had just announced the new TOTL silver cable, Shirogane, based on an earlier prototype silver that I had bought. The prototype silver 8-wire had a nice silver character to the Brise Yatono sound but it was fairly conservative on the balance. The new Shirogane on the other hand was quite lively and punchy. It really caught me by surprise because this is very different from any previous Brise cables. They said the cable material is the same but made changes to the shielding and construction. The gray color you see in the picture is actually the silver color showing through a semi-transparent sleeve. As usual, very nice build. I love the understated looks of Brise cable. I heard they are coming to Canjam SoCal. If you are heading to SoCal, you should be able to try all the same stuff.
I visited the Noble booth next. I met Noble co-owner Jim Moulton and his family crew - fellow Texans! Having owned Kublai Kahn and now Ragnar, and auditioned Ronin on multiple occasions, I had to express my love for their tuning. We ended up talking more about life in Texas and Japan, and raising kids in an international environment (my kids were attending school in Tokyo this summer). Truly wonderful folks! Hopefully, I can meet again with my wife and kids and talk about IEMs on the side too
I have a picture of their new Spartacus but the details slip my mind... sorry!
Speaking of families, Potafes had some family attendees too. Found these kids giving it a go at some headphones at multiple booths. They were screaming, “Youtube!!!”. I’m guessing their test tracks (shows?) are on Youtube. They are the next-generation audiophiles!
I tried the Thieaudio Monarch Mk3. This was actually a likeable set. The balance is very good. Makes for a very natural listen with good amount of note weight and resolution. It seems to fall behind on instrument separation and depth compared to some of the TOTL sets. It was easy to see why the Monarch series is so popular, especially at this price range.
Next, I visited the cool sets from Jomo – Fairlady and Skyline. Fairlady is a single DD + 2BA, and Skyline is a dual DD + 6 BA. Gotta love the name as a long-time gearhead and as someone who owned a Z car in the past. I auditioned Jomo Alpha Ti some months ago and remember being impressed with their neutral-natural tuning. I would say it was a U12t-type tuning with a little more authority in note weight and depth but a little closed-in with the stage. Fairlady and Skyline seemed to have the same tuning trend of being neutral-natural. Nothing sticks out and is very inoffensive. Fairlady was definitely flatter of the two. I think that the major shortcoming of Fairlady was the lack of resolution. It sounded pretty flat and unremarkable. Skyline had a little more punch, dynamics, and resolution to make things fun. Maybe a mid-tier contender?
I’m a fan of the VE midrange. Here, I got to hear the Aura! In short, this is Phonix LE infused with DD smoothness and bass. Not to be confused with other DD bass cannons because this is not. It’s rather a smooth analog-sounding DD with bass authority that was not present in Phonix OG/LE. From memory, it seems to have similar stage width to PLE. It has a neutral character that I notice with A&K collab IEMs. The mids don’t come forward as strong as Phonix OG or VE7/8, but it’s not lacking either. I thought the slight edgyness that I heard with Phonix OG/LE in the upper mids was smoothed out in this set. I would like to pick this up at some point and spend some time with it.
QDC had some nice sets. The white tiger and Superior. Superior was the type of neutral/natural tuning to compete with Monarch. I personally felt that the resolution was lacking for my taste. White Tiger on the other hand was tuned really well with excellent dynamics and resolution. The shell design and finish are superb. It’s slightly V-shaped with a lean but fast treble. On my first listen, I thought the vocals were thin and held back in the mix. I wanted to try again and spend more time with it but I didn’t get a chance to go back. Not something I would jump on but I would spend time with it if I have a chance. It's really challenging to give a thorough assessment of these wonderful IEMs. The White Tiger is a Japan-only model which makes it pretty unique. They said Anole V14s is still their flagship. But at roughly US$1300, I think this set has a good character for its price.
I already posted some of my comments about Lotoo Mjolnir here. Check it out if you are interested! In short, I loved it
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/new-top-lotoo-mjolnir.964478/post-17682156
More sights from Potafes
Finally
@ranfan and I wrapped up the evening over a nice dinner and more listening sessions with our own gears!
Two days of intense listening and a lot of good discussion. Ahh now I have a bug in my stomach wanting to go to Canjam. So much fun!
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Thanks 
