[bakawen]

Glad you guys had fun! Enjoyed the photos! Thanks to crumpler! 

 

[HNBP]

Hello from Japan and thank you for your cool impression of our products.
It make all our work and my 500 miles trip worthwhile.
I'll report about the show to my Father the president of Bakoon Products tomorrow.
Thank you very much for all Head-Fiers coming to the Headphone Festa.
I wish see you next time!
 

 

[crumpler]

Quote:

Glad you guys had fun! Enjoyed the photos! Thanks to crumpler! 

No worries at all. Glad you enjoyed them! 

 

[K3cT]

Jesus, what a show. Proof that the Japanese take their headphones VERY seriously. 

 

[vicjohn]

Hello,
 
1st. & 2nd. pix are not GRADO...
 
ZIO NOTE & JL Acoustic Labs.
 
Thanks.

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

First, I want to say the highlight of this event was simply to be able to hang around with cool people / head-fiers. We had a lot of fun in day and evening time and everybody is pretty burned out by now Will take a couple of days to recover at least...
 
I don't have pics to share as I knew Mkubota1 got that covered. Looks like crumpler is also running for the first place with the largest number of pics . As a matter of fact, I don't have so many listening impressions either as I did not sample much gear (one issue with being spoiled by an SR009 at home...). But basically, my experience resumes itself as being pleasantly surprised where I expected the least. I will list my impressions chronologically below. I won't be writing everything, esp. some things that sounded weird or meh, which I already forgot the name...
 
V-Moda M-80:

1. This prototype was brought by Val Kolton, the man behind V-Moda (info here: http://shop.v-moda.com/p-195-crossfade-m-80-on-ear.aspx )
2. I always thought this brand was just for wannabes looking for cool looking headphones without regard to how good or bad they sound
3. I could briefly listen to it a couple of times out of my iPhone 4 (no amp) before and after the meet as we hanged out all together
4. The fact that Val gave me 500 bucks to say good things about his new headphone might influence these impressions but basically, I liked what I listened to as I could not immediately detect any major fault and the tonal balance was very pleasing (emphasis on bass but not bloaty). 
5. Joke aside (Val is actually not very generous and didn't even buy me a beer , the headphone is named after some kind of explosive and I have to admit it fits well as it was simply a foot-tapping experience for me.
6. I listened quickly to a direct competitor, the Sennheiser HD-25 "original" ( http://www.sennheiserusa.com/music-dj-headphones-hifi-stereo-adidas-sennheiser_504260 ) with same iPhone player and it was nowhere near as good. In particular, the Sennheiser had some unnatural mid-highs which I noticed right away
7. Only drawback I could see is that it gets sweaty rather quickly and the clamping force is significant which may be getting uncomfortable over long time. I suspect this strong clamping force is part of the reason why it sounds good as the seal / distance to the driver apparently has huge influence on the response.
8. I'd say, it's probably a good choice for someone who likes a fun sound with punchy / forward bass (but not bloated). It's probably also good in a noisy environment as the isolation is significant and the tonal balance will cover up low frequency background noise leaking through the headphone.

 
<...snip...>
 

 

I'm going to use arnaud's post as a starting point as I could literally just say "What he said" with both V-Moda and Sony.
 

V-MODA

 
One of the front-desk girls poses with a pair of Crossfade LPs. The V-MODA table can be seen in the background.
 
I thought exactly the same thing as arnaud about V-Moda until I met Val. He puts the attention to detail into his products in a similar manner that Apple do, from the excellent plug through to the way the headphones come apart in stages if dropped or abused. While $200 cans with a "club sound" aren't my usual cup of tea, I do get what Val has aimed for with them and am now keen to give them a serious listen. A quick run through my recent favourites suggested they do a lot more right and and a lot less wrong than many headphones I've tried. They are designed for people who listen loud (Val used to be a DJ), a factor very much overlooked when people evaluate headphones.
 
Overall tone was, of course, with quite a bit of bass, but not too overbearing. Mids with vocals were very pleasing for cans in that price range. The treble was down a bit, but Val explained that many DJs who use headphones that have the usual 8-10k peak end up losing their hearing in that range quickly. What impressed me was that going from the larger LPs to the M-80s (I think it was) that the feeling of a more congested soundstage from the on-ears didn't last very long. The LPs certainly sound, as described, like a (night)club on your ears.
 

Fujiya Avic Shop

 
Our first stop, a day before the show, was the Fujiya Avic shop in Nakano. Those of you used to seeing high-end gear only on expensive racks with equally very expensive speakers and whatnot would be surprised to find a shop with cabinets and racks like these:
 

 
Before you ask, "Is that really a ..." I will tell you, yes, what you think you are seeing you really are, and I haven't even photographed the speakers or headphones. The front desk had the top JH, Westone and other custom IEMs (in universal versions) available for demo too.

 

[Amarphael]

Is that really a.... camera-DAC? Oh, those are Chord thingies...

 

[arnaud]

Nice write ups currawong, keep them coming!

 

[DarknightDK]

Any impressions on April Music's Eximus DP-1?

 

[warp08]

Quote:

Glad you guys had fun! Enjoyed the photos! Thanks to crumpler! 

x2.  Thanks a lot for the pictures and impressions!

 

[crumpler]

Quote:

x2.  Thanks a lot for the pictures and impressions!

 

[Asr]

Thanks for the pics & impressions by all who attended, looks like it was a great event. Maybe I'll attend at some point in the future, would be a great excuse to visit Japan at the same time as I've never been there.
 
I'm curious from either Jude or Drew, or anyone else who might have attended a CanJam in years past - how was this show in comparison? Bigger/smaller? Similar format? From the pics it seems like this show was roughly on scale with CanJam but at the same time, hard to tell how big it was exactly. It looks like this event could be leveraged as a sort of CanJam in Asia to help expand Head-Fi even more.
 
I didn't see any people impressions in the thread yet - I thought surely at least a couple people would've posted impressions of at least Jude. Inquiring minds would also like to know what else happened over the weekend, aside from the show itself.

 

[valkolton]

Quote:

 
V-Moda M-80:

1. This prototype was brought by Val Kolton, the man behind V-Moda (info here: http://shop.v-moda.com/p-195-crossfade-m-80-on-ear.aspx )
2. I always thought this brand was just for wannabes looking for cool looking headphones without regard to how good or bad they sound
3. I could briefly listen to it a couple of times out of my iPhone 4 (no amp) before and after the meet as we hanged out all together
4. The fact that Val gave me 500 bucks to say good things about his new headphone might influence these impressions but basically, I liked what I listened to as I could not immediately detect any major fault and the tonal balance was very pleasing (emphasis on bass but not bloaty). 
5. Joke aside (Val is actually not very generous and didn't even buy me a beer , the headphone is named after some kind of explosive and I have to admit it fits well as it was simply a foot-tapping experience for me.
6. I listened quickly to a direct competitor, the Sennheiser HD-25 "original" ( http://www.sennheiserusa.com/music-dj-headphones-hifi-stereo-adidas-sennheiser_504260 ) with same iPhone player and it was nowhere near as good. In particular, the Sennheiser had some unnatural mid-highs which I noticed right away
7. Only drawback I could see is that it gets sweaty rather quickly and the clamping force is significant which may be getting uncomfortable over long time. I suspect this strong clamping force is part of the reason why it sounds good as the seal / distance to the driver apparently has huge influence on the response.
8. I'd say, it's probably a good choice for someone who likes a fun sound with punchy / forward bass (but not bloated). It's probably also good in a noisy environment as the isolation is significant and the tonal balance will cover up low frequency background noise leaking through the headphone.

 

 
arnaud - I would have bought you a beer but my damn credit card wouldn't work in Tokyo and I had to resort to Paypal!  TRUE STORY on the way from the Hotel in Roppongi to the Airport I had to pay the 22,000 yen taxi cab fare with a pair of CROSSFADES bc of my credit card issues!  Priceless memory and amazing times getting to know more about sound profiles and great people...
 
-v 

 

[warp08]

Quote:

Thanks for the pics & impressions by all who attended, looks like it was a great event. Maybe I'll attend at some point in the future, would be a great excuse to visit Japan at the same time as I've never been there.
 

I was thinking the same thing.  Perhaps one of you would be generous enough to provide a rough estimate of what sort expenses one may expect to attend this event vs. RMAF/Can Jam in Denver (in addition to differences in airfare).

 

[arnaud]

Quote:

... provide a rough estimate of what sort expenses one may expect to attend this event ...

It really all depends if you follow Val all night in Roppongi or not, I haven't but one of us did .