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Canjam SoCal Headphone and Audio Show 2019 Part 2

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amirm

amirm

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The pictured black headphones are the open back Utopia, the Stellia are brown closed backs. Which did you like?
The Stellia.
 

JohnYang1997

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The expression "following the Harman curve" too often gets casually thrown around like it's no big deal. It's akin to saying a pair of speakers measure perfectly flat in an anechoic chamber. Complete bonkers claim.
Stellia have bloated upper bass and a recessed treble response:
https://www.0db.co.kr/index.php?mid=REVIEW_0DB&category=182&document_srl=647940
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/focal/stellia
Stellia is almost perfect. It's the best of focal line.
 

JohnYang1997

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One thing to notice about 0db's new measurements. They adopted the new gras hires system which has recessed 10k response, same problem with Jude's gras hires head. Naver ear fi, and old 0db, along with rtings are using old, standard heads. Rtings is a the same head as tyll's head but they do measure a bit different. They both have a bit recessed treble when measuring in ears, feels like not as high acoustic impedance peak at 13.5khz as old gras and bk.
 

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Btw, in terms of measurements of iems. Moondrop has the best measuring iems along with etymotics. I think they have kxxs, a8 this time. Sean Olive listened to both. He liked kxxs. tho a8 is closer match to harman target.
 

AndrovichIV

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A bit OT, but Qobuz being a lossless and sometimes hi-def supplier, the question is why would either not be a bit perfect stream of the source?

Because streaming services only stream files that are provided by the records label from what I understand. I read somewhere that these labels put "sonic watermarks" on the files given to streaming services.
 

DanWiggins

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Had a great time talking shop with Don Higgins of Periodic Headphones:

View attachment 28234

The have the same IEMs made out of different material and a quick switch fixturey the have built themselves. Made for great science experience, pun intended :), on different driver material. They also have ultra small headphone amplifier with built-in battery that sounded really good. They gave me one to review. I was pleased that they had verified its performance using Audio Precision analyzer!

Their $99 IEMs are all built in Ventura County (California) and sounded pretty good!
Thank you Amir, it was great to meet you! I can send you the proj file we use with our AP for testing...:) We also have a CRYSound 6151B for production acoustic testing of our IEMs, and an Audiomatica CLIO for engineering research when doing speakers. But the AP excels at electronics...

Dan
 

pozz

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The most amazing thing I heard was Rob Watts saying (again after yesterday's session) that he can measure and hear distortions at 300 dB down.
Was Watts repeating his claim that his custom noiseshapers run at -350dB as in the presentation below?

 

Dongulus

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I was there yesterday. This was my first audio show so I don't think I got out of what I could have. Here were some highlights for me:
- The Raal ribbon headphones. I was blown away by these. The sound was so open like listening to room speakers. It's actually got me thinking about trying to develop my own DIY version. The designer was there and he was very friendly and informative.
- The Pro-Ject Pre Box S2. This is a little DAC/Amp combo. I was told it costs $350. They showed off one without the case and I was immediately impressed by the layout and high quality components. The power supply and DAC section were well isolated. Talking with the rep there it really sounded that the designers were focused on a clean sound. When I asked the rep about distortion figures he said that they were measuring near the limit of their test equipment. Sounded promising and I hope Amir gets his hands on one. Although it has a headphone jack, it's designed as more of a pre-amp so the output power is limited, unfortunately.
- I tried the Focal Clear, Elear, and Utopia. They all sounded great to me and were some of the clearest headphones I listened to. One guy near me at the same booth was really rocking out so I could tell he thought highly of them too.
- I got a kick talking with the Synergistic Audio rep. I'm not bold enough to try to confront people on blatant BS, but I had fun listening to the sales pitch while trying to keep from snickering. They had two identical setups for A/B testing, one with stock cables and the other with Synergistic Audio magic. This included a platform to create a "unified electomagnetic platform for all of your equipment", a signal conditioner for your headphones, special power cables for the DAC and Amp for power conditioning, and a grounding block for all of the unused input/output jacks. Not surprisingly I didn't notice any difference.
- I heard the Schiit stack and Lyr for the first time. Maybe because my expectations have been set by this forum, but I was extremely underwhelmed.
 
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Tircuit

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Chinese company SendyAudio was showing these Avia planar magnetic headphones:

View attachment 28226

They sounded decent and go for $499 to $599. He said their factor is where the factory for other headphone makers.

These had great earpads with a contour at your neck. Great seal and very comfortable. Wish everyone did this! One of the best sounding that I tried in the $500 range.
 

Tircuit

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This hifiman Jade II electrostatic headphone was so light and comfortable to wear. Here it is mated to its amplifier:

View attachment 28229
View attachment 28230

The package is $1,399. I might prefer this to my stax setup as it could get louder and had more bass.

I didn't realize these were electrostatic! The cable should have been a hint. I was underwhelmed by the bass so put them away quickly. Now I wish I'd given them more of a chance because I've never heard electrostats before.
 

AndrovichIV

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God, I LOVE the 99 Classics! Not neutral in any way, but very enjoyable warmish, mid-bass forward signature to my tatses. And decent soundstage from closed back cans, I'd say.

for me, the DT 770 do everything better at a lower price. But admittedly, the sound signatures are very different. I liked the NAD Viso HP50 more, which has a similar signature to the 99
 

Belgarathian

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I think someone asked me in day 1 report to learn more about this Pathos Aurium so I spent some time on it:View attachment 28241

It is a hybrid design (solid state output) so it had good power and sounded good. Industrial design is also unique.

That would be me trying to validate my purchase about 3 days before finding ASR and about 10 days after finding this review from Inner Fidelity https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/pathos-aurium-hybrid-headphone-amplifier
 

rando

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Got a kick out of the econo printer paper signs on equipment everywhere. Maybe a little Amir didn't arrive at monogramming a SS polo shirt or getting a presentable pin on nametag made up for events he wishes to be recognized at. Possibly both to make sure.

Anyways, if the show was anywhere near as enjoyable as the reports were. It was a worthwhile effort to document for those of us unlikely to encounter this type of event irl.
 
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