Canjam SoCal Headphone and Audio Show 2019

[Belgarathian]

There were a few local dealers showing some gear. This was from one of them which I think is also the distributor for some of the brands.

Pathos Acoustics InPol Ear. It is a hybrid design and sounded good with the ZMF headphones:
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This is something I'd be super excited to see measured along with the Aurium sitting next to it...

 

[cjfrbw]

You're the bestest at show reports, Amir, thanks. Were there any 'private' booths where individuals brought their home setups to listen to? Some guys also bring non-commercial DIY amplifier projects.

 

[MatrixAudio]

Definitely not Cao's first CanJam. He was in Singapore in March, I spoke to him there and then and breached the idea of sending their stuff over to ASR there as well. You can ask if he recalls that though. ( I was the guy who has the HPA-3B he had on the desk.)
Maybe they are there under their own flag for the first time, as in Singapore, they were under Shenzhen Audio's booth.

Oh forgot to add, if you can get into a short enough queue, go audition the Raal SR1a headphones and share what you think of it.
If there is a unique headphone worth your time to check out, that's probably the one.

I think I misleaded Amir before, it should be our first CanJam show in the US. we have ever attended CanJam Singapore and CanJam Shanghai. CanJam is awesome. we booked the booth under Shenzhen audio's help, but we show products under our own flag, even if at Singapore.

By the way, please allow me to send greetings to the old user maxxevv on behalf of the Matrix team.

 

[maxxevv]

This Raal Requisite SR1a headphone was pretty interesting. The driver is user replaceable (about $390 I think):

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I listened to them for a while. They don't sound like headphones or speakers. Actually they sound like little speakers hanging around your ear, pointing back. You can fold them to get better bass. I thought the sound was open (well duh!) and pretty low in distortion. Sounded really good for classical music.

But again, they are a unique experience of their own. Worth trying them even though they are pretty expensive ($3,500?).

They have 0.2 ohm impedance so you need a power amp and their adapter to drive them.

Interesting that they sounded that way to you. Guess different ears will interact with the setup differently.

To me, they sounded like a pair of small monitors in a well treated room, albeit a bass light pair. They sounded like the stereo and audio spatial cues were coming to me from a few feet in front of me rather than most headphones between my ears and in some (better )cases, just in front of my nose.

It was a really (positively) different experience for a headphone to sound like it was NOT right next to my ears.

 

[MatrixAudio]

He is the middle guy pointing to the front. Funny thing the guy sitting next to me was trying to convince me to buy one of their DACs.

Why my little hair seemed to be less in Amir's photo. Amir you need to improve your photograph technology.

 

[Jimster480]

Pretty nice report!

Did you listen to the Manley Amp that gvl posted?

My buddy auditioned it on one of the "tours" and we had a meet at my house to check it out.
Its pretty cool although I think its performance is somewhat limited.

 

[Veri]

Shenzhen Audio folks were there representing a number of brands from SMSL to Topping:

They were super helpful and friendly and gave me a grand tour of everything.

This P1 amp sounded pretty powerful and good! The D2 price is way up there ($1600?).

Wow, P1 amp cool!

Why my little hair seemed to be less in Amir's photo. Amir you need to improve your photograph technology.

Lol

 

[vkvedam]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing your thoughts Amir.

 

[maxxevv]

Wow, P1 amp cool!



Lol

They showed the P1 at CanJam Singapore. But at that point, they were not committed to putting it into production. Apparently due to concerns of demand versus price point.

 

[Veri]

They showed the P1 at CanJam Singapore. But at that point, they were not committed to putting it into production. Apparently due to concerns of demand versus price point.

Maybe in favor of this thing looks like a THX AAA clone if I ever seen one

 

[BillG]

Our favorite vendor, Synergistic Audio was there I think selling some kind of table to put your gear on. Supposedly, it stops the stray electrons from leaking below your gear (kidding):


They did not have many takes though as you can tell by the folks reading their mail or whatever on the phone.

Hahahah! I actually banned Ted, the founder, from a forum I moderate a few months ago! He joined and started his usual con job on some of our more susceptible members and I wasn't having it...

 

[Nango]

Thanks @amirm for sharing your experiences, want moooooooooooore!!!!

 

[maxxevv]

Maybe in favor of this thing looks like a THX AAA clone if I ever seen one

They are targeted at different market segments, so I don't see how it would though ?

The P1 is clearly targeted at users of the D1 and D2 DACs. So it would be in the over US$500/- bracket and a no-holds barred performance tour-de-force to churn out SOTA, or at least comparable performance.

I'm pretty sure the SP500 is targetted at buyers of the M500 range of products. Something in the sub-US$300/- range for an amp and designed with a parts bin cost matched to that price point and performance generally acceptable to that target audience.

 

[maxxevv]

Why my little hair seemed to be less in Amir's photo. Amir you need to improve your photograph technology.

lol ....

It was great to meet you then and see you again on this forum. Wish there were more manufacturers who were more engaging in their engineering endeavours and pursuit of engineering excellence.

Likewise it was great to meet @TP-Wong at the Topping booth in Singapore too.

 

[LTig]

Listened to the closed back HD-800s headphones. Was surprised that the signature did not match that of HD-800. It was closer to HD-650 but not as nice.

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Just nitpicking: the closed model is the HD820s.

 

[trl]

More Headamp:

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More Chord:
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This Blue Hawaii SE tube amp sounded good:

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This GS-X Mini looked very nice but seem to run out of power with the headphones attached to it.

[...]

Are you referring to SUSVARA? If yes, based on @solderdude's measurements these headphones have a sensitivity of 74dB/mW, so we need an amp able to deliver 4W/ch. (15.5V RMS) to reach to 110dB and 8W/ch. (22V RMS) to reach to 112dB, so most likely GS-X mini 4W/ch. may not be the best out there for this task. Manufacturer seems to recommend a good pair with EF1000 that delivers about 12W/ch. in 60 Ohms (26.5 V RMS).

However, GS-X Mini has 16 SMD transistors as output buffer in each channel, so a total of 64 transistors...quite a potent amp after all. I'd like to see it on Amir's bench.

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Of course, same applies to EF1000 from Hifiman, where I can spot 24 big output transistor, 6 per channel:

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[Thomas savage]

@amirm you must wear your crown and make a example of those who ignore you or just fail to afford you the respect the king of audio deserves.

Good job.

 

[q3cpma]

Thanks for the pics.

(quite the cutie in that first MrSpeakers picture)

 

[Veri]

Of course, same applies to EF1000 from Hifiman, where I can spot 24 big output transistor, 6 per channel:

HomeTheaterHiFi content​

I don't think we can see the second pic/reference

 

[Shadrach]

I was disappointed to just get a wrist-band for admission. No name badge so no one could tell who you were. I had to keep introducing myself and handing out business cards. Manufactures couldn't tell if I was a customer or not without such a name tag. Exhibitors all name tags. Don't know why could not give visitors some, even if it were hand written.

I don't understand this. Why should they care who you are?