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Canjam SoCal Headphone and Audio Show 2019

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amirm

amirm

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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.
 
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This is the look you get from dCS folks when you tell them you have pink panthers as models:
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:)

They have a combo DAC, streamer and headphone amplifier going for a cool $15,000. It sounded quite powerful and clean:
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The kind folks at Empire let me try their electrostatic (?) headphones. These things had an impedance of just 3 and 4 ohm!
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I was wondering how the Chord Hugo 2 was capable of driving them:
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Only to turn it up and have the Hugo 2 shut down!

Very nice drum track:
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I got to spend some time in iFi booth listening to iCan pro and iDSD Pro:

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Both had a switch where you could activate the but stage lightly and then heavily. Sadly all the switch did was add distortion lightly and then heavily. :)
 
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Projekt folks were there with this turntable which would turn red when lit that way:
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Looked pretty cool. Asked them to send me some of their electronics for testing. They said they would follow up.
 
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Spent some time at Sennheiser booth. Tried these bluetooth IEMs:
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Problem I had with them that they were so easy to lose. Not for active listening.

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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Many suites had underpowered headphone amplifiers that would get distorted at high volumes. One company that completely avoided that issue was Focal. They had a large area and had every top end amp/dac they could find, all with plenty of power:

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That's it for day one report, sans the great talk from Dr. Sean Olive and not so great talk from Rob Watts of Chord. I will post those in separate threads with my commentary.
 

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Hugo9000

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I really love the look of the spL units! I think I'd pick black, although the red actually looks nice as well. Wish their prices were lower, but it's nice eye candy haha!

I'm glad you decided to go to the show after all, and thanks for all of your photos and comments! I look forward to reading your updates tomorrow. :)
 

gvl

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Thanks for the report, I should have forced my arse to go there for a chance to listen to gear I will never own.
 
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