[Anjolie]

So, I found and read this article today http://www.androidauthority.com/no-headphone-jacks-bad-idea-opinion-805797/ about more phones losing headphone jacks with little gains in return.

The timing couldn't be any better. I just bought the CEntrance BlueDAC at RMAF for myself and my son to combat this switch to bluetooth everything, with lack of headphone jacks becoming more prevalent in modern cell phones. See https://www.centrance.com/products/bluedac/ for more information.

This CEntrance BlueDAC will act as a bridge to connect almost any kind of headphone to my iPhone 7+ (and other cell phones in the future). The wired sound quality was indistinguishable with my wired DACportable (with DSD and 32/384 decoding via USB), and the wireless sound quality with it's upsampling is stunning and difficult to discern from wired playback. This despite the iPhone using AAC over bluetooth and not the AptX-HD codec.

It uses the AK4490 DAC, and a class-A headphone amplifier with digital volume control. It has a Li-Planet Ocean battery for wireless operation, with up to 20 hours of battery life. I neglected to find out if it draws power from the iPhone when used with a USB camera connection kit. It's made of a lightweight plastic case instead of their previous heavy CNC cases, so it's easier to carry. The outputs are a 3.5mm stereo jack and a 2.5mm balanced TRS jack.

The sound quality of the BlueDAC with our HiFiMan Edition-X was simply outstanding. The bass impact we experienced was totally unexpected and welcome, but the broad and open soundstage and transparency was even more welcome. It's got plenty of power to drive the Mr Speakers Ether Flow open headphones, which are a few dB less efficient. It can also drive the HiFiMan Sundara, which are a bit less efficient than our Edition-X. In low gain mode, it worked very well with my Westone ES60 custom IEM, with a very low noise floor.

The BlueDAC was one of the YOU MUST HAVE purchases to consider this year.

Other items that are on our highly recommended list are the HiFiMan HE-1000 mk2 and Edition-X and Sundara, Audioengine HD6 and also their B1 DAC and D2 DAC, PS Audio Perfectwave DSD DAC, Stax SR-009 with Headamp Blue Hawaii, Headamp GS-X and Gilmore Lite, Focal Utopia headphones, Mr Speakers Ether C Flow, Audeze LCD-3, Foster TH900 mk2, Sennheiser 820 balanced amp and HD-800S headphones, Westone W60 or W80 or ES60 IEM, and JH 16Pro V2 or Roxanne, Focal Sopra No.3 speakers, and PSB subseries 450 subwoofer. I also encouraged CEntrance to bring back the HiFi-M8 at a more affordable or attractive price.

You've definitely piqued my interest in the BlueDAC. It's on my list now!

 

[Vigrith]

I moved Tyl down below Z-Reviews on the list of people who I care about what they say. That's pretty far down the list. At least Zeos is funny.

Silly thing to say, really. You can disagree with Tyll all you want but fact of matter is he was listening to headphones before many of us were born and his expertise is not only inarguable but also based on the (in my opinion) most impressive measuring rig in the community. His opinions and preferred sound tuning is obvious, you can then use that discern what YOU would think of the headphones he's evaluating - that's how reviews work. It has nothing to do with incompetency on his side.

 

[Imusicman]

I read somewhere that Danacables were at the show? Anyone who heard the Utopia/Lazuli Ref combo I would love to hear your feedback. Same for anyone who tried the Alo Gold 16 cable covered in Judes video

 

[mahesvara]

I read somewhere that Danacables were at the show?

Danacables was at the show, but Dana didn't bring the Utopia or the Lazuli Ref for it. He did bring the one he made for the HiFiMan HEKv2 and I did A/B testing for the Dana cable and the HiFiMan stock cable. My honest opinion is that even though there is a clear difference between the stock and the Dana cable (the latter has much better clarity and the former made it sound like there's a veil), the price of the Lazuli Ref cable makes it not worth it in my opinion.

All these VERY expensive cables all make the claim that they are better than stock cables. That is objectively true. The one thing that's left unsaid is whether they're better than the custom cables that other people make that are of higher quality than stock but far more affordable. I actually don't think so. I purchased the Utopia premium-sleeved balanced cable from Ursine Audio, it cost me less than $200, and I remember being wowed by the much better clarity over the stock Utopia cable. The difference I heard at RMAF for the HE1Kv2 is almost at the same level. The Lazuli Ref cable is $1200 at minimum.

 

[Imusicman]

Danacables was at the show, but Dana didn't bring the Utopia or the Lazuli Ref for it. He did bring the one he made for the HiFiMan HEKv2 and I did A/B testing for the Dana cable and the HiFiMan stock cable. My honest opinion is that even though there is a clear difference between the stock and the Dana cable (the latter has much better clarity and the former made it sound like there's a veil), the price of the Lazuli Ref cable makes it not worth it in my opinion.

All these VERY expensive cables all make the claim that they are far better than stock cables. That is objectively true. The one thing that's left unsaid is whether they're better than the custom cables that other people make that are of higher quality than stock but far more affordable. I actually don't think so. I purchased the Utopia premium-sleeved balanced cable from Ursine Audio, it cost me less than $200, and I remember being wowed by the much better clarity over the stock Utopia cable. The difference I heard at RMAF for the HE1Kv2 is almost at the same level. The Lazuli Ref cable is $1200 at minimum.

Thank you for replying and I appreciate your feedback. To be honest it's the price and living in the UK (import duties/taxes) that are stopping me pulling the trigger. Even though I own the Dave & Utopia which are big investments I am struggling with the cost/value ratio on this cable

 

[czy6412]

For Dana Cable the difference is not that significant which is a disappointment to me. I hope that is because their own amp cannot drive HE1000 well.

 

[twiceboss]

Darn, I've been holding out for this new Sennheiser 820 for so long.. been saving my lil money and now I hear it isn't even worth it..

You can try first if u want! Our ears are different xD

 

[mahesvara]

which are big investments I am struggling with the cost/value ratio on this cable

You should try the cheaper custom cables out there

I'm partial to Ursine Audio because I like the guy's handiwork and the reasonable cost. But I'm sure there are tons of other makers out there too that charge similarly.

 

[wldcohso]

You can try first if u want! Our ears are different xD

Based off what you heard, what was it lacking?

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Danacables was at the show, but Dana didn't bring the Utopia or the Lazuli Ref for it. He did bring the one he made for the HiFiMan HEKv2 and I did A/B testing for the Dana cable and the HiFiMan stock cable. My honest opinion is that even though there is a clear difference between the stock and the Dana cable (the latter has much better clarity and the former made it sound like there's a veil), the price of the Lazuli Ref cable makes it not worth it in my opinion.

All these VERY expensive cables all make the claim that they are better than stock cables. That is objectively true. The one thing that's left unsaid is whether they're better than the custom cables that other people make that are of higher quality than stock but far more affordable. I actually don't think so. I purchased the Utopia premium-sleeved balanced cable from Ursine Audio, it cost me less than $200, and I remember being wowed by the much better clarity over the stock Utopia cable. The difference I heard at RMAF for the HE1Kv2 is almost at the same level. The Lazuli Ref cable is $1200 at minimum.

Thanks for that.

Usually, for me, I find that the Moon-Audio Silver Dragon V3 on my HD600, HE-500/560/6, and LCD-2 v2 is about as good of a cable as I'll ever need (and their Black Dragon for my HD800). I've heard a lot of very good cables from ALO and Ted the Cable Guy, but the price to performance ratio starts to give me a heart attack.

So I stopped paying attention to new cables for the most part since about 4 years ago, and just stick with ones I know. My next cable will be a Silver Dragon for my Edition-X and HE-1000 Mk1, and a 2.5mm balanced TRS adapter for my existing balanced Moon-Audio cables, but I don't see myself spending more than what Drew charges for just a minuscule improvement over his.

 

[makethemusic]

Everyone, one of our community members, @moedawg140 needs our help! Please give what you can, and more importantly please share this everywhere over Head-Fi!

https://www.gofundme.com/maurice-and-suzzettes-medical-fund

 

[XERO1]

Everyone, one of our community members, @moedawg140 needs our help! Please give what you can, and more importantly please share this everywhere over Head-Fi!

https://www.gofundme.com/maurice-and-suzzettes-medical-fund

Oh my God. This sounds really serious.
Moe is one of the best people I've ever met. He's the kind of guy who would never ask for help if he didn't really need it. Every little bit of our help will go a long way for him and his family.

 

[miceblue]

Post 1/5 (CanJam Part 1)
Since the new Head-Fi platform limits how many photos one can upload per post, and a file size limit, I will have a total of 5 posts for my CanJam at RMAF experience (2 posts for headphones, 1 post for 2-channel, 1 post for Audio Precision measurements, and 1 post for miscellaneous stuff).

If you want to see the Hi-ResTM photos, and more, I also uploaded them onto Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/miceblue/82U29p

Let's get right into business!

Spoiler: Final

They had a huge selection of in-ear earphones to listen to.



This was right after noon on Friday, and I wasn't sure who else would be in the CanJam area, so I just stopped by to say hello. I also signed up for the do-it-yourself in-ear earphone workshop that they were hosting, so I confirmed my spot. Funnily enough, a couple of other Seattlites signed up for the same workshop at the same time! : D

I did sit down to give the D8000 a listen though. It was hooked up to a Chord Dave, so the setup was more than optimal for a listen. I thought it sounded okay, but it wasn't my preferred sound signature. It has a lot of bass presence and a nice amount of air up top. The bass wasn't the cleanest sounding bass on the other hand and it didn't quite have the clean response that I'm used to hearing from a planar magnetic headphone. I had nice slam though.



They were displaying the D8000's disassembled drivers on the table in a nice presentation case.

Spoiler: Rupert Neve

I had previously heard a lot about Rupert Neve's headphone amp from previous events, but I have never had the chance to listen to one. I listened to my own music from their Pono Player with balanced outputs going to the Neve amp and I plugged in my Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors. Wow, what a clean-sounding amp! The volume potentiometer is also dead accurate even at the lowest of the lowest volume settings, which is ideal for my listening practices! I am familiar with the Pono Player's sound and this nifty amp just sounded dead-neutral to me: a true wire with gain.

I spent a lot of time talking to the folks at the table about the amp's design and about pro-audio in general. I even asked about the slew rate of the amp and one of the guys called up their engineers to do tests for me. Now that's impressive customer service! I was really tempted to buy one on the spot, but the end decision was a "no" for me since I don't quite have a setup that can truly benefit from this amp.

Spoiler: Unique Melody

I stopped by UM to say hello to @Cotnijoe. We had a good conversation about their newest 4-pin cable, which I think is really unique. It's a copper and separate silver [not-hybrid] cable that's designed to give the user the option to listen to either the copper cable or the silver cable. I gave it a listen and I knew right away which one was silver and which one was copper. I prefer copper myself, but I know many others like the sound from silver.





UM was showcasing their flagship Mason V3 prototype [16 drivers] as well as their planar magnetic in-ear. The Mason V3 is a warm-sounding in-ear with a lot of bass punch. The imaging is pretty solid, but it has more of a deep-sounding soundstage presentation than wide, or rounded.





I enjoyed listening to their planar in-ear though! I like it more than the iSine 20 since it has a warm sound signature overall without the wonky upper-midrange of the iSine 20. It also has more noise isolation from what heard, and it fit better in my ear. It's worth checking out if you can audition it. A thumbs up from me!

Spoiler: Beyerdynamic

Across from UM was Beyerdynamic. Right away, I asked one of the representatives how to pronounce the company's name. It's Bai-er-dye-naa-mic, not Bay-er-dye-naa-mic. It kind of irks me when people mis-pronounce names like how Audeze is pronounced Aw-dih-see, not Aw-deeze; you're missing a whole syllable there.

Anyway, I was familiar with the DT1350 and I was interested in giving their new Aventho on-ear a try. Coming from a background in hearing physiology, I was naturally curious about their "Make it Yourself" hearing compensation spiel in collaboration with Mimi Hearing Technologies. In short: it uses DSP to attempt to compensate for the frequencies you lose as one ages. You can have a personalized DSP compensation for your ears, or you can use a generalized one for your age. Even without the DSP, I didn't think much of its sound. With the DSP, I thought it was overly-trebly and bassy for my personal tastes at my age. Maybe my hearing is better than the average 26-year old.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Spoiler: MrSpeakers

In lighter news, I listend to MrSpeaker's latest version of the Ether Electrostat and I was thoroughly impressed with it. Better dynamics, better imaging, better soundstaging was what I got out of it compared to when I heard it a few months back. I dare-say it sounds more balanced than many STAX headphones. I can't wait to see what others think of it!

Spoiler: Koss

I didn't listen to them, but I finally got to see an ESP-950 and Pro 4AA with my own eyes.

Spoiler: Focal

I don't know what the heck was wrong with the PrismSound DAC/amp at their table, but it sounded horrible and just plain wrong with the Clear. I gave it another listen on the Questyle stack next to it and it sounded like I was expecting it to sound. I like the Clear more than both the Elear and Utopia. To me it's like a combination of the two: the Elear's warmth and pleasant sound with the speed and technicality of the Utopia. I never really liked the Utopia because it always sounded too bright to me, and the Clear does have a little bit of that but not quite as much. Indeed, next to the Clear, on the same setup, with the same music, the Utopia sounds brighter in the upper-midrange.



I listened to their new Sphear S too since someone had recommended me to listen to the original Sphear and I thought it was super sibilant. It should be called the Sphear Sibilance. I couldn't listen to it for more than a minute before my ears got tired of hearing piercing SSSSSSSSS SSSSoundSSSSSSSS. Yuck.

Spoiler: Final Do-It-Yourself Earphone Workshop

I think this was easily one of the highlights for me at this CanJam event. It was really neat to be able to take a stock in-ear earphone and add passive acoustic filters to it to tune its sound. It involved switching out the filters a couple of times, but I was aiming for a more neutral sound. See post 5/5 for the Audio Precision measurements. Michael Brown and all the folks at Final were really fun to chat with.

Other in-ear earphones allow you to change the tuning with passive filters as well, but this was my first time experimenting with them, and it only cost me $55 as opposed to multiple hundreds of dollars, or even thousands. I'd recommend this workshop to anyone interested in seeing how different materials can change the sound of an in-ear earphone.

 

[miceblue]

Post 2/5 (CanJam Part 2)

Spoiler: MySphere

Holy moly.

This is the only way I can sum up my experience with the MySphere 3.1. I don't quite recall the MSRP they were thinking of putting this at, but I think it was around $4000 USD. This is the only headphone that I think is worth that MSRP price.

Like the legendary AKG K1000 (in which some of the engineers on that project worked on this project), the MySphere 3.1 has articulating "wings" that hover near, but not on, your ear. Like the K1000, you get to hear the sound differently depending on the position of the "wings."

I did all of my listening tests on the updated Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies, and I was there for a good 30 minutes.























"Wings" closed:
The lows are very much present, punchy, and a bit loose-sounding to me. The mids and highs sound relatively flat, albeit a bit thick, and not unpleasant to me, but the treble seems to have a grainy aspect to it.. The imaging and soundstage sound like a conventional open-back headphone; they're solid, but still in your head.


"Wings" open:
The lows are really toned down in presence but they maintain a punchy sound. The mids and highs are still about the same as before. The imaging though, now this is where it becomes interesting similar to the K1000. The images are much more spread apart from each other, and the soundstage sounds more like I was in the recording rather than being in my head.


"Wings" half-way:
It's the 'just right' Goldilocks position for me. It maintains the bass presence while having imaging and soundstaging that are just outside of my head. It's hard to describe accurately so I attempted to record my listening session below with the binaural in-ear microphones. This particular track is one I use for soundstaging and imaging abilities because from the liner notes, the listener knows where all the instruments are relative to the microphones and/or center stage, and it was recorded in an echoey church in Norway.




0:03 - "Wings" closed
2:07 - "Wings" open
4:17 - "Wings" at a 45˚ angle

Sorry for the recording environment. The room literally became more busy and noisier right when I hit the record button. >.>

What I really liked was being able to talk to the MySphere representative there. I had no idea MySphere is an acoustic measurement company, but after learning that, it wasn't surprising to me that they had done a lot of measurements of the MySphere. Apart from that, the rep really knew his stuff and he gladly talked to me about the technical aspects of the headphone. I guess they use 40 mm dynamic drivers in the MySphere 3.1 and they have a maximum excursion distance of a staggering 4 mm! They're 15 ohms, and are able to be driven fairly well from a modern smartphone.

Two thumbs up for me.

Spoiler: STAX

In the same room as the MySphere, STAX was showcasing their newest products. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the SR-L500 on the SRM-353X. I wasn't a big fan of the treble presentation on this headphone though compared to what I'm used to from the traditional Lambda-series headphones: it was a bit sizzly for my tastes and I felt that the 9-10 kHz peak in the frequency response was overly done. I do think it's a step up from the SR-207 though overall: better dynamics, better imaging abilities, more accurate soundstage representation.

I wasn't a big fan of the SR-L700 on the other hand. I wasn't hearing much of a difference in sound quality per se, but just a kind of warmer sound presentation overall when using the same solid-state amp.

Listening to the SR-L500 on the 2nd generation Woo Audio WES, I thought the sound was overly warm, again, for my tastes. I could see how this setup would work really well for the SR-009 on the other hand. For the SR-L500, I would recommend sticking to solid-state amps.


It was fun chatting with Douglas there, who is the new STAX USA representative, as well as Jack Wu and and @HiFiGuy528 of Woo Audio. Jack was kind enough to let me add a song to their music server via Roon.

Spoiler: HIFIMAN

Still in the same room as STAX and MySphere, Woo Audio was demonstrating the HIFIMAN Susvara headphone with their WA33 amp.





I had previously heard the Susvara before and I thought it was a good headphone. But dang they sounded nice on the WA33! Smooth, lush, and not a typical HIFIMAN kind of sound presentation. My only complaint was that the bass seemed a bit slow compared to the rest of the frequencies, so it ultimately made the headphone sound a bit loose.

At the actual HIFIMAN booth in the large CanJam area, I gave their Sundara prototype a listen. I think it will do very well in this price point given its current voicing. It has a faster bass response compared to the Susvara setup above, but it does have the HIFIMAN upper-midrange/lower-treble brightness to it. It wasn't sibilant though, so that's good news. The build quality was atrocious though and I felt like it was going to fall apart as I put it on my head. Hopefully this prototype is closer to a working prototype/proof-of-concept than a near-finished product.

Spoiler: Schiit Audio

I stopped by the Schiit table to see what the brouhaha was about the Gadget. I gave it a good 15-minute listen with my own music and to be quite perfectly honest, I didn't hear a difference with the tracks I tried. I tried it with the knob all the way "negative," the knob all the way "positive," in the middle, on, or off. When you're adjusting the knob, you can hear the music change, but then after that, it sounded exactly the same to me. Supposedly the light turns on when it's in the correct mode, but 100% of the time, my tracks had the light on when the knob was exactly in the center, so I'm not quite sure what the Gadget is for.



That being said, the Audeze LCD-3 (non-Fazor) sounded fan-freaking-tastic on the Eitr, BiMB, Lyr 2 stack. I always liked the LCD-2/3 before the Fazor versions were released and this stack was a throwback to when I was first getting into the Head-Fi community in Seattle. Ah those memories. : D

Spoiler: Audeze

Speaking of Audeze (again: Aw-dih-see, not Aw-deeze), I visited their table next since it was within the same aisle. I gave their LCD-MX a listen. No Fazor? Check. Really sublime sound? Check. Comfortable fit? Check. Man I really enjoyed listening to these. It has a pretty flat sound to it from what I heard. No weird upper-midrange coloration, pretty smooth treble response, warm bass and lower-midrange. Just a clean-sounding headphone as a whole. One problem I did have was that it had a pretty noticeable channel imbalance. Perhaps this was due to the cabling, or maybe the unit was defective. I don't think it was the Nagra stack.

A thumbs up from me, and I can't wait to hear more of it.



I gave the LCD-2C[lassic] a try and didn't think much of it to be honest. It doesn't quite have the same sound that I remember from early Head-Fi meets in Seattle.

Spoiler: 64 Audio

One of the Seattlites had recommended me to listen to the Tia Fourte. From my listening session, I really enjoyed it and I think it's got something special going for it. It sounded really dynamic for an in-ear earphone, perhaps due to the TIA driver. The bass was nice and clean-sounding too. Just wow. The Tia Fourte is definitely going to be on my watchlist. It's a definite step-up in sound quality from most in-ears that I've heard throughout the years.

A thumbs up from me.

Spoiler: Chord

Last, but not least, I wanted to give the Hugo 2 a listen. It's a very clean DAC/amp unit and it has one of the best crossfeed features I've heard in a device. The filters didn't really do much for me since they're so subtle, but I ended up liking the default white filter the most. I don't have any negatives to say about it other than the price. Smooth and open were the impressions I got from it.

A thumbs up from me.

 

[miceblue]

Post 3/5 (RMAF)
This isn't really the right place for RMAF stuff since this is a forum for personal audio, but I'll post this here if anyone is interested.

Spoiler: ELAC

I will say that the ELAC Uni-Fi Dolby Atmos room was quite impressive for a home theater setup at just over $4k. Just think, you can buy a whole surround system theater setup for the price of a Focal Utopia and a $200 amp.




0:00 - Dolby Atmos logo demo
0:37 - Game of Thrones scene
3:48 - I don't know where this scene is from
6:03 - Darlingside - The Ancestor

Of course, there were many other amazing setups there too, but the ELAC theater setup above, the Nagra/Wilson Audio room, the Martin Logan/Dan D'Agostino room, and the Bob Carver rooms all blew my socks off.

Spoiler: Nagra and Wilson Audio

The Nagra/Wilson Audio room made me feel like I was there, present, in the recording.






0:00 - Sonny Boy Williamson
8:28 - The Soldier's March - Chicago Pro Musica
10:22 - I don't know what this song was

Spoiler: Martin Logan and Dan D'Agostino

I had previously listened to Martin Logan speakers at a Magnolia HiFi at Best Buy stores, but dang this sounded sublime. Another listener in the room brought with him a test CD for space/ambience and sub-bass reproduction, and this speaker system nailed it.








0:00 - Georgia On My Mind - Willie Nelson
2:35 - Miller Time - Victor Wooten (dat bass tho)
6:31 - Roxanne (Dubxanne) ft. EASED from SEEED - DubXanne

Spoiler: Bob Carver

The Bob Carver Line Array speakers were quite impressive to me, both in its ability to make me be able to see images floating in the air for the first time in my life, and for being able to reproduce an immersive bass experience from the side-firing mini-subs on each line array.









I got to meet the legendary Bob Carver himself too! How cool is that?
https://www.stereophile.com/content/carver-challenge




0:00 - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes - Paul Simon
6:29 - Sista - Rachelle Ferrell
7:43 - Three O'Clock Blues - Eric Clapton, B.B. King

Spoiler: Swan Audio

Swan Audio gave a brief presentation of the design of their tube amplifiers and how they only output some 3 W of power, but is enough to power their monstrous, cabinet-looking speakers.

Spoiler: Miscellaneous Photos

More miscellaneous photos from the RMAF rooms.