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CanJam London 2022 - Day2
Second day at CanJam London 2022.
A little tired and hungover, we go to the 3rd basement of the Park Plaza Westminster Hotel, away from the sun into the “hi-fi cellar”. 😅 I have quite a list of things I want to watch and of course listen to and time is short.
At an English dealer's stand I meet Justin from Viking Weave Cables, who make the great Lime Ears Anima cable. We chat a bit about our show highlights so far, and finally I test the Thieaudio Voyager 16 IEMs.
Image source: www.thieaudio.com
Without a doubt a good in-ear, but Justin, I and another participant agree: There are better ones for around 1500 USD or CHF. That's not to say that the Voyager 16s are bad or not worth the money - they just don't really stand out from the crowd of options available. Resolution, tuner, bass, everything at a high level, but nothing to remember.
The other participant suggests that I try the FIR Audio XE6, the top model from FIR. Great, that's what I was planning on doing anyway! 😁
After a short time it becomes clear: They are not for me. 😥 Visually and acoustically, the For the asking price of 3900 USD, a lot of things bother me.
One thing straight away: Yes, the Frequencies are drowned out and it also seems to be quite slow. I'm completely missing the mid-bass that would be necessary to make voices come across present and sonorous. As a result, the mids “drink” a bit or fade into the background of the action.
The resolution and detail reproduction is ok, but not outstanding considering the price. Stage and instrument separation are average. In addition, the metal casing doesn't feel particularly comfortable, at least for my ears, and the fit isn't optimal for my ears either. All in all, I'm disappointed because I actually expected more - a lot more. Of course, “hearing” is always very individual and there will certainly be people who think the XE6 is great. This is just my personal impression...
After a short discussion with those around, I get a "hot tip": go to Jomo Audio and listen to their new GT600! I'll do that promptly. After a short, friendly conversation with Joseph, the founder and developer of Jomo, I get started and plug the GT600 into my Cayin N8ii.
Light in the dark
Image source: www.jomoaudio.com
I feel my eyes widen, the corners of my mouth go up and I grin at Joseph with a thumbs up: This is the "real deal"!
This is a flagship at an extremely high level that is not has to hide behind the big players in the industry.
The GT600 is a tribrid with 2DDs, 6BAs and 4ESTs with a shell made entirely of carbon ("Forged Carbon Shell"). Plus a very decent cable, the quality of which is immediately apparent.The result: My CanJam London highlight!
Why do you ask? Quite simply: The GT600 is wonderfully detailed with the right proportion of "sparkle" in the highs, absolutely no trace of sharpness or "sibilance" and there is also a wonderfully controlled, fast bass Extra class on top of that: only very few people can do it so well! Oh yes, the channel separation and stage are simply excellent and should fully fulfill the desire of many music lovers for more space.
I'm going to try to get a demo copy from Joseph and plan a little tour of Switzerland with it to get feedback on this great in-ear. If the feedback is very positive, the GT600 will end up at Audio Essence sooner or later.
By the way, Jomo Audio also had an exciting prototype at the start, which showed that Joseph probably still has an ace or two up his sleeve. Anyway, I'm very excited!
Large caliber
My last official act before the lunch break was to visit dCS, who presented their latest all-in-one miracle "Lina" here at CanJam. They even rented a large, separate room especially for this purpose and equipped it with several smaller "cubicles" so that interested potential customers could test their elegant ensemble of DAC, amp and power supply in peace.
Since I had already listened extensively to the predecessor "Bartok" with the Spirit Torino Valkyria from a customer, I was of course curious to see whether the somewhat "artificial" or unnatural tonality that I complained about would be consistent with the successor was fixed.
So I grabbed the Pulsar from Spirit Torino, my absolute favorite headphones that I know all too well (and which are technically identical to the Valkyria) and sprinted up the stairs to the screening room.
First I had another participant, who was obviously interested in the Pulsar, test it. I wanted to hear what he had to say about the combination with the "Lina". His impression was mixed, even quite critical. What he described to me didn't match my impressions of what the Pulsar is capable of.
Next I tried it out myself - of course with some of my own test songs, to make sure I got the right impression.
And this time too, the corners of my mouth turned up almost immediately - but downwards. ☹️ I expected everything, except what presented to my ears from the combination of a 6,000 franc headphone with a 33,000 franc complete system.
The Pusar sounded flat, anemic, almost without bass. And just like with the Bartok, there was plenty of detail here, but unfortunately there was also this unpleasantly artificial tonality that sounded as if the signal had been "oversampled" too often...which is probably the case here too.
No, that can't be right, that's not the usual sound of my beloved Pulsar! As quickly as I had come, I ducked down one floor and my face probably spoke volumes as I brought the Pulsar back to Spirit Torino. Shaking my head and without further words, I sat down at your amp prototype "Sigfrid", which was only powered by Audio-GD's entry-level R2R DAC, and repeated the listening session.
Breathe
My hearing didn't deceive me and everything was fine with the Pulsar. What I heard was pure magic and beaming, I nodded to Andrea. That's what it's supposed to sound like!
All I have to say is that every person has different ears and preferences.For me personally, the "Lina" system from dCS was the biggest CanJam disappointment. Unfortunately, I can't say it any other way.
Yes, I was expecting miracles, pure magic. And I guess for 33,000 USD or francs you can do that too.
What's more and is an absolute no-go for me as an experienced user experience designer: the operation. One has the feeling that the system has touch screens, but under the large supposed touch control panels there are "touch buttons" that are only marked by a glowing dot (see picture). I actually tried tapping the screen several times to make changes and navigate through the menu, despite knowing better. 😱
The operation here is simply a disgrace! For 33k, dCS can't even manage to install a touch screen with intuitive operation?!🤬
Whatever. enough for now. My head started buzzing, I needed a break! Time for lunch...
Bye bye CanJam
Unfortunately, that was it for me at CanJam, because what was supposed to be a short lunch break turned into a long stay in my hotel room. Within an hour I lay flat with a high fever and unfortunately couldn't go back to the exhibition. A summer flu had me firmly in its grip and also endangered my flight back to Switzerland. 🤒
But luckily there are medications and pumped full of high doses of ibuprofen, I made it home the next day! 😅
CanJam London 2022 is over and it was great - especially meeting all the people and enjoying the show with them. Even if around 30-40% of the exhibitors were missing this year!
I would like to thank everyone involved for the great conversations and the good, albeit short, time together. See you next time! 🙌🤩
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