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CanJam London 2022 - Day1
CanJam 2022 in London started last Saturday in wonderful weather at the Park Plaza Hotel near Westminster Bridge.
In contrast to HighEnd Munich, the trade fair did not take place in the sun-drenched rooms of this beautiful location, but in the "basement", more precisely in the 3rd basement of the hotel. With artificial light and a temperature that felt like 15 °C 🥶 (the air conditioning systems were running at full throttle despite very moderate outside temperatures), it was a completely different atmosphere than I expected! 🤨
But no matter, it's about the products and meeting people and exchanging ideas! 😅
The much greater disappointment followed immediately: Empire Ears had canceled the day before: urgent family matters. I still really hope nothing bad happened! I would have loved to finally meet Jack Vang in person and of course test your new prototype. Well, there's nothing you can do about it. 😥
Oh yes, by the way, my test setup only consisted of the Empire Ears Odin and the unsurpassable Cayin N8II DAP.
So let's get into the fray and first of all welcome....
We started with Effect Audio. The evening before, I had spontaneously helped them set up their stand and despite a total travel time of 35 hours, Heley and Jordon rocked the place and devotedly looked after all the interested guests.
I was able to test a prototype of their Cleopatra II silver cable and I can say that I was very impressed with what I heard! Extremely high resolution, tight bass, great details - if you want to improve exactly these aspects in an IEM or headphones, you're in the right place! 😅
There were almost too many details on the Empire Ears Odin that I brought with me as a reference, so a copper cable would be better, like the Stormbreaker (PWAudio 1960 2x), which really fits the Odin perfectly.
Nevertheless - the "Cleo II" can work wonders with slightly lower resolution in-ears - I am convinced of that.
Right next door, Spirit Torino were placed. The "Maestro" Andre Ricchi and Giordano Zacchini, Chairman of the Board of Directors, were in a good mood and took a lot of time to demonstrate their products to interested listeners.
In addition to their new hybrid amplifier prototype "Sigfrid", they also had the new Pulsar on the stand, which is technically identical to the Valkyria, which is twice as expensive, but made of anodized aluminum instead of Titanium Grade 5 consists.
Spirit Torino is, by the way, the only over-ear headphone brand sold by Audio Essence for good reason. Why? Because they and their products are something special. These are not empty words, I mean that! 😎
A further row were Eletech and Element Technology with their latest cable creations. Eric, one of the founders of Eletech, and Lim Hong, their cable designer, were visibly proud of their new products.
I took the time to test the "Ode to Laura", their new flagship cable, which consists of 3 different copper materials and is said to cost a whopping 2799 USD or CHF - a lot of money for a pure one Copper cable!
Apparently high-purity copper from different regions is used, which is also treated differently and implemented in the cable in a unique way.
I'll be honest: I had my doubts about whether such a copper cable would be worth the money and in the end, of course, the interested buyer has to decide for themselves.
One thing is clear: the Odin's Stormbreaker, which alone costs 1299 CHF, was clearly outperformed by the "Ode to Laura" in every area of playback and that is saying something. It wasn't easy for me to go back to the Stormbreaker after testing the Laura!
I made one last detour of the day to 64 Audio, where Kalani Hiramoto, customer and dealer advisor par excellence, was did his best to supply the group of interested parties who didn't want to stop with products.
Kalani also kindly got me an exhibitor ticket - thank you very much!
By the way, I had the fun of testing the 64Audio U12t with the Über-cable Centurion from Effect Audio and the resulting sound is simply a dream! The U12t are perhaps the best pure balanced armature IEMs I have ever heard.
The highlight of the day, however, was the spontaneous Znacht (dinner) with some manufacturers and participants:
Merci to everyone who attended and made the evening unforgettable!
P.S. I apologize for the bad photos. Unfortunately, my cell phone was completely overwhelmed by the conditions in the “basement” and there was no room for my real camera in my hand luggage.