Impressions Can Jam Europe 2016

Disclaimer: I had about 5-10 minutes per session on average, standard test tracks included Digable Planets, Moloko, Massive Attack, Feist and Naked Raygun. That being said, this was the first time I really managed to try at least most of the stuff that I had planned to try. Yay.

- I had been looking forward to trying @trung225’s Valhalla 2, because I’m looking for a tube amp for my home office desktop setup. The Valhalla sounded very good, maybe a bit warm-ish, with my (slightly modded) Fostex T50RP2. I would have loved to compare it to the Feliks Audio Espressivo. The latter has higher output impedance, which could be a problem with the Fostex. I like the Espressivo’s three inputs, plus it’s the “underdog”, made-in-Europe option compared to the Schiit.Saving money now, will probably get a Val2 eventually.

- I also tried the Denon D2000 that somebody (?) had brought to the community area. Not my cup of tea at all, way too much treble for my taste, though I really like my entry-level Denon D1100 as a fun-sounding on-the-go headphone.

- @Deep Funk insisted I try his Portapros and his modded KSC75 and I have to agree they’re more than just great budget options. Every household ought to have one.

- The very first thing I tried at CJE16 was Inear’s brand new Prophile 8. I only tried the linear standard configuration, which is amazing. Very resolving, very linear, great attack and decay, really punchy. Fun to listen to and I would be fine with just the linear frequency response. Marco’s reasoning for the signature switches is that while many customers appreciate the “audiophile” tuning for a while, they often look for more “excitement” in their music in the long run, so the Prophile 8 is giving that option.

- Headphone Company’s booth was a treat with AAW, Meze and Dita (as well as A&K, JH Audio and Linum, which I didn’t try) on display. I tried two AAW models, but both were way to boomy for me, it sounded like the entire earpiece resonated with the bass. Again, not my cup of tea. I was also surprised at how much bass Meze’s headphone has. Definitely a fun signature, build quality is great too. Can't undertand the audiophilia hype around them tbh. Dita’s The Answer turned out to be my highlight at Headphone Company. Great soundstage, neutral-sounding with amazing deep bass, when called for. Deserves the hype it had a few years ago. Not exactly cheap, but worthy of its price.

- Fischer Amps had its new Rhapsody series of earphones, as well as demos of UE Pro’s line-up. I tried the UERR, which is truly a reference earphone. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to try the original UERM, so I can’t compare the two. The Rhapsody top model has a warmer yet very resolving sound signature, reminiscent of the FA-xE models. Their claim to fame is their use of three more traditional, larger BA drivers instead of a plethora of the more recent, tiny ones. The guy at the booth claimed that their crossover was more elaborate than most other earphones, but wouldn’t or couldn’t elaborate further on that.

- Polish companies Lime Ears and Customart shared a table at CJE, where I tried Customart’s Harmony 8.2 as well as their Massdrop-exclusive Ei.XX. tbh, I forgot my impressions for both. I also tried the more budget-friendly Ei.3, but that was too sibiliant with Digable Planet’s “Good to be Here”. Granted, the entire album is prone to sibilance, which is why I use the song as one of my test tracks. Lime Ear’s TOTL custom Aether blew me away though, particularly its treble. It really hits the sweet spot for me as far as highs are concerned, amazingly brilliant, yet never sibilant.

- I had first tried Audeze’s iSine “earphone” at IFA and had looked forward to trying it again at CJE, because IFA was really too noisy for critical listening. Unfortunately, the right channel was dead on my sample. But just looking at and handling the iSine made me reconsider getting one. I just don’t see the use case. It’s too bulky, fits oddly and doesn’t isolate enough for portable use and personally, I’d prefer proper fullsize headphones at home.

- I wanted to try the Audio Opus #1 (unfortunately, samples of the #2 didn’t make it to Germany in time for CJE), because I’d read that voices sounded off. Can’t confirm that. UI isn’t all that responsive though. I’ll stick with my beloved Shanling M3 for now.

- At Focal’s booth, the queue for Utopia was too long and I didn’t wanna wait that long. My loss, I guess. I wasn’t all that impressed with the Elear, but then again, I only listened for 2-3 minutes.

- I had looked forward to trying the RHA CL1 at CJE and only there realized that Radius’ TW41 also sports a dual-driver setup with a ceramic tweeter. Unfortunately, the CL1 at the show was still a prototype and booth staff warned me beforehand that tweeter configuration wasn’t final. It better not be! It just sounded off. It should really be tuned down quite a bit to fall in line with the rest of the frequency response. The woofer was fine, bass was punchy, fast, fun. I also didn’t expect the CL1 to be so demanding. With impedance rated at 150 ohms and sensitivity at 86 (?) dB, it’s certainly not made for use with mobile phones. The Radius on the other hand is amazing and one of my personal highlights of the show. It just sounded so coherent, resolution is amazing, treble was great (and perfectly aligned with bass and mids). If it weren’t for the price and the weird fit, I’d get one immediately.

- I missed my “listening appointment” for the new Orpheus at Sennheiser’s booth, but I had a chance to try it after the show closed officially. Unfortunately, that meant that everybody was already dismantling their booths, so it wasn’t exactly quiet. Still, if I had to describe the Orpheus with one word, it would be “effortless”. Quite the opposite of the HD800, which is too analytical for my taste.

- Another highlight of the show was Shure’s electrostatic KSE1500 earphone. I had already tried it at hifi show Highend in Munich and it blew me away again. Bass is deep and dry as f**k, yet never overpowering. Great attack and decay, cymbals linger on long after most headphones have long since faded them out. It really needs good source material. I wish I had the money for it, at EUR 3,000, it’s not exactly cheap.

- Another manufacturer I was curious about was 1More, famous for its Pistons that it originally OEM’d for Xiaomi. Their hybrid triple driver is amazing value for the money. It sounds good, build quality and accessories are great at merely EUR 100.

 

I am happy they gave you a chance. I completely agree with you. The HE1 System (prototype) sounds effortless. What is left to say when the music sounds that good?

 

Sennheiser HE1 (Orpheus 2) system:

Was meaning to do a more proper writeup, but didn't find the time yet, so gonna keep it short. I wasn't wowed by the HE1.

@jmcmasterj's impressions: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/orpheus-2-quick-impressions.2020/
@HitmanFluffy's impressions: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...heus-hong-kong-av-show-2016-impressions.2550/

To make the most of the 15 minutes I had, I made my own CD with longer snippets of a few songs. Here's what I listened to:
1) Hotel California (HFO) 0-2:33
2) Sting - The Lazarus Heart (MFSL Gold CD) 0-1:41
3) Dire Straits - Industrial Disease 0-2:01
4) Tool - Parabola 0-1:25
5) Michael Jackson - P.Y.T. 0-1:11

Unlike High-End, we didn't get a soundproofed room for listening. It was just an open area.
To play the CD, they used a T+A CDP (MP2000R?) and used the built-in DAC (XLR out), which could very well be better than the built-in HE1 dac. I'm a fan of dynamic drivers and I find good dynamic drivers to sound less colored than estats. The new Orpheus wasn't an exception for me.

• Great clarity. A sense of speed. Effortless is probably the right word.
• Tonal balance is definitely too bright for me. Brighter than Utopia/HD800X. I think the T+A DAC is bright, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't account for the whole difference. Could also very well be the amp making issues worse here. Overall it was too bright for me to be long-term listenable.
• While it was bright up top, it also had recessed upper mids around 2-3kHz.

(The tonal balance was considerably more neutral than the HD800, but that the same tendencies were still there was a big warning sign to me. This seems to be the new Sennheiser house sound (HD800, HD700). I really liked the old HD6X0/HE90 house sound, but it seems those times are over.)

• Bass has weird stat coloration. The Utopia hits crazy hard, while HE1 sounds like a trampoline. Just doesn't have the initial impact and doesn't decay as cleanly. This is consistent throughout the whole frequency range. The bass extension seemed to be much better than that of the HE90.
• Putting it higher up on my head helped with the treble but hurt the soundstaging. The Earcups are huge. The underside of the earpads is a reflective material with a weird curved shape, which avoids reflections.
• The earcups did get warm because of the built-in amp, but not hot. Keep in mind the Orpheus system was running all day. But that did make the back of the earcups sweatier than with other headphones.
• Very Left/Right staging with not enough depth. Large, diffuse soundstage, probably larger than every other stat I've heard. The images felt very diffuse. The crossfeed on the Low setting seemed subtle enough for me to work with most music, while the High setting is probably too strong for most use cases.
• Along with considerable lack of macro-dynamics comes a lack of microdynamics.
• It's hard to check in noisy conditions, but I'm pretty sure that it lacked plankton compared to Utopia/HD800. Would be interesting to compare against HE90, or use the HE1 with a different amp. I have a feeling the amp is a big limiting factor even vs the HE90/HEV90.
• Sounded like a nasty amp that has great measurements.
• The transducer could very well be an improvement over the HE90.
• Even with all the tradeoffs it could still be my favorite stat. Would love to compare it against the old Orpheus system, but it seems that they all sound different. The best one had almost none of the stat coloration and a more neutral tonal balance, so I might prefer it.
• For the same price I'd just get an Utopia, expensive tube amp of choice, expensive turntable of choice, 10k records and a nice car and I'd have much better audio and a car.

Bonus:

Ether Flow:
f**k this. Screeching brightness. Slightly more open than original Ether which almost made me suffocate. U-shaped signature that tries to fake more dynamics, which it doesn't reproduce.

Audeze iSine (cheaper one)
Lightning cable. Tried it for one minute. Disabled EQ settings and super artificial midrange timbre came to light. It's like Audeze tuned an "IEM" to exactly the tonal signature that I hate. They really nailed it. Wanted to try Sine over ear but didn't get it to work.

 

Part one and two of headfonia's three-part CJE 16 report is online, check it out:
- CJE16, Part 1
- CJE16, Part 2
- CJE16, Part 3
Here's a short report (in German) by Fidelity Magazin a a picture gallery by Holger Barske of LP Magazin/Klang&Ton.

There's more coming soon.

 

Part three is out now. Click on part two and the link to part three is there.

Lieven pointed out the monster amplifier that Jan Meier was hiding/showing.

Also, yes the Audioquest Nightowl is something else.

 

Visitors of CJE16 have voted for their show highlights and some of the winners are somewhat surprising:

Headphones portable:

1. 1More E1001
2. InEar Prophile 8
3. Shure KSE1500

Headphones home:

1. Sennheiser Orpheus / Focal Utopia
2. Sennheiser HD800S

Amplifiers:

1. Violectric V200
2. Meier Audio Corda Classic / SPL Phonitor 2 / Sennheiser Orpheus

Sources (DAPs and DACs):

1. Astell&Kern AK70
2. Astell&Kern AK380
3. Onkyo DP-X1

Accessories:

1. ROOMs Audioline FS Pro
2. Labkable headphone cables
3. Audioquest Jitterbug

Best product of show overall:

1. Sennheiser Orpheus
2. Focal Utopia
3. Meze 99 Classic

Discuss!

 

Aaaand another great write-up, this one by Headfonics.

 

Audioquest Nightowl...

 

Been busy lately and never really found the time for what was supposed to be my third impressions post. It's been a while and my memory is fading, but I wanted to share some of my impressions (better late than never? ):

@trung225's setup was fantastic. I forgot which tube he used for his Valhalla 2, but it had great synergy with the HD650 (and was too bright for me with my modded HD800). I found the Valhalla 2 lacking in macrodynamics for my tastes and also wrote down that it lacked layering, but the Valhalla 2 seemed to be a great pairing for the HD650. Might also work with modded HD800 with some warmer tubes, but will probably still be too flat dynamically.
The Gungnir Multibit was truly excellent. Much more refined than Gungnir. Bigger, more precise stage. Much more natural sounding (hard to explain, but easily heard). I will definitely upgrade mine in the future.
I didn't get around to comparing the Mutec 1.2 to the Wyrd.

Briefly compared AQ NightOwl vs NightHawk. Seems like they finally listened and now went for a more neutral tonality with less bass warmth and more treble. That's with the new pads, I didn't try the NightHawk pads on the NightOwl. Because of the brighter tonal balance, the peaky treble is now more evident. Treble may actually be worse than the NightHawk. Can't really remember that well. The NightOwl might be worth checking out again, but I think the treble could be a dealbreaker for me.

MalValve "Headphone 4"(?)

Already heard the thing at hifideluxe. Don't think he changed much except add a headband, but I could be wrong.
It's super important to get the fit right with these. Apparently they're supposed to be very close to your ears, but without touching them and so that your ears sit in the middle of the drivers. With too much distance from your ears, they have a nasty treble peak. I wonder what the free air resonant frequency is for this design. Even with the drivers as close to the ears as possible, it's not low enough and gets annoying when there's a lot of bass energy (not necessarily deep). Also I felt like they had a typical planar imaging, with big diffuse images and a small soundstage. The imaging is supposed to be the main selling point of these headphones and I found it worse than my modded HD800s so it's hard to see why anyone would go for these. Oh, and they're expected to be priced at €9500. On the plus side the midrange tonality seemed much more natural than STAX.

EDIT: You always forget something, don't you?
Also briefly got to hear a GOV2+SE. Big improvement over my GO450. Seems like they almost managed to get rid of that harsh sabre sound. Much more involving than the GO450.

Tried a Kennerton Odin. Forgot which DAC and amp I heard it off, but I'm sure that was a limiting factor. I wasn't impressed. Warm tonal balance with peaky treble. Closed-in sounding.

 

That modified HD650 sounded leagues beyond a stock HD650. Trung must have found a way to make the HD650 driver sound more refined than the Sennheiser engineers thought possible. A well driven stock HD650 almost makes you dance. Trung's HD650 stunned me. That headphone makes you surrender to the music no matter how rational you are.

Yeah, I understand why he was and is so happy with his audio set-up. More music, that is all you need then...

 

trung sold me his Val 2 and it literally ought to arrive today, so I'm getting a kick out of your replies.

 

So the HD650 is next

 

I'd honestly thought about it for about a second. Or a AKG 7XX/701/702. But I really, REALLY shouldn't be spending any more money on hifi for a while.

 

Clean up the K340, give it some new comfortable ear pads and give it a go. AKG still makes the parts you need and K240 ear pads should fit.

 

The above got me curious, so I searched the main HD650 thread for @trung225's mods. Looks like non-coin-modded AKG K240 foam and Dynamat mod only?

The bolded gave me pause, due to helpful (unsanctioned) measurements that would imply otherwise. Can you elaborate more on the mods?

 

Did you PM Trung?

 

Funny that you would mention that, because the 340 is my favorite headphone with the Valhalla so far. I'll look into modding/maintenance options for it.

 

For the HD650 mod, I applied dynamat mod, and removed both rear foam and spider cage. Tried coin mod on both stock and AKG K240 foam before, but didn't like it much. Initially, coin mod gives more treble, kind of "impressive" factor but after using it for a while, I found them creating a incoherent sound.
Apart from mod, one thing we should consider is how much the pad worn out. Mine is probably around 0.7cm-1cm less thick than the new ones.

 

New ear pads alone should give you more bass and add more comfort. The crazy AKGs from the diffuse field era can still hold their own compared to newer headphones. AKG knew how to properly tune a headphone.