John
Kopfhörermesse = headphone show. For its fifth consecutive year, CanJam Europe has switched its location from Essen to Berlin where the nHow hotel – nestled beside the River Spree and offering spectacular views of the iconic Oberbaumbrücke – gives over three of its conference rooms (large, larger and largest) to demonstrations of some of the world’s best headphone gear.
This event’s scope and size almost rivals headphone shows of a similar name (but of no business connection) to those of Head-fi.org’s mainman Jude Mansilla.
During an initial walkabout on the first of CanJam Europe’s two days, I clocked the new 660S over-ear from Sennheiser, the €50K Shangri-la electrostatic system from HifiMan, Beyerdynamic’s new Bluetooth-fuelled Avento, Grado’s uber-rare GH2, the ex-AKG-engineer-designed MySphere and Audeze’s less weighty full size LCD-MX4.
In Berlin, a headphone show’s advantages over two channel (loudspeaker) shows are writ large: 1) visitors can bring their own DAPs, USB sticks or microSD cards to listen to music of their choosing and 2) of any quality – MP3 or hi-res, well mastered or not. And with listeners tucked behind headphones, 3) product auditioning is rarely disturbed by nearby conversations where exhibitors field technical questions, handle distributor/dealer meetings and interface with the press and other exhibitors. The sounds of business and personal audio co-exist harmoniously.
Don’t take my word for it. See for yourself in this two minute summary video:
Exhibitor specific coverage will follow in due course but this time out with a tighter focus: digital. Digital sources, digital converters, digital transmission and digital signal processing.
Further information: CanJam Europe
