With the benefit of hindsight, New York in February seems to be a good time and place to run an audio show. CanJam NYC snuck under the door in February 2020, just before COVID-19 locked it shut against (almost) every hi-fi for two full years. (That ‘almost’ was another CanJam: SoCal 2021). And it’s CanJam NYC that is the first of the more established audio shows to spring back into life in 2022, running Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. Hopefully, CanJam’s successful and safe return to a busier metropolis signals less topsy-turvy times ahead.
Darko.Audio’s Stateside videographer Jana Dagdagan covered the key head-fi hardware moments of CanJam 2019 (here) and CanJam 2020 (here). This year, Dagdagan’s brief would be very different. With the pandemic still fresh in people’s minds and a mask mandate only lifted by the state of New York two weeks prior to CanJam 2022 kicking off, our Brooklynite would aim her camera at the attendees, not the gear. Head-fi.org’s founder Jude Mansilla and his team had already covered the newer stuff in a CanJam preview video (here) with, understandably, fewer bigger splashes than in years past. I wanted Jana to capture the people and their interactions with the headphones, amplifiers and DACs on display. “Show us people and their movements (and maybe a little bit of gear),” I told her over the phone. “Keep it loose — it should look more run and gun than spit-polished”. I would then edit the footage into a short video that would show off the community spirit on display at CanJam NYC 2022. But really, the credit is all Jana’s:
🎥 Camera: Jana Dagdagan
🎬 Editor: John Darko
Further information: CanJam Global