Blog: Headphone Heaven – Show Report

Etymotic

This year I reviewed the Etymotic IEMs myself for the very first time and I immediately fell in love with their top quality sound

As a matter of fact I ordered some Snuggs to use with the above shown Etymotic.

But the biggest surprise at the booth was the premiere of the ER3XR/SR models… YEs, you’ll be seeing these soon on HFN!

Final Audio

I’m a huge fan of their E2000 and E3000 entry level IEMs but here at the show we finally saw the D8000 model which we’ve seen several times at shows in its prototype form. Now, it’s finished

While the sound was good there for me was a little too much focus on the low end. But it’s their first planar and for a planar the bass was very impressive. Of course the other models were there too.

Focal

Like Chord there were very little Focal headphones to be found. And now that I think of it, there were no AK DAPS to be found either. Good thing I took my SP1000 with me.

Luckily the Elear was there, the Utopia I didn’t spot.

IFI

Everywhere you go, IFI follows

The brand has only gotten more popular these last few years, so IFI just had to bring their full line-up

And it’s always nice to see their stacking kit

Insomnia Headphones

At least that’s how I am calling them. Of course this isn’t their real name but this Kickstarter project raised a lot of money.

The idea behind it is that by playing music based on your brain activity, you’ll sleep better.

I find it very fascinating, though I can’t see myself sleeping with a headphone this size on my head

Kennerton

Another one of my favorite brands. With the Odin and Vali they have winners in their ranks

We still owe you the Odin review, but a new Odin is about to be announced. And that last one is incredibly good.

Meridian

I do was surprised seeing the Meridian setup we tested a while ago already. MQA anyone?

Meze Audio

Meze most likely had the most complete booth at the showing, displaying everything and then some more we can’t talk about yet.

I did take my time to listen to the latest version of the IEM prototype.

The enclose shape is now final and so is the driver tuning. The only difference is that the production version will be molded, like the RHA iems.

So yeah, Meze had a nice surprise in the shape of a full sized headphone. I can tell you already it’s something completely new for Meze. Oh and it’s very high-end. Too expensive for you? then they’re always their excellent existing range of full sized cans

Or their IEMs for that matter

So definitely keep track of what Meze is up to…

Mr. Spreakers

Dan’s creations were the most used at the show, it’s that simple

I was pleasantly surprised with the Aeon model, although it at the same time sounded a bit weirdly airy

My personal favorite Mr. Speakers model still is the closed Flow

But it seems most people liked the open version most

I hope Dan finally gets to sending us some samples…

And the last part is on Page Three of the report. Just click HERE