Canjam Essen ’15: Pleasure Overload – Part 2

German Maestro

Back in the days when Mike was still doing reviews for Headfonia, he always quite liked the German Maestro headphones. He’s not the only one, I actually have quite the number of friends who are fans of the brand. Affordable quality I think they called it.

Meier Audio

Meier is awesome. Not only does he make quality products but he’s always a really nice guy. We don’t always agree on how amplifiers or headphones should sound but we respect each others opinion. This year the Meier gear was extra interesting because there was something new. I reviewed his dac and amp a while ago already and while they produce really good sound it just wasn’t my thing: very solid state sounding, very analytic. Jan now has developed something he calls the FF-Technology, and I have to admit it transforms his gear to a more analogue and smoother musical sound. I absolutely loved it with the HD800. In fact it’s so good I immediately asked for a review sample. I also ran in to Rasmus at the show and he was carrying the coolest portable setup of the day using a portable Meier amplifier. The Quickstep sounded so convincing I took one home with me immediately. Review soon.

Mr. Speakers

Last year Dan was at the Essen show himself but unfortunately he could not make it this year. I think almost everyone was excited to listen to his two latest creations: the open and closed Ether. I demoed them using very high end, very powerful tube amplifiers and I was kind of surprised with what I heard. I expected the Open Ether to sound better / a lot more bodied than it did and I didn’t expect the closed version to sound as awesome as it did. I’m a big fan of my closed LCD-XC but it now has a very serious contender. I’m not a fan of how it looks but man, it’s a whole lot lighter than the XC.

Nuforce/Optoma

For quite a while now I have been interested in testing the latest Nuforce gear. The uDac has been on the market for years already and I still haven’t had the possibility to review one. They’re already up to the 3rd version of it actually. When I earlier this year finally managed to get a good inside contact @ Nuforce it looked like I was finally getting them for review. Unfortunately it then turned out I could only keep them with me for one week only. I’m sorry Nuforce, but I don’t even have time to open up all the boxes in one week. I’ll still try to get them for a longer period though.

Obravo

Last year me and my friend Harald were listening to the Obravo headphones together and we really didn’t like the way they sounded: dark, muffled, undetailed. I had heard the newer versions were better so I headed over to the Obravo table. No one was there so I picked up a set and started listening. Lord, this version sounds good! I think I staid listening for 20 minutes, it was that nice to listen to. I still would improve them comfort wise, but I think I’ll just have to feature them on the site…

OPPO

My OPPO contact is in Australia. Nathan is in Japan. Nathan does OPPO. That means I haven’t had the possibility to try the gear everyone has been raving about the last year or so. Oppo came prepared to the show and they displayed a lot of gear. First of all I have to say the HA-2 looks gorgeous and it sounds quite good for the price it’s going for. The desktop HA-1 Amp/DAC looked awesome with the see-through top and it was really nice sounding but I didn’t really like all the headphones. To be more exact, I didn’t like the closed PM-3: it sounded dark, warm and muffled and it just wasn’t my thing. I unfortunately didn’t get to try out the portable player.

Pioneer

Yes that’s right, Pioneer is now targeting personal audio as well. The three most interesting products are the portable player, their desktop DAC/AMP and the Master 1 Reference headphone. The DAP was connected to some lifestyle headphone and I couldn’t just borrow it so all my attention went to the reference setup. I listened to it for quite a while, played with the Digital filter settings and had fun with the remote. Seriously though, the Master 1 headphone is very clear and spacious sounding. I found it to have good bass and mids but the treble from time to time was rather sharp. I’m curious what the community will think of it. I will try to get it for review but there weren’t a lot of samples available for the moment according to the sales manager that was present at the show.

And that’s it for today, be sure to come back tomorrow for part 3 of the picture report (the last one, I promise)