Report: Canjam Europe / Essen 2016 Part 1

AudioQuest

I have never seen a show where so many AudioQuest cables were used by the other booth holders.

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audioquest

That’s the only time I’ll be mentioning cables in this show report by the way. What interested me more at the AudioQuest was the brand new NightOwl, the NightHawk‘s new brother. I already listened to a prototype back at high End in May and boy does it sound good. The Hawk is a very relaxed and warm headphone that a lot of people call “veiled” yet it has a lot of fans. The new NightOwl is a lot clearer sounding and basically does away with all the “bad points”  of the Nighthawk. I really love its sound and if you get a chance to try it, you really should. Word is the Hawk is getting a makeover as well in 2017…

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audioquest-nightowl

AudioValve

I’m a sucker for unique amps and the AudioValve gear draws me to their booth each year

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Aune

Have you noticed how many brands in audio start with an A? I never reviewed any Aune gear myself but we have featured them on Headfonia before

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Not so long ago Nathan in fact reviewed their X7 unit, right HERE

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Auralic

A few years ago everyone was talking about Auralic all the time. Lately it has been a little more quiet around the brand but I still love their Klutz Design integrated DAC/AMP

auralic

The Audeze headphones sound as good as perfect on the Auralic amps, imho of course.

Auris Audio

I have actually been talking to these guys for a while now and I was surprised to see this HA 2SE tube amp at the show. Great looks and even better sound (tested with the Sennheiser HD800)

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Beyerdynamic

beyerdynamic

One of my favourite brands of course was present at the show. I still don’t like their TOTL T1 headphone though but i’ll have the T90, COP, DT770, DT1770, DT1990, T51P any day!

beyerdynamic-dt1990pro

We only just reviewed the awesome DT1990PRO and from what I gathered at the show, I’m not the only one 😉

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The DT1770PRO, the closed studio version, will be featured soon on Headfonia btw. Another interesting headphone from Beyer was the Concept Study Unit they did with Astell&Kern. Wireless Tesla candy. this prototype is housed in a COP body with touch controls on one side and a small screen on the other. the sound was extremely good for bluetooth…

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That’s actually Mr. Audiogarden.fr in the last picture and you’ll see him again later in this report.

Box Design

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The Austrian guys from Box Design were also at the party and I’m surprised this brand isn’t more popular yet. They have great sounding units at very affordable prices just like the DAC Box DS2 Ultra (on top) and Head Box DS2 with wooden side panels (bottom) shown in this picture.

box-design-2

Nathan reviewed one of their units not so long ago actually. They actually will also be importing and selling ALO Audio and Campfire Audio very soon! Here is yours truly listening to the Four driver Jupiter. Fits my tiny – but very photogenic ears – perfectly. I kid.

alo-jupiter

 

Even more on Page 3, after the click

5/5 - (5 votes)
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Lieven is living in Europe and he's the leader of the gang. He's running Headfonia as a side project next to his full time day job in Digital Marketing & Consultancy. He's a big fan of tube amps and custom inear monitors and has published hundreds of product reviews over the years.

6 Comments

  • Reply October 1, 2016

    Darth

    Did you get a chance to try out the new Oriolus Mellianus / Forsteni and compare them to the current ones? Any ideas on the price tag on the Mellianus?

  • Reply October 1, 2016

    Barun C

    Nice photos Lieven. Either you changed the camera or you tweaked the settings in the camera or with a editing SW, cause photos are crisp and clear, exposure, shadows have been enhanced, along with lens correction, good job.

    Lot of new stuff, which is nice to see. Will be waiting for Part 2.

    Cheers!!

  • Reply October 1, 2016

    Lieven

    Same camera Barun. I must have gotten better at photoshop 😉
    Part Two is now online!

  • Reply October 2, 2016

    Rasmus Horn

    So nice to see the pictures and read the impressions. I missed being there this year but I couldn’t make it. I am looking forward to read more about the new 8-driver IEM from InEar.

    • Reply October 2, 2016

      Rasmus Horn

      AND the new Meier Soul amplifier… wow!!! I wish I could have listened to that one.

  • Reply November 28, 2016

    Michal

    Haha! My old Lime Ears 🙂 Good to know they are doing good!

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