CanJam NYC 2023 Show Report

Hey SECRETS readers, in the span of a week we have gone from the sunny and warm temperatures of Tampa, Florida to the chilly winter winds of New York City. We are here again in the Big Apple to bring you coverage of CanJam NYC 2023 which is running over the weekend of February 25^th and 26^th at the Marriott Hotel in the heart of Times Square. SECRETS is proud to again be a sponsor of this event and the folks at CanJam Global have been working non-stop to put on another fun and well-organized show. By all early accounts, attendee foot traffic looks to be significantly up over last year which is a good indicator of the continued growth and appeal of the personal audio space. Another notable point is how this show, regularly above all others, attracts the widest demographic of consumers. Over the course of this weekend, I can see everyone from older teenagers & young adults through to your typical older audiophile walk through the halls of the show. There is also a noticeably wider cultural demographic that attends this show along with a higher number of women too. And while the show’s location may contribute somewhat to the wider cultural demographic, I think the personal audio space in general just has a wider and more easily accessible appeal than does your standard 2-channel or home theater space. It’s so much easier to make a personal statement and incorporate elements of fashion and style, along with sound, and the price of entry can be considerably lower than traditional two-channel. The funny thing is, while prices for some personal audio gear can also get as nosebleed high, proportionally, as some two-channel gear, there appears to still be money to burn in this segment with many top-end exhibitors reporting making brisk sales at this show too.

So, what does it all mean? Who knows, but for the time being, people were enjoying getting together, exploring personal audio in all its forms, and spending a bit of money while doing it. All is well and good.

Note, all prices unless otherwise noted are in US dollars.

First stop at the show was at the Focal booth which was front-and-center as soon as I entered the hall. They had several listening stations set up with examples of all their current headphones attached to Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition players, among other amplification too. Focal’s latest headphone releases are the wireless, noise cancelling Bathys and the refreshed Utopia. I’m currently wrapping up a review on the Utopia so I’ll save my detailed comments for that (suffice it to say that they are awesome) but this was my first time listening to the Bathys and I think their sound quality and feel for an ANC headphone is quite exceptional for their price of $799. Very little currently touches it.

I also got a chance to talk with Focal’s Mégane Montabonel, Product Manager for headphones about Focal’s current headphone line and, in particular, the newly updated Utopia.

I stopped in on our friends at HIFIMAN where PR impresario Adam Sohmer was holding court at a crazy-busy booth. Adam was able to break away for a few moments to walk me through the latest and greatest that HIFIMAN brought to the show. First up were the new Audivina closed-back planar headphones ($1,999). These cans are going to be targeted at the professional music production crowd, mastering engineers, and the like. I was told the Audivina are set up to have a neutral tonal balance and yet be revealing enough, and comfortable enough for professional use. A quick listen to them made me sit up take notice. It gave me enough initial good feels that I am requesting a review pair to be able to make a proper informed judgment on them. But I definitely liked what I was hearing so far.

Next came the Svanar IEM ($1,999). These are universal fit reference grade earphones that use a brass front chamber and aluminum rear chamber to maximize sonic performance and balance the overall weight of the IEMs for best comfort. The Svanar use a 9.2mm dynamic driver with HIFIMAN’s special Nano Partcle Coating applied to the surface of the diaphragm. The Svanar’s impedance is 60 Ohms and it comes with silver coated crystalline-copper cables. Alas, I could not grab a photo as the samples were all being used by scads of show goers!

The last new item from HIFIMAN was the EF600 Balanced desktop DAC/amp ($799.00). The EF600 uses the latest version of the company’s Himalaya ladder DAC technology, called Himalaya PRO. It also has fully balanced input and output connections, LDAC Bluetooth connectivity among other codecs, maximum power output of 5.2 Watts balanced and 1.8 Watts unbalanced, and USB-B and C source connections. The entire unit also conveniently doubles as a headphone stand!

At CanJAM NYC 2023 I got to speak a little bit with Dr. Fang Bian of HIFIMAN. We discussed the 3 new products that HIFIMAN premiered at the show, the Audivina headphones, the Svanar IEMs, and the EF600 DAC/headphone amp.

I got to spend some time with PSB’s Paul Barton and Rob Nichols as they walked me through some of the interesting headphone developments that they have been cooking up. PSB has partnered up with Swedish technology company Audiodo to allow PSB’s latest headphones to perform an audiology test on a listener and compensate for any light to moderate hearing deficiencies they may have.

The subject’s headphones work in conjunction with an app so a listener can see their test results and discover where any corrections are taking place. I was apparently going to experience the test and the results using a prototype set of in development PSB headphones that I can neither describe or show pictures of. The M4U8 Mk II cans in the photos were to show off a new color. I was introduced to Ajay Misra and Jonas Ekelund of Audiodo who were there to describe the technology and answer any questions. I put the mystery headphones on and went and launched the app’s hearing test. It ran a series of tones at various frequencies and I had to acknowledge if I could or couldn’t hear each test tone. The test was repeated for both ears and my results turned out to be surprisingly (at least to me) good. Jonas recommended that the test is most effective when done in a quiet environment which we luckily were in. So with the compensation curve figured out and saved, I started listening to some familiar musc and switched between the curve being on and off. Both Paul and Jonas said that, because of my hearing test results, the changes should be rather subtle. They weren’t. I heard a serious clearing up of the upper bass through the midrange region. After switching back and forth a few times, I couldn’t decide if I immediately liked the changes I was hearing. I’m sure over time I would get used to them but I have to say, it had me questioning the quality of my own hearing for a few seconds! In any event, the reason they can now do this is because the technology can be directly implemented in the latest Bluetooth chipsets, so be prepared for a oncoming brave new world of customization and personalization in your future headphones. Particularly if this crew has anything to say about it!

Apparently the guys from Spirit Torino turned this past week-and-a-half into the “Great American Road trip!” Having been at the Florida Audio Expo last weekend, they spent the past week casually driving up through, and visiting, a number of states between Florida and New York with all their show gear in tow. Well both Andrea and Giordano looked none the worse for wear as they had a constant stream of traffic at their table throughout CanJAM. Spirit Torino definitely has some fans Stateside, myself included, and it’s great to see their popularity growing since I first ran into them last year.

Spent some time hanging out with fellow “hoser” Ben Webster, co-founder of Periodic Audio and presented him with a 2022 “Thumbs Up” Award for the Periodic Audio Be IEMs. Ben was previewing a number of very interesting products and proof-of-concept ideas in order to get consumer feedback at the show. I’ve been asked not to mention anything I saw just yet, but I think we will be hearing definitive announcements from Periodic on some of these coming soon!

High End by Oz brought these amazing looking, hand-crafted monster tube headphone amps from Italian manufacturer Viva. The Viva Egoista 845 (price TBD) is a gorgeous behemoth of an amp with zero negative feedback pure Class A operation. Listening to a set of Meze Elite headphones on this amp was a sublime musical experience. The other amp was the Viva Egoista STX (price TBD) especially made for Electrostatic headphones. Again, pure Class A operation with zero negative feedback. With 300B tubes as big as standard lightbulbs, this amp literally lit up the STAX SR-X9000 headphones connected to them. Electrostatic musical effortlessness with a liquid smooth delivery. Absolutely heaven on the ears.

T+A had a modest but formidable setup at CanJAM with both their Solitaire P and P-SE Planar headphones and new Solitaire T wireless headphones. To drive such delightful pieces of headgear, T+A brought along the beautiful HA 200 DAC/Headphone amp and the MP 200 Multi-source player. T+A gear always looks as good as it sounds and is scrupulously built to last. I’ve heard both the Planar Solitares before with the HA 200 and it as reference a setup as you are likely to come across. I had not yet however had a chance to try the Solitaire T. Listening to them wired to the HA 200 confirmed that they definitely had the goods in terms of sound. I would love to get a chance to review these to get a better sense of their wireless performance in regular usage. I also need to say that it was great to catch up with T+A North America CEO Dave Nauber. Both Dave and his associates, Elliot, and Thavy looked like they were all having a blast at the show.

The team at the iFi Audio booth we’re hopping every time I swung by. The crowds seemed to be loving what the company had brought to the show. I did finally get a chance to sit down and sample an iDSD Diablo DAC/amp which was very large and very red. The xDSD Gryphon was more my speed, just a little bigger than the shiny xDSD that I personally own, I liked the integrated display, extra power and battery life it offers over it’s predecessor. The new iFi Go Link dongle ($59.00) and iFi Uno ($79.00) look like great introductory products to get casual music listeners interested in better sound for not a lot of coin. The Neo DSD and Neo Stream look and sound fantastic as a high-quality DAC/Amp and Streamers as well. Always loved the design and power of the iDSD and iCAN Signature stack too. iFi, I think, has the uniqueness, value, and performance ratio of their products worked out well.

Sennheisser had samples of the HD660S2 ($599.95) at the show and I was eager to take a listen. Our Mel Martin has a review sample in for evaluation but I don’t think I’ll be giving much away by saying I thought these headphones had a wonderfully open and dynamic sound. Nothing sprang out to me as a weakness in the sound or comfort departments.

Just like at the Florida Audio Expo, TEAC had some beautiful looking and sounding gear to treat the ears at CanJAM. The TEAC NT-505-x USB DAC/Network player ($2,250.00) is a fully balanced design with twin ESS 9038Q2M DAC chips that sounded excellent driving a pair of Meze 109 PRO headphones. Then we have the Reference level TEAC UD-701N USB DAC/Network player ($4,299.99)

Which has a proprietary TEAC developed Delta Sigma discrete DAC using an FPGA. It also is a fully balanced design that can double as a stereo preamplifier, is Roon Ready, and has both aptX-HD and LDAC Bluetooth support. Both units had outstanding build quality and were beautifully finished.

Another item that falls into the “Back in Black” category was found at the Audio46 booth. That being the new and positively evil-looking Yamaha YH-5000 SE ($5,000.00) Orthodynamic flagship headphones. They felt incredibly light and comfortable on my head and the sound had a fast, detailed, almost electrostatic quality but with excellent bass delivery and impact. It also looked and felt very luxurious.

I got a chance to attend a couple of seminars while at CanJAM NYC. The first one featured Dr. Sean Olive, Senior Fellow at HARMAN International and was titled, “The HARMAN Headphone Target Curve: 2023 and Beyond.” Dr. Olive gave a detailed overview of how the HARMAN headphone target curve was first derived and how it has evolved over the years. He also discussed the differences in various headphone measurement systems and how that may effect results.

It was a very well attended seminar even being attended by Jude Mansilla, founder of Head-Fi.org participating in some spirited discussion.

After the seminar I was able to present Dr. Olive with a SECRETS 2022 “Best Of” award for the Mark Levinson No.5909 ANC headphones. A product that is a direct result of Dr. Olive’s continued research. He also graciously accepted the “Thumbs Up” award on behalf of Revel’s Mark Glazer for the Revel F226Be loudspeakers.

The folks at Woo Audio had a new little Firefly tube amp, especially made to run electrostatic headphones. The Woo WA7e ($1,399.00) tube amp was paired with a set of STAX L500 mkII. A fantastic sounding setup that uses precious little real estate.

Also grabbed a chance for another listen to the wonderful STAX SR-X9000 ($6,200.00), this time with Woo Audio’s 3ES Electrostatic tube amplifier ($8,999.00 base). To my ears the SR-X9000 is one of the best sounding headphones out there and listens through the Woo 3ES just helped further cement that opinion.

Conversely in the STAX room, I got a chance to listen to the Dan Clark Audio Corina Electrostatic headphones ($4,499) on STAX SRM-T8000 amplification ($6,090.00). Supremely comfortable with a sweet and really appealing sound signature, and especially great bass response to boot!

And speaking of Dan Clark Audio, I got a chance to compare their flagship closed-back Stealth ($3,9999) planar magnetic headphones and the flagship open-back Expanse ($3,999.00) planar magnetic headphones back-to-back. I honestly don’t know which I would end up wanting more. If I could only pick one it would probably be the Stealth because I could listen to it in more environments. But both these headphones sound so good, there really is no wrong answer here! And it should be noted that beyond great sounding, Dan Clark Audio makes some of the most comfortable headphones around!

Data Conversion Systems (dCS) had an impressive 3-piece headphone listening system called the Lina.

Lina is a deceptively simple looking system made up of a network DAC ($13,650.00) that uses it’s renowned Ring DAC system, a master Clock ($7,750.00), and a powerful solid-state headphone amp stage ($9,750.00). Each component can be purchased separately to be used stand alone as well in unison. All of it is handmade in the UK and finished to the highest standards. At $31,150.00 for the full setup this is definitely one of those aspirational systems that is not for the faint of heart, or wallet! But if your finances will oblige, the dCS Lina will treat you to a most sublime listening experience with any headphone you grace it with.

It was nice to see Jim and Fumie Moulton of Noble Audio again at CanJAM this year. Noble was showing off their updated wireless IEM, the FoKus Mystique ($359.00). It features a single 8.2mm dynamic driver paired with two Knowles Balanced Armature drivers, relocated microphones for better call quality, and BT 5.2 classification supporting AAC, SBC, aptX, and aptX adaptive codecs. A Google and iOS app is also available. A quick listen delivered a balanced sounding presentation with nice punchy bass. Very comfortable for a universal fit IEM as well.

My other favorite from Noble was the Viking Ragnar IEM ($4,000.00). Visually I love the striking folded Damascus steel look of the external housings. The internals feature (per IEM) twin 10mm dynamic bass drivers paired with four Knowles Balanced Armature drivers for the upper-bass, midrange, and upper-mids, while four Electrostatic driver handle all the treble. The cable set is made from 4 cores of silver/graphene terminated with a balanced Pentaconn connector. The Viking Ragnar is one of the most comfortable IEMs I’ve ever tried and it has a fantastic sound signature to boot. Incredibly appealing to listen to for extended stretches. I’d like to officially review these IEMs to see if my initial impressions bear out over a longer term.

The ZMF headphone room had so many samples of headphones in so many species and finishes of wood I half felt like I was walking into a cigar bar or old steakhouse! I’ve never seen so many gorgeous looking headphones in one room before. When I asked what was new, I was presented with a pair of ZMF Atrium Closed headphones with bio cellulose drivers ($2,499.00) and a beautiful Burl Redwood earcups and a pair of ZMF Caldera Open-backed Planar headphones ($3,499). Both felt extremely comfortable, the Atrium had more punch in the lower end while the Caldera had a more balanced, effortless sound. That being said the Atrium was more my personal cup of tea, sound-wise.

And to finish off our coverage, we just wanted to thank all our friends at CanJam Global for putting on another excellent show this year. SECRETS is proud to be a sponsor of this annual event and it’s only right and proper to give these hard working folks from Head.Fi a shout-out to for their efforts. Well done gang!