CanJam SoCal, March 28-29, 2015

[jp11801]

I'd actually like to stay way south of the city and stay in maybe Carlsbad or some other spot. Hit the meet for a day and then do brewery tours in San Diego and some hikes or cycling 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Definitely another fun idea, John. There are some nice hiking spots in Riverside and SD counties, and I don't have to tell you about the beer!

[The Monkey]

If people are still serious about this, I will look into switching that weekend with my ex.

[Augsburger]

Well I am in if some of you others are in, if that is worth anything.

[justin]

will be there

[VPI]

I am semi-serious now, but definite-serious if Dinny goes.

[morphsci]

Wish there was a shot I could make this, but it could not be on a worse weekend for me.

[acidbasement]

I'll definitely be in the area, but my family's schedule will determine when and where I can get together. You guys make plans, and I'll try to plug into them.

[cetoole]

If the monkey can make it, I can make it.

[MexicanDragon]

Subscribed to this newsletter, just in case.

**BRENT**

[bhjazz]

I was thinking the usual: where the hell else will I get a chance to hear all the new stuff?  Seems like a reasonable opportunity.  

[Voltron]

Go for it, Brian, there should be plenty of great stuff and some good people too!

[grawk]

wrong thread

[Augsburger]

Sure, will you use your real name this time?

[grawk]

no, but you know my secret hotel name, Greg

[ironbut]

Browsed the impressions thread and it looks like Sat. was a great turnout.

I'll leave any real impressions of the atmosphere to folks like Peter (irondreamer) and anyone else that was actually there but it looks like there was tons of vendors and gear to check out (surprised to see microphone builders Blue).

Frank Cooter had his 845 stat amp which folks were loving. I'd like to hear that!

Anyway, here's a couple of photo links so you guys can skip all the typical dribble and drool.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nhlducks35/sets/72157649301805003/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/79651000@N00/sets/72157651213242250/

[eggil]

I was there last year. Frank's amplifier sounds wonderful.   I really enjoyed it. Milos always brings good stuff to the meets. There are maybe only 1-2 other DIY guys; Andy was there too.

The rest were vendors. Nothing against them, but things like the Hugo or other FOTM drives me crazy.

They give you a raffle ticket if you go to their booth and at the end of the day the raffle is on.

None of the younger ones know what a solder gun is.... very sad.

[n3rdling]

None of the younger ones knew what the R10 was either.  I'd honestly say less than 50% of the people that sat at my table even knew what the R10 was.  The last time I brought it to a meet was in NorCal maybe 2.5 years back and almost everybody knew what it was.  It seemed like a lot of the people there this weekend were speaker guys looking to get into headphones.

 

It was pretty disappointing to see such a small number of member rigs, but that's the way the hobby is going and I totally get why they organized it that way.  FWIW the quality of gear at the member rigs was pretty high.  What was really cool is that I think everybody there did a little DIY to their system in some way (changing cables or putting stones on amps doesn't count): Frank had his ridiculous stat amp, another DIYer had a KSA5 Klone, B22, and First Watt F4, and there were modifications done to the HD800, Abyss, LCD2, Sony Z7, R10, Stax etc in order to change the sound more towards one's tastes.  That's the kind of stuff I like to see these days since it keeps things fresher.

 

Wish you two could have gone.  ironbut your reel to reel is always a treat, and Enrique I needed somebody to talk Stax with

Edited March 30, 2015 by n3rdling

[nopants]

how did franks amp sound?

[n3rdling]

Kind of like a warmer, slightly thicker version of the T2.  A little less control and slam in the bass, a little more body in the mids.  Really good stuff.

[Tachikoma]

Does anyone have an opinion on the sorbothane damped Staxen?

[Iron_Dreamer]

I noticed most of the usual SoCal HF contingent, and plenty of newbs, so overall the meet stayed pretty busy. Had fun when I could get away to try some of the new products like the Enigma Acoustics Darma and Mr.Speakers Ether, solid new competitors in the $1k-$1.5k headphone space. UE had their awesome new earscanning system up and running.

Mostly just caught up with old friends and served up doses of sobering 009/BHSE performance. Fun times.

Wasn't too much for extracurriculars, so no dish there.

[purk]

I think I'll have to try to make the next Socal meet.  Seem to be plenty of manufacturers and less of personal gears.  Would love to listen to Milos's Stax DAC

[blubliss]

Milos's stax DAC>Aristeaus>009 was very good.

 

HE1000 did not impress that much, but listening conditions were terrible.  The guy listening along with me had the thing so loud I almost had to take the phones off.

 

I am very interested in the Schitt Yggdrasil, but it was not impressive at the meet.  

 

However, the Chord Hugo TT really amazed me.  I listened to an HD800 through its integrated headphone amp and I was shocked at how good it sounded.  Besides that, Rob Watts spoke with us for about 30 minutes.  He seems to really know his stuff and he has been doing FPGA longer than most.  Too bad the Chord gear is so expensive and incredibly ugly.

 

It was great to see Frank, Edwood, Tyll, milos, etc.

 

I will say that the atmosphere was very, very different from 2009, and it was not different in a good way.

[Iron_Dreamer]

Purk, I'd say try to setup a mini meet with some of the key players, if personal gear is what you're more interested in. This CanJam was fairly similar to the "offical" LA meets of thr last few years, where there has typically been a low member to vendor gear ratio.