Blog: Canjam London 2017 – Part 2

StereoPravda

There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of these guys yet but the Russian StereoPravda will get known very fast, mark my words.

When you first see the SpearPhones you will either think the designer is blind or had a very bad day

And no that’s not a prototype. The design philosophy behind the series is that the drivers (Balanced Armatures) have to be position in one line for them to sound most natural and best (hence the shrink wrap around the drivers) The glued on eartip is angled as well for the best performance and the cable is thick and expensive. These earphones are high maintenance and they’ll have to be sent back once a year for a new tip and maintenance.  The 7-model – which also sticks 7 centimeters horizontally out of your ear is their reference model and it sets you back around $2500 USD. That being said, the sound simply blows you a way. Incredible.

Trilogy

The UK based Trilogy of course had to join the London show and they took both their 931(left) and 933 headphone amplifiers with them.

Trilogy only the week before or so introduced the H1 Engergiser for STAX, and it could be demo’ed at their booth as well

Ultrasone

The German Ultrasone came to the show together with Violectric

V-Moda

I just missed V-Moda’s big boss at the show but we had an interesting visit and talk with the V-Moda guys. We already published a review on their latest creations but I never say no to a V-Moda demo as a lot of people really like their sound signature/house sound

The Crossfade 2 Wireless in white was very flashy, but the black one is very nice

And of course you can always change the face plates

Most of my attention went to the Forza Metallo Wireless, which Berkhan reviewed, and he’s right: it sounds excellent

Westone

Last but certainly not least of my report is the US based Westone. Only very recently I published the universal W60 (6-driver) review, but they were mostly promoting the W80 as you can see.

Naturally they brought their full W-line-up to demo and I sneaked in a listen to the W80 as I have an ES80 coming in soon. Happy me!

Best of show

There were a huge number of excellent brands and great sounding units at the show and unfortunately it’s impossible to mention them all here. These are the one that for me personally were most impressive.

DAP: The Sony WM-1Z & AK-SP1000

Full Sized Headphone: Sonoma Model One

Universal Inear: Audeze LCD-i4 & StereoPravda Spearphones 7

Custom Inear: Noble Kaiser Encore & Empire Ears Zeus

Amplifier: Auris Audio Headonia

DAC: Chord DAVE

Dac/Amp unit: KUOS RealAmp

Cable: Effect Audio 8-Wire Leonidas

 

See you soon at the next show!

4.9/5 - (123 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.

2 Comments

  • Reply July 28, 2017

    Carl A

    Nice coverage and write-up.
    Many thanks.

  • Reply July 28, 2017

    Martin

    That Sonoma System is the biggest disappointment i have listened to in the last 5 years. I had a chance to listen to this one at the HighEnd in Munich this year and it was a total letdown. Not only is the amp not capable of driving the headphone to a proper loud listening level, it also distorts really easy. I’m also glad that I am not the only one who thought about this one the way i did. What a waste of money.

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