Blog: Headphone Heaven – Show Report

This week’s blog post is all about the Headphone Heaven show of last Saturday in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. To check out previous show reports click HERE.

Headphone Heaven 2017

It was only the second Headphone Heaven event but the show was a lot of fun with a very good number of brands. Of course it can’t yet be compared to the bigger Head-Fi Canjam shows and the Canjam Europe shows, but they certainly are on the right track. Proof of that is the fact that there were a couple of world premieres and Sennheiser even brought the HE-1/Orpheus to the party!

But let’s get started with the picture report.

64Audio

I was very glad I got there early so I could listen to the latest 64Audio creations, especially the U12, U18 Tzar and tia Fourté.

While the U12 sounded good I personally liked the Tzar and Fourté more

And of those two top models, I liked the Fourté a little more as it was more balanced overall.

Tzar’s bass sometimes was a bit too much for me, but that’s personal preference. All of these sounded absolutely great.

And yes, we do have 64Audio reviews coming up!

Arcam

Audeze

Most headphone shows always feature a lot of Audeze headphones, but this wasn’t really the case in Rotterdam as the new Dutch Audeze dealer had only very recently been named.

The LCD-4 and LCD-i4 were present though.

AudioValve

AudioValve is a high-end tube amp manufacturer from Germany. Their amps are known for their great build and sound quality all over the world.

My personal interest especially went to the Luminare and Solaris models

As you can see the AudioValve gear features Single Ended, Balanced and even Electrostat outputs!

The tube amp that has my most attention is the Solaris however. Word is this was the best affordable amplifier at the show…

B&W

Bowers&Wilkins of course brought their full line-up to the show

Belhifi / Colab

Our Belgian friends from Belhifi were also present at the show with a whole series of products you’ll see throughout this report. For all your personal audio products in Belgium, this is the place to be

SBooster

SBooster was showing their power cleaning system BOTW and it could be seen at several booths at the show. I haven’t tried it myself though

If you’re having issues with noisy power, this could be a solution for you. The units are rather big though

Next to that they were also showing their tiny USB cleaner, the Vbus²

Burson

I’m always happy to see a good Burson amp at the show.

Chord Electronics & Auralic

One of the brands that usually are omnipresent at shows is Chord Electronics

I only found one Hugo 2 however, hooked up to an Auralic unit…

ClarityOne

I have to admit I’m not very familiar with the Clarityone brand. Are you? Do leave a message in the comments section

DIDIT

Another brand I never heard about but the unit sounded really good, especially with the Mr. Speakers units.

I didn’t like it as much with the Beyerdynamic T1, but this certainly is a unit to look into more.

Part 2 of the Headphone Heaven show report is on Page Two after the click HERE or below