Report: Canjam Europe / Essen 2016 Part 3 + Best of show winners

Disclaimer: Headfonia is media partner of Canjam Europe / Essen. The community area was “organized” by the Headfonia and Canjam Europe team. Canjam Europe isn’t related to the Head-Fi Canjam events in any way, just to make this clear (again.) Part one is here and Part two here

Canjam Europe 2016 – Part 3

It’s the event a lot of European personal audio fans have been looking out for the last few months. Canjam Europe delivered with yet another successful edition, one that went by way too fast. The list with the exhibiting brands again was very long but we managed to get almost everything done over two full days. In total I took about 700 pictures at the show, of which you’ll get to see around 200 in this picture report. Because of the large number of pictures, the report will be split up in three parts and it will be published over the same amount of days.

And so the report continues with the next brand!

Pathos

pathos

I found this amplifier at the Grado booth where it was doing its magic on the new 2000E. That’s the digital volume control you’re seeing at the front. The Pathos sounded very good with the Grados but I couldn’t try it with any other headphones. I definitely want to try this amplifier again. Can an amp look prettier?

Pioneer

pioneer-1

Pioneer’s booth had a couple of their latest DAPs all set up with their SE Master 1 headphones. While I couldn’t really try the DAP at the show, the Master 1, just like last year didn’t really impress.

pioneer-2

It seems I also don’t get a long with Pioneer’s designer, I really don’t like the styling of the DAPs and the Master 1.

Pono

We did a guest review of the Pono player last year or so. I have to say I only very rarely see the Pono pop up in the personal audio community. On 2nd hand forums on the other hand…

pono

This was the only one I found at the show and it was at the Sieveking stand.

Pro-Ject Audio

You might remember my article about getting started with vinyl. You might also remember the turntable giveaway we did. In both articles it was the Austrian Pro-Ject audio that supplied the turn table.

project-1

Pro-Ject is big and almost all TTs used at the show were from their Line-up. Above you can see their awesome Star Wars hologram vinyl.

project-2

Pro-Ject has all kinds of turntables in all price ranges. The above shown RPM Carbon goes for about €2000. Did you know that the Pro-Ject RPM 3 Carbon won last years‘ EISA award for best turntable and that it was also awarded with the Red Dot Award for its outstanding design this year? Great stuff!

Qobuz

qobuz

I only started using Tidal’s streaming service very recently but I have to admit that streaming on your DAP at home is almost as good as it gets. Huge libraries and top quality sound. Do you need more? Qobuz is Tidal’s French competitor and after a week of testing I can clearly see advantages it has over Tidal, like the larger library. But Tidal is easier to use and after only one week of testing has a slightly better SQ. Both “apps” can be installed to your phone and Android DAP if they allow it and I’ve been using it myself with the Cayin i5 and the Fiio X7. I hope to see Tidal soon on AK!

Audionext

These Germans always have the biggest booth at the show and they have a lot of very interesting brands.

radius-1

At this table they were especially promoting the Radius hp-twf41, a two-driver Japanese universal inear. You will see more if this unit on HFN…

radius-2

They don’t look sexy though, at least not to me.

RHA

We already reported about RHA’s newest creations in our IFA 2016 report but the new gear certainly deserves a second look.

rha-1

Even though the new gear is very impressive, the their “older” units like the T10 still are very good as well. The injection molded universals IEMS simply fit and sound great.

rha-2

The DACAMP L1 still isn’t finished and RHA is still working on getting the final tuning right. They were also talking about changing the volume control.

rha-3

The CL750 is the “old” 750‘s successor and I absolutely prefer this new version over the old one.

rha-4

Star of the RHA booth of course was the new Ceramic CL1 inear. It is small as you can see in the picture, fits perfectly and sounds extremely good with both cable types and in balanced and SE mode. The CL1 uses a new type of SMMCX cable made just for the CL1 so if you’re in to aftermarket cables you’ve got a slight issue.

Rhines Custom Monitors

Felix’s stand this year seemed smaller than the years before and they didn’t bring their big demo station to the show. The Rhines 7 was introduced last year already and they didn’t really bring anything new to the show.

rhines-1

Rhines offers a lot face plate options for their customs but I especially like their awesome wood designs, like on my Stage 5

rhines-2

Rhines is big in Asia and according to Felix the monitor in the picture below, is a perfect example of what that market likes to buy: Wood and gold. Yes, real gold.

rhines-4

RME

You might not really know RME but I spotted this brand and this unit at High End in Munich already. It seems the ADI-2 PRO is finally ready for the market.

rme-1

The ADI-2 PRO is a high-end AD/DA converter, a double headphone amplifier, A USB DAC, a high-end AD/DA frontend and headphone amp for iPad / iPhone, a multi-format converter (AES, SPDIF, ADAT) with monitoring function, a DSD record and playback solution and an AD/DA frontend for audio measurement at up to 768 kHz sample rate. Phew! Only €1599 Euro.

rme-2

Yes, another see-through top. Love it.

Rooms

rooms

I’m a big fan of the Sieveking Ohm headphone stand but they’re a tad expensive around €100. The German Rooms also has gorgeous wooden headphone stands and they’re reasonably cheaper. Check them all out here.

The report continues on Page TWO, after the click HERE or the jump below

5/5 - (6 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.

10 Comments

  • Reply October 2, 2016

    Tronco

    Nice report Lieven! Thank you for taking the time do to all those photos and the write up.

    • Reply October 2, 2016

      Lieven

      thank you. means alot. reading the report takes only a few minutes but making it takes hours and hours

  • Reply October 2, 2016

    Ritwik Anand

    I wonder is it a new gear thing or does Utopia really beats all the planars and electrostats and Hd800s.

    Enjoyed reading. Thanks you for the write up.

    • Reply October 2, 2016

      Ritwik Anand

      Darn…can’t correct the grammar.

      I can’t find the LP G100 amp for sale anywhere.

      • Reply October 2, 2016

        Lieven

        It’s brand new, it probably isn’t out yet.

    • Reply October 2, 2016

      dale thorn

      I’ve been lustfully following the Utopia, but I know it won’t match the bass of the best planars.

  • Reply October 2, 2016

    chris

    Ah Ah the bass on Elear and Utopia are even better than on my LCS2v2…Let’s try it and you will understand what I mean.

    • Reply October 2, 2016

      dale thorn

      I think I do understand, which is one reason I want the Utopia. But to hedge my bets, I was thinking what Innerfidelity said in their lengthy comments about the Utopia, so they must have been impressed by the greater (or firmer) low end weight of their favorite planars. We will find out what the deal is eventually. If I don’t end up making another deal I was thinking about in the next couple of months, I might get that Utopia.

  • Reply October 2, 2016

    Fabian

    This is Italy. Excellent job Lieven, like every year. I can’t believe that Audiolab wasn’t there…..
    I need a new DAC and after your review, I was thinking of Violectric V850 (my budget is 1300E
    and I’d like to get the best DAC for that amount) but before purchasing it, I want to see a serious
    review of the new M-DAC Plus. Can we hope to see here, on Headfonia, a review of yours of this
    new DAC and a direct comparison with V850 during next weeks?
    And in general, for you, which is the best DAC/PREAMP (I don’t care about headphones AMP) today for 1300E?
    Thank you so much for all your hard work, that means a lot for me. You have become my warranty.

  • Reply October 7, 2016

    Wonder Chiu

    How do you find the new SPL Phonitor e? seems to have a very good p/c ratio. what headphones are the SPL guys paring them with?

    also the rme adi-2, does it have enough power to drive fullsize headphones?

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