The three coolest things I heard included: #1 Focal Utopia headphones $4K, #2 Woo Audio WA8 transportable Class A SET DAC/AMP $1.8K and #3 Sanders electrostatic speaker/amp system $22K (with two amps). These 3 things were spectacular and far above the nearest competition in their respective categories. The finally released WA8 was something I'd heard prior in prototype form but this battery driven tube DAC/AMP was stunning in production - it trounced the ALO portable tube amp - and it bested my desktop WA7 tube DAC/AMP. The biggest surprise/delight for me was the French Focal Utopia headset - full range - full size beryllium drivers so far above my planar magnetics it was weird... super expensive though at $4K. Their $1.5K model was good too, but it was hard to come down from the mountain after hearing the Utopia early in the day (and then coming back to assure I heard it right). I hit all the esoteric speaker manufacturers too after CanJam - I've always liked the electrostatics like Martin Logan but the Sanders Model 10e system was definitely better - and they bested the best of the efficient horns this time. These babies crushed everything else I saw at the show, and they are designed and built in Colorado ~ so cool.
That's not to say that other stuff wasn't worthy - there was plenty of new stuff I tested. One category of particular interest during this outing was portable high def players - a steroids version of an iPod called a DAP, digital audio player. Astel & Kern pioneered the category but I sought a full survey and tested released and prototype gear that was easier to use than A&K. I came into the show wanting to like the AR M2 - a venerable brand reborn from Chinese engineering with great design and power ~ but by far my favorite was the Android-based Onkyo (Pioneer had an equivalent model); the A&K, FiiO, AR and Sony "walkman" were all harder to use and less feature-filled. However, the Walkman heritage is strong and Sony, though unreleased till 4Q, has a new line and included a new 4.4mm balanced jack output with 5 poles - larger and nicer than all others. Other models with balanced output use 2.5mm 4 pole jacks which seem prone to fail (but are perfect for IEMs actually). Amps and DACs in all models are sufficient but I'll get the Onkyo, it has more storage, is easier to use, and supports more file types. I did try the EchoBox Explorer but it is not ready for prime time. Here are 1) Onkyo $700, 2) Pioneer (basically equal) $800, 3) FiiO $500, 4) Sony $1,200, 5) A&K $900. 6) AR M2 $800 and 6) Explorer $800.
I also listened to several other new headphones of interest and talked to the dev team members or inventors when I could. Breakthroughs include Dan Clark's (MrSpeaker) Ether C Flow @ $1.8K, the closed back model of these pleated foil diaphragms have cool carbon fiber appeal. Closed backs are hard to drive to clean full range and typically suffer dynamics but these are without compare in these regards. Dan had open versions too - but those have plenty of competition. He was co-boothed with Cavali, who's stuff (Liquid Gold, Liquid Glass, Liquid Titanium and other amps) is great but out of touch for normal humans. The experience this Friday also led me to research and appreciate Miley Cyrus. It's strange to me but her version on the non-twerking Lilac Wine is terrific; she's every bit as strong as Adele, Natalie Merchant and Alicia Keyes. Who knew? - I went back and listened to some of her other stuff and a lot of it is good. Everyone let me use my USB drive of specific listening tunes on their macs, when computers vs players were involved. That was nice as their playlists never had any of my material (Miley, Wheatus, New Pornographers, Killers, Flim & The BBs, Mark Knopfler and Vampire Weekend); I really didn't know my tastes were so obtuse. Also of note are new Swedish headphone designs for wireless operation via bluetooth called uJay Wireless $180 - sweet on-ear gear with minimal tomfoolery and cool UI where swipes are used on the outside of the earpieces to control the material, and the sound is very good. Finally noteworthy for me were strong and well-priced Romanian entries from Meze called the 99 Classic for $300.
I also met Darin Fong who wrote the software behind "Out of Your Head." This is very cool signal processing code for Mac or PC which installs like a sound card and processes the stereo signal from any chosen source into something which seems like much more, on any set of headphones. It was super cool. His pricing was 50% off the normal $150 at the show but I did not buy. "In app purchases" of $25 each allow you to listen to any speakers you want. Darin has measured many high end speaker systems and mimics them with signal processing for headphones. It's a cool idea and seems to work - how big the market is however, I am dubious. There's a free demo on his website and it is very cool.
Of course I wrapped the day with some IPAs. I headed to Declaration Brewing's Preamble brewspot. The vibe was quite different from the festival where many old dudes (at least on Friday) or press weenies were littering the hotel - to one of a young Denver hangout full of action. I tried all the IPAs (4) but settled on a dry-hopped limited (Citra dry-hopped) release of King Nalu Koa'e DIPA. "Keep your pinky on the glass at all times." Too, the Churn & Burn food truck was excellent - I enjoyed a "bowl" with salad, topped by cornbread waffle, topped by mac 'n' cheese, topped by house-smoked brisket, topped by habanero aioli ~ so good.
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