Canjam 2014

[Mike]

CANJAM 2014

I dedicated a few hours to the headphone fest called CANJAM at RMAF this year.

I listened to all the expensive headphones and headphone amps.

I just don't get it. What am I missing? What is this obsession with multi-thousand dollar headphones claiming to sound as good as $100,000 speakers? As good as $100,000 speakers? Now, that's funny.

I heard a pair of STAX $5000 headphones. I took them off and shook my head. I began to wonder "is it just me?" Then I saw the scruffy dressed, dirty sneaker wearing, long haired, lightly stoned, ball cap wearing purveyor of "cans". Ah...Gotcha. Now it all makes sense.

Charging more for crappy sounding headphones doesn't make them better.

Frankly, they all suck....some just suck worse than others.

If I had to pick one, it would be the Audeze LCD-3....but not knowing what's good and what's not (since they all sounded crappy to me) - I'm not really sure.

And one last thing.....why do headphones weigh more than a regulation NFL football helmet? I guess if they are light, you can't charge $5k.

Look, if you are into headphones and headphone amps, great. I just don't understand the craze. But, I guess, whatever keeps people buying more music is all good by me.

 

[MikeCh]

LOL

I've never understood how the whole, "musical image inside the center of my head" thing can be natural sounding.

Maybe I just get vertigo too easily?

 

[Alpinist]

LOL

I've never understood how the whole, "musical image inside the center of my head" thing can be natural sounding.

Maybe I just get vertigo too easily?

Stax used to make a pair of electrostatic headphones that were nearly at a right angle to your ears. They were bulky and hell to look at but they produced the closest thing to normal stereo imaging I've heard from a headphone. Does anybody remember these?

Ken

 

[Alpinist]

Stax used to make a pair of electrostatic headphones that were nearly at a right angle to your ears. They were bulky and hell to look at but they produced the closest thing to normal stereo imaging I've heard from a headphone. Does anybody remember these?

Ken

SR Sigma Pro. They were introduced in 1987.

 

[Mark Jones]

And the AKG K1000's too. I think that's what they were called.

 

[BlueFox]

They come in handy for listening to music at work. My work setup is a Wadia 171 iTransport, a 160GB iPod Classic with Apple Lossless files, a Benchmark DAC1, and Sennheiser HD600. That is good enough for me from a headphone perspective.