First time going to CanJam, this has been a fantastic experience! So many headphones at one place? Surely that only exists on this sub, right? But, alas, I got to experience so many headphones (to the point that I can’t really tell anymore). So, let me summarize my experience a bit.
What this post is: My (inexperienced) experiences and rants.
What this posy is not: Definitive answers to anything, really.
TLDR: STAX SR009S good; HD820 bad. Bass and vocals good; sibilance bad. Also, I just don’t understand Meze Empyrean.
Test tracks:
- Soothing by Laura Marling
- Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson
- Starboy by Weeknd (ft. Daft Punk)
- Titanium by David Guetta ft. Sia
- And other ones I came upon but not familiar with.
Caveats:
I haven’t tried many headphones at CanJam yet. Also, I’m no way near experienced in audio or gear. I daily drive a pair of 58X and that’s about it. I also can’t really say much about DACs and AMPs since I don’t have much experience with them.
Awards
My favorite: STAX SR009S. Man, these drivers are fast! This is perhaps the only time that my jaw dropped when I heard a pair of headphones. I couldn’t properly gauge the details given the short time period and noisy environment, but I will say this is easily one of the most impressive presentation I heard today. For fast tracks, each note hits so quickly. Maybe the only downside is the lack of intimate and thick vocals, but I will reserve my judgement on that. I have yet to try all the other STAXs, and I really need to.
Best Bass: TH900 MKII. For bass heads, this is a dream. I mean the sub bass is intense. I daily drive a 58X, and I heard sub bass that I never heard before. This headphone has its flaws of course: the sibilance is bad at times, and the treble is just too much. I can stand a few minutes of rumbling fun, but I don’t think they will work for some songs. I need to give LCD5 another listen and see if I stand corrected on this category.
Best Display: ZMF. A whole room of beautiful headphones? Yes please. I only got to hear the Caldera today, and I liked it a lot. I think it is one of the only ones that left an impression of good vocals combined with all the planar goodness. It somewhat reminds of the Sennheiser sound, but just better.
Worst pads: Grado pads. I tried one of their flat pats, and they are just uncomfortable. They feel like hugging industrial carpet with your ears. Really, Reddit is correct: get alternative new pads.
What I don’t Like: HD820. They don’t have a chance next to the 800S. Pass.
What I don’t understand: Meze Empyrean. I’m a little baffled. I heard this headphones three times today (if I’m not mistaken). One time was an unfamiliar track but properly driven (it was just meh?). I literally wrote “Not much an impression on me”. Another time I thought they were not properly drive. Finally, I was at the Meze booth and tried them on the Ferrum stack. Now we are talking, but I still vastly prefer the Meze 109 (which is very good). To me, the Empyrean is a bit too warm, almost claustrophobic at times. Maybe I need more time.
What I want to try: Hifimans, Focals, many more ZMF and STAXs. Maybe some IEMs as well?
Statistics
Let’s get this out of the way! To keep track of what I heard and what my thoughts are, I had a form in my phone for every headphone I listened to! At the end, I gave each experience a score from 0 to 10. Obviously no headphone got 0s (only reserved for awkward silence) and one particular headphone did get a 10. There are a few headphones that I heard multiple times (possibly with different sources), and each time I gave a separately. Also, there is obvious bias, especially those I heard early on. So bear with me, and I really need to get some another go. Now, let’s look at the scores each headphone get:
Averaged scores of each headphone.
Caveats: I don’t think I have a good handle on LCD headphones, evident by their all-over-the-place scores. Also, I didn’t spend much time on the LCD5, which I listened to on an unfamiliar track.
Here is an overall distribution of all the scores:
Conclusions
This post is getting long, and I hope people enjoyed the useless statistics and rants! Obviously I have a long way to go on this journey, but at least, this is a good start! Chime in if you too have impressions from CanJam!!
You must log in or register to comment.
How did the Caldera stack up to the 009S? Mainly clarity-wise and bass level.
I heard both the Caldera and 009S at Canjam SoCal this year. Imo, Caldera and almost every other headphone isn’t in the same league as far as clarity goes vs Stax electrostats. Detail retrieval, speed, separation, image definition, and everything clarity are pretty significantly better on 009S. I think Caldera’s thicker, warmer, and more intimate presentation works against it in this case. Caldera wins on bass quantity and slam but the 009S is surprisingly not too far behind on the slam part.
I had the 009S up until recently.
- It was very anemic on bass to the point where I had a 15db bass shelf on it and that made it barely passable.
- It still had some weird uplift in the upper mids that accentuated a very weird part of any song I listened to. Some tracks were made significantly worse because of this.
- Another big con of the 009S was that replacing the earpads are no small feat and that most suggest sending them into a Stax rep to get them changed. This doesn’t even go into the matter of price - $190 for replacements.
My L300 has the same amount of the detail retrieval or at least 99% of it so all of those things going against it led me to sell it.
With all of that in mind, I cannot imagine the Caldera has any of these issues that once you’re past the honeymoon phase with the 009S, its issues become glaring, especially for the price.
I can see that if the 009S are the only electrostats you’ve heard you’d be blown away but the same experience can be found in much more obtainable prices and way better long-term ownership conditions.
I’d agree that the intimate vocal presentation of the Caldera is better, and I will need to spend more time with STAX to familiarize myself with estats. It was indeed my first time hearing it, so I think the wow factor did play a role. I will report back if I have more impressions and comment more on these issues.
I listened to them again today! I will say this. For bass, go with the ZMF no doubt. The Caldera is perhaps the most technically capable one from all the ZMF I heard these two days, but it retains their sound signature. I personally liked the Verite a lot. The 009s is faster and more slightly more detailed to my ears (the sound reproduction just sounds effortless). Given the issues you described, I think the Caldera can complement well.
Thanks for doing another listen.
I have the Calderas on top of my list - now it’s the issue of which one I wanna get…