Equipment Impressions
NYC 2023 impressions from SV member Makiah!
"Between the STAX SR-X9000 and Hifiman Shangri-La Electrostatic headphones, I lacked nothing. Grand Cayman added heft, power, and a life-like weight to the Shangri-La, unlike anything I've heard previously. With Grand Cayman, I finally found the Shangri-La's massive, detailed, and beautifully layered presentation firmly planted in reality. To get things started, I dove head first into some Eva Cassidy. What I love about "Oh, Had I a Golden Thread" is how much of the room acoustics within Blues Alley is preserved within the recording. Most systems I've demoed Shangri-La with struggle to balance the immediacy of Eva's powerful voice and the band alongside the nuance and depth of the space she's performing within. I either got a well-layered presentation with a slightly thin tone or a full-bodied sound with some slight...
Can Jam Socal 2022 Impressions by Flux of Den-fi
Revisiting Audio's Oasis: CanJam SoCal 2022
CanJam comes but a few times a year, presenting so many audio enthusiasts with the opportunity to try new gear, meet people from all walks of life, and most importantly to have fun!
den-fi.com
"One of the big releases of CanJam SoCal this year was the Expanse, a new open-back planar magnetic headphone from Dan Clark Audio (DCA). I want to disclose I have owned a handful of previous Dan Clark headphone releases, ranging from the original Aeon closed to the more recent Ether 2. The Expanse to me sounds like it has FR lineage to the Ether Flow Open 1.1, but with less claustrophobia going on in the mids. Compared to the headphones and gear options available throughout the show next to the Expanse, I felt the DCA lacked any kind of wow factor. "