Equipment Impressions

"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...

"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. "

"Firstly, hello! I like to go by the name of “Flux” online, and without getting too long-winded in my introduction, I bring to you the first of many reviews I look to post on AAC.

This is my second time visiting New York for a CanJam (NYC 2020), although this most recent visit was primarily to visit with friends and colleagues instead of studying every single booth on the Marriott Marquis show floor. "