CanJam NYC 2026 - New Challangers Have Appeared

As promised, my full write up on CanJam NY 2026 is complete! It took a bit longer than I expected it to take due to the sheer amount I wanted to write about but there were so many things I wanted to talk about that we didn't cover in our teaser.

Headphones

Abyss

Diana TC Signature

I owned a Diana TC and I legitimately had fewer reasons to like it than my Yamaha YH-5000SE which I thought was pretty terrible. Surprisingly, I felt like the Diana TC Signature was noticeably better. It seemed like it balanced the bass with the elevated center midrange and treble on the Diana TC much better. And, while it was missing texture, it seemed to be a little more resolving than most other planar magnetic headphones. I did use it in a setup with a Holo Audio Cyan running in NOS which probably helped treble elevation though.

Apos Audio

Apos x K1k

I was very, very excited to see this at CanJam. I used to own an AKG K1000 that I unfortunately ended up selling because my head was too big for it. I used it so rarely that I couldn't justify keeping such a rare headphone as decoration. While my memory of my K1000 is hazy, the K1k did remind me a lot of my K1000, but with more bass. It was difficult to really get a good idea of the sound since it's so open, but I am very down for the revival of legendary headphones like the MDR-R10 and K1000.

Apos x KarstenChoy Dual Driver Headphone

This had so much bass that it sounded muffled. I hope this is an early prototype.

Zenphone

This is the working name for two pairs of modular planar magnetic headphones. These headphones were fully modular to the point where even the drivers were swappable. Since there is no official name, I can only go by the color of them for these impressions.

Gold: This was really solid. The treble isn’t overwhelming and has a decent balance of mids and bass.

Silver Zenphone: This one was waaaaaaay bright. I could not use this for much longer than it took me to pick a song.

Arctec

AB-92

I hate this headband so much. It's a modified version of a headband used in some cheaper Chinese wooden headphones like the Jaskey HEP-6063 which I have lying around from a project (trying to put Fostex TH900 drivers into a different frame). The headband would push the headphones upward and off my head. The Arctec headphones still had this problem, despite making some changes with the cushioning. The midrange isn’t bad but it has a little 3k emphasis I don’t like and the treble does fatigue me almost immediately. Overall it was middle of the road in sound and the headband alone makes me not want to use it again. That is, unless Capra Audio makes a strap for it instead of this headband that gives me two actively noticeable hotspots within 5 minutes from the force of pushing upward.

Audeze

LCD5S

While this wasn't the worst sounding headphone of the show, it was the biggest disappointment for me. I have nothing good to say about it. Bass and midrange transients were incredibly blunted, upper midrange was as bothersome as the LCD-5, which sounded almost tinny at times to me, and the treble was very, very uneven. The SLAM port did create a bass hump, but it was one of the least textured bass reproductions I've heard in quite some time. As much as I hate the Audeze LCD-2C, I legitimately think the LCD-5S is worse.

Austrian Audio

Arranger

The Arranger was the first headphone I heard at CanJam, and it started the show with a whimper for me. Its bass was super rounded, treble was quite uneven and elevated and its midrange was really recessed. It actually reminded me of the Grell x Drop OAE1 in that both had an elevated bass tilt that led to an overwarming of its midrange. On my relatively large head, the headband was too short so I had to press the headphones down, leading the round head pad to create a large, round hotspot on my head. I have no idea what Austrian Audio was thinking of making a headband pad like that.

beyerdynamic

DT270

This sounded weirdly honky, treble and the treble was really aggressive on my head. Full review of this to come to give beyerdynamic the benefit of the doubt since this could be a very compelling option.

écoute

TH1

Yikes. This was bad. Its bass had no texture at all, midrange sounded underwater, treble was quite elevated and unrefined, and the pinging due to having Nutubes was horrendous. This was one of the worst bluetooth things I’ve heard in a while

TH2

Somehow worse! It sounded like only treble and bass? This was horrendous, I thought TH1 would be worst in show but TH2 was. I suggested tuning changes to the very nice reps at the booth but they said there will be a parametric app to help with the tuning. I would need a lot of time spent on that app. I legitimately am not confident I would be able to tone the treble down enough because the TH2 may be the brightest headphone I've ever heard, even compared to the Hifiman Shangri-La Sr.

ETA Audio

ULI

I thought this rocked. I liked the prototype I heard last year a lot other than the treble being a bit elevated, and this one has less treble than the previous version. The main issue I had instead, and the only thing that kept this from being featured in the teaser article, was that the lack of clamp makes it hard to use. I have medium length (4-5 inch long) hair and because the pads on the ULI are so large I could not push my hair out of the way. My hair ended up touching the driver and caused it to distort unless I very carefully positioned it out of the way. I'm not the kind of person to get a haircut for the sake of my headphones, but when I did have my hair out of the way, the ULI's balance reminded me more of a pair of vintage AlNiCo speakers than any particular headphone. It was a eally cool experience.

Fiio

Warmer+K15 vs K17 R2R with FT7

I didn't volume match to a precise level because I don't like comparing at shows anyway, but for those that care to read further, I did feel like the K17 R2R low treble sounded fairly unrefined in comparison. The Warmer combo sounded noticeably thicker but has a little bit of upper treble glare that the K17R2R didn’t.

Final Audio

DX4000

This sounded somewhat tinny in the low midrange, so I don't believe the tinniness is related to seal. I also didn't hear much texture as a result. I didn't care much for this.

DX10000

This headphone was described as pre-production tuning so this feels a bit unfair to put in this category, but I really hope Final changes how this is tuned. They did something I don't think I've ever heard in a headphone where harmonics were emphasized over fundamental notes, which creates a very strange listening experience that I can't quite describe as "boxy" but it does sound...wrong. I used to own a DAC, an Abbas 2.3SE, that did something similar but its very warm tone helped make this feature a little more enjoyable. The DX10000 had this presentation with fairly lean low midrange and very bright treble, which was not quite enjoyable. Despite this, I would still take the DX10000 over the LCD-5S.

Fostex

TH910

I've owned three or four TH900s so I've been excited to hear the TH910. The TH910 is still sibilant as the TH900 but the mids are more forward in a way that’s actually more annoying and shouty versus the TH900. The bass isn’t as bombastic, as the TH900, and overall honestly the TH910 sounded kind of like a downgrade from the original…

HEDD Audio

D1

The bass and midrange on the D1 were actually quite good. I didn't think the D1 was hollow like I was afraid it might be, but the treble was definitely a deal breaker for me, with its uptilted mid and upper treble.

Hifi For All

Dahlia V2

I didn't like the V1 but I thought the V2 was noticeably better balanced. It uses the same Peerless driver as the V1 but it tamed shout and added bass. It was more colored as a result but it's novel that they managed to tame that shout, as most headphones with this driver do retain it.

Hifiman

HE1000 WiFi wired

This sounded more V-shaped than other Hifiman headphones, which makes sense I guess. I would most likely use a wireless open headphone doing chores around the house, so a V-shaped tuning would be something I would be drawn to. This wasn't good though. It sounded closer to an HE400SE than an HE1000. I also could only use it wired because the WiFi part wasn't working properly.

Edition XV

This headphone really shows how much anatomy plays a role in how someone hears a headphone. For some reason the Edition XV had a massive treble shelf on my head. It actually sounded noticeably brighter than the Susvara Unveiled to me.

Lily Audio

Genesis One

This was very bright. The midrange was also quite weirdly balanced. But, there’s a surprising amount of bass. I think these still need a lot of work, and the fact that these effectively need a speaker amp for many people makes the audience for this quite niche. I am a big proponent of using speaker amps for headphones though, so this is not necessarily a bad thing. There haven't been many piezoelectric headphones released in the last few decades, so this is a cool resurrection.

Melodic Artification

Infinitum Prototype

This headphone was very interesting in that we were asked to try it with their own headphone amp with a bass boost switch. The Infinitum was very bright, but its midrange did not seem as dipped as most planar magnetic headphones, so it sounded less out of balance. The bass boost function was fun enough for me to get into it, but they were still quite bright and it did round the bass out a bit much. Without it the treble and 3kHz were too much but I was very surprised to find that I enjoyed it overall and am very interested in seeing how the final production version sounds.

Meze

Strada

This was a big disappointment. The bass was elevated and rounded in a way that eviscerated any sense of texture. The midrange had a fishbowl-like tone to it that was severe enough to annoy me more than its very elevated treble.

Mirph Designs

Vitrum

These sounded fairly close to the Satyr 4 but subjectively a bit warmer and a bit darker. This is to say, I loved these. I really don't have anything bad to say about them other than the possibility of sounding a bit too "safe" for some people. This is usually a good thing, and they had enough texture to make its more relaxed tuning remain engaging. It's difficult to justify the value versus the much, much cheaper Satyr 4, but the build absolutely felt more like a "made for market" product, and that alone could be enough for many people to outlay the extra funds.

Moondrop

Skyland

My first nit to pick is that Moondrop changed the name of this headphone. Laputa is the name of the flying island in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. It's a neat name that people seemed to denigrate, which I'm sure had some part in Moondrop changing its name to the more literal "Skyland." This explanation took longer to write than I cared to use the Skyland. It measures like raw Diffuse Field and sure sounded pretty close to that. If I could summarize the Skyland in one word it would be: Gutless. Drums sounded hollow and midrange sounded tinny to a degree that almost matches pack-in airline earbuds. The treble, surprisingly, didn't bother me much though.

Nur Headphones

Harmonia

This seemed promising at CanJam and I actually was able to hear these and measure all of the tuning configurations a bit after the show. The Harmonia sounded like Nur aimed to split the difference between an Abyss 1266's unique tuning and the rest of the planar magnetic headphone market's "soundstage dip combined with elevated treble" target. At over $3,000, it's priced in a way that's difficult to recommend when I have more positive feelings for the Modhouse Tungsten or the ZMF Caldera and Tessidera. But, considering the Harmonia is Nur's first product, I think this company does have some potential to make some cool headphones.

oBravo

Obravo is a brand that has been elusive to me. I've wanted to hear Obravo products for years because they measure so weirdly. I expected these to be really not my jam but these did prove that if something sounds deviant enough from the norm, something can click.

HAMT-3 MKII

The headband on this didn't work for me so the fit was off from the jump. These had a weird balance with too much treble like their IEMs, but not quite weird enough to go reach the point of inflection of being interesting.

HAMT-1 Signature

This had even more treble and a really weird midrange. But, then something clicked. They actually reminded me of Oswald Mills Audio Imperia in that they have a very elevated, somewhat high Q peak in the center midrange.

Prototype Flagship

This was similar to the HAMT-1 but it was a little warmer and reminded me even more of the Imperia. I ended up finding these very charming and I do have to give oBravo credit for doing something different. When I talked to David, oBravo's founder, about how he tunes headphones, he did mention he tunes in a way to evoke exactly how I described: a more colored, horn-like tuning. I was smitten with them, despite the fact that they are much more genre limited than almost any other headphone.

Sennheiser

HE-1

I signed up for another time slot to hear the HE-1 because I've gotten used to an upper midrange dip, so I wondered if I actually would enjoy it more this time around. I actually did, to some degree. It sounded the same but the midrange recession, as expected, a little less. However, decay was too short and transients were too soft, even compared to other electrostatic headphones, making them overall a less than enjoyable experience.

HDB630

I liked this! Well, with the caveat that they needed EQ. This was easy though, with its parametric EQ. I took down 7.7kHz and 12kHz with a high Q negative peak and it sounded quite good. I think it's the best closed wireless headphone I've heard at this point, finally surpassing the T+A Solitaire T as my favorite.

SJY

Electrostatic prototype

I liked this! This was the first SJY headphone that actually fit me properly. For an electrostatic headphone, it sounded quite normal. It may be the best tuned electrostatic headphone I've heard, though I've never heard the HE90 or SR-Omega. I told Jeffrey not to change the tuning much. It seems like he has gone a long way from the jankier Chi-Fi-looking headphones he started with and I commend him for evolving.

Stax

SR-007S

This headphone was so, so, so shrill-sounding. It was one of the most sibilant sounding headphones I've heard in years, with a midrange that legitimately sounded like playing a phone speaker in a fishbowl. Absolutely dreadful. I don't know how Stax managed to make something this bad, as both their entry level and their flagship headphones are actually pretty competent.

SR-009D

Somehow Stax seems to make the SR-009 line worse with each subsequent release. The original SR-009 sounded odd in a stereotypically "Eastern" tuning which emphasizes center midrange and treble. The SR-009S seemed to be more V-shaped on my head which didn't really help its case. The SR-009D goes even further in that direction. I actually felt the SR-009D crossed the threshold into "shrill." It also seems to be even less textured than the other SR-009 variants.

Tangzu

Ox Demon King

There is a bit of a trend with the stuff I hate. As I'm fairly treble air sensitive, a lot of planar magnetic headphones tend to be challenging. It's something I'm trying to work on: I used a Hifiman Susvara Unveiled for the entire week leading up to CanJam to be less of a curmudgeon about treble, but my God did CanJam have other plans. The Ox Demon King sounded like it shelved 13kHz on up somewhere between 15-20dB on my head. It made flagship IEMs I don't like due to air like the Rhapsodio Supreme V3 and Mysticraft Hex sound dark in comparison. Not only that, but the midrange sounded like listening to music underwater. While the Ox Demon King is "only" $350, I would have to be paid double that to use them again.

Unique Melody

Umbral

Man. What was this? It sounded like the écoute TH2 but a little less fishbowl-like. Its bass was infinitesimally cleaner but the treble sounded shelved from 8kHz on up. I legitimately said, "what the fuck?" to myself when I took them off. They also felt pretty much like a Sivga headphone, so I have no idea how the $5,999 retail price was conceived.

ZMF

Tessidera

The Tessidera immediately sounded like a headphone that will be a huge hit for people or a huge miss. It reminded me of the LCD-3 Pre-Fazor I used to own. It remains one of the few headphones I wish I kept because it was so lovely-sounding, even if it was a bit boring at times. In a market where headphones seem to just keep getting brighter, the Tessidera felt like a salve. Though, its darkness will undoubtedly be a bit much for some: the Tessidera felt a bit dark to me, someone who thinks the Sennheiser HD650 treble is too elevated at times.

IEMs

7th Acoustics

Asteria

This sounded fairly normal to me but had what may be the worst driver flex I've experienced in an IEM since the Monster Turbine. I actually liked this a lot other than the air being too much. That driver flex is unacceptable for the money they are charging for this though.

Crinear

Reference

This was the best IEM of the show for me. Before reading on, reading my impressions of the Prisma IEMs will help give my impressions more context. Instead of dipping in the low midrange, the relative treble peak on the Reference actually fills in the hole I hear with the Lumen, and it does not elevate bass as much as Lumen, so the Reference sounded closer to "neutral" in my ears than any other transducer I've ever heard. My only complaint is that the midrange seemed a touch forward compared to the Lumen, giving the Lumen a slight nod in midrange tone that otherwise is marred by its bass making the Lumen sound the slightest bit congested. I've known Crinacle for years and I'm not going to bother asking him for a review unit of these--I'm giving him money for making something this good.

Cipher/Nightfall

The Nightfall (fka Cipher) is a more budget-focused IEM that I heard many positive impressions of from others but unfortunately this one didn't really work for me. I felt like it was a W-shaped tuning that was a little bit too aggressive for me. W-shaped tunings usually work for me but this one was a bit too rounded in bass and a little too aggressive up top.

Monolith

Monolith is Crinear's upcoming bass-focused IEM. I loved my Nightjar Acoustics Singularity but its shallow fit didn't work well with my deeper ear canals, so I never got to use it as much as I wanted to use it. The Monolith reminds me a lot of the Singularity, but seemed to be a little more mid bass focused than sub bass focused. It fit me almost as well as a custom IEM though, so I will also be buying one of these! 

Divine

I didn't like these at all. They sounded really blunted to the point where everything sounded dull and boring but also somehow very scratchy and harsh.

Diablo

This was like Divine with more bass. I don't know if I liked this less, but I also did not like them.

Dita Audio

Ventura

Bright but fun. The Ventura was less bassy than I was expecting for a single driver DD and the midrange is lacking a bit of transient energy. The cable actively kinda sucks, which actually is my biggest complaint with the Ventura.

Faith Audio Labs

E1000

I'm a sucker for a single dynamic driver IEM. I love the Nightjar Singularity, DUNU Luna, Sennheiser IE900, and Victor FW10000, among many others. They, without any exception I can recall, sound more colored than a typical multi-way IEM, but in a way I often enjoy. The E1000 excited me from the jump. It had an elevated 2-4kHz region, which is something I almost expect from an IEM released in the past two years, but the E1000 was a little spicier there than others which added some energy that I almost expect from a single DD driver IEM. Unfortunately the treble was a sore spot for me, as it was quite sibilant and had huge amounts of 11-14kHz. Its bass isn’t as good as I’d want from a DD like the Luna or Singularity are able to achieve, possibly because instead it has a smoother downward tilt down to ~800Hz. 

U1000

The U1000 is a limited edition, gold model that is more than just a fancy E1000. I did hear a lot of similarities but it was less to my preference than the E1000. It was quite noticeably brighter, making any other potential improvements sound masked by the amount of treble output by the U1000.

Flipears

Arion

Treble is too hashy in a "flagship" way. The bass is fun but there’s something weird in the midrange that almost sounds like it’s doubling everything. Doing a sweep it just kept getting brighter from 2kHz on up to a really elevated air region, Aegis is still my favorite iem from FlipEars.

Aisha

The bone conductor driver on the Aegis, Legion, and Arion were definitely missed here, but the bass manages to sound solid anyway. Treble was pretty bright, but not intolerable. Not bad, but it's not the most compelling recommendation for its price.

Forte Ears

Mefisto

The bass was far too elevated and rounded in a way that made them noticeably lack texture and resolution. Treble had an interesting wispy texture to it as well that almost reminds me of an electrostatic headphone. It was less forgettable than the Macbeth but in the wrong direction. I would have guessed this cost a tenth what it actually costs.

Hercules Audio

Noah

Ehhhhhh. This sounded very generic. Nothing stuck out as impressive, and has the same issues as most other IEMs: awkward balance with dipped upper bass combined with elevated center mids and treble.

Moses

This was thicker than the Noah with less annoying midrange and treble. It was fine.

iBasso

Epitome

Bad. Fishbowly mids, overdone bass with no texture, treble really disagreeable. I thought this was a bad $100 IEM and felt like I was being too harsh, but no, this cost $3,499. I don't know who iBasso is targeting with this.

Letshuoer

Disclaimer: I lent my friends at Letshuoer my Schiit Yggdrasil MIB and Hypex NCore NC500 monoblocks to use at their booth for fun. Unfortunately I didn't bring an active pre and the passive pre I lent wasn't enough to tame the gain for IEMs. Nevertheless, the fact that my friends manned the Letshuoer booth does not deter me from being honest about how the two IEMs I used at this booth were pretty terrible.

Sonata

This had a lot of bass and really pinched nose midrange. I didn't want to use it for very long.

Ember

This was really really weird. It sounded boxy in the low midrange with weirdly uneven-sounding bass. Overall the midrange sounded bizarre, with an elevated 2kHz like a worse Faith Audio Labs E1000. Big, big miss for me.

Mysticraft Acoustic Research

Myth

This was really, really bright but actually not bad otherwise. It was fairly generic sounding and the bass is too rounded but not that different from many other IEMs. I do think that if Linsoul sold this under a different name for $100 that it would be less enticing. I really think a lot of the hype for the Myth seems to come from the fact that the Myth is so much cheaper than the Hex.

NICEHCK x Mysticraft

This was cleaner and less bright than the Myth. It was a little too spicy but definitely an improvement. I ended up liking this the most of the Mysticraft IEMs but I don't think these would break my top 5 IEMs of the show.

Tet

This had noticeably more roller coaster-ish tuning. It has the pinched nose tone in the midrange I thought we had moved past and had less clean bass than the Myth. I don’t like this at all. I think this is one of the least compelling IEMs of the show, just barely beating the Epitome but worse than the Divine/Diablo duo that I did not like at all either.

Hex

The Hex sounded, to steal a phrase from a friend, “hifi (derogatory)". It's piercingly bright to perhaps give the idea of resolution and air but to me it was just painful. The bass was rounded in a way that’s bouncy which I did enjoy though. Still, the Hex would rank towards the bottom of the list for me.

Noble Audio

Kronos

This had forward center mids without much texture since the delta between center mids and its dipped upper treble was so severe. It also has a lot of bass but sounds blunted. I don’t like it but treble isn’t painful I guess. I recall the Viking Ragnar sounding a lot like the Kronos with cleaner bass.

Obravo

EAMT-1a

This was weeeeeeird, I was worried I wasn’t getting a good seal but I got bass extension to 30Hz with a tone sweep, so it is just an abnormally lean IEM. It was really hollow anyway, with a drastically dipped midrange then a ton of air because of the AMT.

Ra C Cu

This was even weirder, with cymbals that sounded like tape noise. It also had much more treble. I don't think I lasted long with these.

Ra C Pt

This was different. It supposedly was the same configuration as the Ra C Cu but with a platinum housing. It should have sounded the same as the Cu but it didn't. It was huge sounding, bigger than the Subtonic STORM, which is one of the largest sounding non-speaker transducers I've ever heard, and I think STORM sounds bigger than headphones like the AKG K1000, Sennheiser HD800, and RAAL SR-1a. The treble was less piercing than Cu, but it retained fairly weird midrange and bass lacked impact despite being slightly elevated.

Despite all this, something about them absolutely clicked with me, making music sound holographic in a way I have never heard before. It does require recalibrating expectations because this does not sound remotely meta, but this IEM has made the biggest impression on me since hearing the STORM for the first time. At $20,000 though, the only way I'd be able to hear these again would be if they bring these to another show.

Prisma

Lumen

I've seen the measurements for this since its target compliance is one of its main selling points. Unfortunately, the Lumen shows the importance of understanding your own length mode, or the area where an IEM peaks. While measurement rigs typically show a peak at 8kHz, in my own ears it shifts between 5-6kHz depending on the IEM. The Lumen did not work for me. It was an unfortunate combination of dark between 8-10kHz and too bright above that. I was also surprised to hear that it had too much bass for me. The mids were good though!

Lux

This was mostly the same except more bass. I actually think, despite having more bass, the Lux's bass made more sense to me. Instead of being a little too much bass, the additional bass in the Lux changed my perception of thinking it's a meta tuning that doesn't work for me to a strictly "fun" sounding IEM. I still didn't like the treble though.

Rhapsodio

Analog

This sounded like a refined version of the Darker, which was one of the funniest IEMs I've heard because of how confusing it sounded. The Analog sounded very, very dark other than a few random treble peaks that managed to fatigue me. Below the treble, everything sounded like mud. This is "analog" in a very caricaturized way, maybe.

Supreme V3

This was so, so bright but the fit was fantastic. I don't know if I was biased by the fit being so good but honestly I didn't think it was half bad. I didn't think it was good, as it did sound kind of like a roller coaster, but after using the Analog I guess anything was going to sound better.

Symphonium Audio

Zenith

I used to own the Europa LTD, which was a slightly tuned version of the Europa that turned into the Zenith. I'm not sure why, but the Zenith actually worked much better for me. The Europa LTD had a low treble dip in my ears that the Zenith didn't have, along with better midrange balance. I would have kept my Europa LTD if it sounded like this.

Thieaudio

Valhalla

This was actually brighter in my ears than the Rhapsodio Supreme V3. I hated this. Bass was very rounded and too elevated and the mids sounded like generic IEM mids.

Volk Audio

Etoile

Etoile was like a breath of fresh air in the multi-kilobuck world. Its greatest virtue is that it didn't seem like it was trying to be a brighter Harman or JM-tuned IEM like most products I've heard at CanJams for the last half decade. It was very bassy, not unlike many Empire Ears IEMs, but it wasn't sloppy like FatFreq can be. I have seen measurements of the Etoile because I actually almost got a pair before hearing them and wanted at least a vague idea of what to expect before being stuck with an expensive IEM. Interestingly, the strangely measuring midrange actually works here. It's the kind of tuning that forces you to adjust, but after that adjustment it's quite fun. My interest in owning a pair actually had gone up after hearing them, which is very rare.

Stella

Unlike the Etoile, the Stella does target a more "normal" tuning. As a result, they stand out less to me as they don't offer anything that different other than their own version of brightness.

Conclusion

While most of what I tried was a bummer, I actually think I found more to like this year than in years past. The things I did like tended to skew towards an extreme of being either very measurement-compliant like the CrinEar Reference or very not measurement-compliant like the oBravo flagships. It's the things in the middle that often do nothing for me. Whether it's just another planar magnetic headphone with mostly flat bass and an upper midrange "soundstage" dip or another IEM that's tuned as a derivative of IEF 2020, a lot of what I've heard bored me. It's tiring hearing so many products where the main differentiator is the price rather than the sound. It's a common trope to claim that measurements don't matter, but it's funny to me that many of the people that say this are happy to buy every iteration of almost the same thing.

I don't even think transducers need to be tuned that deviant from any target to be compelling. The Vitrum, for instance, seems to measure somewhat off from any generally accepted target, but not so much that I had to interpret music differently. It was just a very coherent, relaxing sound that feels like it was tuned by someone confident in their vision. It's similar to the reason I like ZMF's headphones so much: they aren't afraid of tuning in colorations and usually manage to do so without going over the line.

Of course, it wouldn't be a successful CanJam without being able to see my friends. It's easy to get jaded about the headphone world adjusting to the decline of the middle class and catering most to those who can spend thousands of dollars on new fads every few months, but being able to complain about this with likeminded people makes hearing so much mediocre stuff more fun. For those that are wanting to go to their first CanJam, don't be afraid to talk to strangers. Most of us are nerds that want to make new people feel welcome.