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Presented by Head-Fi, CanJam promotes headphone and portable audio at shows in New York City, London, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, Southern California, and Chicago.

I was already planning to visit New York, and NYC COVID levels have now reached a recent new low, with positivity rates in the 1% range following an Omicron-era peak of 23% on 1 January. New York City lifted its general mask mandate in mid-February. CanJam is requiring proof of vaccination for entry, but masks are optional.

This is the first CanJam New York to take place in two years. Attendance appeared…

The buzz was palpable as I stepped off the escalator onto the conference floor at the Marriot Marquis hotel, where CANJAM New York City 2022 was revving up within shouting (or at least screaming) distance of Times Square.

Many of the major headphone (and a few non-headphone) brands—Abyss, Audeze, Cardas, Dan Clark Audio, HiFiMan, Meze—were present, as were some upstarts and less well-known companies: Ambient Acoustics, Auribus Acoustics, BGVP, Denoki Audio, Eletech Cables, Grell, In Ear, Jerry Harvey Audio, Linsoul, MusicTech, See Audio, Soundcore, Strauss & Wagner, and…

Bergenfeld New Jersey’s Dekoni Audio was showing headphone accessories at CanJam, including replacement earpads for major headphone brands, eartips, sprays, wipes, cleaners, and the like. They were also auditioning their new headphones, a reworking of the Fostex T50RP MK3

Dekoni’s comfy, cushy, thick earpads come in multiple finishes and styles including Choice, Elite, and Platinum lines of leather, suede, hybrid, and "fenestrated sheepskin." Their Midnight, Velour, and Jerzee lines offer additional choices. The earpads are constructed of memory foam wrapped in various leathers…

For the last couple of nights, I've been listening to Promises, a recent collaboration between Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Almost the entire 46-minute, nine-movement album is built on two chords, played simultaneously on an acoustic piano and a celeste. The instrumentation swells and wanes—Sanders's intense sax lines piercing into prominence, the large string section turning cacophonous, a…

Grell is a former Sennheiser design engineer and audiophile product manager who was the mind behind many of that German company’s well-known HD series headphones, including the HD 650. As I reported in Industry Update in the August 2021 print issue, Sennheiser’s consumer electronics division was acquired by Sonova in May 2021. Grell started his company the following September, Grell’s…

Why do the names of some headphone brands sound like they originated with marketing flacks or PR hacks? Some brands have natural, fuzzy sounding names, others a sci-fi bent.

So What do you get from Dan Clark Audio? Obviously, Dan Clark!

In preparation for this show report, I quietly asked for recommendations from my headphone-oriented buddies, from Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg to physicist-audiophile Miguel Barrio. And of course, Herb Reichert. To a man, they whispered "Dan Clark Audio." So into the Dan Clark Audio room I walked to hear their new closed-back, planar-…

As I often do, I started my serious auditioning with phono, connecting the MoFi Electronics StudioPhono phono stage to the Caruso. The source was the MoFi Electronics UltraDeck turntable.…

Description: Two-channel multisource digital receiver with integrated amplifier, CD player, music server, streamer with DSP-controlled sound. Supported services: Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, Spotify Connect, DLNA, AirPlay2, UPnP, Qualcomm aptX Bluetooth (A2DP 1.2 for audio). Supported formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, WAV, ALAC; FM radio, Airable internet radio, DAB+. Inputs: LAN (1 uplink, 1 out), WLAN, USB 2.0, S/PDIF (coaxial), TosLink, analog (one RCA stereo pair). Outputs: preamp output, variable (one RCA stereo pair), subwoofer output (RCA), 3.5mm…

Digital source: MacBook Air (M1, 2020), running as Roon Core.
Analog source: MoFi Electronics UltraDeck turntable with tonearm and UltraTracker MM cartridge and weight.
Preamplification: MoFi Electronics StudioPhono phono stage.
Loudspeakers: Caruso S 10, MBL 120 Radialstrahler.
Subwoofer: Pioneer SW-8 with Morrow Audio MA-6 interconnects. Cables and accessories: AudioQuest Niagara 1000 Low-Z Power Noise-Dissipation System with AudioQuest NRG-Z3 and NRG-10 power cords, AudioQuest Vodka Ethernet/LAN, Ansuz Acoustics D2 loudspeaker cables and…