While CanJam Dallas is going on this weekend, another audio show is happening much closer to home, Capital Audiofest in the Washington DC suburbs. It's mostly a speaker and hi-fi-focused show, so there weren't as many headphones there as in CanJam, but the upside is that there's less competition for the headphone stations. There was usually no line to demo things. I tried a number of headphones, many that I've been wanting to try for a long time. I'll give some brief impressions of each, along with some bonus comments from a friend who went with me and my wife. If anyone has questions, ask away in the comments.
Stax SR-X9000: The highlight of the show for me. It would win on comfort alone. It's so comfortable, with minimal excess clamp force and little vertical pressure either. No hotspots here! It's very open-sounding, with a layered presentation to sound, good soundstaging, and surprisingly good bass. I think the only issue I might have is that vocals seem pretty forward and emphasized here, but they have this sense of "floating in front of me" that lessens the irritation. It ticks basically every box in my list of good sound qualities. I'll definitely pick this up at some point.
Modhouse Audio Tungsten single-sided: Generally a good-sounding headphone that doesn't pair well with zero-feedback amps for me. Soundstaging and vocals were pretty intimate when listening on the CFA3 in zero-feedback mode, but flipping the switch to enable feedback moved vocals further back and made the headphone much easier to listen to. Nothing really stands out in the sound though; solid and weighty bass, inoffensive vocals, inoffensive treble. Good or bad depending on perspective. However, it requires huge amounts of power. Harder to drive than the Susvara!
Hifiman Susvara (on HeadAmp GSX): This is very good, but probably too similar overall to my Shangri-La Jr to have both. Susvara has more bass and a bit more incisiveness in the treble as well as a slightly richer midrange. SGL Jr has slightly wider/deeper soundstaging and openness and a bit more of a "delicate" sound. Wish I had brought my SGL to the show to compare directly, but I didn't have a good carrying case.
Abyss AB-1266 TC: Subwoofer on the head. Hilarious bass response. Extremely awkward to put on due to rigid headband structure and very uncomfortable. You also look like a Cyberman from Doctor Who while wearing them.
Bonus: my friend thought that the 1266 was by far the most memorable headphone at the show. He thought it was the only one where its bass approached that of speakers. Every other headphone's bass sounds like "headphone bass", while the 1266 had a bit of that "speaker bass".
Meze Empyrean 2: Disappointing. It's lost the distinctive Meze sound of the Empyrean/Elite, and has oddly soft bass impact. The X9000 has more "snap" and "slam" in the attack of bass notes than the Empy 2. I'd take either the "dreamy" and bassy sound of the original Empryean or the slightly sharper sound of the Elite over the Empyrean 2.
Bonus: my friend was also disappointed in the Empyrean 2. He thought it sounded "sterile". He thought the Elite was better even if it was noticeably coloring the sound.
Dan Clark Audio Stealth: Surprisingly poor comfort, unsurprisingly dull sound. There's a hotpot from the headband at the top of my head. Thought it would be more comfortable than the Aeon 2, but it's actually worse overall even though the earpads are better. Sound was meh, with the distinctive DCA dampened sound that makes everything sound kind of dead. I guess if you're a midrange fanatic like Dan Clark, then it would make sense, or if you're used to the sound of instruments in acoustically damped recording rooms, but I don't think it renders music in a convincing way. It's like a marble statue of a person, vs a living, breathing person with all of their quirks and flaws.
Dan Clark Audio Corina: More comfortable than the Stealth, but similar issues with the sound. I guess I'm just allergic to the DCA house sound. Compared to the X9000, it feels constricted in sound placement, it lacks the layering, and it lacks the air and openness of how notes decay. If you just want to focus on midrange, then sure, it's a different sound than your quintessential estat, but I wouldn't pick this over the X9000.
Audeze LCD-5: Very good bass, a bit shouty in the vocal range, not the most open sound and kind of average soundstage. I'm not the biggest fan of Audeze's new tuning direction.
Bonus: my wife liked the tapered earpads. She says it places less pressure on the jaw under/behind her ears. She wishes more headphones would do this.
Audeze MM-500 and MM-100: The 100 is more comfortable, and the 500 is slightly more incisive in notes with a more pronounced midrange while the 100 sounds a bit softer with a bit less emphasis on small midrange details. Both have the same general tuning I'd actually take the 100 over the 500, since I'm not a music producer who needs to mix the midrange with such precision.
Sony MDR-Z1R: Bassy, spacious, and slightly sharp in the treble. More comfortable than my MDR-Z7M2, more pronounced bass, and there's a bit of sharpness in the treble that comes out in some songs (e.g. "Titanium" by David Guetta feat. Sia). Other than that, it sort of takes all of the qualities of my MDR-Z7M2 up one notch. I might pick this up, as I quite liked the sound.
Bonus: my friend really didn't like the Z1R. He thought entire frequency ranges were missing when listening to it. He also wasn't a fan of my Z7M2.
Sennheiser HD820: Sounds fine. The soundstaging was great and the bass was good too. Female vocals were a bit more resonant and "breathy" (e.g. "Rolling In The Deep" by Adele). I compared it back-to-back with the DCA Ether 2 and I would actually pick the HD820 over the Ether 2 when listening to Adele. I didn't get a chance to try it with male vocals this time, and in a previous demo that's where it sort of fell apart and sounded very strange, like the vocalist went up one pitch.
Conclusion: I need to pick up Adele's album '21' ASAP. I used "Rolling In The Deep" as a demo song since one setup didn't have internet, and I realized that it sounds awesome. I've heard it on the radio many times back when it was the song du jour, but I have never realized how good it sounds on good audio gear.
