CanJam SoCal 2024 - Precog's Show Report

Photography by Chitoh Yung (@chitohgraphy)

Introduction

This was my fourth year in a row making the pilgrimage to CanJam SoCal. But this year felt different given that I have (admittedly) been somewhat out of the loop when it comes to the IEM scene. That in mind, I went in with the intention of hearing as many IEMs as possible and playing some catch-up.

Of course, that included some catch-up with friends too!

But let’s talk about those listening impressions.

As usual, I need to disclaim that show conditions are notoriously poor for listening. This is less of an issue with IEMs, but still take my impressions with a grain of salt. For reference, my listening with IEMs is usually done off of my Apple dongle or Questyle M15, with Azla Sedna ear tips, and with 10-20 minutes of listening.

Photo above courtesy of Sebastien Chiu

64 Audio Solo

I gave the Solo two listens. The first time I heard it, pre-show and it being the first IEM I heard in the day, I honestly wasn’t particularly impressed…and this is usually when my impressions are most positive. But ironically, the second time I heard it during mid-show, I found myself appreciating it more.

The Solo has a lot of the features that we’ve come to expect from the litany of planar IEMs released in the past few years: the more V-shaped response, 3kHz pinna region, and well-extended treble. It’s no secret that I don’t like these planar IEMs for their other shared features like the peaky treble and general lack of variety in tuning. But the Solo addresses some of these faults on closer listen. Not only does it have a more reduced pinna notch but it also has dampening on those treble peaks. The result is a warmer and fairly musical take on the planar IEM genre while still being well-extended in the treble. Overall, I think the execution here is pretty good, and I’d be curious to give it some more extended listening.

Alpha Omega Omega

This was my first run-in with this IEM brand, and I walked away with mixed feelings. It’s hard for me to describe the tuning ethos of this IEM. It has a bass boost of at least 10dB wherein the sub-bass and mid-bass are kept fairly in-line with each other (but not to the point of bleeding egregiously past 200Hz). This is in part due to some suck-out in the lower-midrange followed by an aggressive and oddly notched pinna region. Moving into the treble, I hear it as being somewhat incoherent from the rest of the frequency response, albeit not necessarily poor treble standalone. To circle back on my tuning ethos comment, I don’t think this IEM knows what it wants to be: the tuning is odd, it’s mildly offensive in the midrange, and I don’t hear it as having any particular strengths.

AME Mousa

I mostly remember this IEM most for its unique, mokume gane shells. But in terms of sound, the Mousa has an emphasized bass response with a slight mid-bass focus. I find it to sound somewhat warm yet hollow in the lower-midrange (in the sense that Mousa images largely with not a lot of density to its transients). Moving upwards, the Mousa’s pinna seems notched around 2-2.5kHz (more colored) and this is followed by a polite 3-5kHz region for less edge on female vocals. I hear the treble of the Mousa as being mostly lower-treble focused and with a peak somewhere; extension seemed decent. Overall, this is a warm, ‘big’ sounding IEM that’s more sloppy in the execution to my ears.

DUNU DK3001 Sucessor

Generally, I hear this as an IEM that’s clearly been tuned for the international market. It’s a treble-focused sound wherein the treble is slightly sizzly and with great extension. Moving downwards, the upper-midrange is fairly elevated while staying within tolerable boundaries from 3-5kHz. Then, expectedly, you have your flatter lower-midrange and a controlled sub-bass emphasis. Together, this is a leaner, high-clarity sound that - while it might not be to my taste - should have an audience. I also found the shells on these to be some of the coolest that I saw at the show; they really nailed the aesthetic in my opinion.

FatFreq Deuce

I gave this a quick listen at FatFreq’s booth. The calling card of the Deuce - and pretty much all of FatFreq’s IEMs, honestly - is the gargantuan bass response. It’s extremely elevated (I’d say at least 20dB) yet all reigned under 200Hz on the Deuce. Outside of this, the Deuce has standard midrange features and a polite, moderately extended treble response. The result is that you can listen fairly loud on the Deuce whilst drenching in bass and still getting decent mid-range detail pickup. I suspect that this will be the new go-to set for listeners aiming to scratch that bass-head itch on a smaller budget.

Lime Ears x Effect Audio Terra

I gave this a quick listen at Effect Audio’s booth. The Terra has a sub-bass focused low-end with a fairly flat lower-midrange. Then, moving upwards, its pinna is notched around ~2.5kHz but with a more aggressive rise for clarity. This is followed by a lower-treble focus and some roll-off past 15kHz. Overall, I hear this as being an interesting, more ‘Hi-Fi’ take on the Harman target. Given that I do not like the Harman target, that’s not the greatest thing for my preferences, but I’d say this sounded pretty alright.

Nightjar Duality

I’ve written about Duality in the past, but my most recent run-in with the IEM comes with the introduction of an integrated switch that toggles between two tunings. The Duality’s default mode is still neutral with bass boost cranked to the extreme. Most of this bass is strongly concentrated under 400Hz - it’s possibly not of the highest quality but the sheer quantity and subsequent ear-rattling is difficult not to marvel at. The Duality, unlike the Singularity, also has good treble extension to bring back some much-needed detail in the midrange and highs. Toggling the new switch basically reduces bass quantity; make no mistake, it’s still emphasized at least 10dB, but it’s a lot closer to what you’d expect from a more conventional bass boost. In this mode, the appearance of an upper-treble peak slightly past 10kHz seems to be more noticeable, as does the Duality’s elevated 3kHz region.

Elysian Acoustic Labs Apostle

 

The Apostle is something of a departure from Elysian’s house sound. Generally, it leans more along the lines of warmer and more musical a la 64 Audio’s IEMs. This is especially apparent in the Apostle’s treble response which is lighter with a slight sizzle, thanks to some dipped mid-treble contrasted to upper-treble energy. Moving downwards, I would say that the Apostle’s upper-midrange is not dipped like 64 Audio’s house tuning; instead, it maintains a mostly flat response from 3-5kHz with a more reduced pinna notch before that. Then, of course, the Apostle has a sub-bass focused bass response with some warmth. The result is that the Apostle should play more nicely with male vocals than some of Elysian’s previous IEMs. Resolution on the Apostle is excellent - not necessarily in terms of the leading edge of notes but rather in the decay and texture of notes.

Campfire Audio Moon Rover

The Moon Rover’s sound is something of a cross between the Andromeda 2020’s tuning and a planar driver gone wrong. It maintains a lot of the Andromeda 2020’s tuning fundamentals: the mid-bass emphasis and thicker lower-midrange, 2kHz pinna notch, and relaxed upper-midrange. Then at around 12kHz, the Moon Rover exhibits an extremely strong peak. Yes, the Moon Rover definitely has more upper-treble and extension than the Andromeda 2020, but I don’t hear it as being enough to balance out this mid-treble peak. The result is that songs generally sound either odd or grating on the Moon Rover to my ears.

Campfire Audio Astrolith

Continuing the trend of Campfire Audio planar IEMs, the Astrolith is a dual planar driver configuration. I generally hear the tuning of the Astrolith as being quite odd. The bass is quite emphasized (about equal parts sub-bass and mid-bass) but the lower-midrange actually ends up sounding scooped out thanks to inadequate pinna compensation. The Astrolith has a recessed pinna notch and upper-midrange. I do find the treble response on the Astrolith to be surprisingly good. It’s composed of a series of treble peaks at similar amplitude; the result is that the Astrolith’s treble sounds vibrant without being fatiguing. You can actually crank the volume a decent amount on this set as well. But I mostly find Astrolith to be an acquired taste.

Campfire Audio Clara

The Clara was a pleasant surprise, as it’s basically the most conventionally tuned Campfire Audio IEM yet. It has a controlled sub-bass shelf of at least 10dB, perhaps pushing slightly into 300Hz. The midrange of the Clara has a hint of warmth and color due to a pinna notch slightly earlier than 3kHz; however, there is sufficient elevation here to maintain forwardness in the midrange. The treble of the Clara is best described as being like ‘water’: inoffensive and noticeably sporting a mid-treble recession. To my ears, this is responsible for leading to a loss of texture and a thinner sense of density to notes. But overall, I found the Clara to be quite well-tuned and I think it represents an interesting shift from Campfire’s usual tuning direction.

Canpur 74E

Overall, I would describe this as a forward, midrange-focused IEM. Starting from the bottom, it has a clean, sub-bass focused bass response; however, bass tends to fall back into the mix. This is due to an aggressive rise from 1-2kHz and a mostly level 3-5kHz region. Moving into the treble, the 74E has a lower-treble focused response which seems intent on boosting clarity but that I found to be a bit too forward for my liking. I’m somewhat reminded of the 7th Acoustics Supernova if it had a less warm tonality, but I found the 74E to be more fatiguing as a result.

Empire Ears Triton

The Triton is more or less a classic L-shaped (bass-focused) IEM. It has a large bass shelf that’s about equal parts sub-bass and mid-bass. Combined with a more relaxed pinna notch, this results in a thicker midrange. Moving into the treble, the Triton has a fairly soft treble response. It’s actually too smooth for my preferences moving into the upper-treble; I wish the Triton had more energy here. Overall, the Triton is decent but not groundbreaking. It sticks to a lot of the fundamentals that made Empire Ear’s IEMs basshead classics; this is a set where you can crank the volume without fear if that’s your thing.

ForteEars MacBeth

This strikes me as another IEM with a focus on clarity. This stems from 1) an excess of upper-midrange energy (sounding slightly ‘glassy’ on female vocals at times) and 2) quite brittle sounding treble. I say the latter in the sense that, again, there’s plenty of extension and energy here but it would benefit from being more reigned in. Leaving aside these issues, the bass on the MacBeth is actually quite satisfying (sub-bass focused and well-controlled by a thinner lower-midrange). But that’s usually the easiest part of an IEM to tune, and the tuning outside of this doesn’t impress my ears.

Brise Audio Fugaku

The Fugaku is not an IEM that I expected much from; it being one of many IEMs I heard at Musicteck’s huge selection of IEMs. But it immediately made its mark, standing out for its sense of technical performance. The Fugaku has excellent resolution when it comes to note textures and reverb trails. The dynamics on the Fugaku are also top-tier, especially in the bass: it’s one of the quickest, hardest slamming IEMs that I’ve heard here.

That in mind, I would say it clearly has a large bass shelf with about equal parts sub-bass/mid-bass and probably just the right amount of bleed or scoop to the lower-midrange. I hear the midrange as sounding fairly neutral with a slight tilt toward female vocals. I’m not sure where the pinna notches exactly, but I’d imagine it’s slightly more pronounced and followed with a more level 3-5kHz region.

Moving into the treble, this is the caveat with the Fugaku. The Fugaku’s quite bright, as it has a series of peaks throughout the treble response. They’re in short enough succession and at similar amplitude that it’s not a dealbreaker. But it’s hard to deny that it detracts from the Fugaku’s sense of coherency (the treble sounds like it’s being handled by a separate driver) and overall tuning competency. For example, I don’t find these peaks to be as meticulously tuned as something like the Subtonic Storm or Elysian Annihilator. On the Fugaku, the peaks seem to mask over each other at some points, which negatively impacts the Fugaku’s treble resolution despite it technically having superior extension past 15kHz versus the Storm.

More shocking than the sound of the Fugaku is its price: ~$16K USD. If this is the price of innovation, it’s a hefty one indeed. But I definitely think this is an IEM that’s worth giving a listen if only for that initial ‘wow’ factor; this IEM reminded me a lot of my early days in the hobby and hearing the Shure KSE1200 for the first time.

LETSHOUER Serenity 

Quick context: the EJ07M is probably my favorite IEM from LETSHOUER. It's a balanced, neutral with bass boost set that really has no glaring issues. To me, then, it was surprising to learn that it was getting a successor in the form of the Serenity. Compared to the original EJ07M, the most notable difference I hear lies in the Serenity's treble response. It has more filled-in lower and upper treble for more 'bite' to the decay of transients and possibly improved imaging. And whereas the EJ07M has more 'bounce' to its bass, the Serenity seems to have more 'thump' stemming from some more mid-bass. I'd need to A/B to say whether I think the Serenity is truly better but, like the EJ07M, I find this to be a pretty enjoyable set.    

Melodic Artification Alter Ego

The Alter Ego is what I would describe as an IEM that straddles the line between neutral with bass boost and more colored tuning. It has a solid sub-bass focus with a hint of warmth, a slightly more colored pinna notch (sounded like ~2.5kHz), a polite 3-5kHz region, and a very polite treble response (dipped lower-treble while being decently extended). It’s a safely-tuned IEM that’s pleasant enough to listen to and delivers decent technicalities. For all these same reasons, it might not be considered a standout. But I also didn’t play with the second mode on the switches, so this is an IEM that I’d want to give another listen.

NG Audio Metis

Yes, I know...somehow my earing came loose at some point and we took a bunch of photos without noticing lol. 

Admittedly, my memory on this one is pretty fuzzy, but I hear this as being a fairly warm IEM. This seems to be a product of a more colored pinna notch (read: recessed) and relaxed 3-5kHz region. However, moving into the treble, the Metis has a fairly strong emphasis in the lower and mid-treble regions. In tandem, these colorations lend to upper-midrange notes on the Metis image quite large and intimate. The emphasis on treble provides a decent sense of detail despite the warmer sound too. Overall, this was pretty OK to my ears, just a bit odd sounding in the execution.

Noble Audio XM1

This is a bit of an odd one for me, as I went in with high-hopes for this IEM based on previous impressions from friends. But I mostly find the XM1 to just sound alright. The bass on it is extremely boosted; it’s about equal parts sub-bass and mid-bass. Moving upwards, the XM1 has a pinna notched slightly earlier than 3kHz and a fairly level upper-midrange. I found the treble to be alright, perhaps slightly dark past 15kHz, but that could just be due to the sheer levels of bass. In terms of technicalities, this sounded quite open for imaging performance while transients had a smoothed leading edge with more texture at the end.

Noble Audio Spartacus

The Spartacus might be one of my favorite IEMs out of the current Noble Audio lineup. It has an emphasized bass shelf, sub-bass tilted but with a generous amount of warmth. Honestly, I wouldn’t have guessed this uses BAs (only having seen this detail now, writing after the fact). This is followed by a more colored pinna notch at around 2-2.5kHz but with appropriate amplitude. Vocals sound present and are easy to discern in the center image. I hear the treble as being more lower and mid-treble focused but with decent extension. Technicalities are a case of good but not great. Overall, I’d consider this to be a warmer, more musical sound done correctly.

Noble Audio FoKus Apollo

Normally I don’t talk about headphones, or listen to them in the first place, but I figured I might as well give this a listen if I was at the Noble booth. It’s surprisingly good and - just to make sure I wasn’t hearing things - when I asked my friend, he had the same impression. To lend some more context, I find most closed-back headphones are notoriously poor in the tuning department, but I’d describe that as the Apollo’s main strength. It has a solid sub-bass boost, a present midrange, and a fairly smooth but well-extended treble response. I’d just describe it as neutral with bass boost. Again, I have little context for the state of the closed-back headphone market, but I find these headphones to be more than palatable.

PMG Audio APX SE

Another IEM that’s ‘clearly’ tuned with a focus on clarity but where, again, I don’t think the execution is the best. Like most IEMs that stumble in this department, the APX SE’s treble response is on the thinner side and exhibits a series of bright peaks in the lower and mid-treble (especially just past 10kHz). Moving downwards, the APX SE has an aggressive rise from 1-3kHz and a fun bass response that I associate with a slight bleed into 300Hz. Due to how forward the APX SE’s presentation is, I find the staging to lean on the more intimate side. Overall, I’m reminded a lot of Elysian Acoustic’s house sound but without the tasteful fine-tuning needed to pull it off.

Rossi Wings First Light

 

Honestly, this didn’t sound the greatest to me. Starting from the bottom, the bass on the First Light is noticeably mid-bass focused, and lighter, which doesn’t align with my preferences. Then, moving into the midrange, I hear it as being somewhat hollow and sucked-out. I have to imagine this is the combination of an earlier pinna notch around 2kHz and, possibly, an additional aberration (likely a recession) around 1kHz. Then I hear the treble of the First Light as being heavily lower-treble focused: it’s to the point of harshness and to which it’s masking out possible upper-treble extension.

Vision Ears EXT MKII

For some quick context, I generally hear the Vision Ears EXT as being one of the brand’s best IEMs: colored in an exciting, refreshing way thanks to its U-shaped tuning and excellent treble extension. I’m less partial to the EXT MKII, though. From memory, I hear it as sounding quite similar to the original EXT with the exception of its treble response. Whereas the EXT toed the line here with an emphasized but level treble region, the EXT MKII crosses over it. The EXT MKII has spades of upper-treble to the point of which it’s not only fatiguing but distracting from the lower-treble. Maybe this could work with the right selection of ear tips, but this isn’t what I was expecting.

Wrap-Up

Each year, the question I’m probably asked most is, “What were the standouts for you?”. And every year, this question becomes more difficult to answer! The industry has seen a lot of growth in the past few years, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was usually at least one IEM that I enjoyed from the various booths I visited. For the same reason, one might say that the bar has been raised: it’s become more difficult than ever to distinguish between the good and the great. It’s definitely a buyer’s market at this point, and even I've been feeling that itch to purchase something new (and I haven’t bought anything for almost two years).

I did pick up one of these cute guys from the iFi booth. If I had a winner for best merch, this would probably take the cake.

Thanks again for reading! If you weren't able to make it to CanJam, I'd encourage you to check out the Headphones.com Discord server where you can find more discussion with audio enthusiasts.