CanJam SoCal 2022 Show Report
Aural adventures and dynamic innovations!
CanJam SoCal 2022 Show Report By Emiko

FOCAL and DCS What can I say? Focal also had larger real estate at the front of the grand ballroom. All the listening booths were full so I was ushered into the DCS room to have some much-needed time with their new Utopia headphones ($4999). I had Tidal at my fingertips so I went for a CD quality recording of "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones, and then switched over to lossless hi-res and compressed MQA. Coming from the whimsical world of pro-audio, I am deeply familiar with Focal's footprint in the recording industry and was very pleased to hear the new headphones delivered out of the park. Clear, precise, and solid are words I wrote down.

I made note that I could hear panning very accurately and that frequencies often lost when it comes to subtleties added by percussion were remarkably present but not in an overpowering way.

It was just lovely to hear them. Female vocals (I switched once again to Fiona Apple) were out front and very full — almost soaring, and widely panned strings were audible with exceptional good balance. They were appropriately stated. The Utopia headphones will deliver for the long haul and I'm very happy to say that.

Sennheiser...so anyone who has known my journey knows I've been a closed-back headphone girl for decades due to my time in the studio. My go-to pair were always Sennheisers so having a chance to experience their hi-fi/consumer lines at CanJam was a must for me. I sat down with their 650s ($399) and their 660s ($499) which happen to include a balanced connector in the box, as well as their HD820s, their closed-back headphones ($1799).

I enjoyed every pair I listened to. Sennheiser historically for me, has always delivered powerful and vocal-friendly headphones and these were no different. I walked away happy from this experience.

Chord Electronics Now here was another table that took me multiple attempts to finally secure a seat. The Mojo 2 portable integrated headphone amp and DAC ($800) paired beautifully with the Meze 109pro headphones to deliver a massive attack of well... the band Massive Attack.

I've been listening to their track "Teardrop" on repeat in cycles since I was a teenager and this pairing delivered wide open spaces and lots of emotion where normally, a layperson's setup would flatten out this very dimensional recording. Definitely a win.

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