This week’s blog post is all about the Canjam Europe 2017 show in Berlin. To check out previous show reports click HERE.

Canjam Europe 2017 – Berlin

When the Canjam Europe organizers announced the move from Essen – where the last four shows were held – to Berlin, everyone – me included – was a bit skeptic about it. Berlin isn’t very close for people from Belgium, the UK, France and the Netherlands and in stead of a 2 hour drive, I was now looking at a 9 hour one.

On top of that I wasn’t a fan of Berlin, the city never managed to convince me of its charm and so I have to admit I wasn’t very happy going all the length for a show. But Canjam Berlin now is over and I have to say I finally managed to fall in love with the city. It must have been the great companionship, you know who you are. But me liking Berlin now has nothing to do with the show itself.

While I somewhere certainly understand the move to Berlin, the reactions were mixed as expected. Some loved it, others didn’t, but I guess you can never please everyone. For us as a review site, the show was absolutely great as there were so many brands and distributors. The hotel venue and the rooms were much better than those from the Essen location and the way the show was set up (think size of the rooms available for the different exhibitors) simply made it a great show.

For those who couldn’t make it to Berlin we’ve made this picture report in our typical style (alphabetic order). The show report will be spread over 4 pages and two days but let’s get started with Part 1!

1 MORE

You might only know the 1 More brand from the successful Piston IEM, but 1More has many more IEMs in their portfolio

As you can see, 1More isn’t only doing in-ear monitors but they’ve also been working on full-sized headphones

ADI 2 PRO

I really can’t find any valid excuse, but the fact is we still haven’t covered these awesome little units from ADI2PRO, even though we’ve mentioned them in every single of our show reports

So I definitely need to get hold of this unit so we can finally feature it in 2018. Apologies to those that have been waiting for it.

Astell&Kern

In contrast to the London Canjam show from Head-Fi there this time were more AK DAPS to be found than there were Sony DAPs (which I only saw with Sennheiser and Effect audio)

Lots of people were testing the SP1000, KANN and both the old and new AK70/AK70II

The AK70/AK70II simply is a top quality DAP ans while the SP1000 definitely is a mile ahead, it also is a lot more expensive. Me? I like both.

New from AK also was the new AK desktop amplifier which looks so nice

I look forward myself to trying it with my SP1000 in my office, even though I know already my colleagues will be asking what that weird thing on my desk does. The SP1000 & Acro L1000 Desktop Headphone Amp combo does look impressive though.

Astell&Kern of course is still working with JH Audio and they brought all their fancy IEMs to the show as well.

AKG

The only AKG that drew my attention was this modded 812 which actually belongs to Fried Reim, the CEO of Violectric. When there was an issue with this K812 he decided to fix it himself, re-cabling it balanced DIY style. More about this headphone can be found in our interview with the Violectric CEO.

Audeze

No doubt about it, the popular US brand was THE most represented brand at the show and almost every exhibitor has one or more Audeze headphones at the boots for demoing their gear.

The Sine (here with a Box Design amp) is incredibly popular with the big crowd, and if you’ve ever heard it you know why.

The good old LCD2 also was very present even though most of them had the metal connectors and were post fazor.

But really every single model Audeze ever released was at the show, multiple times

Of course the open Sine was also present several times. Its biggest competitor the Mr. Speakers Aeon, wasn’t that present at all.

Audeze of course also has amplifiers with the Deckard and The King

LCD-4 anyone?

Doesn’t that carbon headband look incredibly sexy?

The new Audeze cables also are so sexy…

Another two of my personal favorite headphones are the good old Audeze LCD-X and its closed brother the LCD-XC

For me the LCD-XC still is one of the very best closed headphones

Audeze also took the new LCD-MX4 with them. It wasn’t the first time I listened to it, but it keeps blowing me away. The price tag does too.

“Recently” Audeze also got in to the IEM market with the iSines, and as we reported these sound incredible as well. Even though you have to get used to the very specific, non-traditional design.

I mostly listen to the iSine 20 but the LCD-i4 is even more impressive. If you have the possibility, do give them all a listen. That’s enough about Audeze I’d say.

I did find one original pre fazor, pre metal connectors LCD-2 at the Violectric booth though, this is the version Audeze will be re-issuing

It continues on Page Two after the click here or the jump below

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