RMAF 2016 Show Report
Rocky Mountain International Audio Fest & CanJam 2016

  The always-happy and up-beat MrSpeakers' Dan Clark demonstrated his new Ether ES electrostatic headphones, which are available in both open and closed design. What that means is the far outside part of the speaker enclosure is either (Ether?) open so the rear of the driver 'breathes' or closed, akin to a home audio loudspeaker cabinet. The driver is a specially-designed 2.75" x 1.75" MrSpeakers' single-ended planar magnetic with V-Planar surface processing. Ether Flow headphone's TrueFlow tech smoothes the airway's path through, and out, of the magnet structure, which is said to greatly reduced distortion and improve dynamics. So are they comfy? You bet as they are both lightweight and have comfy clamping to your head. Not only are the headphones a heralded design, the beautiful brown case is form-fitted and can double as a headphone stand! Outstanding!!! Outstanding sound as they go down to 15Hz flat! MrSpeakers also brought with them to RMAF 2016 a prototype singe-ended OTL tube amp as seen below. 

Another Enjoy the Music.com Blue Note Award winner, Abyss' amazing planar magnetic headphones ($4500 for Lute and $5500 in Deluxe version) was my next stop. Having heard these headphones at a variety of shows, i can attest and agree with what Enjoy the Music.com's headphone and portable audio specialist Dave Hanson says, "Built with perhaps the most original and ambitious design ever attempted in a headphone, the Abyss offers listeners a high degree of customizability in fit and feel. Once you have it tweaked to your preferences, you are greeted with a powerful sound that offers stunning clarity and unprecedented visceral physicality. This is indeed one of the finest headphone systems on the market today."

Joking around with Nobles Audio's Brandon is one of my fave pastimes. Regular readers know of my love for their top-line K10 custom fit in-ear monitor (CIEM) in Tiger Stripe Italian rose gold. They are put to good use within reviews, such as my recent review of the Sony NW-WM1Z portable music player. Noble Audio offers a wide variety of in-ear monitors starting at around $599 up to whatever your budget can afford with 24k gold customization.

Another popular in-earn monitor company, JH Audio, was at CanJam 2016 in Denver's RMAF show with their JH16 V2 ($1499) CIEM and JH 3X Pro ($599) CIEM. Many on-stage musicians use their products worldwide and they offer many other designs depending on how you'll use them and what you desire. They also make special units exclusively for Astell&Kern, a very popular portable audio player with audiophiles. I've used their Roxanne CIEM while drumming and they have an adjustable bass potentiometer so if you want more bass, you can make adjustments accordingly versus relying on the possibility of an EQ within your wireless stage headphone pack.

---> Click here for RMAF 2016 show report part 2 by Steven R. Rochlin.