Quick post as I am dead tired. Day started at 4am with Round 2, Game 1 of the Vancouver Canucks vs the Edmonton Oilers where the Canucks rallied from a 4-1 deficit to win 5-4 and make waking up at 4am entirely worth it! However, it did mean that by the time the show opened at 10am, I was already ready for bed.
Standouts from Day 1:
- Hifiman Mini Shangri-La - This came out of nowhere. I went into the Hifiman booth and couldn’t identify the headphones I was looking at so I looked at the side for the name and saw “Mini Shangri-La”. Turns out, it’s brand new and Hifiman just put it on a table in Munich without telling anyone. I enjoyed this the most out of the Shangri-La line-up. Great bass detail for an estat and it wasn’t tuned overly bright. Extremely comfortable as well. No price is set for it yet but I feel it will be very competitive wherever it does land.
- Meze Audio Alba - New IEMs from Meze Audio. I heard these at Axpona last month and was shocke to hear they are only $149. Warmer tuning with great, punchy bass. This is the best Meze IEM in my opinion.
- Final Audio X8000 - These were first shown off 2 years ago at Munich High-End and seemed like a completely radical product then but at the time, Final Audio was not allowing any listening. This show, they are. I expected it to not be my cup of tea as most Final Audio products just aren’t really in my wheelhouse but this one surprised me in a good way. The unit is still a prototype so unsure if this is the final tuning but it’s going to be a very interesting entry onto the market.
I’ll chat more about some of the stuff this weekend when Jet Lag has dissipated but for now here’s a photo dump.
