Did anyone prod Alex for more info on the Crimson? Release date, estimated price?  I'm in the market for a balanced amp and was hoping to spend < $1k. At $1k is it worth it to just make the jump to the Rag?

Only made it for an hour or so of listening today. So far:

*Bill made my 560s sound less annoying, big thanks to him
*Dan's Ether has great imaging (for an ortho), great comfort and is quite enjoyable when pushed hard by the Yggy/Rag. It's what Fostex's 500RP should've been. But the price...
*Russky Oppo was also enjoyable and smooth. The Oppo will never be a detail monster and it will never be as involving as some other headphones, but it is good in a relaxing listen type of way.
*Bill's modded Z7 (I've never heard the regular version) - not much bass, but still manages to be a fun 'phone. Sexy build quality.
*Frank Cooter's new amp is gorgeous as always, but it tries to change the 009 into something it's not. I'm going to try to listen to a couple of more favorable pairings tomorrow.
*Yggy - cool design, it was really fun and funny to listen to Moffat explain his f.u. to the current trends in the high end DAC market. But alas, I remain DAC-deaf.
*Bourbon - bourbon was good.

Nice to see y'all pirates. It was a fun day for audio and an awesome evening with dinner to conclude CanJam day 1.
- Yggy is ...well.. jus Yggy. Gonna get 1 in "3 or so weeks" (according to Mike M)
- Bill's LCD2 is quite a fun headphone to enjoy. It will be my next project if I can manage to get my 404LE off my FS.
- Abyss's fit is as quirky as finding the amp/dac for HD800.
- Drahma hp will be a great contender of 1000+ segment. Speed of stat without the delicate ethereal quality.
- HE1000, Ether are good but not worth the asking price imo.
- Riva bluetooth speaker is quite a surprise. Good punch from the little guy.
- I'm tempted with UERM 25% off after the 3D scan. 
Lastly headfiers' listening volume level (at least at CJ) is way above my comfort zone.

I am back at home. As I said, I lost my camera so no pictures. Sorry guys.

Impressions:

1) HE1000 : Unlike CES's prototpye, no more sudden harshness. I believe I once said I am willing to pay this headphone up to 3K, and it is priced right at it.

2) Nighthawk : Unfortunately no sonic change since CES and it was confirmed by AudioQuest guys. Right now it is good, but I do feel the sound is sometimes too thick and warm.

3) Ether : Good and lightweight. It is essentially a worse version of LCD-X (less/worse bass and less/worse treble, about equal in mid) but priced only 200 bucks below LCD-X. Unless weight is biggest concern, LCD-2 and LCD-X actually provide slightly better deal IMHO, but I'd say it's... well, ok I guess. The biggest strength of Ether is really its weight and comfort, not sound.

4) D1000 : Surprisingly good, unlike others said I do not find this headphone bright on treble. Quite balanced and sounds good and airly.

5) R10 (bass-light) : It's good, closed headphones but definitely more I listen to these headphones, they are really past their prime time. To be honest, they sound very good, but I don't find any magical about it. From my perspective, PM-3 is almost like 85% of R10 but costs only 400 bucks. EL-8 is already toe-to-toe with R10.

6) Stax-Sigma : It's the best estat I've ever heard. Definitely better than their newer and more expensive siblings such as 007 and 009. Yes, Sigmas are also ethereal-sounding headphone, but I feel they are just... right. Unlike other estat headphones except HE90, I don't sense any weirdness that stemmed from ethereal-sounding of estats. It is hard to describe but they do this sound 'correct.' If I were to buy, I will prob try buy one of these.

7) General Cavalli stuffs : What else can I say, they are all very good amplifiers without any apparent weakness I could sense. I would had bought one of his amp if Rag has not existed.

8.) Ygg : It's... ygg I guess. Among with HE1000, I will buy this DAC as well, probably finishing my headphone system.

9) Marv's modded Abyss : Ok, now it actually sounds like really good headphones unlike unmodded one which just sounds unacceptable in many areas except bass. Still, I would not spend more than 2K on these headphones. HE1000 is, even against modded Abyss, simply better headphones if you ask me.

10) Oppo PM-3 : Biggest surprise for me. Expectation was not high. My first thought was "Meh, it is almost as good as HD650", then I realized these ones are closed-back and priced 400 bucks. It actually sounds slightly better than Alpha Dog in terms of tonality, for example. Probably the best portable closed full-size headphones, period. Sure some other T50RP modded ones may sound better, but they are not really portable.

11) EL-8 : Open one is good, and closed one is indeed such massive improvement from CES. Treble spike has been greatly reduced and overall sound is much more coherent now. I can say they are quite competitive with their price, and ready for sell. I'd rather get open version of EL-8 instead of LCD-2 at this point.

12) Stax 007 MarkII : Am I only one thinking it sounds better than 009?

13) AKG K1000 : doh, lack of any low-bass is the biggest problem. Otherwise speaker-like sound is indeed main hooking point of these unique headphones.


Trends I witnessed:

1) Very annoying and dangerous trend of ever-increasing the price of headphones and associated equipment. One of the headphones I heard was absolute disaster, yet it is priced at whooping 900 bucks. There is some unknown planar headphones from a company whose people have not even decided a name of the company. But I was told they were going to sell at +1K USD. Just... yeah. I do have feeling the bubble is going to burst soon or later, and similar fate may happen to high-end headphone market like current high-end audio ended up.

2) Planar Planar AND MORE Planars. I only see mountains of Audezes, MrSpeakers and Hifimans. Even HD800 is increasingly becoming a rare breed. Very few Beyers (and majority of them are presented as A&K branding) and absolutely no sign of AKG except a lone K1000 (hmm, no K812, lol...) and maybe K7XX (I think I saw it somewhere). Of course, no sign of Grado as well except someone was brought his PS-1000 for comparison.

3) Many traditional hifi-audio companies jumping into headphone market, surprisingly usually with right price. Ayre's new headphone amplifier is a prime example. I was quite pleased with its sound and the fact that it will cost about 700 or less pleased me. ENIGMAcoustics is another company which was making tweeters and now jumping with hybrid headphones and a very nice tube amplifier with relatively cheap price (~600 bucks)


Stories

1) I had chance to talk with Tyll about his former company. "Tragedy" is such a right word for Headroom after Tyll left. I really wish Headroom was still making amplifiers and DACs. I really loved Headroom Micro with desktop module. It endured pretty much all of my early head-fi adventures.

2) Seminar for Planar magnetic headphone. All I can say is; price has always been and will be the key. All technologies mean little if people can't enjoy them due to price. Dynamic headphones have a very strong advantage here since the cost of drivers is indeed far less than Planar's. I believe the market will eventually adjust itself as planar as high-end and dynamics as low-mid-end. Traditional highly-priced dynamic headphones will have harder time convincing people to buy them. It is already evident that AudioQuest's Nighthawk is receiving very lukewarm responses.


There may be things I forgot to mention since I cannot see pictures to remember myself, but I believe I pretty much covered all important and interesting stuffs.