Intro.

I spend the whole year waiting for CanJam NYC show, and in a blink of an eye it is over and the waiting for the 2024 show begins.  Looking back, as I finally got time to work on the report, this was probably the biggest CanJam NYC show I have attended in the last 7 years, my 6^th CanJam minus one year when we were under lockdown.  Pandemic times now feel like a distant past, and it was a pleasure to see majority of people, hundreds of audiophiles, without facemasks, with just a few people being cautious.  And yes, I only attended on Saturday, and no, it is absolutely not enough to be able to cover everything in one day, but I gave it a try from 9:45am till 6:45pm with just a very short lunch break upstairs in hotel’s cafeteria instead of wandering around Times Square.

CanJam Shows are now a well-established international phenomenon, spreading across the globe from NYC, SoCal, Chicago, to London, Singapore, Shenzhen, and Shanghai.  This year I see the show roster added Dallas to the list, though I don’t see Shenzhen and Shanghai yet.  Perhaps lockdown in China prevented this planning ahead of time, so I would stay tuned for any updates throughout the year.  For those in US and Canada, CanJam is a big deal because aside from the annual NAMM show geared toward musicians, we don’t get as many audio shows focusing on portable and desktop audio gear.  And, unfortunately, we don’t have as many physical audio stores like in some other countries since brick-and-mortar locations are rare in here and paying restocking fee when you change your mind buying online can add up.

Even so it was my 6^th CanJam NYC and I’m already familiar with a lot of portable audio products ahead of the show, including some new releases which I get a sneak peak of under a gag order, I was still very excited to see and to talk in person to many of the manufacturers and the retailers.  Another reason of excitement this year was meeting in person the guys from the Watercooler Head-fi community, a thread which became a phenomenon of its own, with head-fiers from around the world discussing audio and non-audio related topics, and sharing their experience with encouragements to help each other empty their wallets!  But seriously, it’s a great mini community where head-fiers talk about anything, regardless of the price tag or a personal placebo effect.

As usual, the CanJam Show is being held on the weekend at the Broadway Ballroom of Marriott Marquis Hotel located in Times Square of Manhattan, a two-day event, and you do need both Saturday and Sunday if you are serious about trying most of the products, though even 2 full days is probably not enough.  I usually attend on Saturday and focus only on portable gear.  Also, I don’t mind driving to Manhattan (from NJ) and always reserve a parking spot ahead of time, which I do recommend to save time and money.  On the way to the show, while walking to the hotel from the parking garage, I always run into cosplay performers, soliciting tourists for pictures, another highlight of the day I look forward to while going after them myself to take pictures of Elmos, Mickey Mouses, and other characters.  Then, off to the hotel, to get to the 6th floor where CanJam NYC 2023 was about to start.

As my usual disclaimer, in the past I have written CanJam reports simply to report what I saw at the show, to help people discover new products or to bring up names of brands and products they were not even aware of.  In the last few years, I added more details, including brief impressions which I feature in my report now.  But it is impossible to do an accurate sound analysis in a noisy environment while being surrounded by dozens of people in such a short period of time.  I noticed sometime people quote my show report as a review, but it’s not.  I will review a product when I have a chance to spend more time with it, doing a focused testing in a quiet environment, but here you will only find quick impressions.  Now, with this disclaimer out of the way, let’s proceed to find out what I came across at CanJam NYC 2023 show!

Overview of the showroom.

After my usual Intro, I decided to start this report a bit differently.  Since I arrived at the show before 10am and was able to quickly pick up my Media Press pass, I had a few minutes to race down isles before the main crowd of attendees poured in.  This gave me the opportunity to take a bunch of pictures of the tables with manufacturers and retailers putting the finishing touches before the show.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, as long as it is not blurry (when I rush with my phone camera).  Plus, it can give you an idea of who was in attendance.  Due to a storm on West Coast, some manufacturers, like Campfire Audio, weren’t able to make it even so they were on the list.  So, for your enjoyment, in this section you will only find  a bunch of pictures.  Unfortunately, not everything and everybody were captured, including some pictures that turned out to be blurry, or, as an example, when I was politely asked out of Dan Clark’s room because they were not finished with a setup.

Just one comment to add, I couldn’t believe how much traffic a separate ZMF room received, probably gathering more people than Audeze, Focal, or Dan Clark tables at the show.

Page 1 – Intro and Overview of the showroom.
Page 2 – Empire Ears, Effect Audio, Elysian Audio, FiR Audio, Final Audio.
Page 3 – Bloom Audio, Campfire, JOMO, Eletech, Lunch break.
Page 4 – Vision Ears, Sennheiser, Letshuoer, ThieAudio.
Page 5 – Musicteck (UM, Noble, Nostalgia, FatFreq, Cayin, Lotoo, and more).
Page 6 – Final thoughts.