Tokyo Headphone Festival, Autumn 2024

While I was recently in Japan for my visit to STAX, TAD, and TEAC, I was able to attend the Autumn Tokyo Headphone Festival 2024. The show took place on a rainy Saturday, November 2nd. Admission was free and the show took up two convention hall floors of the Sapia Towers, near Tokyo Station. Personally, I always find it interesting to see what HiFi is like in other countries so I was looking forward to seeing what headphone fans here were gravitating to.

HIFIMAN

The first stop was to visit our friends at HIFIMAN. Their booth was constantly busy, but after a short wait, I was able to spend some up-close-and-personal time with both the new Susvara Unveiled and the HE1000 Unveiled. Both were driven by the Goldenwave GA-10 10th Anniversary Tube amplifier which made for an ideal matching. With an MSRP of $8,000 and $2,799 USD respectively, these are headphones for the true aficionado who demands the very best. And they show all intentions of delivering on that promise! Our Lory Hawley had one of the first reviews of the Susvara Unveiled back in October and she was utterly smitten!

Our Mel Martin recently reviewed the HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La Electrostatic headphone and amplifier pairing and his write-up will be published in the coming weeks. He came away quite impressed with the combination and I got to sample it while in Tokyo as well. Mel wasn’t kidding when he said how good this pairing sounded!

HEDD Audio and Xpector

I had a chance to listen to the HEDD Audio HEDDPhone Two while at the Tokyo show. The only headphones I’ve ever seen that use full-range AMT drivers. I’ll say up front, that I was not a fan of the first generation of the HEDDPhone. I found them uncomfortable and their sound signature was unappealing to my ears. I’m happy to discover that the HEDDPhone Two is a whole different ballgame! I found them very comfortable and the current tuning is much more appealing with excellent bass response. The HEDDPhone Two ($2,000.00) was paired with an unusual German headphone amplifier. The Xpector Elysia ($1,450.00) is two separate amplifiers in one unit. One amplifier is set up with controls suitable for engineering and monitoring mixes while the other amp is set up with controls for the artist or end user. The engineering side had a particularly effective listening mode control that perfectly adjusted the soundstage from very wide to fully centered and forward of my head. It was uncanny.

Cayin Audio

Cayin Audio had a variety of Digital Audio Players and portable amps but what caught my eyes and ears was the SOUL 170HA Tube Headphone Amplifier. It was gorgeous looking and it sounded much the same! Using KT170 power tubes, this amp can be used to drive speakers but is primarily meant for headphones. And it claims to put out enough power through any of its headphone connections to drive any headphones you may have. Up to 18 watts of Class A power depending on the jack used. Priced at $7,500.00 US.

Austrian Audio

I had heard that Austrian Audio was essentially started by a team of ex-AKG engineers who decided not to go “quietly into the night” with the whole Samsung/HARMAN consolidation situation. And after listening to various models of their headphones driven by their Full Score One headphone amplifier ($1,599.00), I’m kinda glad they stuck it out. I sampled their HI-X15 ($109.00) and new Hi-X20 ($149.00) closed-back dynamic headphones and found them both comfortable and enjoyable. They are marketed as an affordable solution to musicians who want to monitor and mix their music and the sound signature reflects that. Trying out their The Composer headphones was a whole other experience. Priced at $2,699.00 US, these are targeted squarely at the well-heeled audiophile versus the struggling musician and they felt and sounded like it. A big open-back presentation with ample bass response and impact while maintaining a beautiful sense of transparency throughout the rest of the range. These are cans that I would love to spend more time with!

Meze Audio

Our friends at Meze had a continuously busy booth at this show so it was hard to grab a seat and listen. Which, in all fairness, is good for them. You can check out our CanJAM SoCAL 2024 coverage to get some impressions of Meze’s latest from Lory Hawley and Dr. Eric Hieger.

Denon

I’ve known that Denon made headphones but I’ve never found myself in a position to listen to them before until now. All three models were available to try with their various species of wooden earcups that flavored each model’s sound signature. All were closed-back designs and used the same 50mm FreeEdge Nano Paper fiber drivers. The AH-D9200 ($1,599.00) was the flagship model. It had Bamboo wood earcups and was fully made in Japan. The AH-D7200 ($999.00) had American Walnut earcups, and Japan-made drivers but is assembled elsewhere in Asia. And the AH-D5200 ($699.00) had Zebrawood earcups, and Japan-made drivers but was also assembled elsewhere. All felt exceedingly comfortable and were enjoyable to listen to and each had their own sonic flavor so there is likely one to appeal to you. I personally dug the sound of the AH-D7200 with the walnut cups. For me, these had that balanced overall sound that I look for with an extra kick in the pants in the bass and sub-bass area.

Bowers & Wilkins

Had a chance to finally listen to the Bowers & Wilkins PX8 while in Tokyo. B&W has come a long way with their wireless ANC headphones over the years and the PX8 looks and feels like an object of desire from the moment you simply handle them. The sound quality is also very refined along with polishing up the slightly muddy bass I remember from the original PX and adding some additional sub-bass extension. Check out our recent review of the PX8 done by our Lory Hawley.

Audio-Technica

Audio-Technica had a segregated listening area with multiple booths where one could listen to their products in a somewhat quieter environment. I spent some time with the ATH-ADX3000 using a lovely Accuphase SACD player and Luxman headphone amplifier as supporting players. I’ve always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Audio-Technica headphones. On one hand, I tend to like the way they look and feel but on the other hand, I find the sound often tuned very flat, which is great if you are in a studio monitoring scenario. But for listening at home or on the go, the sound is not what I am after. That seemed to be the case again with the ATH-ADX3000. I loved the look and feel but the sound felt like it was meant for the studio as opposed to my den. Again, remember, that’s just an opinion of one!

Fostex

Oftentimes at a HiFi show, there are one or two very familiar speakers I use as touchstones that (if there) I always make a point of listening to them towards the end of the show. This helps re-center my hearing and my expectations from all the other listening I’ve done and gives me a quick point of comparison, relatively speaking. When it comes to headphones, the Fostex TH909 and TH900 Mk2 are touchstones for me as well and I was delighted to spend some time getting reacquainted with them in Tokyo. They do so much, so well that one could have both and feel like all their (non-wireless) listening needs would be met.

FiiO

FiiO has been on a roll with a significant number of product launches in 2024 and, by and large, they have all been unique and noteworthy. I took a listen to three of the headphones the company had on hand, the planar magnetic FT5 ($450.00), the new FT1 PRO ($200.00), and the FT1 ($150.00). All of them sounded enjoyable, have a very high-quality of fit and finish, and should easily find fans who appreciate the obvious value they provide. FiiO was also showing their new S15 digital music player/streamer with a beautiful high-res screen and a clean interface. Details and availability info were scarce but the estimated US price was displayed as $999.99.

Noble Audio

Noble had a full array of their IEMs on display but what grabbed my attention was their new wireless ANC headphones, the FoKus Apollo. They are interesting in the fact that they use both a 40mm dynamic driver and a 14.5 mm planar driver. Codec support includes LDAC, aptX, aptX-HD, AAC, and SBC. They also come with a detachable boom mic and there is a control app available. Build quality and sound quality were both excellent. For a price of $649.00 US, they offer a compelling alternative to other solutions.

TEAC

Checking in on our friends at TEAC, they had two full listening setups with both TEAC and Esoteric gear. The TEAC gear featured their UD-507 preamp/DAC and the new HA-507 analog headphone amp. Featured Esoteric gear was the K-05XD SACD Player, NX-05XD DAC/Preamp/Streamer. The headphones being used were the FINAL Audio D8000 PRO. It all made for a pretty amazing listening setup!

Crosszone

An interesting headphone from a company I’d never heard of before. The Crosszone CZ-1 uses three drivers uniquely positioned and ported within each earcup to create what the designer intends to be a more realistic listening experience akin to listening to speakers in a room. It is a fully analog solution without the use of DSP of any kind. The listening experience was indeed unique, different from anything else I’ve heard. Overall, it’s a sound I didn’t find completely convincing but it’s an interesting experiment.

FOCAL and Luxman

FOCAL and Luxman partnered up for the show. As a result, they had a consistently busy table with the full measure of FOCAL’s headphone offerings available to be sampled through the fine array of Luxman gear.

Yamaha

Yamaha was at the show with their unique YH-5000SE open-back headphones paired with the equally unique HA-L7A headphone amplifier. As a styling exercise, Yamaha has created a stunning-looking set here. The headphones are also extremely comfortable and the sound quality is very appealing when the two components are paired together. The amplifier provides some DSP sound profiles to use (or not) depending on what you’re listening to. I would love to get a set in to the studio to review at some point.

STAX

Our friends at STAX also had fire in a bottle at their table. It was constantly busy throughout the whole show. Many were interested in sampling both the top-end SR-X9000 earspeakers and the new entry-level SRS-X1000 earspeaker system. Both units are superb performers for their intended audiences. I almost don’t know which one I like more to be honest. The SRS-X1000 was something I wish had been available 30 years ago when I was first getting into HiFi. It brings a whole new level of sound quality and portability together for their intended price. The SR-X9000 on the other hand is the absolute pinnacle of performance, nothing else sounds like it!

ZMF

ZMF makes so many finishes and spins on their headphones that the choices can be somewhat daunting. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Caldera closed-back headphones ($3,500.00) I sampled at the show, hooked up to an Eversolo DAC-Z8, sounded fantastic! Beautiful finish on those earcups too.

Dita Audio

Dita Audio is a Singapore company that is producing some interesting IEM projects including the Project M which has both a 9.8 mm dynamic and a Balanced armature driver in a resin-based enclosure. At $325.00 US I found the fit and seal to be surprisingly good and easy to maintain with a very appealing sound quality with great bass extension.