Welcome back to my coverage of CanJam SoCal 2026.

I would like to extend special thanks to Noble Audio for making this coverage possible, not only do they make incredible IEMs and now Headphones, they have always been a great supporter of the Personal Audio community in general, often sponsoring our coverage of these events.

MEZE AUDIO

Meze Audio has launched quite a few products over the last year, making it a surprise for them to launch yet another: the Meze Audio ARTA ($6,000), their newest flagship Rinaro Isodynamics driver headphone, which stirred up quite a lot of interest at the show.

SCHIIT AUDIO

Once again, Schiit Audio offered the most spectacular deals with their extensive line of magnificent DACs, Amplifiers, and Accesories. The two newest products that they were really excited about were the Schiit Audio BUF Coherence™ Tube Buffer ($99), designed to give any solid-state system some of the musicality of tubes, and the Schiit Audio IMP Impedance Multiplier and Balanced Output Converter ($99), which allows you to convert your single-ended headphone amplifier to balanced by doubling the voltage to the 4.4 mm TRRRS output.

HeadAmp

HeadAmp was presenting their unbelievable HeadAmp cfa3 Deluxe Edition ss-zf Headphone Amplifier ($4,995) in a fantastic gold finish and their magnificent HeadAmp Blue Hawaii Special Edition Electrostatic Headphone Amplifier ($7,495) in an eye-catching orange, still the most desirable Electrostatic Headphone amp out there. They were also demonstrating a new Es Labs ES HE-90 (est $1,300-$1,800) prototype electrostatic headphone inspired by the original Orpheus Headphone, which will definitely be a contender when it becomes available. Incredibly, they were able to drive different electrostatic offerings with the cfa3 using an ES Lab EHT-7 Electrostatic Headphones Energizer ($850).

AUDEZE

The talk of the show for Audeze was their new flagship Audeze LCD-5s Planar Magnetic Headphone ($4,500), and for me it was the amazing new Audeze MM-520 Open-Back Professional Headphones ($1,699), which may be their best-sounding headphone short of the Audeze CRBN² Electrostatic ($5,995).

DEKONI Audio

Once again, DEKONI Audio opted to set up a mini retail store as opposed to a simple display, providing easy access to all of their outstanding Heaphone Accessories, including their world-class replacement Earpads that can often improve the performance of your headphone, likewise with their unique DEKONI Audio Ensamble Cables which are continuously expanding to service all headphones and amplifier connections, and of course their own Headphones. Their latest addition is the DEKONI Audio Comfort Strap by Capra ($39.99), a project still in development, but it allows you to convert any headphone to the more comfortable suspension net headband solution.

WESTONE AUDIO/ETYMOTIC

Thanks to DEKONI Audio, WESTONE AUDIO and etymotic are back. While the current WESTONE AUDIO MACH series as well as the current etymotic lines are still being produced, new products are on the horizon.

GRELL

Sharing the room with DEKONI Audio, grell were showing their grell OAE2 Headphone ($599), an upgrade to their popular grell OAE1 Headphone, both of which offer a unique driver placement designed to improve imaging.

ēcoute

ēcoute was once again previewing their newest model wireless tube headphone, the ēcoute TH2 ($999, currently only available through Kickstarter), with an improved headband and gimbles over the current model, the ēcoute TH1 ($699), which stands unique in the industry as the only wireless option that offers the unparalleled sound quality of a tube amp.

EarMen

One of the most exciting finds at the show was the new EarMen L-Amp MK2 Portable DAC/Tube Amp ($550) and EarMen L-Amp MK2 Gold Portable DAC/Tube Amp ($1,299), able to drive almost any headphone the sound was just marvelous. And for the desktop, there was the EarMen GLOW Tube DAC/Headphone Amplifier ($1,519), which lets you switch between tube and solid-state.

That concludes Part 2 of my CanJam SoCal 2026 coverage, sponsored by our good friends at Noble Audio. Stay tuned for Part 3