Looking Back at Singapore Canjam 2024: Part 2

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Looking Back at Singapore Canjam 2024: Part 2

By Sajid Amit


If you have read Part 1 of this piece, you may have obtained a sense that my day one of Singapore Canjam was spent in checking off Canjam bucket-lists; and trying those wonderful audiophile products that I have been hearing about without having had the opportunity to experience. It was a fun-filled and fulfilling day, so I woke up bright and early on day 2, excited. The day started with some Kaya toast, which is just lovely in its simplicity. 


Then I made a beeline to the show floor proceedings. I have been searching for a cable for my Aroma Audio Jewel which is subtly but definitively cable-sensitive. I picked up this Flash Acoustics cable after much cable-rolling. The cable is called the Catalina and it sounds very good and can be had at a decent price as well, sub-$500. I have driven the Jewel with $5000 cables, but I have decided it’s more about synergy than price points with IEM cables, so that is that. I also adored the gold color which I don’t usually go for, but it matches the color of the lettering on Jewel’s faceplates. 



Next in line was the Chinese brand Kinera’s flagship, the Loki, which is a first yet impressive effort at a flagship from an otherwise ChiFi brand, trying to punch above its weight class. I expected it to have a fair amount of treble presence and it did, but it was more sparkly than bright. I believe it had the sort of treble one would call “articulate”. The Loki also had a nice, fast, and textured bass, and made for an overall a good, clean listen. I hope to get it in for a review.



I also tried a Kinera sister-brand called Queen of Audio (QoA) and the IEM is a prototype of what will be called the “Adonis”. There were two versions of the Adonis and I was happy to try the bassier one. Expected to be priced at $180, the Adonis was exceeded my expectations. What a beautiful sound, even if I wasn’t feeling the shell design!


Another relatively new brand called Ice Labs audio had two very interesting IEMs, the Prismatic and Prismatic Gold. They were both strong performers, but the Gold was very good and was better across the spectrum with some high-quality BA bass, a tonally rich midrange, and a well-done treble. Overall, the Gold is a good buy for $1800.



Next, I checked out the Noble Audio booth to experience the new flagship called the Onyx. My first impressions were positive in that the tonality was spot on; the bass reminded me of the fantastic Sultan bass; and it was overall very pleasant-sounding. However, it was too short a listen to determine how resolving it is for the price, but this is worth a look for Noble fans. The highlight for me and my wife was the incredible full gold and diamond Sultan, still my favorite Noble product.



In addition to the gold and diamond Sultan, the Noble both had another Sultan made of stainless steel and black diamond. Have to hand it to Noble for their out-of-the-box choice of materials, aesthetics and finishing! 



I also finally got to try the mythical Rhapsodio Supreme V3. And I loved it. The V3 is a close-to-perfect sounding set with incredible bass and holography. It is a single driver design, but I was informed that the driver type is neither dynamic driver, nor balanced armature or planar. The V3 uses a proprietary 12mm Ultramag 5G Magnetostatic (MST) driver. Many may not want to shell out $6400 for a single driver design and I could never argue that this one is worth the price, but it is truly fantastic, and I would buy it if I could get it at a reasonable discount. It has genuine all-rounder credentials, given my preferences. This was a definite show highlight for me.



While on the topic of unique tech, the Soranik MEMS IEM was also quite enjoyable. What stood out was how much its sound varied depending on whether you were driving it directly from its portable energizer amp or whether the energizer product was connected to a separate amp, a Topping A90 in this case. It was full-bodied and bassy on the energizer and brighter and colder with the A90 in chain. The difference was far from subtle: like listening to two different IEMs. I enjoyed both experiences, but I understand some people may have decided that it is bright based on the Topping chain. But it actually has a pretty decent bass shelf.



I also tried the Nostalgia Audio Tesseract which looks really cool and was paired with an equally attractive Flash Acoustics Cable. The experience was good without necessarily being great. No part of the frequency response nor technical performance stood out for me, with this combo.



The Elysian Pilgrim Noir, however, was quite impressive for the price. This is a new set from the famed Malaysian-Singaporean brand Elysian, and it definitely retains the Elysian house sound but offers a more generous bass, much better than what is found on their current flagship, the Annihilator 2023. The bass on the Noir is more tactile, “bouncy”, and impactful. Overall, it is a very nice IEM. Note that the shell design isn’t final at the time of writing this piece. 



I had a re-listen to the Sony WM1ZM2 + Osprey PB5 stack and although amps make a small difference to the sound of IEMs (and yes, the delta varies between IEMs); for many it may be a decisive difference. I am still trying to decide how much I care about this difference having bought and sold a Tsuranagi paying full price then losing on the sale. I also listen to IEMs mostly lying down or in the car or at the gym and none of these use cases are conducive to daisy-chaining.



The purple cable pictured above and below is a total beauty and it’s called the Thanos and it’s also from Flash Acoustics.



The Mass Kobo 475 continues to be a delight but I probably prefer the PB5 to it for the latter’s richness of presentation and largeness of stage.



Lastly, I wanted to see how much the Jewel scales on some of the hottest solid-state amps in the business: the Mass Kobo 465 and the Zahl HM1. Surprisingly, although the Jewel scales very noticeably on the Hifiman Serenade on my nightstand, it did not offer any noticeable increment in performance on either the 465 or the HM1. It sounded rather clinical on the HM1 and overly smooth and rich on the 465, which goes to show how insufficiently synergy is correlated with price.





Having experienced all the IEMs I wanted to (I couldn’t find the Monachaa or the Traillii Ti; these two still evade me), I went on to try Sony’s new entry-level headphones, the MDR-MV1. I was so impressed that I immediately bought a pair. What a beautifully studio neutral sound with great bass, a certain width to the stage, and impressive levels of resolution for the price! It’s also so light. Before I bought it, I made sure to try it off different sources and it impressed on all of them!




Of course, I spent more time with the best product of Canjam Singapore 2023, the Raal 1995 Immanis. Two of my friends, who are serious summit-fi headphone collectors and enthusiasts immediately placed their orders. After listening to it for the third time today, I am 99% certain that they are a step above in performance from the Susvara or the TC or the X9000.



These headphones do what no IEMs can. I recently brought in the Susvara and the Utopia and I prefer my IEMs to both. But the Immanis are a different beast. They are probably the best headphones on the market at present. Aleksandar of Raal also spent a great deal of time hanging out with us, taking lots of photos, and his passion for the hobby and the community was as clear as day. He takes the exceeding praise his headphones received, with humility, calm and a striking normalcy. Kudos, mate.



We wrapped up proceedings and then went to our customary audiophile dinner between a small group of friends. We had some quintessential Singaporean cuisine thanks to the super awesome @Roasty. 

Thus ended Canjam Singapore for me and although I did not make a whole lot of purchases, it was rewarding to see friends, old and new. See you all in 2025. 

About the Author:


Sajid Amit is an academic and practitioner in international development by day, and audiophile night and day. His YouTube channel is called the Amplify Audiophile Show and is available here. His HeadFi handle is here.