CanJam 2020 NYC – Come Hear What Music Really Sounds Like!

by Young · 02/16/2020

Listening to great music isn’t what you think it is. Most consumer headphones available at box stores & online (like Best Buy or Amazon) offer nowhere near the quality of sound that your ears are capable of hearing. I mean given the choice of factory pre-cooked “fast food” versus healthier just-made fresh food, which would you eat? And would you actually eat fast food every day?

Well, that’s what you’re doing to your ears every time you put on your headphones. For most people, the stuff getting shoveled down your ear canals are the same muddy sounding, way-too-much-bass of lo-fi hell.

I understand this predicament though. At least in my youth, there were more (hi-fi) shops that let me have a listen to the different headphones they carried before I bought one. I’d come in on different days and try a couple, then come back and try them again to see if I’d remember what they sounded like. We’d plug in our portable cassette players, close our eyes and just listen. And boy, you could tell an immediate difference in sound quality.

Nowadays, there are virtually no places to go have a listen (barring a few exceptions in big cities). Since most people buy online, they depend on the many (fake) Amazon reviews; mostly repeat-and-regurgitation of what others have said because they too, don’t really know if what they’re buying are any good.

HEAR FOR YOURSELF

Can Jam is a yearly event where some of the world’s greatest audio companies -most of which you’ve probably never heard of- let you try out their products. Simply bring with you a music player with music you’re familiar with (could be your phone) and have a listen. You can hear for yourself what music can truly sound like.

The thing is, you might start to hear things you’ve never noticed before, like a background vocalist taking in a breath before singing – or the inability of your audio device or low quality mp3 try to spit out and fake something that has no business being there (or more likely, missing something that was in the original recording.) Meaning: if there’s a fly in your soup, you’ll see it clear as day. Don’t put that into your mouth.

VIDEO COVERAGE AT CAN JAM 2020

The biggest piece of unfortunate news is that due to the coronavirus outbreak, all the Chinese companies (except one) were unable to attend this year. From our understanding, the one company that did make it came two weeks prior to the show to meet US quarantine requirements. If that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is.

Other than that, we’ve covered the following companies for your viewing pleasure, which you can also find on our Youtube channel.