A GearZilla “Just Go!” Story
All year, my wife kept encouraging me to plan a trip to CanJam SoCal.
And I kept finding reasons not to go.
If you’ve never been, CanJam is Head-Fi’s global headphone and personal-audio show, bringing listeners together with the brands, designers, reviewers, and gear shaping the hobby.
We live in Texas. The timing was tight. Travel was expensive. I hadn’t really planned for it. A dozen perfectly reasonable reasons existed to stay home and tell myself I’d catch the next one.
But she kept pushing.
Finally, she asked me a very simple question:
“What’s the worst that can happen?”
Fair point.
She told me to “Just Go!”
Less than 24 hours later, I’d rearranged life, found a flight, booked a hotel, and somehow had custom GearZilla T-shirts, business cards, and stickers made overnight.
Then I packed what I needed and launched myself toward Orange County, still not entirely sure how I’d pulled any of it off.
As I stepped off the plane from Austin, something hit me.
CanJam isn’t really a trade show.
Sure, there are headphones, IEMs, DACs, amps, cables, prototypes, new releases, and enough gear to make your wallet file a restraining order.
But that isn’t what makes CanJam special.
CanJam is more than a trade show. It’s a community.
If you’ve ever put on a pair of headphones and wondered, “Could my music sound even better?” you already have everything you need to walk through those doors.
You belong here.
Seriously. Just Go.
I understand why CanJam can look intimidating from the outside.
You see YouTubers, reviewers, Head-Fi regulars, engineers, designers, founders, and manufacturers. You hear people casually discussing driver configurations, impedance, planar magnetics, R2R DACs, and frequency response graphs like they’re talking about breakfast.
It’s easy to convince yourself you’re not “audiophile enough” yet.
Forget that.
You don’t need a kilobuck headphone collection. You don’t need to understand every squiggly line on a frequency response graph. You don’t need encyclopedic knowledge of every DAC architecture ever created.
You just need to love music.
That’s the admission ticket.
Because beneath all the technology, measurements, terminology, and opinions, this hobby is really about that.
We love music.
And we’re constantly chasing new ways to experience songs we already know.
You don’t need to be “audiophile enough.” You just need to love music.
The Gear Gets You There. The People Bring You Back.
My favorite CanJam memories aren’t simply about hearing great gear.
They’re about the people I met while hearing it.
And if I ever needed proof that one conversation at CanJam can change someone’s entire journey through this hobby, I already have it.
Because in a very real way, GearZilla Reviews started at CanJam.
The Day I Fanboyed Over James Demer
I’d watched James Demer, the AudioNomad, on YouTube for years before I ever met him.
So when I spotted him at CanJam Dallas in November 2025, working with Linsoul Audio, I did what any perfectly composed and professional grown man would do.
I fanboyed out.
I walked over, introduced myself, and told him how much I enjoyed his work.
James couldn’t have been kinder.
Later, when my son and I made our way to the Linsoul booth, I really understood why James is such a great ambassador for this hobby.
He wasn’t simply pointing at products on a table.
He was almost giddy about taking us on an audio journey.
He’d hand us an IEM, watch our reaction, and immediately light up with another idea.
“You liked that? Okay, now you have to hear this.”
Then came another IEM. Another headphone. Another flavor of sound. Another rabbit hole we didn’t know existed five minutes earlier.
James wasn’t trying to show us how much he knew.
He was sharing what he loved.
That distinction matters.
We talked audio, but we also talked about his work on Survivor, our families, life outside the hobby, and his daughter Ava beginning her own journey reviewing gear through Her Audio.
Those are the conversations I remember most.
The gear gets you to the table. The people keep you there.
The Introduction That Started GearZilla
That conversation with James didn’t end when the show did.
After CanJam, I followed up and told him I wanted to get more serious about reviewing audio gear.
He could’ve said, “That’s great. Good luck.”
Instead, he opened a door.
James connected me with Rosie and the folks at Linsoul, and before long, IEMs started arriving for me to review.
I started listening more intentionally.
Writing more.
Learning more.
Slowly, I began to find the voice that would become GearZilla Reviews.
More than 30 audio reviews later, I still think about how simple that beginning was.
One person at CanJam took a little extra time to welcome someone into the hobby.
Then he encouraged him.
Then he made an introduction.
James probably had no idea what that introduction would become.
But I do.
And CanJam is full of people like that.
They’re the people holding the door open.
The best ambassadors in this hobby aren’t guarding the door. They’re holding it open.
Warren Chi: The Human Connector
If James is one of the people holding the door open, Head-Fi’s Warren Chi is the guy who pulls you through it and starts introducing you to everyone in the room.
I met Warren at CanJam Dallas, where he was one of the first people to welcome us and genuinely wanted to help us make the most of our first CanJam.
We had a blast.
So when I spotted him again at CanJam SoCal, of course I went over to say hello.
He remembered me.
And every time I connect with Warren, the same thing happens.
We start talking, and before long, we’re moving.
“You need to meet this person.”
“Come over here.”
“Have you talked with these guys yet?”
Suddenly I’m meeting another designer, reviewer, manufacturer, or wonderfully obsessive audio nerd who loves this stuff just as much as I do.
Warren doesn’t just host CanJam.
He connects CanJam.
That matters, especially when you’re new and looking around the room thinking everyone already knows everyone else.
Maybe some of them do.
But Warren has this wonderful habit of simply making the circle bigger.
One introduction becomes a conversation. A conversation becomes a connection. And sometimes that connection becomes something much bigger.
That’s how a convention starts feeling like a community.
The Bloom Room Feels Like Home Base
If CanJam had a living room, I’m pretty sure it’d be the Bloom Audio room.
At CanJam Dallas, my son and I were actually the first people lined up outside before the doors opened.
Sure, we were excited to hear some incredible gear, and I’m not going to pretend the chance to grab one of those Bloom gift bags didn’t add a little extra motivation.
But once the doors opened, the gift bag became almost secondary.
Everyone was incredibly kind.
The room was packed with gear we’d spent plenty of time reading about online, but no one pressured us to prove we knew what we were doing.
We could just explore.
Then we started talking with Jake and Matt, the BloomPod duo.
Those guys are awesome on audio, video, and somehow even better in person.
What impressed me most wasn’t simply how much they knew about the products on the tables.
It was how well they listened.
We’d describe what we liked in an IEM. More bass. Less treble. Vocals pushed forward. Bigger soundstage. Something warmer. Something more spacious.
Then Jake or Matt would reach for something we never would’ve picked up ourselves.
“Okay, based on what you just said, try this.”
And they kept nailing it.
The best recommendation isn’t the IEM everyone says you should hear. It’s the one somebody chooses after actually listening to what you like.
That takes real knowledge.
It’s one thing to memorize specifications or know what products are getting attention online. It’s another to understand enough gear to hear somebody describe what they enjoy and immediately know what they should try next.
Jake and Matt could do that over and over.
And they made it fun.
They’re exactly like they are on the Bloom Pod.
Funny. Relaxed. Sharp. Completely comfortable talking serious audio without making the conversation feel serious.
And yes, I’m just going to say it:
It’s the best audio gear podcast out there.
Meeting them in person only reinforced why it works.
The chemistry isn’t manufactured for a microphone.
That’s genuinely how they interact with people.
They listen.
They joke around.
They ask good questions.
And when they recommend something, it’s backed by real experience.
For my son and me, that turned the Bloom room from a place to demo expensive gear into a guided exploration of our own tastes.
We weren’t just hearing more IEMs.
We were learning why we liked certain ones.
That’s incredibly valuable when you’re new to the hobby and don’t always have the vocabulary yet to explain what you’re hearing.
There was no gatekeeping.
No eye-rolling.
No sense that one person’s preferences mattered more than another’s.
It was simply:
“What do you like?”
“Cool. Try this.”
That’s CanJam at its best.
And it’s why I kept coming back to Bloom.
Andrew and the whole crew have created something that feels less like a showroom and more like home base.
You can wander in after bouncing around the convention floor, sit down, hear something incredible, talk music and gear, laugh for a while, and leave with three more things you suddenly need to hear.
Then somehow, you wander back again.
Bloom didn’t just show us great gear. Jake and Matt helped us understand our own ears a little better.
That’s what the best exhibitors understand.
They’re not just putting products on tables.
They’re helping people discover what moves them.
And the Bloom crew gets that better than almost anyone.
Cardas Audio: The Booth That Refused to Be Boring
Then there was Cardas Audio, direct from Oregon.
Some booths impress you with gear. Some impress you with engineering. Kimberly “Kimmie” Carrero and Mallory Allen somehow turned a HiFi cable booth into one of the most fun places at the entire SoCal show.
I kept going back.
They had a spinning prize wheel, but in perfect Cardas fashion, it wasn’t packed with boring corporate giveaways. You might win candy. A gadget. A joke. Some life advice. Something completely ridiculous.
You never really knew.
And that was the point.
People would stop because the wheel was spinning, someone would laugh at whatever prize came up, and suddenly a conversation would start. Before long, Kimmie and Mallory were explaining custom HiFi cables, connectors, materials, configurations, and all the stuff many listeners don’t think much about until they start digging deeper into their systems.
That’s brilliant outreach.
Make somebody smile first.
Then teach them something.
The best booths don’t just show you products. They give you a reason to stay and talk.
Kimmie and Mallory knew their stuff, but nothing about the experience felt like a lecture. They were funny, warm, approachable, and clearly having a blast representing Cardas.
That energy carries over online too. Their Instagram content and YouTube Shorts rock. They’re educational without feeling stiff, playful without feeling forced, and they make custom HiFi cabling feel accessible rather than intimidating.
By the end of the show, Cardas had become one of those booths I’d wander past and automatically stop at because I knew there’d be another conversation, another laugh, or something else to learn.
Sometimes the booth you remember most isn’t the one with the biggest amplifier or the most expensive headphones.
Sometimes it’s the one where the people behind the table make you genuinely happy you stopped.
The ZMF Room: Fine Jewelry You Can Listen To
Then there’s the ZMF Headphones room.
Zach, Bevin, and the ZMF crew create one of those CanJam spaces that stops you in your tracks.
Headphones stretch across tables and shelves in a parade of wood, metal, leather, and craftsmanship. Each one has its own grain, character, and presence.
Under the lights, they look less like demo units and more like fine jewelry.
Except you’re encouraged to pick them up, put them on, and listen.
That’s the wonderful absurdity of CanJam.
And the beauty is only part of the story.
ZMF is also incredibly innovative in helping listeners tailor their headphones to their preferences. Pads, suspension straps, headbands, grilles, acoustic meshes, cables, and other components can affect comfort, appearance, and, in some cases, the sound itself.
So you’re not simply choosing a pair of headphones.
You can start exploring how to make that headphone feel, look, and sound more like yours.
And Zach and Bevin are right there.
You can ask about the woods, tuning, pad materials, grilles, acoustic meshes, comfort options, cables, design decisions, craftsmanship, and how different combinations can move the presentation closer to what you actually enjoy.
That makes the room especially fun because you’re not just hearing finished products.
You learn how much room there is to personalize the experience, and how seemingly small choices can change how a headphone fits, feels, and presents your music.
Then someone puts another gorgeous pair in front of you, and another 20 minutes go by.
At ZMF, the headphones look like fine jewelry. Then they tell you to put them on your head and start making them your own.
Where Audio History Shakes Your Hand
CanJam isn’t just where you discover what audio might become next.
It’s also where you can experience its history.
Walk into the Grado Labs room, and you’re stepping into generations of audio heritage. You don’t just see a Grado logo with someone reading from a spec sheet.
The Grado family is there.
Direct from Brooklyn, NY.
They’re the people putting those headphones in front of you and introducing you to that unmistakable Grado house sound.
As someone born in Brooklyn, I find that especially cool. You’re not just hearing a famous tuning philosophy. You’re talking with the family that has carried it forward.
This isn’t a museum exhibit behind glass.
You get to listen to it.
Audio’s Past, Present and Future Share the Same Hallway
That contrast is one of my favorite things about CanJam.
You can spend time with Grado and decades of Brooklyn audio heritage, walk down the hallway, and suddenly find yourself listening to something that barely resembles what we traditionally think headphones should be.
Established giants, boutique craftspeople, and a new wave of designers are trying ideas that feel wonderfully weird and fresh.
Head(amame) is exploring what 3D printing can bring to headphone design. Capra Audio approaches comfort, ergonomics, and headphone design from its own perspective. Écoute is asking questions about wireless headphones that most companies aren’t even asking.
Then there are the brands you already know: 64 Audio, ABYSS, Astell&Kern, Audeze, Audma, Audio-Technica, Campfire Audio, Chord Electronics, Dan Clark Audio, Dekoni Audio, Effect Audio, Eletech, FiiO, Final, Focal, Fosi Audio, Hidizs, HIFIMAN, iFi Audio, Meze Audio, MOONDROP, Noble Audio, Schiit Audio, Sennheiser, SIVGA, Sony, Technics, Topping, Unique Melody, Woo Audio, and so many more.
The point isn’t to check every logo off a list.
The point is that CanJam lets audio’s old guard and next generation occupy the same space.
You can finally hear the legendary headphone you’ve read about for years, then turn around and discover a company you’d never heard of before breakfast.
That unknown headphone might be the thing you remember most.
écoute: This Is Why I Come to CanJam
And then there’s écoute.
This one is personal because my history with écoute actually started at CanJam.
At CanJam Dallas last year, I first heard the TH1 on the show floor.
It blew my mind.
I went home and bought one almost immediately.
That single CanJam demo made me a proud TH1 owner, and when écoute announced the TH2 on Kickstarter, I jumped in again as an early backer. Somewhere along the way, écoute co-founder and product designer Kendal Liddle and I started talking, and we’ve been having conversations about headphones, HiFi, innovation, and what écoute is trying to build ever since.
So finally meeting Kendal in person brought it full circle.
And then I met Andy Regan.
Andy is écoute’s President and Co-Founder, but if you’ve been around headphones for a while, his résumé jumps off the page. He previously served as President of Dan Clark Audio and CMO of HIFIMAN, and held leadership roles at Jerry Harvey Audio and Monster Cable.
Suddenly I wasn’t just meeting the people behind a young headphone company. I was talking with people bringing decades of headphone-industry experience to something completely new.
And that is where things got fun.
We didn’t just talk about a pair of headphones. We talked about the thinking behind them, the ideas écoute is exploring, and this slightly crazy belief that you can take pieces of a serious HiFi system and somehow put them on your head.
Because the TH2 isn’t exactly playing it safe.
This is a wireless headphone built around ideas you’d normally associate with much larger HiFi systems, including écoute’s wonderfully unconventional pursuit of putting vacuum-tube technology into a headphone.
That is exactly the sort of thinking I want to see more of in personal audio.
Instead of asking, “How do we make another version of what already exists?”
écoute seems to be asking:
“Why can’t we do this?”
That’s what CanJam lets you discover: the people who aren’t just building the next headphone. They’re questioning what a headphone can be.
And this is why I keep coming back.
A year earlier, I stood on a CanJam show floor and listened to a TH1 for the first time, with absolutely no idea I was starting a relationship with a brand and the people behind it.
One floor demo became a purchase.
That purchase became an early Kickstarter backing.
Those conversations eventually turned into handshakes and face-to-face meetings with Kendal and Andy at CanJam.
That is pretty damn cool.
Meeting them made the innovation behind écoute feel even more human. We talked gear, ideas, innovation, and where personal audio could go next, and once again I walked away feeling like I’d learned something from the people behind the product.
And now?
I’m waiting for my TH2 – thank you, Kickstarter!
Patiently.
Okay, not remotely patiently.
I can’t wait to get it into the GearZilla rotation, spend real time with it, and find out what this wonderfully unconventional approach can do.
That’s another reason to go to CanJam.
You might walk in looking for something interesting to hear.
You might walk out having discovered your next favorite pair of headphones.
And if you’re lucky, a year later you might realize you discovered something even better: the people behind it.
That’s the fun.
Come for the Gear. Stay for the Masterclass.
Another part of CanJam doesn’t get nearly enough attention.
You can spend the entire weekend listening to incredible gear and have an amazing time.
But you can also sit down, stop listening for a little while, and learn from some of the smartest people in the personal audio space.
CanJam’s seminars and panel discussions have become one of my favorite parts of the experience because the people designing, tuning, measuring, reviewing, and sometimes completely rethinking this stuff are suddenly sitting together in one room, explaining how they do it.
And you get a seat.
At CanJam Dallas, one session that really stuck with me was Mark Ryan from Super Review* breaking down Squiglink, measurements, and how EQ can help us better understand and adjust what we’re hearing.
I’d seen the graphs.
I’d used EQ.
But there’s a big difference between clicking around on a frequency response graph at home and sitting in a room while the guy behind Squiglink walks you through how to actually use those tools.
Mark helped make something that can look incredibly technical feel accessible. Squiglink lets listeners compare frequency response measurements and experiment with EQ, and Mark Ryan Sallee of Super* Review created the platform that grew into the tool so many of us now use across the hobby.
That’s valuable when you’re new.
Nobody hands you an audiophile dictionary when you buy your first IEM. Suddenly people are talking about pinna gain, bass shelves, upper mids, treble peaks, targets, Q values, filters, and parametric EQ, and you’re sitting there thinking, I just wanted Fleetwood Mac to sound awesome.
Sessions like Mark’s help connect those dots.
CanJam doesn’t just let you hear better gear. It gives you the chance to understand why you’re hearing what you’re hearing.
Then SoCal took that learning experience to another level.
I got to sit in on Zach Mehrbach from ZMF Headphones talking about the inspiration, experimentation, and design work behind the Tessidera, a headphone I’d already admired across the tables in the ZMF room.
The actual seminar title tells you everything about how deep Zach was willing to go – watch the video:
“ZMF Tessidera: How Trickle-Down Experimentation Built 5 New Technologies.”
Think about that.
A few minutes earlier, you can stand in the ZMF room, hold a Tessidera, admire the woodwork, and listen to it.
Then you can sit down and listen to the person who created it explain why it exists and how it got there.
That’s ridiculously cool.
You stop seeing the headphones as a collection of specifications and start understanding the experimentation, decisions, failures, breakthroughs, and ideas behind them.
And then came the panels.
Where Else Do You Get This Room?
One thing I underestimated before going to CanJam was how much you can learn without putting on a single pair of headphones.
Sometimes you just need to sit down and listen.
One of the SoCal sessions was “Audio Arcanum: A Headphone Panel,” moderated by Eyal Goldwerger, founder of the Watercooler Headphone Edition Thread, and featuring people from very different corners of the headphone world, including Zach of ZMF Headphones, Andy of écoute, a representative from HEDD Audio, and Juan Ovalle, founder of Auribus Acoustics.
And Andy’s background makes that lineup even more interesting. He has watched the modern headphone industry evolve from inside several very different companies, each with its own approach to design, engineering, and sound.
Then you have Zach and ZMF, a company with its own unmistakable philosophy around craftsmanship, materials, tuning, and what a headphone can feel like, as much an object as a listening experience.
Then HEDD approaches the problem from another direction entirely, and Juan showcased his newest design: the Laguna Precision.
Just look at those names.
ZMF.
écoute.
HEDD.
Auribus.
Very different histories.
Very different technologies.
Very different ideas about what a headphone should be.
And there they were, sitting together talking about technology, tuning, design challenges, what they’ve learned building headphones, and where the hobby might go next.
That’s not a YouTube comment war.
That’s not somebody arguing over a graph in a forum thread.
That’s the people actually building the headphones talking with each other.
And you’re in the room.
That part still blows my mind a little.
You can spend the morning walking the show floor listening to the products these people create. Then, later, you can sit down, listen to the people behind those products, and start to understand why those headphones exist in the first place.
What were they trying to solve?
Why did they choose one technology over another?
What compromises did they make?
What do they think the industry gets right?
What do they think still needs work?
Where do they think all of this is going?
That kind of access is hard to replicate anywhere else.
And somehow, the IEM version may have been even crazier.
Jeff Rockwell moderated Head-Fi’s Watercooler thread, “Audio Arcanum: An In-Ear Monitor Panel,” and brought together Ken Ball, founder of Campfire Audio; Crinacle, founder of CrinEar; Lee Quan Min of Mysticraft Acoustic Research; and Aries Sales, CEO of FlipEars.
Read that lineup again.
Ken Ball.
Crinacle.
Lee Quan Min.
Aries Sales.
These aren’t people sitting around speculating about where IEM design is headed.
They’re helping decide where it goes.
They’re working with different driver technologies, tuning philosophies, materials, acoustic designs, price points, and audiences.
They don’t all approach the problem the same way.
That’s exactly why putting them in the same room is so interesting.
You hear where they agree.
You hear where they don’t.
You hear the problems they’re trying to solve.
You hear what frustrates them.
You hear what excites them.
You hear how differently four people can look at essentially the same question:
How do we make this sound better?
And suddenly you start to understand something that can get lost when you’re staring at measurements, frequency-response graphs, reviews, rankings, and forum debates.
There isn’t one universally correct way to build a great pair of headphones.
There isn’t one universally correct way to build a great IEM.
And there definitely isn’t one universally correct way to enjoy music.
That might be one of the most important lessons a newcomer can learn at CanJam.
This hobby is full of opinions.
Targets.
Graphs.
Measurements.
Preferences.
And some extremely strong opinions about those preferences.
Spend enough time online, and it can start to feel like everyone is trying to prove their way of listening is the right one.
Then you sit in a room with the people actually designing this stuff.
And the picture gets a lot more interesting.
You realize that great audio can come from completely different ideas about how to get there.
Different drivers.
Different materials.
Different tuning philosophies.
Different technical priorities.
Different definitions of what “better” even means.
That doesn’t make the hobby more confusing.
I think it makes it more fun.
Because suddenly you stop looking for the answer and start looking for your answer.
And CanJam gives you a rare chance to hear both sides of that equation.
You can listen to the products.
Then you can listen to the people who created them.
Where else do you get that room?
You Can Actually Ask Questions
And here’s what still blows me away.
These aren’t keynote speeches being delivered from a stage 100 yards away.
They’re conversations.
You can listen to one of the industry’s most respected designers explain an idea, raise your hand, and ask a question.
You can hear an IEM developer discuss a tuning decision, then walk downstairs and listen to the product they were discussing.
You can hear Zach explain the Tessidera, then go back into the ZMF room and hear those ideas for yourself.
That connection between learning and listening is incredibly powerful.
You’re not studying audio in the abstract.
The laboratory is sitting on a table downstairs.
At CanJam, the people teaching the class are often the same people who built what you’re about to put on your head.
And for someone walking into this hobby thinking they don’t know enough to belong?
That’s exactly why you should go.
Don’t avoid the seminars because you think they’ll be over your head.
Walk in.
Sit down.
Listen.
Take notes if you want.
Ask a question if you’re brave enough.
Or just absorb it.
Because somewhere between Mark explaining a frequency response graph, Zach explaining why the Tessidera exists, or IEM legends talking shop, something will click.
A term you’ve heard 100 times suddenly makes sense.
A graph finally connects with what you’re hearing.
A design choice you never understood becomes obvious.
Or maybe you simply walk out realizing how much more there is to learn.
That’s not a reason to feel like you don’t belong.
That’s the fun of it.
From Noob Listener to Noob Reviewer
This year, something felt different.
At my first CanJam, I arrived as a newcomer. I was the guy listening, asking questions, meeting people, and trying to absorb as much as I could.
Less than a year later, I walked into CanJam SoCal with GearZilla Reviews.
I was still absolutely a noob.
Just a different kind.
I’d gone from noob listener to noob reviewer.
And apparently I’d decided to commit to the bit.
In the scramble to make the trip happen, I’d had custom GearZilla swag made overnight. Suddenly I wasn’t just walking into CanJam with a backpack and a playlist. I was walking in wearing something I’d created, with a stack of cards in my pocket and little GearZilla stickers ready to hand to the people behind the brands I’d been following for years.
That might sound small.
It didn’t feel small.
A year earlier, I’d been wondering whether I belonged in the room. Now I’d created something of my own and was putting it into people’s hands.
I made a point of connecting with the teams at every booth I could. I introduced myself. I asked about what they were building. I listened to their stories. Then I handed them a GearZilla card and a sticker and told them what I was trying to build, too.
Was I nervous?
Absolutely.
But I did it anyway.
And once again, CanJam rewarded the courage to simply say hello.
Less than a year after arriving as a noob listener, I came back as a noob reviewer.
The Dinner I Never Expected
One of those connections was with Adam Sohmer, who represents HIFIMAN.
Adam invited me to a wonderful dinner with a group of reviewers who had vastly more experience in this hobby than I did.
Oh, and Dr. Fang Bian was joining us.
Founder of HIFIMAN.
No pressure.
Somehow, I ended up sitting right next to him.
For more than an hour, I learned from someone who’s had an enormous impact on modern personal audio.
But here’s what struck me most.
We didn’t spend an hour talking about specifications.
We talked about family, favorite music, innovation, headphones, where the audio industry is headed, and life.
And when Dr. Fang isn’t working on creating some of the world’s most respected headphones?
Parenting.
Soccer.
Normal life.
Real people. Real lives. Real passion.
Dr. Fang was extraordinarily kind, generous, and humble. He wanted me to understand his journey. He said he was simply a headphone reviewer who wanted to better understand sound, became a scientist to pursue that understanding, and eventually started a tiny company to explore his ideas.
That tiny company became HIFIMAN.
But listening to him describe it, you’d never know you were sitting next to someone whose work has influenced an entire generation of headphones.
Where Does Audio Go Next?
One part of our conversation especially stuck with me because it touched directly on something I’ve been fascinated by with GearZilla.
What happens when the worlds of consumer audio and HiFi finally collide?
Dr. Fang believes wireless audio is moving toward a future where convenience no longer requires the compromises we’ve traditionally associated with Bluetooth.
We talked about the shift toward lossless TWS and what happens when truly high-quality wireless transmission, better amplification, better drivers, and increasingly sophisticated processing work together.
That idea fascinates me.
For years, the audiophile world and the mainstream wireless world have felt like two separate lanes.
On one side: wired headphones, dedicated DACs, amplifiers, lossless files, and people obsessing over every link in the signal chain.
On the other: throw a pair of earbuds in your pocket, open the case, connect, and go.
But those lanes are beginning to merge.
The future Dr. Fang described isn’t necessarily about choosing between convenience and fidelity.
It’s about engineering toward a point where you may not have to choose.
Hearing that perspective from someone who’s spent decades pushing planar magnetic headphone technology forward made me think differently about TWS.
Maybe wireless isn’t simply the convenient alternative to HiFi.
Maybe it’s becoming the next chapter of HiFi.
For someone building GearZilla around bridging consumer audio and the audiophile world, that conversation hit home.
Because those worlds are already moving toward each other.
“We’re the Same.”
The lesson he kept returning to was even better.
At the core of it all, we’re the same.
Music fans.
We may be at completely different points in our experience. One person might be discovering their first serious pair of headphones. Another might’ve spent decades studying acoustics, materials, and transducer design.
One may have just created their first review site.
Another may have founded one of the world’s most influential headphone companies.
But we arrived here because music did something to us.
We wanted to hear more. Feel more. Understand more.
Different levels of knowledge. Different experiences. Same love of music.
And this hobby has room for all of us.
Both arms open.
Sitting beside him, less than a year after nervously walking into my first CanJam as a listener, I heard that message and it landed hard.
Because there I was, the noob reviewer, at dinner with people I’d been learning from, sitting beside Dr. Fang and talking about Classic Rock, his favorite, the future of wireless audio, parenting, and life.
How did that happen?
I showed up. I introduced myself. I asked questions.
People welcomed me.
That’s CanJam.
Different levels of knowledge. Different experiences. Same love of music.
When Your YouTube Feed Walks Into the Room
One of CanJam’s strangest, most enjoyable parts is watching your YouTube feed and Head-Fi homepage suddenly come to life.
These people are no longer avatars, usernames, or thumbnails. They’re standing next to you listening to headphones, talking about music, and laughing about the same absurd little details the rest of us obsess over online.
Over my CanJam adventures, I’ve had the chance to meet and reconnect with Omar, everyone’s Audio Amigo, Brian from Reviews by WaveTheory, members of the Headphones.com crew, Crinacle and his wonderful team, Tristan from Late Night Talks, Ryan Ho, Jonathan Irvin of Enigma Photo Reviews, Master Marslander, Zeos from Z Reviews, Joe from GadgetryTech, and so many others.
And here’s the part newcomers should understand.
You actually get to talk to them.
They’re legit real people.
There’s no velvet rope. You’re not standing ten rows deep hoping for five seconds. You have real conversations about headphones, music, gear, and whatever else comes up.
Most of the time, they’re just as excited to talk about this hobby as you are.
Ryan Ho even asked me how he could improve his show to better meet my needs as a viewer.
How amazing is that?
That’s when the internet suddenly feels a lot smaller.
And a lot more human.
Bring Your Playlist. Forget the Hype.
Then comes the fun part.
You listen.
You can spend months reading reviews, trying to figure out whether a headphone has enough bass, whether an IEM has enough treble extension, or whether some magical DAC will really transform your system.
At CanJam, you can simply sit down, plug in, hit play, and decide for yourself.
That’s one of the most valuable things the event offers because it helps you discover what your ears actually like.
You might walk in convinced you want something ultra-analytical, only to discover that what really moves you is warm, rich, and musical. You might think you need massive bass, only to hear a beautifully open midrange and suddenly rethink what you value most.
You may even finally hear that legendary headphone you’ve dreamed about for years and think:
“Really?”
That happens too.
And it’s fantastic.
Because this hobby gets a lot more fun once you stop chasing what everyone else says you should like and start figuring out what makes you want to play one more song.
The Second CanJam Hits Different
Your first CanJam is about discovery.
The second is about relationships.
This time, I wasn’t just walking the floor looking for the next great headphone or IEM.
I was there as GearZilla.
That changed everything.
I spent the weekend meeting and networking with dozens of audio companies, from legacy brands with decades of history to emerging companies building something completely new.
I met founders, designers, engineers, marketers, product teams, and the people who help bring all that gear to market.
And instead of only asking, “What should I hear?” I was also asking:
“What are you building?”
“What makes it different?”
“What story are you trying to tell?”
Those conversations led to new relationships, future review partnerships, and a much deeper understanding of the people behind the products.
That may have been my favorite part of the entire weekend.
There’s something completely different about hearing the story behind a headphone, IEM, DAC, cable, or wild new idea directly from the people who created it, then putting it on and hearing what they were trying to accomplish.
Some conversations were with brands I’d admired for years.
Others were with companies I’d barely heard of before walking into the room.
Both mattered.
Because CanJam gave me the opportunity to build relationships across the industry, support emerging brands, reconnect with established ones, and introduce GearZilla to people I genuinely wanted to work with.
By the end of the weekend, I wasn’t just discovering new gear.
I was building new relationships.
And that felt like an entirely different CanJam.
Still Wondering If You Should Go?
Yes.
If you’ve been watching CanJam videos, lurking on Head-Fi, building your first setup, or wondering whether you know enough to attend, stop worrying.
If you own 37 IEMs, go.
If you own AirPods, love music, and are simply wondering what else is out there? Go!
Just go.
Ask questions. Try everything. Introduce yourself.
Talk to the manufacturers.
Meet the reviewers.
Find the company you’ve never heard of and ask what they built.
Bring a playlist, a business card, a sticker, or nothing at all.
Just bring your curiosity.
And absolutely listen to something completely outside your budget.
CanJam isn’t about proving how much you know. It’s about discovering how much more there is to hear.
Ready to Stop Wondering?
Your next chance is coming fast.
CanJam Dallas 2026 is November 14-15 at the Marriott Quorum by the Galleria.
Weekend tickets are $40, and single-day tickets are $30.
If you’ve been thinking, maybe I should finally go…
Do it!
Buy the ticket. Bring your playlist. Ask questions. Try everything. Say hello.
I’ll be wandering around too, so come find me.
Get CanJam Dallas 2026 Tickets
Can’t make Dallas? Find the next CanJam near you.
You Belong Here
Two CanJams taught me something I couldn’t have learned watching videos, reading reviews, or scrolling Head-Fi.
This hobby is better when you share it.
The gear may get you through the door, but the conversations, friendships, ideas, and unexpected connections are what stay with you.
On my second visit, I wasn’t just listening anymore. I met the people behind the products, learned directly from them, built relationships with dozens of audio companies, and laid the groundwork for future GearZilla review partnerships.
And I had an absolute blast doing it.
That’s the real case for CanJam.
You don’t need the perfect system. You don’t need to know every acronym. You don’t need a certain number of headphones or IEMs.
You just need to be curious.
You belong here.
Just go.
Bring your playlist. Meet some people. Hear something awesome.
And maybe come home with a completely different idea of where this hobby can take you.
Listen Bigger! 🦖
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