JH Audio stuffs

[puretaka]

5 hours ago, JamesB797 said:

If you don't mind me asking, how are everyone's JH13s holding up after all these years?

Okay, I guess.  I went back to my Etymotics a while back.  After the JH's initial thrill of power, the coherence of the single driver won out for me

[Torpedo]

[Augsburger]

I may be going on a limb here but I am guessing you prefer your 780p monitor over your friend's 4K Samsung.

My brother in law had the same preference when he told his wife on their twenty second anniversary that he preferred the warmth of cubic zirconium  over the cold sterile diamond.

[puretaka]

mine are pre-freqphase though

[purk]

Was holding up quite well until I tried out the Sony IER-Z1R.  

[JamesB797]

The talk of all these tweeters are making me want one. Need to make sure I actually like customs first though. My first impressions were a bust, the audiologist missed part of the helix. JH gave me a video to show them this time though, and then I'll have a fresh pair of JH13v2 Pro on the way! (Which hopefully fit)

[Spychedelic Whale]

Decided finally to get some iems but I have been out of the loop for some time, so not sure if JH13/16 are still the thing to get or there's new king in town.

You guys know what's up or just settled with the JH and never looked back ?

[Voltron]

JH has multiple options beyond those two. I haven't heard any reason to go with anything different from JH. 

[robm321]

The Layla seems to be the top of the JH food chain currently. 

[puretaka]

3 hours ago, robm321 said:

The Layla seems to be the top of the JH food chain currently. 

Do the models above the JH13/16 in the price hierarchy have sonic benefits as opposed to specialist tunings? (eg the Angie appears to be marketed as being specifically for vocalists: "outperforms any other vocalist-specific IEM on the market") 

The advertising copy on the JH website doesn't give much confidence: "takes you out of the world of digital and transports you back into the raw sound of the 1960s" jesus christ...

[gepardcv]

I have the JH13freqphase, and it's still a pretty good CIEM.

I have tried universals of the Layla and another more expensive and more recent JH unit (don't remember which one), and they sucked. The bass adjustment screw is dreadful — it takes the bass from "ouch my ears" to "I don't know what I'm listening to", and I don't know how to adjust it to sound, you know, like instruments do in real life. I'm not even sure if the reasonably well-tuned JH13 is even still available. My personal opinion: avoid modern JH.

In the world of universal IEMs, the Campfire Audio Andromeda is pretty terrific. Everything else CA makes seems to have had problems. CA has a custom, too, and has the advantage of being one of the very few CIEMs with MMCX connectors. I don't know how it sounds.

In the world of customs, 64 Audio seems to have been winning a lot of respect. Don't ignore UE also. I remember trying a UE18 universal demo and thinking it sounds nice.

Take a look at https://crinacle.com, the site of a respected reviewer in the world of IEMs. He seems to have tried and measured a lot of them. Take with a shovelful of salt as always.

Edited March 9, 2020 by gepardcv

[Spychedelic Whale]

15 hours ago, gepardcv said:

In the world of universal IEMs, the Campfire Audio Andromeda is pretty terrific. Everything else CA makes seems to have had problems. CA has a custom, too, and has the advantage of being one of the very few CIEMs with MMCX connectors. I don't know how it sounds.

I never heard an HiEnd universal so I'm curious if you though the campfire could get near the Custom JH13. Going universal with be less hassle with the ear molds thing.

Edited March 9, 2020 by Spychedelic Whale

[gepardcv]

The CA Andromeda sounds better (to me) than the JH13. It's a little hard to describe how or why — a bit less fatigue, perhaps, and a smidge more natural-sounding on the instruments. Fit is a different story. No universal will match the comfort of a custom, and Campfire industrial design in particular features sharp edges which will not fit every ear. In my particular case, it fits pretty well. It's also a shallow-insertion IEM (as opposed to e.g. Etymotic), so overall comfort is reasonable with Comply foam eartips.

[robm321]

19 hours ago, puretaka said:

Do the models above the JH13/16 in the price hierarchy have sonic benefits as opposed to specialist tunings? (eg the Angie appears to be marketed as being specifically for vocalists: "outperforms any other vocalist-specific IEM on the market") 

The advertising copy on the JH website doesn't give much confidence: "takes you out of the world of digital and transports you back into the raw sound of the 1960s" jesus christ...

I've only heard the Roxanne in their new line up. I still enjoy it, but there are other options. Too many options to get a handle on what's better than what.

The Andrameda does seem to get universal praise. 

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by robm321

[Pars]

I know that Kuei Yang Wang (Thorsten Loesch) one of the principals of Abbingdon Music Research really liked the Campfire Andromedas. He modded a set of KZ ZS6s to try to mimic them, but was given a pair of the real thing. I'd like to listen to them sometime. I modded a set of the KZs as he did, but didn't like the sound (but they did sound a lot better than stock).

[purk]

I love the Sony IER-Z1R.  Tremendously musical and technical competence at the same time and it has full size headphones sense of width and depth.

[jp11801]

In the JH line my current favorite is the Lola followed by Layla, two very different sounds. Layla is very studio monitor where the Lola has a more fun audiophile speaker tone. Great minds on the Lola.

[what]

On 3/8/2020 at 8:12 AM, Spychedelic Whale said:

Decided finally to get some iems but I have been out of the loop for some time, so not sure if JH13/16 are still the thing to get or there's new king in town.

You guys know what's up or just settled with the JH and never looked back ?

I've had my JH13s since Sep 2011, and basically never looked back.  I have other headphones (HD650s, AirPods, $6 Panasonics..), sure, but nothing competes with my 13s.  I, too, am not sure if there's a new king in town (how much better can we get?).

I had the champagne Stax Omega IIs or whatever with the 717, and I don't miss them.  Nor do I miss my 303s, Sony SA-5000s, Ety ER-4Ps...  JH13s are absolutely that good, just maybe not as comfortable after 4 hours as 650s/Stax.

The cable has turned greenish silver and I've never gotten them wet, but no issues or repairs.  I think JH13s may last forever.

[EdipisReks1]

My Westone ES5 no longer fit, unfortunately (weight loss is a bitch for some things: I should get them remolded, again), but I finally have a pair of JH phones.  It's the humble AK x JH Billie Jeans.  Funny how a $350 pair of IEMs is now humble.  I have HD-800S and Meze Emperyean (and my favorite headphones of all time, my vintage RS-1, but they have a cable fault) at my disposal, at the moment, run from a pretty stacked rig, but the Billie Jeans are my most listened to phones, now that my AirPods have died (I average about 30,000 steps a day, so portability is important to me). I have compared them to my latest somewhat broken pair of Ety ER-4P (I don't even know how many pairs of Etys I've had, at this point: this pair has to be held by hand on the right side to work in stereo), and the Billie Jeans remind me very much of the Etys, but better.  I'm very glad to have them. I think they are excellent.

Edited March 15, 2020 by EdipisReks1