This review was originally published on THL. Now I share it with my Head-Fi friends.
Disclaimer...
MusicTeck provided the Aroma Audio Jewel on loan for the purpose of this review, for good or ill.
The Jewel sells for around $5,130
MusicTeck.com
Specification:
13 unit 4 frequency division
6 electrostatic units, 6 BA, 1 DD 9.2mm
Headphone unit distribution:
low frequency (1DD),
medium and low frequency (4BA),
medium and high frequency (2BA),
ultra high frequency (6EST)
4 tubes 3d printing production
Impedance: 22Ω@1Khz
Sensitivity: 103db SPL@1mW
Sound insulation effect 26db(CM)
Frequency response: 10-22khz
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It occurred to me one grim, cold morning all my audio gear was dreadfully out of date. I stepped away from the audiophile world some years ago, and things did not stand still. The landscape is scarcely recognizable. Which is actually reassuring. It means there is much to learn again.
You see, when I’m into a hobby, I’m all in. I dive headfirst, immersing myself fully. It’s overwhelming, and I thrive on it. But eventually you reach a level of familiarity with all the ideas and techniques, and it gets a little boring. That’s not to say you’re an expert, but you feel competent in the field. When that happens, something in my brain checks out, and I subconsciously drift to other things. I move on to another hobby, one which I’ve been curious about for years, and get to joyously wade into those deep, unknown waters afresh.
When a hobby has its teeth deep enough into my spirit, it will call me back. And the siren song of high-end audio reached my ears, urging, and needful.
I began aggressively researching all that was out there. And just as aggressively, I began upgrading my home audio system. New DAC, new amp, new full-size headphones. Yes, plural.
When it came to my IEMs, however, that required extra consideration. My best set for these many years now were the Empire Ears Legend X. The OG LX. I had no idea the Evo even existed. My upgrade options are absolutely stunning. There are so many new TOTL IEMs on the market. With new ones coming every other week. And a shocking number of them are unbelievably expensive! The full-size headphone market, in comparison, is almost stagnant.
In my research, the Aroma Audio Jewel continually emerged as a MUST HEAR. So I contacted good man Andrew over at MusicTeck, asking to get some time alone with the Jewel, and he was gracious enough to arrange it.
Much thanks and appreciation to Andrew and his team at MusicTeck for making this happen.
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The Sound:
This being an open box demo unit, I’ll skip over the packaging and accessories. Also, if you’ve read any other reviews of this in-ear, you’ll understand why I’m not using the stock cable. Sure enough, the ergos of that cable are just as horrendous as they say.
To get to know the Jewel, I’m using an older cable from my collection, the Effect Audio Thor II+, a thicker gauge pure silver 4-wire that delivers a big, bold sound.
Gear I used for the listening impressions:
Windows 11 PC running foobar2000
FLAC 16bit, 44.1khz through to DSD64
Schiit Bifrost 2/64
Violectric HPA V281 Special Edition (Reissue)
The Aroma Audio Jewel is what I can only describe as neutral-natural. There are many flavors of neutral, since headphones and IEMs cannot ever be truly neutral, as speakers can, because they lack room acoustics to make them sound good with a flat response. They must mimic room acoustics via a variety of tuning techniques. Neutral, therefore, is not a flat line on a graph, for IEMs, but rather an artful balance of peaks and valleys to achieve something which sounds true to our ears.
Jewel’s flavor of neutral has a hint of warmth, healthy fullness, with an abundance of air, while decidedly relaxed and unaggressive in disposition. Jewel never tries to impress you with any trick other than sounding natural. Which means, the only time you’re going to be WOW’ed is when the music demands it, not the IEMs.
I’ve gone so far as to describe Jewel as “Boring, but in a good way.” It does everything so very well, with an effortlessness that is easy to overlook. You may think you want more of X, Y, or Z, but Jewel delivers just enough of any particular attribute to meet the threshold for satisfaction. But it does this for EVERYTHING. Everything is satisfying, but nothing stands out. Except the timbre… which is as perfect as I’ve heard in this hobby.
If you look at a graph for these earphones, you may think the treble is so rolled off as to be dark. In fact, to the ears, the treble is very well extended. Aroma is using six electrostatic drivers for the ultra high frequencies alone. Clearly, they care deeply about treble. So why recess the upper end so? Again, to the ears, that’s not really how it presents. The highs aren’t lacking. They infuse the stage with wondrous air, delivering a full and extended higher register.
The violins on my DSD copy of Salvatore Accardo – Antonio Vivaldi Le Quattro Stagioni, sound as sweet and sharp and complete as I could want. Jewel captures these bright notes with ease, extending out to encompass all the air surrounding the notes. What Jewel doesn’t do is exaggerate. You can tell Aroma worked very hard to avoid letting all this treble horsepower get away from them. They wanted a natural sounding IEM. For all the benefits of extra treble, it does come at the cost of timbre. And Aroma prioritized timbre above all. Jewel’s upper register feels like it’s on a leash, being held at the very border of EXCITING, but never allowed to cross. It sounds heavenly, but those who desire details to
JUMP out at them will want to snip that leash.
Vocals are an airy, slightly lush affair. They don’t possess the greatest density, and they are in no way
forward in the mix. Rather, they confidently stand back with the rest of the instruments, and become part of the whole. I never struggle to hear them. In spite of perhaps needing to listen a little closer, vocals are rendered in full detail, the singer’s texture easily perceived. Listening to Tori Amos’ GIRL, every gasp she takes is well rendered, and those rare moments when she uses fry are excellently defined. I get the same thing from Cat Steven’s INTO WHITE. Although Jewel isn’t a powerhouse of detail, it can bring out exquisite intricacies in the most casual manner.
Acoustic instruments are rich, deep, and earthy. Their full, rounded tuning is immensely satisfying and sounds so very much like the real thing. Electric instruments, however, like the guitars in Tool’s JAMBI, may lack some of the energy and
crunch some audiophiles want. This is where the laidback tuning becomes divisive. It achieves so much good for the overall listening experience, but it does hold Jewel back in attack and excitement. The music is still the music, and everything is audible. But if you’re looking for monitors to sharpen those leading edges until they cut through all distraction and demand your attention, Jewel is not that monitor.
If you’re not comfortable calling “
naturalness” Jewel’s primary strength, then it has to be the bass. If anything else stands out, Jewel’s low-end does it for me. It’s carefully elevated to color the mids with warmth, and sustains a level of presence which constantly puts a smile on my face. Jewel uses a single Dynamic Driver for its bass, so you get that visceral impact missing from Balanced Armatures. The tonality is delightfully organic, with lovely textures. I hear more mid-bass than sub-bass, though that is not to say the lows don’t extend well. Indeed, I find the bass to be feature rich, delivering the complete experience I look for.
Carmen Gomes’ cover of Sinner’s Prayer has fantastic bass instruments. Whether percussion or strings, there are some delicious low frequency tones, and Jewel accurately deals with each, adroitly giving voice to the instrument, while portraying a highly realistic mix. They sound exactly loud enough to be devilishly compelling, yet never dominating the other elements.
The soundstage is cavernous. It may not be the largest of all IEMs, but it’s big enough to never want for more. The dimensions are spherical, with even size for the X, Y, and Z axis. Listening to A Mother’s Tears – Pergolesi: Stabat Mater & Vivaldi: Nisi Dominus, I truly got the impression of being in that place watching the opera. The sense of depth was particularly inspiring.
Jewel’s resolution is excellent, but it’s so underplayed that many will fail to appreciate it. Some IEMs are tuned to convince you of their technical prowess. Jewel is simply great, and doesn’t mind that you might not know. Detail retrieval, while fully top-tier, takes a step back in the presentation. You must lean forward and listen for all the subtleties to be impressed. Jewel won’t lay them before you on a silver platter. The brilliance of this is that you are encouraged to just relax and allow the music to immerse you.
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Comparisons:
Empire Ears Odin ($3,399):
I keep describing the Aroma Audio Jewel as modest and never showing off how good it is. The Empire Ears Odin is the polar opposite, and I love them for it. Odin puts its detail and resolution front and center, seemingly terrified you might miss how cutting edge it is.
Its treble is brighter and its presentation more energetic. This cleans up the stage and brings forth so many low level details you might miss from Jewel. Texturing, and strings reverberating against frets are significantly more audible. The down side to this is on brighter tracks, like 80’s pop music, Odin can really push the bounds and become fatiguing. Whereas Jewel never does, on any music. Odin achieves what I call Hyper Realism. Its tuning isn’t as natural as Jewel’s, but it is awesome to behold.
The midrange is more transparent and stark, lacking the hint of warmth and lushness Jewel offers. On the other hand, Odin excels at the attack of drums and the crunch of electric guitar distortion. Jewel gives you a little lower-mid/upper bass bloom that really fills out an instrument like a cello, making it far more emotionally engaging. Listening to Jewel, I was deeply moved by a cello piece on an Amber Rubarth track, only to struggle to find that same moment with Odin.
Odin probably has more sub bass, but Jewel definitely has more mid-bass. Odin sounds a little scooped out in the upper bass, to clean up the mid-rage. This makes Odin the more technical sounding of the two, with faster, more textured low-end, while Jewel is the more natural, with some pleasant bloom and longer decay. Odin absolutely annihilates Jewel in bass resolution. Listening to Tool’s THE POT, you feel like you could map out the exact volume of the chambers in which those low notes are resonating within those instruments. In terms of overall bass presence, they aren’t vastly dissimilar. Neither of them is meant for die-hard bass heads, yet both have a very healthy quantity that feels great in the mix.
The soundstage of these two is very close, where sometimes I want to give the win to Odin, and sometimes to Jewel. If you put a gun to my head, I’d say Odin casts the larger stage, but as I said before, Jewel is large enough to satisfy anyone. As resolving as Jewel is, Odin is noticeably more so. Odin also has cleaner separation of elements with a blacker background. Odin’s clarity is jaw-dropping, making Jewel feel slightly veiled in comparison. Odin pierces that veil, achieving a greater sense of transparency.
They truly complement each other so well, picking a winner is impossible. It comes down to: what do you want more, clarity or naturalness? Why choose? Spend all the money and buy both!
Empire Ears Legend X ($2,299):
The Legend X is warmer, with a thicker, richer sound. It’s the bass-head’s choice for TOTL performance. There’s not as much air as Jewel. LX’s treble is sweet and gooey, like honey. It’s very pleasant on the ears, and has been my go-to IEMs for a long time now. But Jewel extends higher, infusing the treble with breath and freedom.
LX’s mids are denser, with smaller vocals, further back on the stage. They almost sound squeezed, as if through a tube. Jewel’s mids are more natural sounding, with less warm coloration. Jewel conveys more detail, but LX is not far behind. Legend X, however, has the more aggressive tuning, and brings proper excitement to those rock & roll instruments, like guitars and drums. While Jewel will resolve a symbol crash in a more lifelike manner, LX will get you bobbing your head quicker.
There’s no two ways around it, Legend X’s bass is king. It may be
TOO MUCH bass, but it’s also more agile, more textured, and all around more interesting. Only Odin renders a more complete image of the bass. Compared to Empire Ears’ offerings, Aroma Audio Jewel sounds rather two-dimensional. LX has a decent amount of mid-bass, more than Odin, but it has significant quantities of sub bass. It
REALLY knows how to rumble. Like Jewel, LX fills out acoustic instruments quite nicely, more so than Odin.
For soundstage, they are close in width, yet Jewel is wider. Jewel is also much taller, and has a greater sense of depth. Furthermore, it fills that stage with more air, a blacker background, aiding in superior separation and more believable holography. Jewel is the higher-resolving monitor, as well. Its ability to capture each vibration of a symbol clash, or the subtle qualities of a bow against a violin string, leaves Legend X in the dust… in spite of these sounds not being front and center in the tuning.
Unlike with Odin, Jewel does feel like a genuine upgrade over Legend X, in all ways save for bass. I wish I had LX EVO on hand to see if that bridges the gap some.
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Gear Pairing:
Violectric HPA V281:
As I mentioned earlier, I did extensive listening to the Aroma Audio Jewel from my best desktop setup, Bifrost 2/64>Violectric HPA V281 Special Edition, the recent reissue to the legend. This is a crazy good pairing. First off, there was zero hiss, despite the monster power of this amp. I have the V281 set to its lowest gain setting, and I could often turn the volume to 12 o’clock.
The Violectric’s smooth and slightly warm tone melded with Jewel’s similar voicing, creating a wonderfully rich and seductive sound. Because neither piece of gear is excessively warm, both amp and IEM being only subtly so, you don’t stray into “Too much of a good thing” territory. Instead, they seem made for each other. Moreover, this amp pushes Jewel’s soundstage to the limit and makes it as holographic as these IEMs are capable.
Nitsch Pietus Maxiumus:
I built what I consider the ultimate mid-fi setup for my desk at work: Cayin N5ii>Mojo 2>PieMax>headphones. The Mojo2, being a super transparent and detailed DAC, feeding into a gloriously warm and musical amp. It’s a sexy platform to which to add just about any kind of transducer. Jewel grows very euphonic, but again, never becoming too thick or muddy. There was no hiss on low gain, but I don’t recall ever getting to 12 o’clock on the volume pot. So be careful with your adjustments.
It’s an elegant, refined pairing, full of richness and dynamics. The Mojo2 does a fine job of pushing out the detail, but resolution and detailing is not the main strength of this system. It’s
MUSICALLITY!. Jewel sounded very much at home here.
Chord Mojo 2:
For a lighter, more transportable setup, driving right from the Mojo 2 is an experience I highly recommend. This is probably the most pure version of what the Jewel really sounds like, as there are few DACs more transparent than Mojo2, particularly at this price point.
This is the cleanest and clearest I’ve heard Jewel. The dynamics are strong, the detailing pronounced, the attack as fast as Jewel is capable of. It’s lighter, more nimble, and addictively engaging. No hiss and no regrets. This might be my favorite pairing.
iBasso DX300 with AMP14:
Lately, I’ve been running the DX300 with the fully balanced NuTube module, AMP14. This is an ultra smooth, rich, holographic presentation. It’s kind of laidback and relaxed. Which is already how Jewel presents. This pairing takes that philosophy to the extreme.
That might sound like a bad thing, but it works. It’s not the best pairing of the bunch, but you’ll be hard pressed not to love it. The soundstage is very wide, the resolution adequate, and the timbre is lush and natural.
Cayin N6ii with E02 Module:
This configuration is punchy, robust, and savagely dynamic. The highly detailed, full-bodied, energetic setup does wonders for the Jewel’s almost lethargic nature. It peps her up like a good cup of coffee.
If you don’t love the idea of stacking with a Mojo 2, fear not, the N6ii-E02 gets you most of the way there. While not
as dynamic or transparent, it’s close.
Conclusions:
I wish I could understand the price. I’d love to say they sound like my HiFiMAN HE1000 Stealth, but in a smaller package, therefore
OF COURSE they cost over $5k. But they don’t sound like full-size headphones. They sound like IEMs. So the price is very difficult to swallow. Aroma is not the only one selling at these sorts of prices, either. It’s an industry-wide trend, and a baffling one. You’re simply not getting that level of performance.
If the market hasn’t balked yet, then we have not seen the ceiling.
For those not balking, I can only recommend Jewel all too eagerly. They are amazing in-ears. They cover all the bases, and deliver just enough on all fronts so that the sum of Jewel’s parts are extraordinary. In a sobering, mature move, Aroma Audio sacrificed the wow factor for naturalness. The result is a signature you can only grow into, not out of, and an IEM to which you’ll never want to say goodbye.
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Pinky_Powers::~-
