JH Audio JH-13 PRO appreciation thread - Page 89

Impedance adapters might alter frequency response, from what I am aware of. You'd be better served by a better source with lower noise floor.

haha your old triplefi comes with an attenuator. if you dont have, get it from the one you gave your girlfriend!

Just a listening update. I was able to spend some time A/Bing my HD800 and 13 sets on the same equipment in my office. All tracks are ALAC-encoded and include:
Robert Shaw Telarc of Verdi's Requiem
Neil Young Weld Like a Hurricane
Mile Davis Kind of Blue
MFSL of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road [spec. Funeral]
MFSL of Allman Brothers Live at Fillmore [spec. Elizabeth Reed]
Gold CD of Steely Dan Decade [Steve Hoffman version] [spec. Kid Charlemagne]
Telarc of Orff's Carmina Burana
Massive Attack Teardrop
Sheffield Drum & Track Record 24-bit [spec. Amuseum]
Propellerheads History Repeating
MFSL of Live at Leeds [spec. Summertime Blues]

I listened to each track twice through each set before trying the other set, making notes, even a couple of sketches of soundstage, and then each can again once to confirm notes after listening to the other. A couple of factors that were difficult to factor out: comfort and fit. I find the HD800s quite comfortable, but one is aware of wearing them. They have weight, and thus a sense of constriction.

I plan to make more notes, but I'll be damned if the 13s are not consistently detectably better in the following areas:

Soundstage width
Soundstage height
Instrument placement on soundstage
Detail in complex passages; the more complex the passage, the more noticeably the 13s outperform the HD800s
Clarity [for me, different than detail, and I'm not real good at this verbalization]
Speed

The HD800s can actually move air, and so one aspect of bass impact seems stronger on them, but in terms of tonal register, I found kettle and bass drums on the Requiem more articulate and therefore more convincing on the 13s.

This sux. In all the right ways.

@Pale Rider: Really great to read your impressions there. That's just the sort of stuff I want to hear.

I find that listening to some of my Grateful Dead stuff that I didn't enjoy before (live) because of the recording quality, that the 13's are able to retrieve detail that brings life to these recordings and gives you a feeling of being there that truly makes the recording enjoyable and a true listening experience.

Thanks for a very useful comparison.

What I find especially interesting is that the JH13pro even competes favourably along dimensions that the HD800 is said to be strong, relative to other dynamics.

I'd imagine that soundstage depth and sense of air would be superior on the HD800's. It starts to look as though IEM technology has caught up to the degree that the major performance differences are a function of the inherent differences in the medium (ie: headphone vs. IEM).

That being said, I'm still surprised that the JH13pro was able to exceed the HD800 in soundstage width and height. I'm curious whether the soundstage of both phones can be validly compared. This would require us to be more specific with regard to definitions. Is the JH13pro soundstage more of a headstage? etc...

When I first came to head-fi the general sentiment was that IEM's simply could not compete against full-sized headphones. Even then I felt it was a hard claim to make. At the time it was true, but as the technology has caught up, more and more I am beginning to the think they're just different.

There are many things about IEM's I like better. If I were trying to decide between these two options, I suspect I'd go for the JH13pro.

I have the HD800s, and am having a really hard time imagining your findings. I'm not disputing what you're hearing, but...really? I guess I'll find out, hopefully sometimes this week.

As a follow-up on my last post, you're describing one of the things that I feel IEM's can do better than full-sized headphones. There's an intimacy that is possible through this level of detail retrieval that can't easily be matched.

I was listening with the RSA Shadow to a recording and it was as if I could see the dimensions of the face that was singing. The Shadow etches out the recording and obviously does very well with the 13's.

It wouldn't seem plausible to me either but I just plugged my amp into the Monica II dac (I haven't been using it for a while as I have been going more in the pocket approach) and the sound field opened up even more. Way wide and deep, very impressive!

boomana, I didn't expect this at all TBH. I *love* my HD800s. But my initial impressions of the 13s were so favorable, I felt I had to sit down and try this. I made notes, so I can go back & revisit my assessments. I don't pretend to be a golden-eared audiophile. My ears have been around the block too many decades, and enough top-down driving and medications for an illness induced tinnitus. But this is stuff I heard consistently.

Jamato, I couldn't agree more. The live stuff, especially cuts off the Weld album and Live at Leeds really come to life in the 13s. The effect was less dramatic with AB at Fillmore East, I think in part because it is such a good recording to begin with.

I got the JH13 today and have not been able to stop using them. They do everything the UE11 did wrong. There is not a single bump in any frequency and the detail these little things provide is nothing short of amazing. The bass is tight and accurate, never sounding boomy. For now I can confidently say that for me they are superior in every way to the UE11, which were up to today my favorite IEM (and I have heard most of the top tier universal IEM's).

For you guys or gals (is there any in this hobby?) that have the JH13 already, how do you like these compared to your speaker setups? That is of course if you have one. Is the JH13 so enjoyable that you do want to listen to your speakers anymore?

First Pale Rider's HD800 comparison and now an initial UE11 comparison...

Jerry is gonna get slammed if this keeps up.

Jam, I'm having a tough time reconciling your initial impressions with how impressed you seem to be with them now. Do you honestly think it was armature burn in? Or do you think it was brain/fit burn in on your part?