JH Audio JH-13 PRO appreciation thread - Page 55

It's hard to base the actual appearance of audio equipment through pictures. Sometimes, very minor imperfections show up to be worse than they actually are. Other times, everything looks good until you start looking closer... It all depends on the lighting, camera, and whatnot. I'm sure the reason the case looks sloppy is because of the flash accentuating all the nooks and crannies.

shill???

me; I dont care if there is history; his comments based on a couple of (sorry hockey) pretty average pictures, are out of line and he needs to get a grip before he swallows the bit. if I were Jerry and saw these posts; I would just refund bewatch and avoid the pain. I feel the way you are talking bewatch that you will not be pleased with anything you receive and will start picking holes in it. but thats just me

and yeah the 1337 driver setup and crossover claim is ermm laughable IMO; the only reason i'm getting these with 6 drivers is because it still has a plain vanilla 3 way crossover, but with dual drivers. a 6 way crossover seems unnecessary and I feel complicates matters more than they need or should be.

More than anything that's come out in a long time. I can tell this is without a doubt going to be a slam dunk - it will be my next purchase. Period. I just have to be patient and suffer through your impressions till I can fund them

I'm really starting to wonder whether the rapid growth of head-fi is a mixed blessing. Especially in the portable sphere, I get the feeling that there are a lot of new consumers in the market that are in over their heads.

I can't help but wonder if this is what happens on the leading edges of a lot of new technology markets. You end up with consumers who really shouldn't be buying the products, but who learn *just enough* to make an impulse purchase and then begin to figure out they've over-invested relative to their means or expectations.

It's really unfortunate that a high-end 'boutique' operation like JH Audio has to deal with that component of the new consumer demographic. I guess it's the price you pay for unexpected sales and popularity, but I really have to wonder whether it's worth it.

It just seems that there's an increasing trend towards a mass-consumer type of attitude towards products that are *not* designed or marketed under those types of expectations.

Then you end up with these absurd complaints and conflicts.

I am talking about history in general of having bad experiences. I don't know anything about him or the experience but right or wrong, what we often react to is history and some times we can judge wrong from placing too much reliance on the history and sometimes we screw up because we didn't pay attention to it. In this case it would be better to wait and watch, or receive rather than jump to a premature conclusion, as he seems to have done.

I do understand what you mean; but I think you are being pretty generous

well ron i'm a relative noob to head-fi in some ways, so I cant really throw stones in that regard; but I do understand what you mean. especially the component that become fixated on a product with romantic notions and are waiting for maidens with angelic voices to hover down and carry them away into the soundstage indulge me ok LOL ^_^ sometimes I think the reviewers are just too eloquent for the good of our wallets.

yes there is bound to be people who bite off more than they can chew and live too far beyond their means (lets face it its pretty much a tradition here to live SOME way beyond your means)

I also agree that some need to drink a glass of perspective every now and then. these things do take time and Jerry has reported that he was caught unawares by the demand. this can happen to any start up. cut him a break; hes not taking victims.

if you make a decision in my book you live by that decision.

I'm a rank newbie to head-fi, but a long time audio enthusiast. That may be true of many newbies, so it's hard to tell who's over their head just by the join date.

I'm curious whether the growth of head-fi is also a growth in the popularity of IEM's and customs in general. There was a question posted here a couple of months ago about what portable phones we see people wearing. Last year and early this year I was seeing supra-aural Sonys and that type of thing. Lately I've been seeing lots of IEM's. The audiologist I went to for custom tips for my X10's had done 3 sets of custom tips and some ES3X's in the week I went there. I don't know if it's just Westone being popular in Colorado, or whether this is general trend in other places.

I'd love to have some full customs BTW. It'll probably be a year for me though, because I'm going to recording school in February (second career), and need to be as frugal as I can muster between now and then. I'd also like to wait until these have gotten past FOTM status to see what the long term impressions are, and then weigh them against the ES3X.

Thanks for being early adopters, and sorry about your wallets.

before you just throw out a stereotype, you may want to check to see that your country is right. that ain't japan mate.

Some good discussion. Despite what most would expect at the price point of a custom IEM, more often than not I have had both cosmetic and fit issues that are attributable to a small compny making a custom product. It is disappointing when you spend that kind of money and can't help butbuild up expectations of Biblical proportions.

As an example - the left ear piece of my UE5c have a hole in them. The left ear piece of my UE10 sounds like something is loose when I tap it, the art work on my UE11 faces different directions in each ear piece, when I would get a refit back on my Sensaphonics I would open the package and it would smell like deadly toxic silicone. My Westones clearly have a line where the heat sensitive material meets the shell. I could go on. I have had UE's with wires that were laid haphazardly vs being braided. Sensaphonics that had to have a wire tied into a knot within the ear piece to prevent shorting out.

If nothing else I am just trying to bring a bit of reality to the picture. Seems like I usually just miss out on the glory days of meeting with the owner one on one for hours to discuss the product and answer my questions. I typically feel like the one struggling to get something acceptable that fits right.

Just trying to put some realistic perspectve for those planning to order these or any other custom IEM in the future. If youwant out of the box consistency and perfection, get a mass produced product.

So why would I put up with the hassle and expense of custom IEMs? Quite simply it's the sound and the experience. There is nothing like it. I am laying down right now listening to the same UE10 that sound loose in the left ear piece fed by a Duet into a Headroom Ultra Micro stack and the sound is mind blowing. No outside noise, no sound leakage to theoutside world with a sound that truly rivals some of the best speaker set ups.

I will likely end up with the JH13 but I will have to sell a few things first. I'm not buying them expecting Jerry to give me God like treatment. I would buy them hoping for a solid product that fits right and most importantly sounds amazing.

So after trying to keep up with this thread, and reading some talk of a universal version, what's the general consensus as to the likelihood that will happen? I'd be very much into a universal of his! Apologies in advance if that's been answered already, and I've somehow missed it.

I agree with what someone said about not being able to tell that much from the photos of the JH13 so far shown.

One thing, though, that is pretty much a fact is that when companies market their prototypes they always look amazingly perfect. Ever been to a restaurant where they show photos of their dishes on the menu or TV and then reality looks quite different?

Also, pictures of a product from 'well known' hi-fi people/ well known head-fiers who get new products will also probably look 'perfect'. Often when well known reviewers (eg food critics) review a product and the manufacturer knows said reviewer/ critic will try their product, said product will very likely be of 'better quality/ finish'.

On the ES3X thread, for example, quite a few people have had issues --me included multiple times (and I did NOT report the full story)-- with their ES3X. It seems lately that (almost) everyone who posts there getting a new set is having issues. Yet, HeadphoneAddict, Edwood, Zanth, Sasaki & digihead apparently have not had ANY issues (or have not made them public, or as digihead said they don't think certain aspects are a cause for concern as it's largely a hand-made product).

Similarly I'd expect the UE4-Pro Jude was given to review would have looked 'perfect'. So, I'm assuming Jerry Harvey knows quite well the importance of this very thread and the impact it will have on his business, and so, this first batch of JH13's is key.

I do believe, however, that such an expensive product should not only have great SQ but on the cosmetic side of things it should pretty much look impeccable. Some of the things digihead mentioned for products costing $850/ $900/ $1,150 are just not acceptable in my book.

And while I agree that behwatch is overreacting, I can't help but feel that those who will post anything negative about their JH13's --and are not reputable Head-fiers or newbies with great gear and almost faultless English writing skills and good command of h-fi jargon-- will have a hard time on this thread.

I've noticed on the ES3X that as long as comments are positive, then there are many more follow along the lines of 'must get theses soon', or 'my wallet hates you head-fi', and so on. Whenever someone posts about issues with their ES3X's all goes remarkably quiet. I had two people PM me about their ES3X's issues who would not post said comments in public. We are not helping ourselves, the customers, if we mostly ONLY report the good.

I started a thread recently where I wondered whether customs were overrated or not and VERY few people actually posted anything interesting and the 'discussion' pretty much died soon. Here it is in case anyone is interested and might want to bring it back to life: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/c...rrated-429275/

LOL; there is no talk of a universal version that i've seen. All I have seen is a few people pop in with some wishful thinking. its a brand new company doing custom made IEMs, one at a time. it requires a whole different set-up to produce a range of universals in bulk; that would no doubt fly out the door. sure it might happen and if I myself have missed something then i've got egg on my face. Either way; I would certainly think its quite a way off yet.

Well, hopefully I'll have something interesting to post in that thread when I finally get my first pair of customs.

I have a feeling I won't find them overrated though. Honestly, if the JH13 just sound AS good as the demo version I listened to for a while then I'll be thrilled with the money spent. Jerry says there is another 10% of sound quality waiting within that custom mold, so we'll see.

I will say that I hope the "mass consumers" don't jump in too deep with these. I do think having stepping stones of sound quality is important to appreciate what good sound truly is. I'm not totally convinced someone who goes from earbuds to full blown top of the line customs, after reading descriptions of the sound on here, will think they are worth $1100.

I didn't do a massive amount of hopping around as some did, but I've listened to a fair amount of different stuff. I did go through the ER6i, X10, SE530, W3. Then played around with different loud speaker setups. I found myself in an acquaintaince's Maserati the other day and noticing how well balanced and high end the audio system was. For the price of that car you should get something nice, and Maserati delivers. When you start to appreciate sound quality on a deeper level, then I think something like these customs start to make sense.

The truth of the matter is that I love these SE530's to death, BUT they are not perfect, and have not removed all inklings of upgradeitus. The W3 was an attempt to find something better that ended up just being different and, for me, worse.

When I listened to the JH13 demo it was exciting just because it was something that was so OBVIOUSLY better. It was not subjectively better than what I owned, it was quite assuredly in a different league. I could not find any particular flaws with the demos (besides the treble spike that should be gone in the custom version).

I don't do this for the hobby (though getting new gear is fun), I do it for the music. When I get that reference quality sound with no compromises - then I'll stop. Er, I plan to.

LOL.. yeah well thats actually my plan as well. i'm looking at this spend (not a small amount of $$$) to at least temporarily stop my quest for the best portable sound. I have spent quite a bit of money and not a small amount of time tinkering to get where I am now, but all this jumping back and forth from one top-line universal to another is just as expensive as just getting full blown customs to begin with and every time there is something that I feel could have been done better, so I try something different.

this way I dont really have many places I could go after this; other than my home rig, which is exactly where I plan to start focussing my efforts. This purchase with any luck I will be able to have a bit of a cull of all the stuff i've built up and just keep one universal (UM3X) and my 2 amped rigs and call it a day for portable for a while. I do plan to buy a pico slim (and maybe ED 8's) as well; but that is not totally needed.

so i've turned a $1050USD spend into a money saving exercise at least in my mind and dont you do anything to shatter the illusion :shakes finger: