mralexosborn
Headphoneus Supremus
Not saying I have that kind of budget but I have been looking at the IE8 and I am wondering do customs at the same price preform as well?
The JH5 at $400 is not REALLY $400. You need to go to an audiologist get an impression and sent it to JH Labs which can cost anywhere from $50-125. Also you will more likely then not need to send them back a couple of times due to a poor fit, or in the worst case get the ear impression done again.
I'm also a big JH-5 fanboy. I think it's a great value, and too often overlooked because of the long shadow cast by its big brothers. I think it definitely spanks all the $300+ universals (with the IE8, for all its refinement, I can't get past the huge mid-bass hump that's more a characteristic of an entry-level IEM).
Admittedly I have not tried the current Head-fi darling, the SM3, and am very curious about it. However, it seems none of the SM3 fans have tried the JH-5 either, which is probably the BIGGEST ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM on Head-fi. (And one almost gets the feeling those fans are not particularly encouraging about such comparisons, which I thought was the whole point of this website.)
Also, just yesterday at our little Portland meet, a recent Alien Ears customer tried out the JH-5, which led to a bit of buyer's remorse (although at this point, he's going to save his nickels and hold out for the top end).
As far as getting custom moldings, $50 seems pretty common. Even less is possible (some dealers will include it with the purchase). But in any case, people here who paid up to have the work done tend to think it's a very worthwhile investment. You get your hearing tested, your ears visually inspected, cleaned, expertly fitted, etc. It's like a pre-purchase mechanic's inspection on a used car: $50-100 may seem like money down the drain when nothing is wrong. But if something is...
And I think it's pretty common to be offered a free remold if anything is found to be wrong. But my "impression" was that this was the exception more than the rule.
Then if you get into a JH-5, you also have the option to upgrade the cables, which definitely does make a difference. May seem a little crazy at this level, but they'll be able to work for higher-end customs as well (once you're ready to upgrade).
All that said, I personally hate the idea of buying anything "sound unheard". (Especially earphones, which are going to be more "YMMV" than headphones or speakers especially.) Of course not all of us have easy access to a store like 32 Ohm, where you can take hours to try out just about anything. ..
Admittedly I haven't tried the JH5, but I doubt they are better than the $350 - $375 new UM3X, which now comes with detachable cables, ie you can replace them eventually for other type of custom cables. The new cable, btw, apparently is just like the Westone ES (custom) series.
The UM3X comes very close to my $850 custom ES3X SQ-wise.
And, unlike the resale value of customs which can go down drastically, a good set of top-tier universals has a reasonably decent resale value.
Lastly, most customs are Balanced Armature IEMs, just like the UM3X, but not the IE8 (Dynamics). Also the IE8 is known for having fit issues (not ijn my case, though) and isolation isn't nearly as good as the UM3X. The latter is the most comfortable universal I've ever tried, nearly matching the superb comfort of my customs.
Get a pair of universal tripple fi 10 and get them into customs and people say there equal to UE10's. Thats $800 savings!