LondonTone
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2015
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Hi All
Much has been written already about JH Audio's new IEMs, Angie. I have been so very grateful for all the opinions and comments as the broad spectrum of listeners' experiences helps to narrow the field in a very well-populated market. However I have felt that many of the reviews are from a head-fi perspective, and less about music-making and emotion.
Hence I approach my review from my point of view as a musician and music-lover first, and hi-fi/head-fi freak a lot later down the line. I am not so much interested in the latest and greatest – more important is consistency of performance, musicality and emotive power, all of which can be found in products five, ten, fifteen or more years old. However undeniably new technology does lead to more efficient, portable products and the latest generation of high-end in-ear monitors are undoubtedly almost all winners across the board, catering to a broad spectrum of musical tastes and requirements. Whilst I am not going to try and rubbish or put down any other brand or model of IEM in my review of Angie, there will unavoidably be some comparison comments to other IEMs.
Source equipment used
A&K AK120II with Red Wine Audio headphone output modification
Primare PRE60 Streamer and preamp, into a Naim Headline headphone amplifier with PSU
Source material
Rhapsody in Blue for Two Pianos & Orchestra, Gershwin – Labèque Sisters (16bit/44.1khz ALAC)
Danzón No. 2, Márquez – Gustavo Dudamel, Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra (16bit/44.1kHz ALAC)
California Dreamin’ - Diana Krall (24bit/48khz ALAC)
Don’t You Worry About A Thing - Incognito (16bit/44.1kHz ALAC)
Let’s Face The Music & Dance - Lady GaGa & Tony Bennett (24bit/96kHz ALAC)
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 – Ashkenazy, LSO (24bit/96kHz ALAC)
Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson (24bit/88.2kHz ALAC)
Other earphones listened to during comparison
Shure SE846
Earsonics S-EM6
Westone W60
Sennheiser IE800
JH Audio Roxanne (universal)
JH Audio Roxanne (CIEM)
JH Audio Layla (universal)
UNBOXING ANGIE
The first thing to note is that the packaging really is up to scratch – it feels like a premium product. Astell & Kern is prominently embossed on the box (as A&K are the world-wide distributors of the universal fit versions of the JH Audio Sirens Series). Opening up and you can see that each individual item is well packed and presented. The earphones themselves are very well constructed, with a dark red-marble effect in the inner resin capped by a gloss black plastic top. JH supply two sets of cables – a standard installed with a 3.5mm stereo plug, and a balanced cable capped with a 2.5mm plug that is used on the A&K DAPs. Both cables connect to the earphone using a screw-down 4-pole connector which is very secure. Incidentally both cables are twisted in a braided pattern and exhibit very little microphony. Also included in the box are six tips (three foam, three silicone, in varying sizes), a cleaning tool, and also a miniature flat-blade screwdriver used to adjust the bass-response potentiometers.
This bass-response adjustment is quite particular to JH Audio – each cable has a bass-adjustment pot located inline, which has separate adjustment for left and right channels. This allows the bass response to be tuned to a listener’s personal preference, ranging from ‘flat’ to a maximum 10db increase at 60Hz. I would have preferred a global adjustment for both channels together, as it is a bit hit and miss to make sure you balance both sides.
Completing the packaging is an anodized aluminium screw-top container, lined with a little bit of foam, that is just big enough to squash the earphones in with either one of the cables. Note that you won’t be able to put both cables into the container as there isn’t enough space.
THE LISTENING
I started with the Angie’s set up with a flat bass response, playing Diana Krall’s version of California Dreamin’, from the Wallflower album. What struck me initially was the clarity and focus in the midrange – the projection of the voice was solidly centre-stage, a little forward and certainly very detailed. And a little ‘light’ at first thought. The vocals weren’t enveloped in a sense of warmth at all and the presentation did seem a little stark. However after just a minute or two, the bass lines started to come to the fore and I began to understand the musical presentation. Angie is not warm, it is not cuddly. It is focussed, clear, and very deft in its touch. It is supremely articulate – bass guitars are agile and you can hear each and every detail in the attack and decay of notes, with absolutely no overhang or slackness. This rhythmic nature provides the foundation for the midrange to really express itself – because there is such agility low-down, the midrange is sharply etched and the crossover point between upper-bass and midrange is absolutely transparent. It is a seamless transition, in tone and timing (which is probably a result of the FreqPhase technology that JH Audio professes to use).
Switching to the Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue, the emotive performance of the brass section of the orchestra really surprised me with the sheer depth of sound and presentation that could be rendered through Angie. Each and every movement in the use of the mutes in the horns, then inflections and breathing cycles in the oboes and clarinets, all came to the fore in real clarity. The treble performance of Angie is outstanding – it is well extended and clear as a bell, allowing notes to decay with real confidence, but at all times without becoming strident or edgy. It is a very fine balance struck. Couple this with the forward projection of the midrange, it is clear that Angie has been voiced to be more of a ‘reference’ IEM.
This voicing really shows itself playing Danzón No.2 by Márquez – each element of the orchestra can be clearly defined, with separation of instruments quite spectacular. However the sound did lack a little robustness, that warmth that is necessary to underpin a fuller orchestral rhythm section and lets the music really flow and express itself. With this music, Angie sounded a bit on the clinical side, and this was at the expense of its musicality.
Confused a bit? Me too. At this stage, I felt Angie was technically very proficient, doing the hi-fi things well, but not making music as successfully as I wanted it to. It seemed to lack emotion. At this point, I switched to my own custom JH Audio Roxanne IEMs, which I’ve had for the last six months and which itself replaced a set of JH13. Bear in mind that I have become very used to Roxanne, to the bass kick, warmth and richness of sound….
Cue a huge amount of head scratching and confusion. What I now heard was bass-heavy, rich and warm, but with a midrange that was muted, a little muffled and hence lacking in projection and presence. It was as if I was now listening through a thin pillow. Surely something was wrong? I switched to the universal Roxanne, was even less impressed, then back to the customs and went back to Diana Krall as I started originally. And I was confronted with the same issue – big bass, fat double-bass, fat percussion, fat chesty vocals. And markedly less detail, less clarity in the inflections in the voice, less air all round.
COMPARING
I started furiously comparing with other earphones I knew well. Shure SE846 – big bass, as big as the Roxanne, a similar warm midrange, a sweet treble but not as extended. Lovely universals though, but not as involving as the Roxanne. Sennheiser IE800 – ooooh, much more similar to Angie than anything else in terms of openness and clarity. Light touch, but much less bass than the Shure and Roxanne, very clear midrange (though lacking in weight), light and crystalline treble, but each element of the range didn’t hang together as well as it should. You could almost hear bass, mid, and treble, as opposed to a totally cohesive wall of sound. Very musical though! Earsonics S-EM6 – hmmm, really not for me. I found this closed, veiled, muted and lacking in any fun factor. And finally Westone W60 – oooh, these were good. Great clean bass, not the deepest extension, but rhythmic. Forward midrange. Slightly glinty treble for my ears and maybe that’s why I didn’t get totally comfortable with them over the 45 minutes that I was listening. But definitely the pick of the Westone range and far better balanced than the drum’n’bass style W50 that I auditioned weeks before.
And then back to Roxanne, finally to Angie, and at last some understanding of what I had listened to. The Roxanne is definitely tuned for ‘live’ music – they are perfect rock’n’roll earphones, driven hard with funky music they absolutely shine like no other. Imagine being on stage, a live acid jazz or funk band playing hard, rocking next to a blaring brass section, hammering along at a piano and rocking out. That’s Roxanne (and custom is better than universal, no doubt). Of the other ‘phones, only the Shure SE846 and Westone W60 come close.
Angie however is totally different – part of the same Sirens range nonetheless – but voiced totally differently. Angie is all about expression, projection, beauty and accuracy of tone, a most realistic portrayal of instruments. Angie is lighter in touch, more articulate and more ‘reference’. I had a bit of a problem with this, an apparent lack of musicality, UNTIL I remembered the bass adjustment pot. I cranked both to around 50% - an arbitrary 5dB increase in bass centred around 60Hz.
HALLE-FUNKING-LUJAH! FUNK, ROCK and ROLL !!! Angie now had it all – crystalline top end, a midrange dripping with emotion, and now a bottom end that had filled out, become a bit plumper, whilst losing none of its agility. The guy hosting the listening room summed it up succinctly – I ‘looked’ like I was finally enjoying music, I was rocking to the beat, I was smiling, I was waving my arms in the air as people sang, I conducted the orchestra. I was the air percussionist, the air bass guitar. Angie was making music, real music. It wasn’t about hi-fi (or head-fi), it wasn’t about technical ability. I could feel the bass guitarist getting into his groove, music being made. I was INVOLVED.
And THAT is why I immediately bought Angie, in universal fit because I couldn’t bear the horrendous wait for customs, for HKD$9000 (equivalent £750GBP or $1160USD) Everyday for the last three weeks, I have listened only to Angie, at home, on the road, in the office. I haven’t used my Grado open-backs, Roxanne, nor my PMC Twenty.26 speakers at home.
Better than Roxanne? Perhaps not better, but for me Angie is more enjoyable because I like its openness and clarity. Do I regret buying custom Roxannes? No, not at all. Still phenomenal IEMs, but they present music differently. I was bowled over when I first heard Roxanne, compared to my JH13s, and my opinion of that hasn’t changed. I still have my Roxanne customs,which I will continue to use on stage.
LAYLA
So what of Layla? Over double the price of Angie, utterly beautiful to behold, and absolutely massive to bung in your earhole. But what a sound. Take every aspect of Angie, increase the extension in both directions by 20%, fill out the depth of sound by 10%, somehow increase the sense of air by a strong gust of wind, and individually place each and every instrument and performer in the most outstanding soundstage I have ever heard in an IEM, and that’s Layla. Utterly beautiful. But also outrageously priced. Makes Angie seem like an utter bargain…
Couple of things…
Angie needs running in – I was noticing improvements even after 12 hours of continuous playing. My own set has had over 200 hours of playing, whilst the auditioned-pair at the outset had probably close to the same amount of time. This review amalgamates my opinion of both sets I listened to.
Angie is also physically big. Not massive, but noticeably big. If your ears are quite small, you’re not likely to get a comfortable fit. You’ll need to play around with the positioning – instead of the cables exiting at 45 degrees upwards by the top of your ear, I have found them most comfortable with the cable exiting almost horizontally out against the side of my face, then wrapping around the top of my ear. No bother to me really. I prefer the silicone tips to the foam but that’s personal preference.
And surprisingly an iPhone 5S manages to extract a decent sound from Angie – not the best driven performance, but pleasingly acceptable. That’s one thing that can’t be said for many other top-end IEMs.
One additional edit/thought - I am sure someone somewhere is going to ask what Angie sounds like in comparison to x-other earphone. I haven't listened to all the top-end IEMs, nor am I going to. What I can say is that of all the most popular IEMs, Angie sounds most similar to IE800s for openness and clarity, but has greater cohesion, depth, bass, funk and emotion.
Much has been written already about JH Audio's new IEMs, Angie. I have been so very grateful for all the opinions and comments as the broad spectrum of listeners' experiences helps to narrow the field in a very well-populated market. However I have felt that many of the reviews are from a head-fi perspective, and less about music-making and emotion.
Hence I approach my review from my point of view as a musician and music-lover first, and hi-fi/head-fi freak a lot later down the line. I am not so much interested in the latest and greatest – more important is consistency of performance, musicality and emotive power, all of which can be found in products five, ten, fifteen or more years old. However undeniably new technology does lead to more efficient, portable products and the latest generation of high-end in-ear monitors are undoubtedly almost all winners across the board, catering to a broad spectrum of musical tastes and requirements. Whilst I am not going to try and rubbish or put down any other brand or model of IEM in my review of Angie, there will unavoidably be some comparison comments to other IEMs.
Source equipment used
A&K AK120II with Red Wine Audio headphone output modification
Primare PRE60 Streamer and preamp, into a Naim Headline headphone amplifier with PSU
Source material
Rhapsody in Blue for Two Pianos & Orchestra, Gershwin – Labèque Sisters (16bit/44.1khz ALAC)
Danzón No. 2, Márquez – Gustavo Dudamel, Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra (16bit/44.1kHz ALAC)
California Dreamin’ - Diana Krall (24bit/48khz ALAC)
Don’t You Worry About A Thing - Incognito (16bit/44.1kHz ALAC)
Let’s Face The Music & Dance - Lady GaGa & Tony Bennett (24bit/96kHz ALAC)
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 – Ashkenazy, LSO (24bit/96kHz ALAC)
Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson (24bit/88.2kHz ALAC)
Other earphones listened to during comparison
Shure SE846
Earsonics S-EM6
Westone W60
Sennheiser IE800
JH Audio Roxanne (universal)
JH Audio Roxanne (CIEM)
JH Audio Layla (universal)
UNBOXING ANGIE
The first thing to note is that the packaging really is up to scratch – it feels like a premium product. Astell & Kern is prominently embossed on the box (as A&K are the world-wide distributors of the universal fit versions of the JH Audio Sirens Series). Opening up and you can see that each individual item is well packed and presented. The earphones themselves are very well constructed, with a dark red-marble effect in the inner resin capped by a gloss black plastic top. JH supply two sets of cables – a standard installed with a 3.5mm stereo plug, and a balanced cable capped with a 2.5mm plug that is used on the A&K DAPs. Both cables connect to the earphone using a screw-down 4-pole connector which is very secure. Incidentally both cables are twisted in a braided pattern and exhibit very little microphony. Also included in the box are six tips (three foam, three silicone, in varying sizes), a cleaning tool, and also a miniature flat-blade screwdriver used to adjust the bass-response potentiometers.
This bass-response adjustment is quite particular to JH Audio – each cable has a bass-adjustment pot located inline, which has separate adjustment for left and right channels. This allows the bass response to be tuned to a listener’s personal preference, ranging from ‘flat’ to a maximum 10db increase at 60Hz. I would have preferred a global adjustment for both channels together, as it is a bit hit and miss to make sure you balance both sides.
Completing the packaging is an anodized aluminium screw-top container, lined with a little bit of foam, that is just big enough to squash the earphones in with either one of the cables. Note that you won’t be able to put both cables into the container as there isn’t enough space.
THE LISTENING
I started with the Angie’s set up with a flat bass response, playing Diana Krall’s version of California Dreamin’, from the Wallflower album. What struck me initially was the clarity and focus in the midrange – the projection of the voice was solidly centre-stage, a little forward and certainly very detailed. And a little ‘light’ at first thought. The vocals weren’t enveloped in a sense of warmth at all and the presentation did seem a little stark. However after just a minute or two, the bass lines started to come to the fore and I began to understand the musical presentation. Angie is not warm, it is not cuddly. It is focussed, clear, and very deft in its touch. It is supremely articulate – bass guitars are agile and you can hear each and every detail in the attack and decay of notes, with absolutely no overhang or slackness. This rhythmic nature provides the foundation for the midrange to really express itself – because there is such agility low-down, the midrange is sharply etched and the crossover point between upper-bass and midrange is absolutely transparent. It is a seamless transition, in tone and timing (which is probably a result of the FreqPhase technology that JH Audio professes to use).
Switching to the Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue, the emotive performance of the brass section of the orchestra really surprised me with the sheer depth of sound and presentation that could be rendered through Angie. Each and every movement in the use of the mutes in the horns, then inflections and breathing cycles in the oboes and clarinets, all came to the fore in real clarity. The treble performance of Angie is outstanding – it is well extended and clear as a bell, allowing notes to decay with real confidence, but at all times without becoming strident or edgy. It is a very fine balance struck. Couple this with the forward projection of the midrange, it is clear that Angie has been voiced to be more of a ‘reference’ IEM.
This voicing really shows itself playing Danzón No.2 by Márquez – each element of the orchestra can be clearly defined, with separation of instruments quite spectacular. However the sound did lack a little robustness, that warmth that is necessary to underpin a fuller orchestral rhythm section and lets the music really flow and express itself. With this music, Angie sounded a bit on the clinical side, and this was at the expense of its musicality.
Confused a bit? Me too. At this stage, I felt Angie was technically very proficient, doing the hi-fi things well, but not making music as successfully as I wanted it to. It seemed to lack emotion. At this point, I switched to my own custom JH Audio Roxanne IEMs, which I’ve had for the last six months and which itself replaced a set of JH13. Bear in mind that I have become very used to Roxanne, to the bass kick, warmth and richness of sound….
Cue a huge amount of head scratching and confusion. What I now heard was bass-heavy, rich and warm, but with a midrange that was muted, a little muffled and hence lacking in projection and presence. It was as if I was now listening through a thin pillow. Surely something was wrong? I switched to the universal Roxanne, was even less impressed, then back to the customs and went back to Diana Krall as I started originally. And I was confronted with the same issue – big bass, fat double-bass, fat percussion, fat chesty vocals. And markedly less detail, less clarity in the inflections in the voice, less air all round.
COMPARING
I started furiously comparing with other earphones I knew well. Shure SE846 – big bass, as big as the Roxanne, a similar warm midrange, a sweet treble but not as extended. Lovely universals though, but not as involving as the Roxanne. Sennheiser IE800 – ooooh, much more similar to Angie than anything else in terms of openness and clarity. Light touch, but much less bass than the Shure and Roxanne, very clear midrange (though lacking in weight), light and crystalline treble, but each element of the range didn’t hang together as well as it should. You could almost hear bass, mid, and treble, as opposed to a totally cohesive wall of sound. Very musical though! Earsonics S-EM6 – hmmm, really not for me. I found this closed, veiled, muted and lacking in any fun factor. And finally Westone W60 – oooh, these were good. Great clean bass, not the deepest extension, but rhythmic. Forward midrange. Slightly glinty treble for my ears and maybe that’s why I didn’t get totally comfortable with them over the 45 minutes that I was listening. But definitely the pick of the Westone range and far better balanced than the drum’n’bass style W50 that I auditioned weeks before.
And then back to Roxanne, finally to Angie, and at last some understanding of what I had listened to. The Roxanne is definitely tuned for ‘live’ music – they are perfect rock’n’roll earphones, driven hard with funky music they absolutely shine like no other. Imagine being on stage, a live acid jazz or funk band playing hard, rocking next to a blaring brass section, hammering along at a piano and rocking out. That’s Roxanne (and custom is better than universal, no doubt). Of the other ‘phones, only the Shure SE846 and Westone W60 come close.
Angie however is totally different – part of the same Sirens range nonetheless – but voiced totally differently. Angie is all about expression, projection, beauty and accuracy of tone, a most realistic portrayal of instruments. Angie is lighter in touch, more articulate and more ‘reference’. I had a bit of a problem with this, an apparent lack of musicality, UNTIL I remembered the bass adjustment pot. I cranked both to around 50% - an arbitrary 5dB increase in bass centred around 60Hz.
HALLE-FUNKING-LUJAH! FUNK, ROCK and ROLL !!! Angie now had it all – crystalline top end, a midrange dripping with emotion, and now a bottom end that had filled out, become a bit plumper, whilst losing none of its agility. The guy hosting the listening room summed it up succinctly – I ‘looked’ like I was finally enjoying music, I was rocking to the beat, I was smiling, I was waving my arms in the air as people sang, I conducted the orchestra. I was the air percussionist, the air bass guitar. Angie was making music, real music. It wasn’t about hi-fi (or head-fi), it wasn’t about technical ability. I could feel the bass guitarist getting into his groove, music being made. I was INVOLVED.
And THAT is why I immediately bought Angie, in universal fit because I couldn’t bear the horrendous wait for customs, for HKD$9000 (equivalent £750GBP or $1160USD) Everyday for the last three weeks, I have listened only to Angie, at home, on the road, in the office. I haven’t used my Grado open-backs, Roxanne, nor my PMC Twenty.26 speakers at home.
Better than Roxanne? Perhaps not better, but for me Angie is more enjoyable because I like its openness and clarity. Do I regret buying custom Roxannes? No, not at all. Still phenomenal IEMs, but they present music differently. I was bowled over when I first heard Roxanne, compared to my JH13s, and my opinion of that hasn’t changed. I still have my Roxanne customs,which I will continue to use on stage.
LAYLA
So what of Layla? Over double the price of Angie, utterly beautiful to behold, and absolutely massive to bung in your earhole. But what a sound. Take every aspect of Angie, increase the extension in both directions by 20%, fill out the depth of sound by 10%, somehow increase the sense of air by a strong gust of wind, and individually place each and every instrument and performer in the most outstanding soundstage I have ever heard in an IEM, and that’s Layla. Utterly beautiful. But also outrageously priced. Makes Angie seem like an utter bargain…
Couple of things…
Angie needs running in – I was noticing improvements even after 12 hours of continuous playing. My own set has had over 200 hours of playing, whilst the auditioned-pair at the outset had probably close to the same amount of time. This review amalgamates my opinion of both sets I listened to.
Angie is also physically big. Not massive, but noticeably big. If your ears are quite small, you’re not likely to get a comfortable fit. You’ll need to play around with the positioning – instead of the cables exiting at 45 degrees upwards by the top of your ear, I have found them most comfortable with the cable exiting almost horizontally out against the side of my face, then wrapping around the top of my ear. No bother to me really. I prefer the silicone tips to the foam but that’s personal preference.
And surprisingly an iPhone 5S manages to extract a decent sound from Angie – not the best driven performance, but pleasingly acceptable. That’s one thing that can’t be said for many other top-end IEMs.
One additional edit/thought - I am sure someone somewhere is going to ask what Angie sounds like in comparison to x-other earphone. I haven't listened to all the top-end IEMs, nor am I going to. What I can say is that of all the most popular IEMs, Angie sounds most similar to IE800s for openness and clarity, but has greater cohesion, depth, bass, funk and emotion.
