I thought i'd report back with a few quick comments before I add a more lengthy review.
As there is a lot of talk about refits and audiologists and what nots, I'd just add my experience to the balance.
Quick comments as I'm at work:
I used a somewhat dodgy audiologist, in that the price was incredibly cheap ($30AU, from Melbourne Audiology Center, Australia) and the audiologist had to construct the cotton dams out of cotton wool, and had no biteblock so I had to take the impressions with my fist in my mouth. I regretted it the whole way through, and I was convinced that i was going to have lousy impressions. However, when they came out, they looked pretty good, and went way deeper than the impressions I had previously taken by a much more expensive audiologist a few years ago for musician earplugs.
Received my phones on Monday, perfect fit and seal. I have very small ear canals and had to return my SE530 because i was just getting too much pain no matter what sleeves I used. But no issues with the JH-13. Fits perfectly, stays in despite opening mouth, talking or chewing. I have to say it's not the most comfortable thing, and my ears feel a bit tender after use, but i'm thinking this will improve once my ears adjust to the feel of them. I also think i hurt my canals a bit shoving them in and pushing them around during the first use, so I expect my comfort to improve once I get better inserting them and note to leave them alone once they are in there. I also notice that the right ear does not seem as snug as the left, but this is hardly noticeable. I got solid black, and pretty much looks as you would imagine.
At first I thought I had a bass issue as the bass increased if I pressed on them, but I must not have had them in properly. Now, there does not seem to be any change in sound if I push on the phone or jiggle them around my ears. So pretty convinced I'm getting the best sq possible in my ears.
So, for all those worrying about audiologists, the price of an audiologist charges will not necessarily reflect the quality of fit. And they don't necessarily have to have experience in IEMs, as mine just followed JH Audio's instructions and everything seems to have worked fine.
As for SQ, it is incredible. I'm really quite surprised. Normally with every headphone purchase I make, I am initially disappointed by the sound, experience buyers remorse and then gradually start to fall in love with the headphones. These have sounded incredible from the get go. Owning Dt770s and headphile Terminators, I had to get used to the more neutral bass, but I think it is still very impressive for IEM and sounds very present even at low volumes.
My only two negatives at this stage: the isolation is much less than I was expecting, and significantly less than my shure e2c foamies. It blocks out all background noise at work while playing music, but I'm not convinced it will do the job on airplanes. Might have to get some earmuffs to put ontop for a plane ride.
Also, I'm not convinced these phones excel across all genres. Rock, world music, folk, ambient and classical sounded incredible, as did anything with a focus on vocals. However, bass-heavy tracks that focus on energy, such as trance and minimal tech, I found did not excel with the very neutral and revealing nature of these phones. The tracks just felt a bit too revealed and dry. I think these phones are great with natural recordings, where there are lots of hidden sounds and space in the recordings. For heavily produced and compressed electronic music where there is no space or sounds within the individual layers, the phones reveal the tracks for what they are, every layer is separate and audible, and it just takes the mystery out of these tracks and presents them in a somewhat clinical manner. In otherwords, it's like the tracks are exposed for what they are, which is made up of sounds that lack the subtle nuisances or imperfections which make them interesting. But I did not buy these phones to listen to dance music, and have my Beyer Terminators for when I want a bit of fun trance action with a warmer coloured sound that does not reveal these flaws.
All up, very satisfied and this is just day 3. Had a few "WOW" moments which include the often mentioned hearing of the orchestra members turning their pages, but so far the best moment was listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and virtually visualising the nine members of his qwalli party sitting around inside my head in a semi-circle, with all their chanting voices occupying a distinct space in my head, and his voice just being this huge detailed and powerful force. Incredible!
