[Girls Generation]

Thanks for that, I'll be waiting. I'm a bit skeptical about your saying "nicely balanced" with the JH16... I thought the 16 was reputed for large bass.
Quote:

I only had about an hour with my 3A with LOD from a Rockboxed 5G ipod before I sent it back to be replaced but the sound was really balanced and equal across lo/mid/high. The bass management control adds more bass to the mix but all other elements remain unaffected. I think if you were trying to learn bass lines from a song this would really help as it can really bring the details of the bass out but does not muddy the mix. Should have my new amp tomorrow, I will spend a few days with it and several styles of music so I can get a good impression. As far as the 16s alone with the adapter cable, they remain nicely balanced and very easy to drive. The short time I had with the 3A in analog mode easily blew away the E17/computer combo or E17/ipod combo. When I get my amp back I will break it down into analog, USB, and 24/96 Coax and compare it with a few things, but I have a feeling it is going to be tough to find a better mate than an amp that is made specifically for a set of phones.

 

[McMaz]

Quote:

Thanks for that, I'll be waiting. I'm a bit skeptical about your saying "nicely balanced" with the JH16... I thought the 16 was reputed for large bass.

I find it is capable of having a huge bass sound but the bass is completely manageable, especially with the 3A. With the E17 I have gain, treble, and bass at 0 and just use volume control and everything remains balanced. But as I had mentioned earlier, they are very sensitive and small changes in treble or bass can really be heard. I find the E17 controls make too big of a jump for these when playing with treble or bass, even 1 tick. The bass is there if you want or need it but I don't find it overpowering at all. My hearing is good so maybe I am getting sound info that others aren't at the higher freqs therefore I don't need to play with sound much. Except for my auto, all equipment I have is at zero and I really hear it when it is adjusted even one tic.

 

[Anaxilus]

Shame you only have the E17 to compare to.

 

[Girls Generation]

I thought the JH16 demo I heard had overpowering bass compared to my ES5 and LCD2. Hmm... Which isn't exactly a "problem" but your saying it's balance is offputting for me. 

 

[kiwirugby]

I have the JH13s and JH16s (with the 3A).  Granted, out of two different rigs - iPod Classic > Solo > Pico Slim > JH13; iPod Classic > Solo > JH3A > JH16 - I find that for the latter (JH3A/16) with the bass turned off the amount of bass I am hearing is comparable between the two.  This suggests to me that with the 3A, you can get the same amount and kind of bass between the two IEMs.  Of course, not everything is equal in this comparison and it is according to my ears!!  I have not tried the 16s with an adapter with the Solo/Pico rig because I don't have an adapter.  It would likely be a more valid comparison.
 
I must say, the more time I spend with the 3A/16 rig, the more time other rigs lay dormant......I am still truly impressed with what the 3A can and does do.

 

[Staal]

Quote:

I have the JH13s and JH16s (with the 3A).  Granted, out of two different rigs - iPod Classic > Solo > Pico Slim > JH13; iPod Classic > Solo > JH3A > JH16 - I find that for the latter (JH3A/16) with the bass turned off the amount of bass I am hearing is comparable between the two.  This suggests to me that with the 3A, you can get the same amount and kind of bass between the two IEMs.  Of course, not everything is equal in this comparison and it is according to my ears!!  I have not tried the 16s with an adapter with the Solo/Pico rig because I don't have an adapter.  It would likely be a more valid comparison.
 
I must say, the more time I spend with the 3A/16 rig, the more time other rigs lay dormant......I am still truly impressed with what the 3A can and does do.

 
It's quite interesting that you find the JH3A to be able to produce about the same bass amount of the JH13 with the bass "turned down". Being able to switch off the JH16's constant bass boost would be ideal for me from time to time. Ugh, I'm getting really tempted.

 

[kiwirugby]

Quote:

 
It's quite interesting that you find the JH3A to be able to produce about the same bass amount of the JH13 with the bass "turned down". Being able to switch off the JH16's constant bass boost would be ideal for me from time to time. Ugh, I'm getting really tempted.

Depending on the kinds of music you listen to, the capability to "tune" the amount of bass is something I like about the JH3A/16 unit.  Sometimes recordings have too much bass (I have a Dvorak 7 like that, for some reason) and turing down or off the bass really works in tempering the lowest frequencies.  Then there's switching from classical (where I find me using less of the bass boost) to Latin jazz where I turn the bass on full!
 
I just wish there was a way for you to listen to the 3A/16 and adjust the bass so you can hear for yourself what are the differences with different genres of music.  All that being said, I still think the JH3A unit is worth every penny I spent on it.  I no longer come on head-fi to see if I can be tempted with something new.  I'm sure it will happen, but it will have to be that bloody good!

 

[tf1216]

Guys, I had the opportunity to measure the frequency response of the JH16 powered by the 3A. The bass is ruler flat (literally) with the bass management turned off. That's why some have said it sounds similar to the JH13. I also have the JH13 which I find to be a romantic CIEM. The JH16 gets more romantic than the JH13 with the 3A.

I hope to attend RMAF this year so I can audition more gear with the JH13 and JH16 to develop my own conclusion of the 3A. As my opinion stands now the 3A surpasses my old setup which utilized the Protector and an Audio-gd DAC.

My belief is that JH Audio decided to equalize the lowest 6 or 7 octaves with the 3A to take the JH16 to another level. It's incredible! From the frequency response measurements I don't see the equalization doing anything in the kHz range. I wonder why they chose not to touch these frequencies.

 

[arjunlall]

tf1216, could you post up the the results of your frequency response measurements? I have been looking online for a measurement of the 16/3A but haven't managed to find one. Also, do you happen to have a measurement with the bass amp turned up as well? I'm curious as to what part of the freq response it impacts.

 

[tf1216]

I will ask my friend if I can have the results.  There are on his computer at the moment.  
 
This link describes a bit of what I saw...
http://www.head-fi.org/t/577562/final-jh3a-revision-impressions/45#post_8288103


Edit: I added the link thinking I was replying to a different thread. There isn't a thing described different in the link that is not described above. My apologies.

 

[arjunlall]

No worries.

Just got confirmation today that my 16s/3a shipped . Will let everyone know what I think once I get some time with them.

 

[Roffensian]

Sorry if this is old news, but didn't see it anywhere so thought it was worth mentioning.....
 
I ordered my JH3a / JH16 combo over the weekend to complement my incoming DX100.  I contacted Craig at Whiplash about a replacement IEM cable and he mentioned that he has a new IEM cable coming out in addition to the Twag - here's the details in Craig's own words:
 
"[size=11pt]We use Twag v2 pure silver for the highs (4 conductor) and Twcu 26 OCC pure copper for the lows (4 conductor). This not only does what is mentioned above with the 8 conductor Twag v2 cable, but adds copper to the low end allowing more bass detail to shine through.[/size]"
 
I listen to a lot of bass heavy music so this is exciting stuff for me, so ordered that new hybrid cable too.  Can't wait for everything to turn up, DX100 should be burned in by the time the 3a gets here

 

[Staal]

The hybrid cable isn't all that new, but it certainly is great. I have one lying here for my regular JH16 and plan on posting an initial review soon

 

[Cassadian]

Quote:

The hybrid cable isn't all that new, but it certainly is great. I have one lying here for my regular JH16 and plan on posting an initial review soon

I'm quite interested in a comparison between the hybrid cable and the silver poison cable by Toxic cables.  Does the alloy or the hybrid succeed in the end.?  Dun dun dun.

 

[Staal]

Quote:

I'm quite interested in a comparison between the hybrid cable and the silver poison cable by Toxic cables.  Does the alloy or the hybrid succeed in the end.?  Dun dun dun.

 
Time will tell.. If I recall correctly it'll still be a while before Frank has the Silver Poison IEM cable in stock.