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Originally Posted by ab_ba /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Another audiophile term that now makes some sense: speed. I really appreciate the way the sound just stops. The offset transients, especially with drum programming, is just stunning and beautiful. The instant of silence after a hit is so sharp and clear. I can now now tell how other phones I’ve heard have been more “muddy” than these. Another facet of speed: one of the most remarkable things about the 13’s for me is the way the music really wells up and hits you when the band kicks in. The dizzying abruptness with which they render dynamics in the music - onsets and offsets - is gorgeous. All the “dynamic compression” that’s been going on with music mastering lately is somewhat counteracted by the ability of these headphones to represent a big dynamic range.
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Great review! I believe these kind of thorough reviews, from someone without the extremely extensive background with a variety of different equipment, can be especially useful. A lot of people who are considering the JH13 are coming from a more moderate background of experience, and I imagine they can probably relate more easily to your comments.
Your observation about the speed of the drivers is one of the qualities of the JH13 that I find most enticing, not having heard them. It takes something that IEM's naturally do very well, and brings it to another level, furthering the maturity of the class of IEM's as a legitimate transducer. Instead of IEM's always being framed as being the ugly step-child of headphones or speakers.
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| My habit when I get new gear is to revisit my favorite albums, to have new experiences with them, plumb them for even more richness and nuance, and also get as objective as I can about the merits of the new device. At first I listened closely to Radiohead’s Kid A, Feist’s Let It Die, Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Count Basie and Oscar Petersen, and the Tokyo String Quartet’s recordings of Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 59. No. 3. For each, the musicality and the resolution surpassed anything else I’ve heard. What I really appreciate is the ability to resolve new details in the background. Instruments that had been part of the “soundscape” are now clearly discernible for what they are: a bass line, a drum brush, a quietly harmonizing vocalist. Amazing. This is without any detraction from the foreground - not distracting, just more depth than I have heard before. |
It often seems like in audio you're always trading one thing for another. For example, I loved the way the W5000 could accomplish the separation and imaging that you're referring to here, but I felt it gave up something in the PRaT department to do it. I love Grado's for being able to keep the PRaT, while feeling they lose out in soundstage, etc...
It really seems that the JH13 doesn't have a critical flaw that I associate with most full-sized headphone choices under $1000.
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Are they perfect? Well, I think I allowed myself to develop unrealistic expectations. I believed everything would sound so riveting and immersive that it would be hard for me to focus on work, etc while I was listening. Though there are times that I do get drawn in to something that’s astonishing and clear, and whenever I turn my attention to them, they are marvelous. But for the most part I have no problem trucking along at whatever I’m doing with the 13’s just singing sweetly to me in the background at a low/moderate volume.
Another overblown expectation I had is that everything would sound good. That the music I love would sound different. That new music would always sound compelling. That poor-quality recordings would somehow sound just fine. Though each of these things may be true to an extent, none are overwhelmingly so. It is still the same music - I can just hear it now with greater clarity and musicality than I’ve experienced so far.
For anyone who (like me) is fairly inexperienced with high-end audio, a warning: there are lots of terms flying around on this forum that can create overblown expectations. Things like the 13’s are “infinitely” better than high-end headphone X, or the difference is “night and day”, or the 13’s “demolish” X. Those terms led me to have some unrealistic expectations. The 13’s demolish my apple earbuds. They are infinitely better than not listening to music. They are merely a dramatic improvement over other IEMs and cans I’ve tried.
Some questions about audio quality I look forward to finally being able to answer, thanks to my 13’s: Can I tell the difference between lossless encoding and 256+ kbps MP3 files? Can I tell the difference between my Hornet and Pico amps when amping my ipod? Can I hear a difference between my iPhone and my Pico DAC? Any differences I’ve thought I’ve heard in the past have been fleeting and not convincingly reproducible. It will be fun to see if all that lossless encoding I did was worth the disk space
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So glad that you included these thoughts. I think calibrating expectations is an important part of any review. It's especially useful if you're not a long-standing veteran of reviewing, as I think those that are more deeply involved in the hobby are often lacking this particular kind of perspective.
Your point about hoping that everything would sound good is one of the rude awakenings of this hobby. So many pieces of music DO sound so much better with higher end equipment. However, the realization of recording quality forces you to realize that there are significant factors that are out of our control when it comes to ultimate sound quality. The use of flowery language to describe differences in dramatic ways is very controversial, especially when we're talking about amps/sources/cables.
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| So, am I finished with purchasing audio gear? I am not someone who’s interested (right now at least) in collecting a range high-end gear so I can appreciate the relative merits of each. I’d rather have one setup that works great. For now, it is an awesome combination to be able to keep my JH|13’s and my iphone 3GS in my pocket, for immersive, pristine listening anywhere, anytime. And, my desktop rig (mac book to Pico DAC/amp) sounds great to me. Maybe one day I will upgrade something. Though I can’t imagine what that might be, I do notice there is a lot of empty space inside my JH|13 shells... who knows, maybe Jerry will figure out some electronic thingumajig worth putting in there. Till then, I believe I have reached my audiophile destination... |
I'm the same way. Having been around for at least a little while in this hobby, I've come to realize that an "end game" might be approaching for me as a result of technological innovation. I'm probably at least a year away from it, but I see myself eventually purchasing something like the JH13's and the HiFiMan and waving goodbye from head-fi.
*Also, I think you should consider posting this as a separate thread. It's warranted, IMO. 
