[Br777]

i have to admit.. assuming the sound of this rig is incredible.. and I'm confident it will be.  Its going to be nice to be "done" for a while.   I wont have any more money to spend on audio equipment and even if i do,   I wont have that nag of.. well maybe if i tried that other amp.. or a different dac, or this tube or that tube...   cause ya cant!  
at most i may try a cheap $5 lod vs a $40 one, and maybe ill buy a USB isolator if the thing does usb, just to see if it really does anything...
i have no intention to replace my ipod touch.. 
sure there may be a few settings to tweak around with, but for the most part... just enjoy.  sometimes having no choice or what if to think about is  a good thing.  I for one am looking forward to it
 
BUT THE WAAAAAAATING! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

[boomana]

Quote:

Look we're not talking rocket science here and Matt is not the only cat that can implement a dac/amp/DSP/crossover. How do you think staiums get their sound, there are several pro audio guys that do this every day of the week. Jerry's bread and butter is pro audio stage monitoring, he's got the right connections to pull this off with of without Matt. The simple truth is he lost his main amp/DSP guy for what ever reasen but Jerry knows great sound and knows the right people to get the job done. I placed my bet with Jerry and my money stays in the pot.
 
On a side note Jerry has always struck me as an easy to get anlong with guy and pretty laid back as well as totally ethical. I know he held off on the announcement for no other reason than to present a solution when he communicated the news regarding the delay. Say what you will but I've dealt with him now for CanJam LA, RMAF 09 and now RMAF 10 and he is as good as it gets and totally honest. I'd also wager that no one is more pissed off right now than Jerry at this delay. Jerry is old school and understands that his rep is  valuable and not to be sold fout or a single product.

 
 
This.  
 
I have zero doubts that the final product will be as good or better than what I heard at CanJam.  My money stays in the pot as well.

 

[khaos974]

Let's say it clear, that kind of mismanagement is subpar, I don't know whose fault it is but that big a miscommunication between JHA and their DSP/AMP team should never have happened in the first place, it's spectacularly bad.
 
That said, I can understand how frustrating it was for JHA, they have no experience designing an amp and had to hire new people for that project, that means they have no insider expertise for controlling this. And JHA's response to the problem was perfectly logical, as a customer, I'd have preferred they publicized the problem earlier, but from their pov, they couldn't do otherwise. The cash flow for this new product was relatively important for a small company, it could have hurt them bad if most of the customers wanted a refund, thus announcing the problem before they had a potential solution in the form of a new team was suicidal. So they waited.
 
As for declaring Matt Macbeth responsible, even if they didn't write it down, everyone would have guessed the problem was linked with the DSP/AMP team, in this product, JHA's original people are not designing anything new, they are just stripping a pair of IEMs of their crossover, 80% of this new combo is the DSP/AMP, and we already knew who was in charge of that team.

So a problem between JHA and Matt Macbeth? Matt misleading JHA? Maybe, something else I didn't think of? Anyway, the facebook announcement was quite expected and ok given the circumstances.

 

[midoo1990]

Quote:

Not too professional or smart for them to name him IMO, to try to ruin/shame his reputation or get people to harass him. A good company shouldn't play the blame game

Agree.that was uncalled for from whoever wrrote the announcement. be it Jerry himself or Brittany and signed by his name.
maybe there was something unfortunate happened to the designer's personal life and he had to back up from the deal,we cant judge him.
 
as for the delay,8-10 weeks is not much and as far as i read,its worth it.
if Jh audio customer service and quality control werent that terrible(in my experiance ofcourse),i would have layed down $1700 from the day this product was announced.
 

 

[Bennyboy71]

I have a question, which you may or not be able to answer:
 
How much enjoyment does $1700 provide you with? We're talking a pair of earphones here, and to me that seems a whole heap of cash to be spending on something that's presumably meant to be used on the move. 
 
Is it a case of technology assisting the pursuit of something other than love of the music - i.e. a insatiable upgrade itch driven by a need to know you can't be listening to sounds that are any better?
 
I only ask because I've been given pause for thought recently - I've never tried customs, only universals, but have recently sold my Earsonics SM3s (£300) for a pair of Ety HF5s (£70) and to be frank am getting much more enjoyment from my music this way.  I listen when commuting and walking to and from places, and while the Etys are clearly less 'technically adept' than the SM3s, they totally allow me to experience my music in a really clear way that puts more of a smile on my face than the Earsonics did.
 
My guess is this might be something to do with what kind of signal my brain actually needs to receive to stimulate it in a certain way.  Using the SM3s, for example, my conscious mind was always saying to itself "Does this sound great? Can you hear that electric guitar properly? Do you like those vocals?" - thoughts motivated by the fact that i'd bought the SM3s looking for something that would make my cherished music sound better, but perversely ended up strangling the power of my subconscious mind to come forward and tickle my pleasure buttons.  In short, I was so uptight about these bloody earphones I couldn't see the wood for the trees - or, more precisely, hear the music for the notes.
 
Is that the same with you JH addicts? Is there not something actually antithetic to the enjoyment of music for and of itself in the whole concept of spending so much money and lugging around something so precious and unwieldy as the JH3A?
 
Its a serious question, and one I'm fascinated by. In the past I kind of got addicted to reading high end audio mags, drooling over speakers that cost tens of thousands, amps with specs longer than an orang-utan's arms, old valve kit that looked like it should have a dead body wired up to it. I can see what the appeal of such a hobby might be, but at the back of my tiny mind always came the questions:  how much do the people who buy this stuff actually like listening to their music? Can someone with a cheap stereo in a crappy box room not groove to their beats just as much?  Do you think there's a guy with that £5k turntable who only owns 4 records and plays but one of them regularly, using his white anti-static gloves, and thats 'No Jacket Required' by Phil Collins'?
 
Sorry, probably the wrong thread for all of this stuff, but reading about the frustration of delays and what not over this product has sparked something in my head and I wanted to vent.

 

[travisg]

You have a point I have 25,000 worth of home theater gear and I might watch one movie a month on it. More TV actually. Sad really if I think about it.

 

[travisg]

The more I think about it, it's probably just so I can say to my self my stuff is better than your stuff and justify it to my self. Wow I'm really bummed now. So what's the latest gadget I need?

 

[dogears]

^ \o/ ^

 

[ianmedium]

 
 

Agreed!

 
 
Quote:

I have a question, which you may or not be able to answer:
 
How much enjoyment does $1700 provide you with? We're talking a pair of earphones here, and to me that seems a whole heap of cash to be spending on something that's presumably meant to be used on the move. 
 
Is it a case of technology assisting the pursuit of something other than love of the music - i.e. a insatiable upgrade itch driven by a need to know you can't be listening to sounds that are any better?
 
I only ask because I've been given pause for thought recently - I've never tried customs, only universals, but have recently sold my Earsonics SM3s (£300) for a pair of Ety HF5s (£70) and to be frank am getting much more enjoyment from my music this way.  I listen when commuting and walking to and from places, and while the Etys are clearly less 'technically adept' than the SM3s, they totally allow me to experience my music in a really clear way that puts more of a smile on my face than the Earsonics did.
 
My guess is this might be something to do with what kind of signal my brain actually needs to receive to stimulate it in a certain way.  Using the SM3s, for example, my conscious mind was always saying to itself "Does this sound great? Can you hear that electric guitar properly? Do you like those vocals?" - thoughts motivated by the fact that i'd bought the SM3s looking for something that would make my cherished music sound better, but perversely ended up strangling the power of my subconscious mind to come forward and tickle my pleasure buttons.  In short, I was so uptight about these bloody earphones I couldn't see the wood for the trees - or, more precisely, hear the music for the notes.
 
Is that the same with you JH addicts? Is there not something actually antithetic to the enjoyment of music for and of itself in the whole concept of spending so much money and lugging around something so precious and unwieldy as the JH3A?
 
Its a serious question, and one I'm fascinated by. In the past I kind of got addicted to reading high end audio mags, drooling over speakers that cost tens of thousands, amps with specs longer than an orang-utan's arms, old valve kit that looked like it should have a dead body wired up to it. I can see what the appeal of such a hobby might be, but at the back of my tiny mind always came the questions:  how much do the people who buy this stuff actually like listening to their music? Can someone with a cheap stereo in a crappy box room not groove to their beats just as much?  Do you think there's a guy with that £5k turntable who only owns 4 records and plays but one of them regularly, using his white anti-static gloves, and thats 'No Jacket Required' by Phil Collins'?
Sorry, probably the wrong thread for all of this stuff, but reading about the frustration of delays and what not over this product has sparked something in my head and I wanted to vent.

 

[thread]

I have a pretty crazy budget for my headphone hobby, but I very much enjoy a wide range of musics... all the time. I agree that the JH3A doesn't even make a lot of sense in a portable scenario... particularly when one is actually on the move and not just sitting stationary, with attention on the music. Someone walking around, generating microphonics and splitting attention multiple ways will not get their worth out of high end audio.
 
I intend to use the JH3A as more of a transportable solution, enjoying it at work and at home, and I'm keeping the JH13 so that I can use them when I don't want to carry around the JH3A. I'm sure later generations will have smaller amps etc, but I'm not even as interested as others are...
 
To answer your original question, Bennyboy, based on what I experienced at CanJam, I fully expect to get quite a lot of enjoyment out of my JH3A. I really believe this could be the best headphone experience available when it comes out, and when you think of it that way, $1700 isn't so bad.

 

[ClieOS]

Enjoying music and enjoying great audio gears don't have to be equal or rely on each others, though they do enhance the overall experience when together. Some people like to listen to classical music over battery powered radio that has only one speaker, some people like to listen to some of the worst mastered music from talentless musician on 100 thousands dollars home theater rig. The point is they love what they are doing, and as long as they don't hurt others while doing what they love, they don't have to be judged for - and if you start to question your own choice over gears that you might not enjoy, then perhaps it is time to just walk away for a while.

 

[odigg]

Quote:

I only ask because I've been given pause for thought recently - I've never tried customs, only universals, but have recently sold my Earsonics SM3s (£300) for a pair of Ety HF5s (£70) and to be frank am getting much more enjoyment from my music this way.  I listen when commuting and walking to and from places, and while the Etys are clearly less 'technically adept' than the SM3s, they totally allow me to experience my music in a really clear way that puts more of a smile on my face than the Earsonics did.

I'm with you on this one.  I had some stupidly expensive headphones and was always very critical when I was listening.  Then I purchased an Audeo PFE and found that I actually can enjoy them more because a) they sound great and are very technically competent and b) I don't think much about how they sound.  I just enjoy listening to them.  When I had expensive headphones I also use to think "I'd better listen to this one because I spent so much on it."  Now if I don't use the PFE for a few days - so what?  Most of that other gear is gone now.
 
I suppose to some degree it's like owning a really expensive car.  You can get paranoid about where you park it, if it'll get scratched, if it'll get stolen, if the tyres are properly inflated etc.  Or you can get a used Miata and not much care if you run into a ditch   You can enjoy it more that way since you own the car whereas with a more expensive car you can feel the car owns you.
 
I heard the JH-3A at CanJam.  They sounded fabulous.  I realize "value" is a highly subjective judgment, but they aren't 10X better than a well engineered $170 IEM.   Are they "worth it?"  That's up to you.  I didn't think so.
 
Some people don't think along these lines and that's fine.  Everybody has different perspectives of "worth" when it comes to hobbies.  Just be true to yourself and enjoy what you can without getting sucked into (and regretting) something that costs more than you can see as worth it.

 

[bneiderman]

Quote:

I'm with you on this one.  I had some stupidly expensive headphones and was always very critical when I was listening.  Then I purchased an Audeo PFE and found that I actually can enjoy them more because a) they sound great and are very technically competent and b) I don't think much about how they sound.  I just enjoy listening to them.  When I had expensive headphones I also use to think "I'd better listen to this one because I spent so much on it."  Now if I don't use the PFE for a few days - so what?  Most of that other gear is gone now.
 
I suppose to some degree it's like owning a really expensive car.  You can get paranoid about where you park it, if it'll get scratched, if it'll get stolen, if the tyres are properly inflated etc.  Or you can get a used Miata and not much care if you run into a ditch   You can enjoy it more that way since you own the car whereas with a more expensive car you can feel the car owns you.
 
I heard the JH-3A at CanJam.  They sounded fabulous.  I realize "value" is a highly subjective judgment, but they aren't 10X better than a well engineered $170 IEM.   Are they "worth it?"  That's up to you.  I didn't think so.
 
Some people don't think along these lines and that's fine.  Everybody has different perspectives of "worth" when it comes to hobbies.  Just be true to yourself and enjoy what you can without getting sucked into (and regretting) something that costs more than you can see as worth it.

 
That car example hit the nail on the head! Great analogy. Now thinking about it....did I choose a good spot to park today?

 

 

[digihead]

Quote:

I have a question, which you may or not be able to answer:
 
How much enjoyment does $1700 provide you with? We're talking a pair of earphones here, and to me that seems a whole heap of cash to be spending on something that's presumably meant to be used on the move. 
 
Is it a case of technology assisting the pursuit of something other than love of the music - i.e. a insatiable upgrade itch driven by a need to know you can't be listening to sounds that are any better?
 
I only ask because I've been given pause for thought recently - I've never tried customs, only universals, but have recently sold my Earsonics SM3s (£300) for a pair of Ety HF5s (£70) and to be frank am getting much more enjoyment from my music this way.  I listen when commuting and walking to and from places, and while the Etys are clearly less 'technically adept' than the SM3s, they totally allow me to experience my music in a really clear way that puts more of a smile on my face than the Earsonics did.
 
My guess is this might be something to do with what kind of signal my brain actually needs to receive to stimulate it in a certain way.  Using the SM3s, for example, my conscious mind was always saying to itself "Does this sound great? Can you hear that electric guitar properly? Do you like those vocals?" - thoughts motivated by the fact that i'd bought the SM3s looking for something that would make my cherished music sound better, but perversely ended up strangling the power of my subconscious mind to come forward and tickle my pleasure buttons.  In short, I was so uptight about these bloody earphones I couldn't see the wood for the trees - or, more precisely, hear the music for the notes.
 
Is that the same with you JH addicts? Is there not something actually antithetic to the enjoyment of music for and of itself in the whole concept of spending so much money and lugging around something so precious and unwieldy as the JH3A?
 
Its a serious question, and one I'm fascinated by. In the past I kind of got addicted to reading high end audio mags, drooling over speakers that cost tens of thousands, amps with specs longer than an orang-utan's arms, old valve kit that looked like it should have a dead body wired up to it. I can see what the appeal of such a hobby might be, but at the back of my tiny mind always came the questions:  how much do the people who buy this stuff actually like listening to their music? Can someone with a cheap stereo in a crappy box room not groove to their beats just as much?  Do you think there's a guy with that £5k turntable who only owns 4 records and plays but one of them regularly, using his white anti-static gloves, and thats 'No Jacket Required' by Phil Collins'?
 
Sorry, probably the wrong thread for all of this stuff, but reading about the frustration of delays and what not over this product has sparked something in my head and I wanted to vent.

What a great, thought provoking post.  I found myself in a somewhat similar predicament recently. I tend to go through periods of stocking up on equipment then thinning out the herd. Part of what happens is I get fired up with the hobby and then later realize, do I really need all this stuff and then end up selling and so goes the cycle. I have wanted to try the JH3A and had a timeline, which I just completed to sell a bunch of portable gear in order to fund the purchase.  In the process I decided to have a portable rig based around the UE11 and then a semi portable rig based on the JH3A.  I came to find out that I liked how the UE11 sounded straight out of the Nano headphone jack just as much if not more than I did listening to them with the Pico slim or SR71A. Add to that the simplicity and lower cost of the rig and you have a winner. 
 
Then RIGHT before I was going to order the JH3A....here comes the delay announcement. In yet another predicament - do I wait as I know it will likely drive me crazy or do I buy the JH16 and later upgrade to the JH3A? Or do I just be happy with the UE11/Nano combo and see what happens down the road?
 
As they say, the hobby is about the journey - enjoy the ride.
 

 

[Python002]

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