Girls Generation
Headphoneus Supremus
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JH Audio JH-3A
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I think it's a shame that the S/PDIF digital input got changed from coax to optical.
While this is a boon to Macintosh owners like me who have a built in optical out, people who planned to use the Wadia transport or the Solo for Coax digital will be left out. With coax input on the 3A, iPad and Mac owners (and PC owners) could still use an affordable USB > Coax adapter like the uDAC and uDAC-2 for good results.
I seem to recall the Behringer UCA202 and a few other inexpensive devices like one from sysconcept.ca can do USB > optical conversion. But I just don't know if their optical out is as good as the Nuforce's coax output. I also don't know if any of those USB > optical converters will work on an iPad like the others. For iPod/iPhone users that can't use the camera connection kit they're still out of luck as far as staying completely in the digital realm until the final output stage in the 3A. My portable CD players with optical out are not as good sounding transports compared to my $250 Marantz CD-5001 (a jitter issue?), and my iRiver H140 once it wears out will be $300 to replace with a used one. And those are sensitive to power spikes and can die fairly easily.
I've been holding off ordering the 3A due to the cost and uncertainty. I was hoping to hear the demo at RMAF 2010, but unlike CanJam a few months earlier they didn't bring the demo to the show. I spoke with Jerry about converting my JH13Pro to work with the JH3A, and he really felt I should get a new JH16 with the 3A, which would add too much cost for me to bear right now. So, I'm content to sit back and watch how it all plays out for now.
While this is a boon to Macintosh owners like me who have a built in optical out, people who planned to use the Wadia transport or the Solo for Coax digital will be left out. With coax input on the 3A, iPad and Mac owners (and PC owners) could still use an affordable USB > Coax adapter like the uDAC and uDAC-2 for good results.
I seem to recall the Behringer UCA202 and a few other inexpensive devices like one from sysconcept.ca can do USB > optical conversion. But I just don't know if their optical out is as good as the Nuforce's coax output. I also don't know if any of those USB > optical converters will work on an iPad like the others. For iPod/iPhone users that can't use the camera connection kit they're still out of luck as far as staying completely in the digital realm until the final output stage in the 3A. My portable CD players with optical out are not as good sounding transports compared to my $250 Marantz CD-5001 (a jitter issue?), and my iRiver H140 once it wears out will be $300 to replace with a used one. And those are sensitive to power spikes and can die fairly easily.
I've been holding off ordering the 3A due to the cost and uncertainty. I was hoping to hear the demo at RMAF 2010, but unlike CanJam a few months earlier they didn't bring the demo to the show. I spoke with Jerry about converting my JH13Pro to work with the JH3A, and he really felt I should get a new JH16 with the 3A, which would add too much cost for me to bear right now. So, I'm content to sit back and watch how it all plays out for now.
To all our JH3A customers,
We want to personally apologize for the delay and spotty information flow to you all on the development of this amp.
Everyone knows the story of how JH Audio got to this point with this amp if not the short recap is as follows:
Phase One:
Jerry was approached by a designer that wanted to work with JH Audio. He listened to the product Jerry wanted to build and said it would be an easy DSP project. When he realized he was in over his head, he bailed on the project knowing that he had given us a firm delivery date and that we had promised our customers that date as well.
At this time we wanted to make sure that everyone that had ordered the amp that wanted a refund could get one.
Phase Two:
Instead of abandoning the project (which in retrospect probably would have been easier and kept the company's reputation clean), Jerry and Brittany reached out to a middle man in China that had the resources to finish the amp.
JH Audio was given a time line of 8 weeks to develop and a few more to deliver the project.
That was a long time ago and we do realize that you have all been waiting.
During the initial phase, this new middleman had a stroke and communication stopped for a while. He then communicated he was undergoing surgery to open an artery but the Amp was still moving forward.
His next email was that the design kit that the original designer had sent was not even close to the state of completion that he had originally told JH Audio and we had to start all over again. JH Audio then received one of the amps to test and the low bass control was not correct (this was the ninth board revision).
We are now on revision eleven. The last amp that we received 2 weeks ago was a go until we had a problem that the mcu was not flash based and could not receive updates after the amp was programmed.
This is what is now being corrected and the last hurdle we have. We never would put out a product that was not 100%.
In recap, the communication from China has been spotty at times and the language barrier has caused most of the issues.
Jerry is on his way to China to over see the final assembly of the JH3A and address the spidf input. He will not come back until he has the JH3A with him.
Once again, we personally apologize for the delays and communication. We have always lived that we are only as good as our last product. The poor communication is a mistake that we take full blame for. Everyone has our personal guarantee that the amp will be shipped shortly and will perform perfectly.
Jerry will be at the factory by weeks end and we will keep everyone updated once he is there.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to call us at the office, although this is the most up to date information that we have at this time.
Brittany Harvey
We want to personally apologize for the delay and spotty information flow to you all on the development of this amp.
Everyone knows the story of how JH Audio got to this point with this amp if not the short recap is as follows:
Phase One:
Jerry was approached by a designer that wanted to work with JH Audio. He listened to the product Jerry wanted to build and said it would be an easy DSP project. When he realized he was in over his head, he bailed on the project knowing that he had given us a firm delivery date and that we had promised our customers that date as well.
At this time we wanted to make sure that everyone that had ordered the amp that wanted a refund could get one.
Phase Two:
Instead of abandoning the project (which in retrospect probably would have been easier and kept the company's reputation clean), Jerry and Brittany reached out to a middle man in China that had the resources to finish the amp.
JH Audio was given a time line of 8 weeks to develop and a few more to deliver the project.
That was a long time ago and we do realize that you have all been waiting.
During the initial phase, this new middleman had a stroke and communication stopped for a while. He then communicated he was undergoing surgery to open an artery but the Amp was still moving forward.
His next email was that the design kit that the original designer had sent was not even close to the state of completion that he had originally told JH Audio and we had to start all over again. JH Audio then received one of the amps to test and the low bass control was not correct (this was the ninth board revision).
We are now on revision eleven. The last amp that we received 2 weeks ago was a go until we had a problem that the mcu was not flash based and could not receive updates after the amp was programmed.
This is what is now being corrected and the last hurdle we have. We never would put out a product that was not 100%.
In recap, the communication from China has been spotty at times and the language barrier has caused most of the issues.
Jerry is on his way to China to over see the final assembly of the JH3A and address the spidf input. He will not come back until he has the JH3A with him.
Once again, we personally apologize for the delays and communication. We have always lived that we are only as good as our last product. The poor communication is a mistake that we take full blame for. Everyone has our personal guarantee that the amp will be shipped shortly and will perform perfectly.
Jerry will be at the factory by weeks end and we will keep everyone updated once he is there.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to call us at the office, although this is the most up to date information that we have at this time.
Brittany Harvey
blessingx
HeadFest '07 Graphic Designer
Supplier of fine logos! His visions of Head-Fi
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Thanks for posting Brittany.
thread
Headphoneus Supremus
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Yes, thank you for the post, Brittany & JHA.
But we still have to ask, optical or coaxial? This is a hugely important, still unanswered question.
(Btw, Brittany, Jerry did mention to me that the MCU issue was resolved.)
But we still have to ask, optical or coaxial? This is a hugely important, still unanswered question.
(Btw, Brittany, Jerry did mention to me that the MCU issue was resolved.)
Steve1456
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I've been following this post for around the last 6 months with a view to buying the JH3A once funds allow. Plus with everything that has been going on I thought it better to wait until the production units were actually in people's hands and some reviews were posted.
I'd just like to add my thanks to Brittany for the update. It has answered quite a few of my questions. I think however that the main question that remains unanswered is whether the final production unit with have a coaxial or optical SPDIF digital in. Apart from the delivery date this seems to currently be the most asked question on the thread as it will dictate what some people are going to buy to source their JH3A.
I'll keep following along and hopefully all those early adopters will be raving about their new toy sooner rather than later. Good luck!
I'd just like to add my thanks to Brittany for the update. It has answered quite a few of my questions. I think however that the main question that remains unanswered is whether the final production unit with have a coaxial or optical SPDIF digital in. Apart from the delivery date this seems to currently be the most asked question on the thread as it will dictate what some people are going to buy to source their JH3A.
I'll keep following along and hopefully all those early adopters will be raving about their new toy sooner rather than later. Good luck!
Djhkll
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To be honest, I believe the middle man have no idea that there are 2 kinds of spdif connection out there, and I believe Jerry is just going to see what is going on in china. I worked 5-6days a week in china, and I can be the interpreter/translator by phone if Jerry needed.(I just want to get my jh-16/jh-3a ASAP ONLY). But one thing that Jerry should keep in mind next time is, he should always look for a trading company in hong kong and let the trading company to do the sourcing for him. Directly dealing with the chinese is such a pain.
onecolorist
Head-Fier
Thank you Brittany. The delays make sense. Life happens :/ I appreciate the effort to let us know.
garetjax1
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<RandomMusings>
#1: I work in the software industry, and outsourcing is usually considered a huge PITA because if you don't have every minute detail of your design spelled out, you invariably end up with something other than what you were asking for. While this phenomena is not particular to outsourcing to places like India or China, based on my experience, offshore outsourcing leads to you getting an invariably worse product in the end (when all the details aren't spelled out). I am curious as to whether companies like JHA will look to outsource future products to other countries, based on their experiences with the JH-3a. Apple has demonstrated that you can outsource successfully (labor violations and ethics aside), but the JH-3a debacle highlights some of the perils IMO.
#2: JHA used two prototype JH-3as as demo units at Can-Jam last year.... Presumably, these units had DSP programming of some sort, as well as PCBs, components, etc. that were fairly close to the final design. If the units sounded so amazing, I'm unclear as to why so much further work needed to be done to bring them to production, given that there were two working examples, and what exactly the nature of that work was. I understand that there were defects (e.g. bass pot), and bugs (DSP), but one would think that having a working example would greatly speed time to market with the finalized goods.
#3: Assuming Jerry comes back with a 100+ JH-3as (and there were close to a 100 orders last time I checked), it will still take JHA a while to get those orders out the door. If tuning the JH-16 takes 5 hours (read that somewhere on here), and tuning with the JH-3a takes longer... With a hundred plus orders to fill, I think some of us won't see our orders till some time in mid-to-late April. This is speculation on my part (not to mention depressing to contemplate), as we don't know how much time and effort it will take to get an amp + headset tuned, or how many people will be working on the tuning (does Jerry do the tuning himself?), but I just can't see them fulfilling orders before March comes and goes.
</RandomMusings>
#1: I work in the software industry, and outsourcing is usually considered a huge PITA because if you don't have every minute detail of your design spelled out, you invariably end up with something other than what you were asking for. While this phenomena is not particular to outsourcing to places like India or China, based on my experience, offshore outsourcing leads to you getting an invariably worse product in the end (when all the details aren't spelled out). I am curious as to whether companies like JHA will look to outsource future products to other countries, based on their experiences with the JH-3a. Apple has demonstrated that you can outsource successfully (labor violations and ethics aside), but the JH-3a debacle highlights some of the perils IMO.
#2: JHA used two prototype JH-3as as demo units at Can-Jam last year.... Presumably, these units had DSP programming of some sort, as well as PCBs, components, etc. that were fairly close to the final design. If the units sounded so amazing, I'm unclear as to why so much further work needed to be done to bring them to production, given that there were two working examples, and what exactly the nature of that work was. I understand that there were defects (e.g. bass pot), and bugs (DSP), but one would think that having a working example would greatly speed time to market with the finalized goods.
#3: Assuming Jerry comes back with a 100+ JH-3as (and there were close to a 100 orders last time I checked), it will still take JHA a while to get those orders out the door. If tuning the JH-16 takes 5 hours (read that somewhere on here), and tuning with the JH-3a takes longer... With a hundred plus orders to fill, I think some of us won't see our orders till some time in mid-to-late April. This is speculation on my part (not to mention depressing to contemplate), as we don't know how much time and effort it will take to get an amp + headset tuned, or how many people will be working on the tuning (does Jerry do the tuning himself?), but I just can't see them fulfilling orders before March comes and goes.
</RandomMusings>
Kunlun
Headphoneus Supremus
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I'd like to point out that Brittany's statement shows that Jerry was lying when he said (just days ago) that the JH3A was coming out in "days".
Quote:
Based on Brittany's post, Jerry has no idea what's going on in China. Also: QUALITY CONTROL ISSUES.
Quote:
Based on Brittany's post, Jerry has no idea what's going on in China. Also: QUALITY CONTROL ISSUES.
Kunlun
Headphoneus Supremus
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Trogdor, this isn't coming out in March. Are you getting a refund? How are your personal issues coming along?
monsieurguzel
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Thank you Brittany, it is good to see you posting here and keeping us updated! Looking forward to seeing how things come along.
adktitan
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so, is everyone going to take a breath now? looking forward to some reviews and final set-up's...
I just don't see how they can begin shipping in two weeks as promised. I know JHA wants to get it to their anxiously waiting customers like me but I see that Jerry is going face further problems not anticipated in China. He maybe further shocked by what he finds there. I just don't get any good feelings about this for JHA and us, their customers.
Quote:
Quote:
tf1216
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Dudes! and ladies, the JH-3A is no longer on the website. Wow-a!
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