[slaters70]

Okay, now I am intrigued. I am thinking of JH5s, but want to hear your views on the 13s since you both have and love the 5s. I thought you said the difference was minimal pizzafilms.

 

[pizzafilms]

If you can wait a couple of days, I should be getting my 13's back and I'll be able to do a much more detailed A/B comparison.
 
To be completely forthcoming, I originally purchased a set of 5's after meeting with Jerry Harvey and demoing the 5's, 7's and 13's. During that evaluation, I was very happy with the 5's. I thought the 7's were a bit too boomy and the 13's more neutral. But truly, they were all very musical, just slightly different signatures. Also, I really did not want to spend $1100 and thought that the for $400, the 5's were an absolute steal. Like I've said, they absolutely didn't sound like they were $700 less. More like $200 less. So I went ahead and purchased the 5's.
 
And I've been incredibly happy with them. I've used them on gigs where I've played keyboards, gigs where I've mixed front of house, at the gym as well as extended and casual listening. There has not been one minute or one song or genre that I haven't been thrilled with them. Read that last sentence again.
 
Then I spent too much time reading through the JH-13 thread...
 
Based on the raves and raves of nearly everyone, I truly wondered if I'd lost my mind when I demoed the 13's alongside the 5's. There was no way in my mind that the 13's were THAT much better. So after reading, yes...the entire thread...I found a pair of 13's for sale on the forum at a pretty low price that I could justify it to myself to purchase them. 
 
When they arrived, they obviously didn't fit my ears, but thankfully were much smaller than my own so I fashioned some foam tips to create a reasonable seal and try them out.
 
As I've said before, there were 2 obvious differences. First, the low end went much lower on the 13's. Not to say that the 5's don't have nice low end, but the 13's go ALL THE WAY down. If I didn't A/B them, I wouldn't have noticed the difference easily. Second, the 13's high end extended out a bit further, but I definitely noticed what I would call a noticeable peak at 7k or so. Sure, it could have been fit issues, but I don't know. I listened to them several times going back and forth before I once again came to my conclusion that the 5's are an absolute steal, but then again, I didn't play any gigs or do any extended listening to the 13's because they obviously didn't fit properly. 
 
I sent the 13's to Fisher Hearing last week along with my 5's with instructions to copy the fit of the 5's but copy every other possible detail from the 13's, hoping that I will end up with something along the lines of 90-95% 13's. I frankly doubt that the fine folks at Fisher know what Jerry does to tune his earpieces, but I do have confidence in them and they've been very patient to minimize my fears.
 
If anyone is interested, I'll give a full report when they arrive.
 

 

[slaters70]

Definitely interested, and in no hurry. I love the Fischer Audio DBA-02 universals ($160), more than all the top-tier IEMs I have owned, and that's alot, but I figured the only way I will go on the $400+ spending spree again is with customs. Your comments caught my eye (your original JH5 comments), and now this. I probably will end up with the JH5s anyway, because the idea of spending $1100 is a little too mind boggling for me (though I am having a very good year). Anyway, if you believe the gap is still "relatively" close, I will order some JH5s sooner than later. If you have changed your mind, I might save up and get the 13s. But that is a long shot.

 

[ovo]

I too am interested in hearing about the JH5 to the 13's, I have come from low end IEM starting with the CX300's which I liked for $60, sure the bass was over the top but it was the fact that 3 pairs in a row died on me so I got the hifiman RE0 for a $100 after reading a glowing review here (from Joker I think) and that was a huge disappointment , too bright and NO bass what so ever so it is with much trepidation I read reviews here especially when we are talking about so much more money.
 
So Id be pissed if I spent $400 and wasnt WAY more impressed, then again its $400 towards the JH13's that might double the wo!
 
I sing/play guitar and use ableton and know I need to go to custom molds to get a good enough fit to stay in when I sing, should I get them done with my mouth open?
 
from what Ive read it sound like the UE7's are the 'standard' for muso's, are the JH5's going to be 'near' enough or are we talking about a different league all together?
 
I also will use them with my phone a lot (soon to be an iphone4) and cannot be assed using an amp EVER if this make any difference to the feedback I am about to get

 

[pizzafilms]

Yeah, I completely understand the trepidation of paying that much money for something that can be so subjective. You should contact JH Audio and see if they have a dealer anywhere near you so you could try out some demos. Meeting with Jerry and trying out the 5's, 7's and 13's with him made me feel WAY better. I will tell you that I had an immediate "ahhh" feeling the second I heard them.
 
Jerry explained to me that the UE-5's and UE-7's have been pretty much the mainstay of the touring industry in recent years. He also said that the JH-5's and JH-7's are essentially upgraded versions of the UE versions with components that are to his spec. Basically, his company doesn't have to make the same compromises that UE did when they got bought by Logitech.
 
You should give JH Audio's impression spec sheet to your audiologist and make sure they follow it. Mouth open with a one inch bite block. Mine fit perfectly first time. It really helps if your audiologist has done this before specifically for in-ears. Try and find one from JH Audio's recommended list, or maybe UE's list.
 
I thought the 5's and 7's were very similar, but to me, the 7's bass was too much. And based on what I see of the product lines, it seems that almost every model has a counterpart with more bass. (5 and 7. 13 and 16, etc.) Obviously bass amount is pretty subjective.

 

[Michiyo-Fir]

I just received my JH13s today.  They're not remolded yet but I tried them anyways.  So far what I can notice is a lot better treble.  The cymbals and brass sound crisp and realistic.  There's also better soundstage.  I can clearly hear where each of the instruments are.  That's all I have to say for now since I need to get them remolded to really enjoy them.
 
The soundstage is definitely much better than the JH5s, much more details as well.  For certain songs I tested, it sounds like the singer is singing to me beside my bed.  It's pretty cool. That being said, the JH5s still sound damn good!  I'm not sure if they're worth $700 more either.  That's why I opted to buy my JH13s 2nd hand.

 

[pizzafilms]

Sounds like we understand each other.
 
I just got a call from Fisher Hearing telling me that my 13's were being shipped so I should have them tomorrow. Looking forward to a weekend of torturing myself listening to the 5's and 13's....ha!
 
 
 

 

[Superfrag]

So I just got my JH5's. Fit was perfect. First impressions ; very very close to what I expected. Excellent sound, instrument separation is brilliant, the soundstage is very good. The highs are the only place where I felt it could be better, but the mids and the lows were awesome. I've been spoilt by the highs of my old DT880 600Ohm + Woo Audio 6 setup though. I'm loving it, excellent choice. The signature I feel is awesome, very good for most varieties of music, nothing is in excess and nothing is recessed. Vocals sound about right, in place with the rest of the instruments.
 
All in all, I'm very very happy!

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

 

I think they will. It's the best I've heard for $400, custom or not. Surprising how much better 320 is than anything less.  For kicks, try wav vs FLAC sometime. I know both are bit perfect but there's a very small amount of added noise and buffer softening from processing a flac in real time. PCs aren't the most revealing source but you'll have fun. There's more to this than bits when it comes to playback as opposed to storage. Don't take anything for granted.

 

I've often for a long time felt the same way.  The checksums and 'experts' tell me I'm wrong which I maybe.  But why is it I notice that bit of missing edge when I'm not even looking for it.  Anyway, back to the phones.  Just nice when someone confirms your observations.

 

[rawrster]

I'd definitely be interested in how a JH5 compares to a JH13 since there really isn't much of it since most of it is something along the lines of JH13 destroys the JH5 which doesn't help much. I might get myself a JH custom just to have different flavors of customs but the one I'm looking at doesn't have much reviews out there but plenty of reviews on the JH13 not surprisingly.
 
A bit OT but could it be that FLAC does have some compression while wav does not?

 

[Kunlun]

D'oh, nevermind.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

 
A bit OT but could it be that FLAC does have some compression while wav does not?

To keep the OT short it is compressed but the it retains all the data so its lossless and not lossy.  Checksums confirm that.  The question is how the decoding is handled which is complicated and for another thread.  Just like burn-in, cables, impedance, HD audio, etc the question of human audibility rears its head and all goes to hell in the discourse.
 
JH5....

 

[migsev]

How do the JH5s compare to universals in the same price level? I was looking to upgrade to top end universals but noticed that the JH5s are already in the same price range. I'm coming from Denon C710s so I'm expecting any purchase to be an upgrade.

 

[goodvibes]

Right, nothing is lost. You can convert back and forth to wav and all will be identical. It's not the bits in question, even in real time decoding to wav which it needs to do on the way to a stream. It's a heated issue for the bits are all that matters faction so better to keep praising the excellent JH5s instead.

 

[Michiyo-Fir]

Quote:

How do the JH5s compare to universals in the same price level? I was looking to upgrade to top end universals but noticed that the JH5s are already in the same price range. I'm coming from Denon C710s so I'm expecting any purchase to be an upgrade.

IMO, the JH5s are a little better than the universals around the same price and even universals a little higher priced.  For example, I've used my uncle's Shure SE530s quite a lot and they are considered fairly good universals.  He bought them for about $500 at the time and the JH5s have better highs and tighter, punchier bass than the SE530s.  The SE530 has a little bit better mids but overall, the JH5 sound quality is still superior.