Hey, guys. 'Was just checking in on the Jolene thread, and I saw there were a couple questions I missed after I posted my first impressions. 'Sorry about that! I hope my answers now will be just as relevant. 
But, yeah, otherwise, the Jolene's tweeters sound infinitely more like e-stats than they do any of JH's previous monitors. Again, I can't really isolate which differences are due to the tech and which are because of the tuning. But, that's certainly my best attempt. 'Hope it helps.
"A more open sound," is what I'm trying to say, rather than the warm, engrossing, buttery kind of bass. But, in summary, yes, they do have an important role to play, but no more important than everything else, even with the bass pod at 100%.
But, having tried their Layla AION, which - to my knowledge - all of their universals are based off of now, I can say that the AION Layla and the custom Layla sound very, very similar to my ears. I believe I remember the 8kHz glare on the AION being a tiny-bit smoothe, but that was the only difference I can detect. If the universal and custom fit similarly in your ears, then you'd probably hear something similar. Then again, if you don't get to try the universal and you order the custom instantly, you probably wouldn't know what you were potentially missing anyway. That said, if you can get a demo of the universal, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it; always.
It's difficult to compare vis-a-vis when there are so many different implementations and colourations of Sonion's electrostatic tweeters. It's also hard to specifically tell what properties are because of the technology, rather than because of how they were tuned, etc. But, if I were to compare it roughly against some of my heavy-hitters like the EE ODIN, the VE ELYSIUM or the FiR M5, I'd say the Jolene easily stacks up. If I were to split hairs, maybe notes don't vanish into blackness as quickly; perhaps, microseconds slower. But, in return, I find you get more extension and air out of the Jolene. The upper-treble isn't pushed, necessarily, but you can hear notes disappear better, rather than just them exponentially fading away, if that makes sense.
But, yeah, otherwise, the Jolene's tweeters sound infinitely more like e-stats than they do any of JH's previous monitors. Again, I can't really isolate which differences are due to the tech and which are because of the tuning. But, that's certainly my best attempt. 'Hope it helps.
They're important for sure. They have a crucial role to play, and they can even become a bit of the star when you turn the dials to 100%. But, it's not the dark, full, resonant sort-of bass you might expect from a JH IEM when you turn the lows up. It's always a clean, airy, sub-bass-biased bottom-end that only kicks harder the more you push it, rather than bloom. It'll have a consistently clear tone; less of a wob, and more of a wub, if that makes any semblance of sense.
"A more open sound," is what I'm trying to say, rather than the warm, engrossing, buttery kind of bass. But, in summary, yes, they do have an important role to play, but no more important than everything else, even with the bass pod at 100%.It all depends. Sometimes, a company's universal and custom will fit similarly (or just as nicely) on someone's ears, and they'll hear similar signatures. Other times, the universal might sit differently and deliver a different sound, which the person might prefer over the custom or vice-versa. As I said on my CIEMs v. UIEMs post on 64's thread, the variables truly are infinite. JH's earliest demo universals were a bit of a mixed bag for me. I could drastically change how they sounded based on how I angled them in my ears, which - in equal measure - gave me hope of finally owning a JH custom and made me paranoid over which variation of the sound I'd get.I am still left with my idea that a universal will sound bettermy bad experience with empire ears phantoms has left such huge mark on me that I cant let it go.
Just imagine the huge disappointment when you enjoyed your life with your favorite iem and you decide to go custom to realise its actually inferior sounding then your universal.
How sad does that can be, it marked me for ever.
But, having tried their Layla AION, which - to my knowledge - all of their universals are based off of now, I can say that the AION Layla and the custom Layla sound very, very similar to my ears. I believe I remember the 8kHz glare on the AION being a tiny-bit smoothe, but that was the only difference I can detect. If the universal and custom fit similarly in your ears, then you'd probably hear something similar. Then again, if you don't get to try the universal and you order the custom instantly, you probably wouldn't know what you were potentially missing anyway. That said, if you can get a demo of the universal, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it; always.
It was Deezel177s review that made me go for the Jolene instead
I hope they don't disappoint.
Agreed. Plugging and unplugging them feels like using miniaturised XLR plugs. Just the sound of their metal parts snapping together is morbidly addicting to me.
Was it the older generation or the AION universal Layla? The AION's, while still fairly chunky, fit much, much better than those old ones did.
