LouisArmstrong
1000+ Head-Fier
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- Jan 26, 2015
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Hello all. I am new to Head-fi and I wanted to celebrate something by registering on Head-fi, which I read from time to time but never posted on. Today I got myself a pair of JH Audio Layla. It came sooner than expected as the main lot was expected to arrive at the end of the month but it happens that the distributor has two extra pairs that came with their demo lot, so I am a lucky guy as I pre-ordered last Friday after brief auditioning.
A bit of my IEM history. I started years ago with ER4P and then some of the then flagships, including SE530, TF10 Pro and Westone 3. Although the other flagships had improvements over the ER4P, I still missed the neutrality of the ER4P and its sensitivity to different equipment, including headphone amps and cables.
Fast forward a few years. I got some top of the line IEMs including the recent Noble Audio K-10 and the Shure SE846. I am very satisfied with them, with SE846 having an impeccable, deep and clean bass while K-10 reminds me the neutrality of the ER4P with a slight warmish hint. I also auditioned the Roxanne but it did not impress me much. Last Friday I heard the Layla demo unit and immediately fell in love with it. It bears a lot of similarity with the K-10 but the vocal imaging is even better and the sound stage and airiness is even better than the K-10. I thought my K-10 was the holy grail, until I heard the Layla. One caveat here: I have never owned any JH Audio products. I just had an audition of the Roxanne, probably not for a meaningful enough period of time. I know Jerry Harvey has made many wonderful products since he built JH Audio, including the JH13 Pro and JH16 Pro - regrettably I have not heard any of them so I won't be able to compare the Layla with them.
Soundstage / Imaging
First I tested it with my iPhone 6+. I immediately hear the difference with K-10. Although both are quite neutral, the Layla seems to have a slight more emphasis on low female vocal which brings the magic. I would say the Layla has a more "open" sound although it is a strange word to use for IEMs. As noted above, the imaging is very good on the Layla as compared with the K10, and the overall sound is more coherent and tight, thanks most probably to Freqphase.
I then changed to the 2.5mm balanced cable (the change was very easy as compared to switching cables on, say, the SE846). I turned on balanced mode on my AK240 and immediately I have no doubt that the Layla is made to match with the AK240 (sorry but I don't have a chance to test it on AK100 or AK120, which I don't have). Everything just sounds even better, I guess understandable as I was using the iPhone just now. It is the first time that I think my AK240 is totally worth it. Yes the AK240 sounds good with the K-10 too, especially with DSD or high res music, but the difference with iPhone out on the K10 is not worth >$2,000 IMO. Now with the Layla I can totally say that the AK240 was money well spent.
Soundstage is the most impressive aspect of the Layla in my opinion therefore I put it here first - even before the frequencies "analysis".
Treble / Mid / Bass
Getting so used to the K10, it is hard for me to say something new about the different frequency ranges. I will leave the frequency charts to the experts for a more objective view. From what I hear, the Layla simply matches and in the mids, surpassed the K10. It is almost everything like the K10 but take everything up one notch. Not a big step but a noticeable step up. One thing I am not too sure is the bass as I am now using it at the mid point of the bass switch and I intend to turn it all the way up later.
I want to talk about treble / mid / bass together because I want to emphasize that the transition is very coherent throughout. The sound is detailed at the treble but not overwhelming or fatiguing, and the mid is just heavenly. I don't have the tool with me now but I did turn the dials to half way and the bass is slightly weaker than the K10 at this point. SE846 is still my favorite bass IEM - I will test it tomorrow to see if the Layla's bass turned all the way up can match the deep and impactful bass that the SE846 has (with the neutral filters).
Overall Impression
I am deeply impressed by the Layla. At close to twice the price of my custom K-10, I am not sure if it is twice as good, but considering that my Layla is a universal version and my K-10 is custom-made, I would say that Layla does surpass the current heap of flagships that I have heard, including the K-10 and SE846. In the past 24 months I thought the IEM race should have come to an end, as more drivers would be impossible and anything that claims to improve upon the current batch would simply be a matter of tuning and taste. But I was wrong. The JH Audio Layla does stand out among the current flagships that I have heard. Although at twice the price of most of the top-of-the-line IEMs the law of diminishing return applies quite heavily, there is no doubt that the Layla stands as the best pair of IEMs I have heard since my journey for the holy grail began more than ten years ago.
Packing and Unboxing Pics
See below for packing pictures and unboxing pictures (there is a pic of my K10 as well)
Unboxing photos:
A bit of my IEM history. I started years ago with ER4P and then some of the then flagships, including SE530, TF10 Pro and Westone 3. Although the other flagships had improvements over the ER4P, I still missed the neutrality of the ER4P and its sensitivity to different equipment, including headphone amps and cables.
Fast forward a few years. I got some top of the line IEMs including the recent Noble Audio K-10 and the Shure SE846. I am very satisfied with them, with SE846 having an impeccable, deep and clean bass while K-10 reminds me the neutrality of the ER4P with a slight warmish hint. I also auditioned the Roxanne but it did not impress me much. Last Friday I heard the Layla demo unit and immediately fell in love with it. It bears a lot of similarity with the K-10 but the vocal imaging is even better and the sound stage and airiness is even better than the K-10. I thought my K-10 was the holy grail, until I heard the Layla. One caveat here: I have never owned any JH Audio products. I just had an audition of the Roxanne, probably not for a meaningful enough period of time. I know Jerry Harvey has made many wonderful products since he built JH Audio, including the JH13 Pro and JH16 Pro - regrettably I have not heard any of them so I won't be able to compare the Layla with them.
Soundstage / Imaging
First I tested it with my iPhone 6+. I immediately hear the difference with K-10. Although both are quite neutral, the Layla seems to have a slight more emphasis on low female vocal which brings the magic. I would say the Layla has a more "open" sound although it is a strange word to use for IEMs. As noted above, the imaging is very good on the Layla as compared with the K10, and the overall sound is more coherent and tight, thanks most probably to Freqphase.
I then changed to the 2.5mm balanced cable (the change was very easy as compared to switching cables on, say, the SE846). I turned on balanced mode on my AK240 and immediately I have no doubt that the Layla is made to match with the AK240 (sorry but I don't have a chance to test it on AK100 or AK120, which I don't have). Everything just sounds even better, I guess understandable as I was using the iPhone just now. It is the first time that I think my AK240 is totally worth it. Yes the AK240 sounds good with the K-10 too, especially with DSD or high res music, but the difference with iPhone out on the K10 is not worth >$2,000 IMO. Now with the Layla I can totally say that the AK240 was money well spent.
Soundstage is the most impressive aspect of the Layla in my opinion therefore I put it here first - even before the frequencies "analysis".
Treble / Mid / Bass
Getting so used to the K10, it is hard for me to say something new about the different frequency ranges. I will leave the frequency charts to the experts for a more objective view. From what I hear, the Layla simply matches and in the mids, surpassed the K10. It is almost everything like the K10 but take everything up one notch. Not a big step but a noticeable step up. One thing I am not too sure is the bass as I am now using it at the mid point of the bass switch and I intend to turn it all the way up later.
I want to talk about treble / mid / bass together because I want to emphasize that the transition is very coherent throughout. The sound is detailed at the treble but not overwhelming or fatiguing, and the mid is just heavenly. I don't have the tool with me now but I did turn the dials to half way and the bass is slightly weaker than the K10 at this point. SE846 is still my favorite bass IEM - I will test it tomorrow to see if the Layla's bass turned all the way up can match the deep and impactful bass that the SE846 has (with the neutral filters).
Overall Impression
I am deeply impressed by the Layla. At close to twice the price of my custom K-10, I am not sure if it is twice as good, but considering that my Layla is a universal version and my K-10 is custom-made, I would say that Layla does surpass the current heap of flagships that I have heard, including the K-10 and SE846. In the past 24 months I thought the IEM race should have come to an end, as more drivers would be impossible and anything that claims to improve upon the current batch would simply be a matter of tuning and taste. But I was wrong. The JH Audio Layla does stand out among the current flagships that I have heard. Although at twice the price of most of the top-of-the-line IEMs the law of diminishing return applies quite heavily, there is no doubt that the Layla stands as the best pair of IEMs I have heard since my journey for the holy grail began more than ten years ago.
Packing and Unboxing Pics
See below for packing pictures and unboxing pictures (there is a pic of my K10 as well)
Unboxing photos:
