JH Audio Layla Impressions Thread
Feb 5, 2015 at 12:07 AM Post #121 of 2,420
 
Correct me if I am wrong - but the Layla is still a three way headphone - so the tuning is a bit easier than tuning 12 individual drivers - those headphone would be MASSIVE - they would have to have a flesh colored portion so they could look like they were part of your ear from a distance....


4th order crossover
 
Feb 5, 2015 at 1:51 AM Post #122 of 2,420
"Moving Iron" and "Moving Coil" are just the results of poor translation from Chinese. They are the literal translations for "Balanced Armature" and "Dynamic Driver" in Chinese.
 
Feb 5, 2015 at 8:52 AM Post #124 of 2,420
 
This started with JHA. At the time, the JH13 was hailed as the latest and greatest partly because of the number of drivers it had. Then they had Roxanne going down the same path, Angie vs Layla, etc.
 
Other manufacturers don't all seem to have been going down that same road though. The new ACS Encore has less drivers than the JH13 from yesteryear; Lear's flagship has only 4 BA's (and 2 Dynamics). AAW's flagship: 5 drivers. EarWerkz: 8. Hidition: 6. Spiral Ears: 5. And the list goes on...
 
I truly think we've gone past the driver arms race at this point.

While it started with JHA, I think the 13 got it's recognition because it was good, especially at volume and there are sound 
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technical reasons for doubling up the drivers. Lower distortion from 1/2ing the individual drivers load and cancelling mechanical vibration, which can modulate a signal at it's source. There can always be debate about how important more than a 2 way or more than 2 drivers per range is but what he did with the 13 was sound engineering. Generally these are more than 2 way for better linearity, extension or voicing reasons. There's been a lot of other makers stacking drivers and overlapping ranges for evening a response curve. JH has never used that approach and gone further in the other direction with these 2 models by using steep crossover slopes. There's no lobing from gentle slopes in IEMs like in speakers so steep slopes don't have that advantage here but no 2 drivers types have identical phase in system so steep slopes and less overlap should be better if other aspects (phase + linearity) don't get worse. 4th (as opposed to 2nd or 3rd) order is probably used because it sounds back in phase when done well. In theory, they should have low noise floors, especially in complex material and limit haze.
 
Feb 5, 2015 at 9:02 AM Post #125 of 2,420
 
Correct me if I am wrong - but the Layla is still a three way headphone - so the tuning is a bit easier than tuning 12 individual drivers - those headphone would be MASSIVE - they would have to have a flesh colored portion so they could look like they were part of your ear from a distance....

Depends on how it's done and what type of drivers. 4 bass drivers like JH uses takes up more space than all the rest for instance and 4th order networks need a lot more components. As described above, a lot of the multi driver units may only have one part or even none in front of a driver and they all tend to use siamesed pairs somewhere if more than 3 driver. Placement also becomes much easier if a maker doesn't feel things like freqphase matter.
 
Feb 6, 2015 at 9:44 AM Post #129 of 2,420
This started with JHA. At the time, the JH13 was hailed as the latest and greatest partly because of the number of drivers it had. Then they had Roxanne going down the same path, Angie vs Layla, etc.
 
Other manufacturers don't all seem to have been going down that same road though. The new ACS Encore has less drivers than the JH13 from yesteryear; Lear's flagship has only 4 BA's (and 2 Dynamics). AAW's flagship: 5 drivers. EarWerkz: 8. Hidition: 6. Spiral Ears: 5. And the list goes on...
 
I truly think we've gone past the driver arms race at this point.

 
I do hope so, bro. We'd ideally like to avoid a situation where the number of drivers provides the impression of greater quality. Something akin to the camera megapixel race; although that focused directly on the general consumers, which probably made up the bulk of the sales the manufacturers make.
 
Feb 9, 2015 at 6:14 AM Post #130 of 2,420
Posted my own impressions of the JHA Angie and JHA Layla on my brief review thread, if anyone is interested.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/746615/59-iem-brief-review-thread-incl-aaw-w300-jha-angie-jha-layla-cleartune-ct-500/210#post_11304530
 
Feb 10, 2015 at 9:09 AM Post #134 of 2,420
Well, similar to the OP, am also a longtime lurker here - now first time poster, and proud owner of a pair of Layla's.
My first IEMs were Westone 4Rs. I then owned a pair of AKG 3003i's which blew me away, but were sadly stolen. And until yesterday, 846s were my day to day IEMs driven by an AK240.
Am in Hong Kong this week so popped into my favourite headphone shop after checking to see if they had the new Sirens in stock, which predictably they did. Have followed the reviews and feedback for JH Audio IEMs for a while - read the Roxanne impressions thread here from start to finish yesterday (where I learnt about the new sirens.... but managed to get no work done) - but wasn't left convinced. I know you have to try these things for yourself - but I get a lot of due-diligence insight by sampling the consensus view on head-fi.
I tried both Layla and Angie today - in that order - which was probably a mistake. To my ears, Layla appeared to be in a different class - and after just a few tracks with Angie - I had to put her down. I would love to be able to articulate exactly the difference - but I can't other than I know immediately a sound that impresses me and one that doesn't - especially back to back. I think it was the difference in clarity - but can't be sure. The difference was very clear to me though.
I listened in the shop to Layla for about 30mins - but the asking price made me nervous about making a mistake. So I did a deal where I could take the demo Layla home (paying for them in full) - and then get a refund tomorrow if they weren't to my liking, or swap them over for a new pair if they were. 
Since being home, have managed to listen to them for an hour with absolutely all types of genre - from baroque classical to heavy metal and plenty of different types of vocals in-between. I am seriously impressed. The 846's simply - to these ears anyway - cannot hold a candle to Layla. I haven't listened to a single track that sounded better on the 846s so far. The 846's base seems overpowering (standard filter) and is clearly muddying the treble in my listening. The separation and clarity of Layla is clearly superior. But then it ought to be.... 
The treble I loved so much in my 3003i's seems to be present in Layla, but a little less forward - maybe missing a touch of their sparkle (from memory which is unreliable). But the 3003i's were lacking in base for my liking. Layla falls somewhere between them and the 846's in the base department (12 O'clock Layla setting) - which is exactly what I was looking for. So as far as I can tell given my short time with the demos - these may be the IEM's I have been hoping for but didn't expect to find.
Assuming my listening tonight goes well - I intend to swap these demos out for a new pair tomorrow. And happy to post further experiences along the break-in journey. Incidentally, the demo pair apparently only have a few hours of burn-in (3.5mm). The 2.5mm had no burn-in and sounded tight in brief comparison - so I will stick to the unbalanced cable for my assessment time. Plan on using the 2.5mm with my own pair though. All listening so far has been done on the AK240 with DSD or FLAC. 
 
There goes my head-fi cherry.... love this place - have learnt so much from you all - thank you....
 
Feb 10, 2015 at 1:39 PM Post #135 of 2,420
  Well, similar to the OP, am also a longtime lurker here - now first time poster, and proud owner of a pair of Layla's.
My first IEMs were Westone 4Rs. I then owned a pair of AKG 3003i's which blew me away, but were sadly stolen. And until yesterday, 846s were my day to day IEMs driven by an AK240.
Am in Hong Kong this week so popped into my favourite headphone shop after checking to see if they had the new Sirens in stock, which predictably they did. Have followed the reviews and feedback for JH Audio IEMs for a while - read the Roxanne impressions thread here from start to finish yesterday (where I learnt about the new sirens.... but managed to get no work done) - but wasn't left convinced. I know you have to try these things for yourself - but I get a lot of due-diligence insight by sampling the consensus view on head-fi.
I tried both Layla and Angie today - in that order - which was probably a mistake. To my ears, Layla appeared to be in a different class - and after just a few tracks with Angie - I had to put her down. I would love to be able to articulate exactly the difference - but I can't other than I know immediately a sound that impresses me and one that doesn't - especially back to back. I think it was the difference in clarity - but can't be sure. The difference was very clear to me though.
I listened in the shop to Layla for about 30mins - but the asking price made me nervous about making a mistake. So I did a deal where I could take the demo Layla home (paying for them in full) - and then get a refund tomorrow if they weren't to my liking, or swap them over for a new pair if they were. 
Since being home, have managed to listen to them for an hour with absolutely all types of genre - from baroque classical to heavy metal and plenty of different types of vocals in-between. I am seriously impressed. The 846's simply - to these ears anyway - cannot hold a candle to Layla. I haven't listened to a single track that sounded better on the 846s so far. The 846's base seems overpowering (standard filter) and is clearly muddying the treble in my listening. The separation and clarity of Layla is clearly superior. But then it ought to be.... 
The treble I loved so much in my 3003i's seems to be present in Layla, but a little less forward - maybe missing a touch of their sparkle (from memory which is unreliable). But the 3003i's were lacking in base for my liking. Layla falls somewhere between them and the 846's in the base department (12 O'clock Layla setting) - which is exactly what I was looking for. So as far as I can tell given my short time with the demos - these may be the IEM's I have been hoping for but didn't expect to find.
Assuming my listening tonight goes well - I intend to swap these demos out for a new pair tomorrow. And happy to post further experiences along the break-in journey. Incidentally, the demo pair apparently only have a few hours of burn-in (3.5mm). The 2.5mm had no burn-in and sounded tight in brief comparison - so I will stick to the unbalanced cable for my assessment time. Plan on using the 2.5mm with my own pair though. All listening so far has been done on the AK240 with DSD or FLAC. 
 
There goes my head-fi cherry.... love this place - have learnt so much from you all - thank you....


Would it be possible to, by memory, compare the Angies to the 846s?  I use the white filters and find them an improvement over the standard.  But, in general, what do you think?
 

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