[Marat Sar]

That's a cool question and Imma let people answer that but before, I gotta ask a considerably more stupid question: which side is of the Layla (JH audio) cable is left and which is right? Is the red dot left? And the blue right?

 

[fiascogarcia]

  That's a cool question and Imma let people answer that but before, I gotta ask a considerably more stupid question: which side is of the Layla (JH audio) cable is left and which is right? Is the red dot left? And the blue right?

Red is right with cables, blue left.

 

[iichigoz]

Received my Layla and am completely wowed by it.

 

[sutjahjo]

BTW, has anyone tried the Layla-II?

 

[Marat Sar]

  Really enjoying this thread…coming very happily from custom roxannes (and before that custom es5), im now looking for that next level upgrade. Layla has been on my radar and ive researched it everywhere I can. (will demo in Singapore hopefully next month when I visit).
 
Im looking for that beautiful soundstage, glorious bass (im a mid level basshead with roxanne on 2 oclock mostly), and general musicality for my main points of an upgrade. At this top tier level, discussions can become more animated or also praising.

So my latest question to put out there is how does the layla compare to A12, and UM Legacy? cheers!

 
Sorry, stole your thunder there so I'll try and answer a bit, though I haven't tried the A12 or UM Legacy. I would say if soundstage and airy presentation are what you're looking for, you will be surprised at how open these sound and I doubt you will find anything that's significantly superior in those regards. Lushness of tone - the bewildering amount of different timbers presented at once, really at maximum here. Also, I doubt soundstage in an IEM will get any larger soon.
 
Clarity-wise the KSE 1500 is definitely better (haven't heard it, but so they say). And being balancaed armature drivers the music sometimes has a feel of haging in the ghostly soundstage, suspeded in mid air, for your viewing in all it's lushness, like an exploded view of the song - BUT! Without much dynamic motion forward, like you get with dynamic drivers that really make you tap along etc. 
 
So - kings of lushness and airy soundstage. As dynamic as any BA I've heard but nowhere near the speed of dynamics. They really are perfect at doing what they set out to do. Tonality is flawless, btw. Bass clean and epic, enough for a mid-level basshead, treble amazingly natural and airy, flawless mids. Only thing it doesn't have is that lower mids bump people like, but they are in no way thin without it. 

 

[jpmilner]

  Excellent!  Did you notice any problems with the sound signature being too dark or muddy? I received my customs last week, but had to re-send due to some fit issues (sitting too deep in ear canals). Hopefully, it was a fit problem, but was curious if you (or anyone else in this thread) experienced this as well with their customs. 

 
After five days with them, I think I know what you are talking about. Until I received my Laylas I did most of my editing work with a set of heavily modified T-50RPs. Those cans out perform nearly everything at my disposal but they are too big and bulky to travel with. I was even more blown away by how great they sounded straight out of my iphone. It wasn't until I plugged them into my recording rig that I started noticing this dark veil to the sound. I chalked it up to a need for burn-in or a brain adjustment and kept working. It wasn't until today when I had time to sit down and really listen to music and play around with the equipment that I'm traveling with.
 
Sidenote: I'm truly nitpicking at this point. These headphones are glorious. They are everything that I've wanted in a TOTL can in a portable setup that won't take up my entire carry on allowance.
 
My portable studio setup is MBP->Apogee Quartet->Layla. And straight out of the headphone jack where my PlanarFrankenCans sound amazing the Layla seems covered and bottled up. So I started A/Bing tracks using my iphone 6+, my GO-DAP DD Socket 1 (MUSE02), and my FiiO amp (hey... it's all I've got on the road with me).
 
Straight out of my iPhone Layla sounds pretty good. The veil is gone, but the soundstage is still a little tight. But I was encouraged by the change in the sound signature so I kept experimenting. As soon as I added the DD and the FiiO into the mix I nearly leapt out of my chair. All of the clarity and soundstage hype was exploding into my cranium. Further encouraged by the changes I added the FiiO to my signal chain for my recording rig (MBP-Quartet-FiiO-Layla). The upside is that the sonic clarity and soundstage are everything you expect and so much more. The downside is that my poor FiiO, which was always the weak link, puts out a mild hiss. It's not so bad that it ruins everything but it's there.

At this point, my only conclusion is that these things are ridiculously power hungry. And Layla gets hangry. Feed her. Feed her well and she will keep you happy.

 

[kimD]

After five days with them, I think I know what you are talking about. Until I received my Laylas I did most of my editing work with a set of heavily modified T-50RPs. Those cans out perform nearly everything at my disposal but they are too big and bulky to travel with. I was even more blown away by how great they sounded straight out of my iphone. It wasn't until I plugged them into my recording rig that I started noticing this dark veil to the sound. I chalked it up to a need for burn-in or a brain adjustment and kept working. It wasn't until today when I had time to sit down and really listen to music and play around with the equipment that I'm traveling with.

Sidenote: I'm truly nitpicking at this point. These headphones are glorious. They are everything that I've wanted in a TOTL can in a portable setup that won't take up my entire carry on allowance.

My portable studio setup is MBP->Apogee Quartet->Layla. And straight out of the headphone jack where my PlanarFrankenCans sound amazing the Layla seems covered and bottled up. So I started A/Bing tracks using my iphone 6+, my GO-DAP DD Socket 1 (MUSE02), and my FiiO amp (hey... it's all I've got on the road with me).

Straight out of my iPhone Layla sounds pretty good. The veil is gone, but the soundstage is still a little tight. But I was encouraged by the change in the sound signature so I kept experimenting. As soon as I added the DD and the FiiO into the mix I nearly leapt out of my chair. All of the clarity and soundstage hype was exploding into my cranium. Further encouraged by the changes I added the FiiO to my signal chain for my recording rig (MBP-Quartet-FiiO-Layla). The upside is that the sonic clarity and soundstage are everything you expect and so much more. The downside is that my poor FiiO, which was always the weak link, puts out a mild hiss. It's not so bad that it ruins everything but it's there.


At this point, my only conclusion is that these things are ridiculously power hungry. And Layla gets hangry. Feed her. Feed her well and she will keep you happy.

How did you consider for iAudioGate player for iPhone?

The sound pretty recent and nicer than original iPhone music player

 

[jpmilner]

 
How long did the whole process take?

I placed my order on the 15th of January and received my customs on the 23rd of February. I ordered mine thru Dr Glick at Musician's Hearing Solutions in NYC because I was there to get new impressions and an ear cleaning. I don't know if that made the ordering process longer or not.
 
Dr Glick took perfect impressions and consequently I have perfect customs with no need for a refit.

 

[jpmilner]

How did you consider for iAudioGate player for iPhone?

The sound pretty recent and nicer than original iPhone music player

I will check it out. Honestly, Layla doesn't really go "out and about" with me so I don't really listen thru my iPhone that often... I have a pair of Aurisonic AS-2 that are now my backup pair that are safe to go out and about.

 

[kimD]

I will check it out. Honestly, Layla doesn't really go "out and about" with me so I don't really listen thru my iPhone that often... I have a pair of Aurisonic AS-2 that are now my backup pair that are safe to go out and about.

Agree with you, especially the carbon fiber case

 

[No KNOTsense]

 
At this point, my only conclusion is that these things are ridiculously power hungry. And Layla gets hangry. Feed her. Feed her well and she will keep you happy.

I would agree with that. My Laylas sound quite a bit better out of my Mojo than my ZX2. Better instrument separations and the soundstage is much wider. Honestly the soundstage is so large and open on the Laylas with the Mojo that it can sometimes feel surreal that their iems.

 

[bflat]

I think power is one thing that Layla requires, but I also think it basically needs 0 ohm output impedance as well. I remember seeing a frequency versus impedance chart for Angie and it has high frequencies dropping to 5 ohms or so.

 

[eddyheadphone]

Twice more expensive than k10...

 

[DrSheep]

Twice more expensive than k10...

Yep, but remember, that don't do the same thing and both good in its own way.

 

[ubs28]

Twice more expensive than k10...

And more than twice as expensive than a pair of Adam A7X studio monitors. Pretty sure you get better mixing and mastering done on those speakers