[Edric Li]

not sure this is the right thread to ask about JH Audio. anyway, which JH Audio model got the warmest/lushest most intimate HQ Female Vocals/Upper mids?

i was reading a lot and i was about to order Layla and Angie, yet there are ton of other models and i dont know which will serve my needs the best. thanks in advance ^^

Not sure I understand the question. A warm midrange is a midrange with more lower mids than upper mids. Is that what you are looking for?

 

[mthaynes]

not sure this is the right thread to ask about JH Audio. anyway, which JH Audio model got the warmest/lushest most intimate HQ Female Vocals/Upper mids?

i was reading a lot and i was about to order Layla and Angie, yet there are ton of other models and i dont know which will serve my needs the best. thanks in advance ^^

Give JH a call. they can make a recommendation.

 

[cpurdy]

Would you agree JH Layla is still a very good reference IEM in the market today despite being released a long time ago?

And how is the acoustic sound chamber just a desig of to reduce shell size, or does it change the sound?

I would not describe it as a "reference IEM". Laylas are more like a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport: ridiculously overdone, expensive, and fun. When I think about a reference IEM, I'm thinking something that I wouldn't generally want to listen to anything on, unless I'm actually doing production work. Maybe a Westone would fit the bill.

I'm not sure that I understand the second part of your question. The problem with IEMs is that everything has to kind of fit inside of your ear, which is a small space, and that is hard to do when you're jamming multiple drivers in there. Furthermore, with multiple drivers, the designer must figure out how to get everything to be in sync so that it doesn't sound just mushy (or harsh); I'm pretty sure that a chunk of the JH work was spent figuring out how they wanted the resulting sound to be, and what that meant in terms of how those drivers were positioned within the IEM and how the sound was directed from the drivers to the ear canal. Not being very knowledgeable on the topic of IEM design itself, I'll just say that different IEMs seem to have vastly different sound signatures, and I happen to like the sound on my custom Laylas. I'm not sure that a pair of headphones can ever be "worth" as much as I paid for them, but these ones are pretty special to me.

 

[findthereal4]

Any idea why JH IEMs are no longer popular in China? They have shifted to 64 Audio, VE and Empire Ears.

Is the Aion much better than the Layla 2?

 

[Edric Li]

Any idea why JH IEMs are no longer popular in China? They have shifted to 64 Audio, VE and Empire Ears.

Is the Aion much better than the Layla 2?

If I am asked to tell the history as I saw it, it was because of the VE6. There was a wave of positive VE6 reviews and negative Roxanne UF reviews back in 2013/2014. Some of them were in good faith, some of them were paid by the China's then-VE distributor, some of them were just trying to sound correct.

64 Audio won a bit of the US market from JH back in 2014 when they launched a successful kickstarter campaign around the U10/U12. They didn't sound nearly as good as the U12 of today, but they did put up a good fight against the Roxanne. The popularity slowly spread over the world, eventually reaching China, when 1964 signed with some great Chinese distributors back in 2015(?).

Earwerkz didn't gain much momentum, when the Legend Omega's main selling point was a ridiculous crossover design, because frankly they they didn't sound good for the price. When they rebranded to EE, they sounded better, and filled a market void of basshead hi-end IEMs.

JH hit themselves in the foot when they rely solely on AK's China distributor to distribute JH products (the sirens series, the full metal series and the performance series). This distributor (based in Guangzhou, China) wasn't very good at enforcing MSRP, not nearly as good as 64 Audio's distributor. As a result, JH IEM lost value quickly in the used market, and no one was willing to buy new at MSRP.

tldr: Roxanne lost the battle against VE6 in China; 64 and EE won over the world, and eventually won over China. JH's poor distribution network in China made the matter worse.

 

[findthereal4]

Didn't 64 Audio mess up with their first China distributor? I heard the distributor themselves were allowing demos to be sold.

 

[Goofyboy84]

Question for you all. I’ve had a pair of IEMs for a few years now (Westone UM3X) and they’ve done well for me. Here in the next couple of weeks I am ordering Layla CIEMs with the 7 pin cable and going to pair them with Audioquest Cobalt amp/dac. I have the Cobalt already, as I just purchased it a couple of days ago. My music source is the iPhone 12 Pro Max and doing lossless / high resolution through iTunes, now.

Will I be ok with this setup? The salesman from JH audio is who recommended the Cobalt.

Thanks guys!

 

[GiullianSN]

Question for you all. I’ve had a pair of IEMs for a few years now (Westone UM3X) and they’ve done well for me. Here in the next couple of weeks I am ordering Layla CIEMs with the 7 pin cable and going to pair them with Audioquest Cobalt amp/dac. I have the Cobalt already, as I just purchased it a couple of days ago. My music source is the iPhone 12 Pro Max and doing lossless / high resolution through iTunes, now.

Will I be ok with this setup? The salesman from JH audio is who recommended the Cobalt.

Thanks guys!

It’s a great setup. I had it before. Only sold the cobalt because of the 3.5mm only output. Aside from that. It will match well with your new Layla.

 

[Goofyboy84]

It’s a great setup. I had it before. Only sold the cobalt because of the 3.5mm only output. Aside from that. It will match well with your new Layla.

Thank you. I honestly don’t know what I’m in for. It’s a blind purchase, but the Westone’s were also… and I was happy with those for quite a while! I’m guessing/hoping I’ll he pleasantly surprised!

 

[findthereal4]

Question on the design o Layla 2.

Why does the left Layla have the following differences?

--smoother faceplate edges
--longer 4pin connector slot (longer by one spin).
--lower 4pin height.

Both work fine and sound fine. Did JH change the design of Layla 2 half way through?

 

[Goofyboy84]

Question on the design o Layla 2.

Why does the left Layla have the following differences?

--smoother faceplate edges
--longer 4pin connector slot (longer by one spin).
--lower 4pin height.

Both work fine and sound fine. Did JH change the design of Layla 2 half way through?

I don’t know, but I almost like that threaded idea on yours VS my 7 pin cable that you basically push onto it. But that’s just me.

 

[cpurdy]

Question on the design o Layla 2.

Why does the left Layla have the following differences?

--smoother faceplate edges
--longer 4pin connector slot (longer by one spin).
--lower 4pin height.

Both work fine and sound fine. Did JH change the design of Layla 2 half way through?

They're hand made. There's going to be some variation.

For me, 90% of the benefit of the JH products is that they custom make them for my ears. So it's always weird to see a "universal fit" hand-made product

And yes, I also note some slight differences in build between left and right, but mine are custom fit. I like JH, but I'm always a bit surprised that the perfection in audio quality is not matched by a similar perfection in build quality. (It almost feels sacrilegious to say that.)

 

[findthereal4]

The Layla still stand up to the recent flagships such as Odin, Viking etc.
The soundstage, details, positioning of instruments on the Layla is still unique.

 

[eugene2]

Will the FiiO have the grunt to drive the Layla? I hope so, let me know - would be good to dabble!

FIIO M17 IS A BEAST DRIVING MY LAYLA'S. LUCKILY FOR ME I LIVE IN ORLANDO IT TOOK TWO DAYS OF CONTINUOUS REVISION (4 HOURS TOTAL) TO GET MY FIT CORRECT.. ONCE THEY LOCKED IN MY EARS THE SOUND SIGNATURE WAS AMAZING. I ALSO CHANGED THE CABLE AND WENT WITHOUT THE BASS ADJUSTMENT, STILL A GREAT IEM MY OTHER IEM OF NOTE IS THIEAUDIO MONARCH

 

[cpurdy]

LUCKILY FOR ME I LIVE IN ORLANDO IT TOOK TWO DAYS OF CONTINUOUS REVISION (4 HOURS TOTAL) TO GET MY FIT CORRECT..

I had considered flying down to do just that ... spending $4k on IEMs compared to spending a week in Orlando, the IEMs are obviously more expensive. My fit wasn't 100% perfect, but it's pretty good. Sometimes it takes 30-60 seconds of fiddling to get the seal that I want. (I don't use any of the wrapping materials or anything; just the IEMs as is.) But I would have loved an absolutely perfect fit the first time.