[tyeck]

I'm one of who had them burned in for 200 hrs and for me there is a huge difference. I'd say they are very detailed ime and I've compared them to Abyss, hd800 but of course not close to the Orpheus. I hope you'll enjoy yours in time

Thanks for the words of hope and encouragement and I am really hoping that the burn-in will make the difference. Of course everyone has different frames of reference so I would like to ask a favor of you to give me some perspective.
 
One of my favorite test tracks for high-end response is Pink Floyd's Happiest Days of Our Lives (The Wall). There is a 16th time hi-hat cymbal in that track starting at about 0.39. On all 3 my main audio systems (high-end, home theater and desktop) as well as my HD650 and also from memory, my UE 10 Pro, that cymbal is fairly prominent. On the Roxannes it is not prominent at all. The first few 5 beat salvos are there but veiled. After that, the constant cymbal is very indistinct. If I did not listen for it I would almost not notice it. Even the vocals sound like they are behind The Wall . So for me it is not that the Roxannes are merely laid-back vs. my personal preferences. I feel the Roxannes are completely almost hiding some detail.
 
Would you possibly be able to do a comparison of that track on your different headphones etc. and let me know your impressions? If you hear it distinctly and prominently and consider them as detailed as your HD 800 then I will have some hope and will explore with you further about DAP/Dac/Amp pairings etc. and hold out for burn in. Thanks again.

 

[kantana]

Try tuning the bass pot down on the Roxannes, when I tried the universals they were set at max bass, the bass drowned out quite a bit of the highs.

 

[tyeck]

I agree. I had already turned mine all the way down and it did improve things a little.

 

[soullinker20]

Thanks for the words of hope and encouragement and I am really hoping that the burn-in will make the difference. Of course everyone has different frames of reference so I would like to ask a favor of you to give me some perspective.

One of my favorite test tracks for high-end response is Pink Floyd's Happiest Days of Our Lives (The Wall). There is a 16th time hi-hat cymbal in that track starting at about 0.39. On all 3 my main audio systems (high-end, home theater and desktop) as well as my HD650 and also from memory, my UE 10 Pro, that cymbal is fairly prominent. On the Roxannes it is not prominent at all. The first few 5 beat salvos are there but veiled. After that, the constant cymbal is very indistinct. If I did not listen for it I would almost not notice it. Even the vocals sound like they are behind The Wall . So for me it is not that the Roxannes are merely laid-back vs. my personal preferences. I feel the Roxannes are completely almost hiding some detail.

Would you possibly be able to do a comparison of that track on your different headphones etc. and let me know your impressions? If you hear it distinctly and prominently and consider them as detailed as your HD 800 then I will have some hope and will explore with you further about DAP/Dac/Amp pairings etc. and hold out for burn in. Thanks again.

Will try these if time permits me. Those impressions of yours were also my impressions before. But now after burn in i had the bass at 12 but don't sound as warm as before. When it comes to cymbals, the way i see it, Roxanne doesn't have the spark like what I get on the 13fp and k10 and others. The highs for me are on the thinner side but plentiful in quantity (cymbals). So for me, that spark missing on the Rox gives the listener more effort to focus and listen to the details unlike on the k10 and 13fp, it's easily heard. I made a lot of ABs with rox and others, they are not as upfront as like the previous models, these also gives the impression of how the listener interprets how the headphone/ciem/iem delivers details imho.

 

[Currawong]

Sock-drawer them for a while. The drivers in JH IEMs are notorious for requiring time. I had no bass on my JH-13FP and, after a while, it suddenly appeared.

 

[wackoip]

Hi, A newbie here to the forum. Just to vouch for the 200 hours burn-in of the AK Roxanne. When I first got them I hated them because they sound so dark and thick as the other described. I gave them 48 hours burn-in and they still sounded the same. I have been using my SE846 (warm filter) with the Wagnus"proton" 2.5 balanced cable with my AK240 so you can tell I'm used to the "grain and layering" described by Spamateur. Anyway after I heard about the lengthy burn-in required by JH headphones I decided to just leave them there to burn for seven straight days so at the end there was about 216 hours of burn-in time and voila! they just opened up. It was all in a sudden as described by Currawong as I remembered I tried listening to them at the end of the fourth day and the sound was still "veiled". Now when I compared Roxanne balanced to the 846 with proton I can say the treble is not far off. It's still no where near the "grain" as heard in 846 but it's very smooth and controlled. (apology if this is a poor description, I'm new remember?). For instance when I listened to Norah Jones (24/192) "Don't know why" when she reaches the high notes the 846 took the treble to a point where the "grains" can be too much whereas Roxanne was very smooth and not harsh. As for bass the Roxanne is very punchy (half past two) and yet more realistic not like the bloated bass you get sometimes with the 846. While overall transparency I still prefer 846 there are a large number of recordings I would prefer Roxanne over 846. So I guess it also depends on the different type of music and sources of mix you can get. For instance the new Black Keys album sounds a lot better with 846. But I'm happy now with the AK Roxanne but I was really sweating for the first few days that I made a wrong purchase.

 

[soullinker20]

^ i almost gave up on the Roxanne and thankfully being more patient with the burn-in they opened up and don't sound veiled anymore. This was also my experience with my 13fp. I think they require at least 100 hrs before you hear changes.

With regards to this... I ABed Roxanne vs Rhines Audio stage 4 Demo for a lot of time

The stage 4 has only 4 BA drivers but 4 big BA drivers the BAs if im not mistaken are as big as the DW of the fitear 335

They are very impressive. The bass of those are the closest thing i heard to a dynamic driver. They have more weighty solid punch than Rox and k10 for me.
But still i do find the Roxanne at 12 to have the most natural vocals. I'll have to see it again if my incoming stage 5 can match.

 

[BRCMRGN]

I dialed back the bass on my Roxanne UF to 9:00 and finally the bass doesn't overwhelm the mid-range. Big improvement. Now if only I could solve the smelly cable problem solved. It smells like onion/garlick. The smell is very strong and leaving them out for a few days didn't seem to lessen the odor. Next, I tried wiping down with a Clorox wipe followed by a damp cloth - no change. Anybody else having this problem with the black cable?

 

[Wilderbeast]

So, I've had the Roxanne for a couple of weeks now. The cable is a monster but the earpieces fit perfectly. For some reason (probably the number of drivers) I expected them to be enormous, but they are no bigger than other customs I've owned. 
 
As for the sound I have to say that I'm....... disappointed. 
 
They sound dark to me, and notes are thick. Too thick for my liking, to the point that there seems to be little air surrounding instruments. Treble is in the background (a little like Shure SE846 with blue filters) and I find myself straining to hear it. Overall the signature seems a little, erm, flat. Not a flat frequency frequency response, just flat like a warm coke, with little life or sparkle. 
 
I have them burning day and night in a drawer at home, and I'm really hoping they 'open up' as others have experienced. In the meantime I'm regretting not going for the JH 13 fp. I'll post an update in a couple of weeks.

 

[Kunlun]

I'm politely sceptical about the burn-in of balanced armatures (and every large scale buyer from Knowles and Sonion can ask for adjustments within certain limits, so there's nothing special about the "proprietary" drivers JHA uses that doesn't also apply to the ones others use). However, people can get used to a certain sound.
The primary tuning of the Roxanne won't change. I think you'll find the jh13fp to be a brrighter, clearer sound with a less weighty quality to notes in the lower range. I think the jh13 has a better balance of subbass to midbass than the roxanne. However, the roxanne has more headroom, so as volume gets dangerously loud (watch out for hearing damage), the roxanne will hold together better.

 

[Wilderbeast]

I'm politely sceptical about the burn-in of balanced armatures (and every large scale buyer from Knowles and Sonion can ask for adjustments within certain limits, so there's nothing special about the "proprietary" drivers JHA uses that doesn't also apply to the ones others use). However, people can get used to a certain sound.
The primary tuning of the Roxanne won't change. I think you'll find the jh13fp to be a brrighter, clearer sound with a less weighty quality to notes in the lower range. I think the jh13 has a better balance of subbass to midbass than the roxanne. However, the roxanne has more headroom, so as volume gets dangerously loud (watch out for hearing damage), the roxanne will hold together better.

 
I'm not too convinced about burn-in either. I'm just going to force myself to love them - they're too expensive not to!
 
When I return to my UM Miracle it feels like aaaaahhhh. There's space in the music to take in each instrument separately, rather than being subjected to a thick layer of sound.
 
I do find that the Roxanne sounds better at higher volumes - which reminds me of the Westone 4 - but I don't always want to listen to loud music. 
 
If nothing else, the Roxanne has helped me realise the type of sound I prefer: spacious with prominent treble rather than dark and smooth. I'll be waiting for more reviews of new IEMs before ordering in future. I can definitely see myself ordering the JH 13 fp, though not until I've given the Roxanne another couple of months.

 

[nnotis]

Sometimes I wonder if you guys have the same IEMs I do.  I certainly wouldn't call them dark.  They're definitely more bright than my 2009 JH13s, and considerably more so than my Rev1 LCD-2s from 2010.  On sibilant recordings, they can actually be pretty punishing.
 
Regardless, it seems like JH Audio needs to make a treble adjusting cable.

 

[blackads]

One of my favorite test tracks for high-end response is Pink Floyd's Happiest Days of Our Lives (The Wall). There is a 16th time hi-hat cymbal in that track starting at about 0.39. On all 3 my main audio systems (high-end, home theater and desktop) as well as my HD650 and also from memory, my UE 10 Pro, that cymbal is fairly prominent. On the Roxannes it is not prominent at all. The first few 5 beat salvos are there but veiled. After that, the constant cymbal is very indistinct. If I did not listen for it I would almost not notice it. Even the vocals sound like they are behind The Wall . So for me it is not that the Roxannes are merely laid-back vs. my personal preferences. I feel the Roxannes are completely almost hiding some detail.

Would you possibly be able to do a comparison of that track on your different headphones etc. and let me know your impressions? If you hear it distinctly and prominently and consider them as detailed as your HD 800 then I will have some hope and will explore with you further about DAP/Dac/Amp pairings etc. and hold out for burn in. Thanks again.

Just listened to it (flac rip of the cd) on my ak240 with roxannes - bass set at 12 o'clock. My roxannes have about 500 hours on them). Great sounding track by the way. Hihat was prominent but not overbearing, clearly distinguishable 16ths. Crisp cymbal splashes, deep, articulate punchy bass - good imaging in the drum breakout just before the end. I wouldnt describe my Roxannes as dark, mellow maybe, but the overwhelming sense I get is space - and that they cruise along responding effortlessly to the dynamics . Now continuing to listen to the wall -- the exhale at the beginning of mother sounded eerily lifelike..

 

[tyeck]

Just listened to it (flac rip of the cd) on my ak240 with roxannes - bass set at 12 o'clock. My roxannes have about 500 hours on them). Great sounding track by the way. Hihat was prominent but not overbearing, clearly distinguishable 16ths. Crisp cymbal splashes, deep, articulate punchy bass - good imaging in the drum breakout just before the end. I wouldnt describe my Roxannes as dark, mellow maybe, but the overwhelming sense I get is space - and that they cruise along responding effortlessly to the dynamics . Now continuing to listen to the wall -- the exhale at the beginning of mother sounded eerily lifelike..

Thanks much for taking the time to listen and give your feedback. Your impressions make me feel a whole lot better that it might just be mine that sound like that (currently) and that it is not a systemic characteristic. Mine are back in Florida right now for a refit and Andy said he would test them. Hopefully they find an issue that an be corrected. If not, I will just hope that burn-in makes a significant difference. But, your post gives me hope. Thanks again.

 

[soullinker20]

I've just auditioned the Mentor, k10 again and Roxanne. Still it was Roxanne for me, but I would pick k10 over Mentor for that matter.