[Jalo]

This is a great review.  Your language is very easy to understand and to the point.  One question I keep asking myself is that if anyone has compare the Merlin to the JH16 as they are both billed as bass heavy.

 

[182751]

Intial Impressions: Boom, Boom, Pow...

No need to say more...
 
Detailed impressions and comparisons to come.

 

[i2ehan]

So your initial impressions of the black eyed peas are 

? Just kidding! 

 
What I'm looking forward to is simply this. If after you've listened to the Merlin, do you find the Miracle lacking bass weight/impact, or is the Miracle plenty while the Merlin is simply plenty more?

 

[greenmac]

x2

 

[maguire]

Got my hands on both as now they are just running in. From what i have heard so far i believe they are both different. Miracles have plenty of bass IF it is there.
Merlins have gobs of it. Still early though .....

 

[i2ehan]

Quote:

Got my hands on both as now they are just running in. From what i have heard so far i believe they are both different. Miracles have plenty of bass IF it is there.
Merlins have gobs of it. Still early though .....

Hmm... glad to know the Miracle has plenty of bass, especially when the track calls for it, but does that mean the Merlin sounds bass-heavy irrespective of the track/genre? This is primarily why I grew out of bass heavy signatures, such as the IE8, DDM2, etc.

 

[rrahman]

I don't understand how it or any headphone w/ that kinda FR wouldn't.
 
Quote:

Quote:
Hmm... glad to know the Miracle has plenty of bass, especially when the track calls for it, but does that mean the Merlin sounds bass-heavy irrespective of the track/genre? This is primarily why I grew out of bass heavy signatures, such as the IE8, DDM2, etc.

 

 

[i2ehan]

Take the FX700 for example. Exceptionally powerful lows, yet not necessarily overdone when listening to tracks where the bass is less demanding. On the other hand, the Hippo VB, for instance, overdoes it every time. If the Merlin's are more like the FX700's in that sense, and less like the VB's, they'd still spark my interest.

 

[kckc]

Has anyone heard the JH16 and Merlin who can help me in deciding between the two? Curious about things like build quality, overall sound signature between the two, customer service, bass comparison.

 

[phntmsmshr]

Quote:

Quote:
Hmm... glad to know the Miracle has plenty of bass, especially when the track calls for it, but does that mean the Merlin sounds bass-heavy irrespective of the track/genre? This is primarily why I grew out of bass heavy signatures, such as the IE8, DDM2, etc.

No not at all, there's no real midbass hump with the Merlins so genres like classical and pop don't suffer from misplaced "boom". Remember you've got quad mid/highs so Merlin does delicate almost as fluently as it does thump.
 
 

 

[rrahman]

How would the iem know to play bass or not? From my understanding It doesn't have any sort of processing of the input to discriminate signals as they come in... I've never heard the IEMs you referred, but my guess would be that this kinda thing all comes down how much bleeding occurs between low mids and bass. This relates to where the bass boost is in the FR which is all up to personal preferences.  Below 500hz like a merlin will have less bleeding or below 800hz like an IE8 will have more bleeding, but both of the iems regurgitate the signal regardless of whether its supposed to be there or not.
 
Quote:

Take the FX700 for example. Exceptionally powerful lows, yet not necessarily overdone when listening to tracks where the bass is less demanding. On the other hand, the Hippo VB, for instance, overdoes it every time. If the Merlin's are more like the FX700's in that sense, and less like the VB's, they'd still spark my interest.

 

 

[i2ehan]

Quote:

No not at all, there's no real midbass hump with the Merlins so genres like classical and pop don't suffer from misplaced "boom". Remember you've got quad mid/highs so Merlin does delicate almost as fluently as it does thump. 

Much appreciated my friend. That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. 

 

[project86]

Quote:

Has anyone heard the JH16 and Merlin who can help me in deciding between the two? Curious about things like build quality, overall sound signature between the two, customer service, bass comparison.

I'm not sure if anyone has - the closest I can think of is Average Joe, who has the JH16 and at one point had the (flawed) Merlin universal demo unit. I've got Merlin and JH13 which is not quite the same thing, but I'll address what I can:
 
Build quality - both are done very well, with UM being probably the best available and the JH just a small step behind. JH had better art capabilities but apparently UM recently acquired the equipment to do complex multi-color art as well.
 
Customer service - Again, both are very good. Dealing with JH you email direct with staff, often Brittany or Jerry himself. Dealing with UM, you go through the authorized dealer depending on where you are located. All of them have very good reputations from what I've read. Personally I deal with Stephen from custom-iem.com since he handles my region, and he offers top notch service and communication. So both companies will be good in this area.
 

 

[kckc]

Quote:

I'm not sure if anyone has - the closest I can think of is Average Joe, who has the JH16 and at one point had the (flawed) Merlin universal demo unit. I've got Merlin and JH13 which is not quite the same thing, but I'll address what I can:
 
Build quality - both are done very well, with UM being probably the best available and the JH just a small step behind. JH had better art capabilities but apparently UM recently acquired the equipment to do complex multi-color art as well.
 
Customer service - Again, both are very good. Dealing with JH you email direct with staff, often Brittany or Jerry himself. Dealing with UM, you go through the authorized dealer depending on where you are located. All of them have very good reputations from what I've read. Personally I deal with Stephen from custom-iem.com since he handles my region, and he offers top notch service and communication. So both companies will be good in this area.
 

Thanks for your comparison between the JH13 and Merlin, both companies seem excellent in this field. I will keep hoping that someday soon someone can post a review comparing the two.

Also, wanted to say great review on the UM Merlin!
 

 

[182751]

 
Hey All,
There has been a lot of interest in my opinions on cables, CIEM, DAC and amp comparisons. I've received a few PM's about this and plan to address all of them. But I haven't had time to really do a session of critical listening to compare these. So with that in mind, I'm hoping to get some results this weekend for all but cable compares... So I'll be able to shed some light on the Merlin vs. Miracle and such.
 
Interestingly I got a PM from a Head-fier mentioning that the ZO has bridged the gap between the Miracle and the Merlin bass wise. I've got my name down for the ZO v2, so can't comment yet, waiting for release info. But this could be a very good option for most.
 
As for the cables, I'll be comparing stock vs silver, and also TWag v2 Eclipse vs. the new Silver UM Cable from AmpCity. So I will hold my judgement of these cables until I have received the UM cable also
 
Thanks for you patience,
 
Aaron