It’s always great seeing Andy and Sue Regan at JH Audio. Great, fun people with tremendous product knowledge and a relaxed air about them. They really had a nice setup at CanJam this year and some mighty fine sounding IEMs as usual. JH had tables set up with nice T-shaped holders to display the IEMs along with Astell & Kern digital audio players loaded with music to pair with the IEMs. They even had a lounge of sorts and a monster JH Audio logo sign with dozens, maybe hundreds, of the big music names that use their products although I have yet to see a Jude Mansilla and the Head-Fi’ers album at our local record shops. I will keep an eye out for that one.
What caught my eye, and ear, was the high quality of sound throughout the line. At just $599, you get three drivers with the 3X Pro model. Even at this price point you get JH’s FreqPhase technology which is a waveguide inside the IEM to improve driver alignment and improve the sound. This creates a flatter frequency response across bass, mids, and highs. Noise isolation is very good, -26db if you get the custom version.
At the other end of the spectrum are JH16v2 Pro at $1,499 which have a built-in adjustable tone controls so you can turn down the bass if it is too heavy. Sixteen drivers? Sounds like a Molly Ringwald movie… but, damn, it sounds sooo good. Frequency response is 10hz to 23khz and an impedance of 18 ohms. Gorgeous liquid midrange, firm bass, airy on top…what’s not to like. Bass is adjustable on the cable from 0 to +10db with a small screwdriver. Neat. I played My Sweet Lord by George Harrison, a favorite track found on the AK300. Glorious. Next up was The Beatles Help! on the AK380 copper flagship. Heaven. There seems to be a nice synergy between Astell & Kern and JH Audio.
Don’t take my word for it. There were a lot of people checking out JH Audio when I was there. One of the more popular booths at CanJam and deservedly so.
