ears

Jerry Harvey got into the headphone business by making in-ear monitors for just a few musician friends, and went on to build headphones for hundreds of bands, and now counts Mary J. Blige, Godsmack, Guns 'N' Roses, Alicia Keys, Eddie Vedder, and the Glee Live Tour as customers.

Harvey pioneered two-way (bass/treble) in-ear designs in 1995, and later the first three-way (bass, mid, treble) in-ear monitors. Harvey's multiple driver designs produce less distortion and increase dynamic range compared with conventional single-driver headphones, which include all of the standard headphones from Etymotic, Monster, Skullcandy, Sony, etc. The JH16 Pro I'm reviewing here is the world's first eight-driver, three-way in-ear headphone, and its sound is revelatory.

I reviewed the JH Audio's 13 Pro in-ear headphones last year in this blog, and the JH16 shares a lot of the same technology, but the big difference is in the bass. The JH16 has four low-frequency drivers (the JH13 uses two), two midrange, and two high-frequency drivers--for a total of eight drivers per channel. Both headphones feature "balanced armature" drivers, which are proprietary to JH Audio, and they're designed by Jerry Harvey.

The sound is addicting; once you've gotten used to hearing this kind of uber resolution, it's hard to go back to merely excellent in-ear headphones like my old Etymotic ER-4P ($300). I haven't heard any of Etymotic's latest designs, but the ER-4P now sounds small, cramped, and hopelessly outclassed by the JH16. Can't afford $1,149? JH Audio offers a range of custom in-ear models; prices start at $399 for the JH 5 Pro.

The JH16 is super efficient, so it can play louder, a lot louder than most headphones while being driven by iPhones, iPods, and Zunes' puny built-in headphone amplifiers.

Each JH16 is a unique hand-built creation, based on custom ear molds. The company's Web site has a list of recommended audiologists who make the molds (for around $100). Building a JH16 is a labor-intensive process; each headphone takes five hours to complete and test in the company's factory in Florida. … Read more

The Ultimate Ears 18 Pro Custom Monitors are really expensive, but the best stuff always is. Then again, $1,350 may be a lot for headphones, but it's cheap for state-of-the-art speakers. Wilson Audio's Sasha W/P floorstanding speaker is in the middle of the company's line, and it goes for $27,000 a pair; Magico's entry-level tower model, the V2, runs $18,000 a pair. The UE 18 Pro is on par with them, it's that good. It's the best headphone UE makes, but UE's custom fitted models start at $399 for the UE 4 Pro, and universal fit UE models start at $50.

The UE 18 Pro is no "earbud," those things are placed in the cupped area around the outer ear canal; in-ear headphones fit into and, most importantly, seal the ear canal. The isolation from outside noise allows listening at significantly lower volume, so it's safer to rock out with in-ears than earbuds. The UE 18 Pro's custom fit (more about that later) hushes outside noise more completely than standard in-ear designs. With external noise hushed, you hear a lot more detail and subtlety from your music.

Never heard of Ultimate Ears? That's understandable; the company originally made its mark building custom in-ear stage monitors for musicians, including Aerosmith, Arcade Fire, Mary J. Blige, John Fogerty, the Rolling Stones, Linkin Park, and hundreds of other touring bands.

I'll tell you this: the UE 18 Pro is drastically better than say, my old favorite: the Etymotic ER-4P in-ears. That's not to take anything away from the ER-4P, but it sounds constrained and contained compared with the UE 18. It's hardly a fair comparison, the ER-4P lists for around $300, the UE 18 Pro is $1,350, plus the expense of getting custom ear molds made (figure about $100). Each UE 18 Pro is a one-of-a-kind creation, hand-built for your ears. … Read more

Phiaton dubbed the PS 210 headphones a "half in-ear" design, which is a catchy way of saying they don't reach as far into your ear canals as Monster, Etymotic, or Shure's in-ear models do, but they protrude a little more into the ear than earbuds do.

Before we go any further I'd like to tell you a little bit about Phiaton, which may be new to the U.S. headphone market, but looks like it's set to become a major player here. Phiaton is a division of Cresyn, a large South Korean electronics company founded in 1959. It started manufacturing OEM headphones in the 1980s for other companies, and now produces 15 million headphones a month! Phiaton is better-known in Asia and Europe than in the U.S.

Cresyn also manufacturers camera modules for cell phones and has factories in Indonesia and China; Phiaton's U.S. headquarters are based in Irvine, Calif.

The look of PS 210's lightweight aluminum earpieces is distinctive. The headphones come with four sizes of soft black silicon tips to help ensure a comfortable fit.

They're definitely more comfortable and less intrusive than in-ear designs. The PS 210's ear tips rest gently in your outer ear, but that also means the fit is less secure, and the earpieces can fall out, though I'm getting better at keeping them in. The real upside to the half in-ear design approach is that they don't block external sound, so you can still hear the world around you; the downside is you still hear the world around you. … Read more

Sure, iPods and Zunes can sound perfectly fine, but no one ever claimed they were bona fide portable high-end audio devices. Their "good enough" sound isn't entirely their fault: they're too small to house a battery potent enough to power a high-quality headphone amplifier and a high-resolution 24-bit/96kHz digital-to-analog converter.

The Hifiman High Fidelity Music Player HM-801 is the Hummer of portables; it's big enough to get the job done. It's 3 inches wide, 4.5 inches high, and 1 inch thick; that's about the size of an old Walkman cassette player from the 1980s. Hifiman doesn't say how much the HM-801 weighs, but it feels substantial.

If Apple wanted to build something as good or better, it could, but the potential market for something that sounds better than an iPod is probably insignificant, and certainly too small for Apple or Microsoft to bother with. They're too busy jamming more features into their players, and sound quality never makes the cut. Besides, the market demands ever cheaper products, and real quality is never cheap. so the HM-801 is downright pricey.

That's another way of saying it's aimed at the sort of music lover who's already invested in a set of top-of-the-line Etymotic, Grado, Klipsch, Monster, Shure, or Ultimate Ears headphones. If you have and you're using an iPod or Zune, you're not hearing all the sound quality you paid for with those headphones.

The HM-801 was conceived as an audiophile player, so non-sound-oriented features are pretty scarce. The HM-801 has a user removable headphone amplifier circuitboard/module that makes future upgrades easy as pie. Hifiman already has one such upgrade in the works, a $170 board specifically designed to maximize detail and resolution of high-end in-ear headphones. Looking inside the HM-801--it has removable panels--so you can see it features top quality components, like a Burr-Brown PCM1704U digital-to-analog converter and Burr-Brown OPA627 Op-Amp. This is a level of technology normally found in audiophile home componentry, and never before used in a portable music player. … Read more

Bose has built quite the reputation for its entire audio line, so it's no surprise that the company's portable headphones, the On-Ear, have a tidy little following. These cushy, earpad-style cans distinguish themselves from their brethren by removing Bose's signature noise-canceling functionality in favor of offering a slightly deflated price tag. But don't fret: the On-Ear headphones still present a sleek design that's understated and compact without feeling flimsy. It's no wonder the Bose name springs easily to the lips whenever headphones are mentioned, and why plenty of competitors want a piece of that … Read more

And now there are three Monster Turbine in-ear headphones: the original and still great Turbine ($180), Pro Gold ($300) and now Pro Copper ($400). Which one sounds the best?

From the outside the three Turbines' earpieces look the same, differing only in the plated color finish; the standard Turbine's look is, cosmetically at least, my favorite. Its black chrome is the most understated, the Pro Gold is finished in gold, and the new Pro Copper is, you guessed it, copper.

All three Turbine metal earpieces feel solid and sturdier than most in-ear headphones, and my fears that the metal construction would adversely affect comfort in the winter months turned out to be a false alarm.

The Turbines are also heavier than the other in-ear models I've tested, but overall comfort is average, and the generous assortment of eartips included with the Turbines go a long way to toward insuring the best possible eartip-to-ear-canal seal. Like every in-ear headphone I've ever used, if you don't get a proper seal sound quality suffers.

The Copper and Gold models come with two really nice travel pouches, and get this: a one-time, no-questions-asked replacement guarantee. So when you break them you automatically get a new one. Sweet!

But this report will focus on the sound differences between the three models. I still love the Turbine, it's a seriously powerful in-ear headphone, and in early 2009 it immediately became my reference, displacing my trusty old, and more expensive Etymotic ER-4 in-ear headphones. … Read more

It's nothing new, but the habit of headphone manufacturers to crop up with the latest "fashion-forward" model has enjoyed a sharp uptick as of late. Newcomer Urbanears provides several examples, with three lines of portable headphones designed to catch eyes and turn heads. One is the Plattan, an on-ear model that comes in a choice of 14 colors. Unfortunately, these earphones don't offer the clearest audio quality, but they do pump out plenty of bass and cost a relatively affordable $60 a pop.

Read the Urbanears Plattan review.

Anyone who has listened to me on the MP3 Insider podcast, followed me on Twitter (WeirdEaredJas), or even taken the time to peruse the bio below knows I am cursed with absurdly tiny ears. Heck, you can even see for yourself in the multitude of in-ear photos plastered across the headphone reviews on CNET. Happily for me, I am not alone in my deformity (yes, misery does indeed love company).

In fact, many purveyors of portable audio find standard earbuds uncomfortable and can't get many in-ear headphones to fit properly into the ear. It is for my fellow small-eared … Read more

There might be a solution to one of the most obnoxious linear relationships: as Grandpa gets older, the TV gets louder. TV Ears is a wireless headset that allows Grandpa (or anyone) to listen to television audio in isolation. And though its design screams "geek!" the wearer can sacrifice fashion for a peaceful household.

A small transmitter plugs into the audio-out ports located on the back of the television set, satellite box, or cable box and wirelessly transmits the television's audio to the headset. The user can adjust the volume and tone dials on the headset, while … Read more