Design and fit
I genuinely gasped the first time I saw Sharona’s solid wood-and-silver shells for the first time. I was still sitting in my car at the FedEx depot, and anyone walking by at the time must have given wide berth to the nutter shaking his head and chuckling to himself.
To say that these IEMs are simply the most beautiful audio objects I’d ever seen would be an understatement.
Bocote, if you’ll indulge me here, is a rare wood native to South America, Mexico and the West Indies, prized for its hardness, durability, and distinctive black and brown patterns that intersect the gold-to-brown grain.
I’d first seen this wood used on a limited-edition pair of Audeze LCD-XC headphones, which I aspired to own but never did. At last, and in Sharona, I had my very own piece of Bocote jewellery.
Once I got over the shock of seeing Sharona in person, I quickly tested it for fit. If you’re new to customs, it’s worth noting that there’s always a risk that a new set of customs won’t fit perfectly the first time.
I’ve had some interesting experiences with other customs, and some that needed several refits, so I was aware of what issues I had in the past, and could give the JH Audio team some guidance on what fit me best.
What I really liked was how invested they were in getting as much feedback from me as possible about how I wanted my customs made, beyond just picking the design.
At the start of the process, I needed to have fresh impressions taken of my ears (using a certified audiologist in my country), then send the impressions to JH Audio’s Florida lab for scanning prior to production. Before sending in your impressions, you’re asked to take photos of the moulds from different angles, which are then assessed by the design team to make sure they’re good enough to scan, thus avoiding any issued down the line.
If you’ve read some of my previous custom IEM reviews, you’ll know that I’d done this several times before with other companies, so the process wasn’t as daunting as it was the first few times.
Back in my car, any fears I had about having to send this brand-new set of gorgeous wood IEMs back for re-fitting were instantly banished. As soon as I twisted the smoothly-coated shells into my ears, I could tell these were the best-fitting customs I’d had made to date.
Not only was there zero pressure, as there would have been with a deeper-fitting IEM, but the seal was airtight. The outside world literally went dead quiet, even without any music playing, a sure sign of a perfect fit.
Despite all the good stuff, there are some notable factors you’d want to take into account before choosing Sharona. For one, these IEMs are huge. As in, HUGE. While the in-ear part is perfectly fitted and comfortable, Sharona’s shells stick out further from my ears than any IEM I own or have owned in the past.
This doesn’t affect comfort, however, as despite their size, they are light and very well balanced, but it’s worth noting these are IEMs that will shout attention to themselves in public (if you’re one of those crazy people that take multi-kilobuck IEMs out in public), especially if you choose one of Jerry’s delicious premium designs.
Second, and here’s where I get to nitpick at one of Sharona’s few nitpicks, the faceplate is not entirely seamless. With a natural wood design like mine, I can clearly see the seam line between the IEM body and faceplate because the grain of wood differs between the two sections.
This will be far less apparent in designs that don’t have obvious directional texture, but it’s still something I want to point out, especially if you have OCD for tiny design details like I do. When you’re paying upwards of $3,000 for an IEM, every detail counts.
Packaging and accessories
While their IEMs might be works of art, it seems you shouldn’t expect more than utilitarian packaging and practical accessories from a JH Audio IEM. Yes, there’s a cable, but it’s basic as most single-ended workmanlike cables are for performing artists (quickly swapped out for Eletech’s exceptional flagship cable, Ode To Laura (reviewed here). And while I’ve read that some Sharonas come with a detailed printed user guide, none was shipped with mine.
The only accessory of note is the Carbon Case (also sold separately for $250), a mini-Pelican case, made of carbon fibre and metal (or rather, DiamonDyzed Aluminum), with a silky-smooth magnetic latch. It’s the best-made and most practical case I’ve seen for any IEM. Designed to withstand the rigours of touring artists and sound engineers, it’s also very elegant, with my name printed on the lid for that extra personal touch.
Specs and tech
Sharona is JH Audio’s flagship IEM, using four groups of four stacked balanced armature (BA) drivers for a total of 16 drivers in each earpiece. It’s headline specs read as follows:
- 16 BA drivers (4x low, 4x low-mid, 4x quad high-mid, 4x ultra-high)
- Custom Knowles ‘RAU’ quad ultra-high supertweeter
- 4-way passive crossover design
- 16-ohm, 114dB/1mW sensitivity
- Freqphase, Soundrive, Acoustic Sound Chamber technologies
- 2-pin and T2 connector options
- $2,499 (excluding premium and signature design options)
Using four pairs of four ‘stacked’ BA drivers for the different frequency bands, which JH Audio collectively calls Soundrive, lessens the burden on each individual driver and allows Sharona to output consistent, distortion-free sound in each frequency range at higher volume. It also shrinks the required footprint for each driver, allowing more drivers to fit in each earpiece.
This includes the new quad supertweeter, which uses four new custom Knowles RAU drivers to extend frequency response as high as 40KHz (theoretically, of course, since most of us can’t ‘hear’ 20KHz even if we’re young and lucky).
Another trick up Sharona’s sleeve is JH Audio’s Freqphase ‘waveguide’ technology. Jerry developed Freqphase about a decade ago by using different length tubes for bass, mid and low drivers to reduce the timing differences between these frequencies down to as little as 1/100th of a second. This mostly improves the perception of space, and gives JH Audio’s IEM’s their reputation for spacious sound.
Last but not least, Sharona uses JH Audio’s 3D-printed recessed tubing design, Acoustic Sound Chamber, which makes IEMs easier to clean and maintain, and prevents wax and dirt from getting inside the sound tubes.
Impressive as they look on paper, whether or not these technologies hit the mark sonically is what we’ll find out next.
Continue to sound impressions…
