Disclaimer: The star of this weeks’ picture Sunday is Jerry Harvey Audio’s Lola. This post is a part of our Picture Sunday series.
Jerry Harvey doesn’t do things like the bigger part in this field. He does not represent the common audiophile, but rather the guitar burning, hotel-room trashing rockstars on stage. Jerry Harvey looks at his products in a different way, he thinks outside the box and designs in ears like nobody else has before. He knows his creations are special. He presents them like nobody else, he gives you accessories nobody else would. His latest IEM proves that he’s never tired of doing this. He designed a hybrid in ear monitor that, unlike all the others, uses the dynamic driver (actually there are two of them) for mid-frequencies instead of bass.
When Jerry Harvey announced his first hybrid construction under his own name I was very interested immediately. An eight driver, with dual dynamic mids. I do enjoy the sound a dynamic driver can produce, not particularely the bass, which in my opinion tends to overshadow mids too easily, but for the lush and full mids they can recreate. I digg the bass reproduction of a balanced armature more. I like it punchy and tight, rather than airy and boomy. So in theory Lola should be perfect for me.
Lola comes in a Zippo-like carrying/protection case made of aluminium, that is incredibly cool. Lola is safe in it, like it were in a tank, the case is certainly built like one.
Jerry Harvey does not follow the general rules. Another example of that is the proprietary connector he uses. Instead of the industry standard 2-pin connection, Jerry uses a 4-pin one that has to be screwed on to the cable. A very secure and smart solution. But this also makes Lola a lot bigger than any other CIEM in my posession.
My past with JH Audio IEMs wouldn’t exactly make one think we were best buddies. I never got a good seal or fit due to the rather extreme size JH likes to build his products in. I have had a Roxanne for a while but we had to break up pretty fast, it wasn’t meant to be. Though sound-wise she was outstanding, it was best to part ways. Her size and weight were too much for my (large) ears. A custom fit would have been the better fit for me. So is Lola.
Custom Lola stays firm and secure without any issues at all. She sounds like she is supposed to. Full, dynamic and with emotion to die for. Her mids do remind me of the one of my beloved Kaiser 10. Full bodied like good red wine. But it comes with downsides as well. Lola’s resolution and stage is not on par with other current offerings. Lola is not about hyper-precision, Lola is not about head-scratching stage sizes. Lola is about enjoyment.
Kick back and relax, sip some good malt and enjoy the late summer breezes.
