Jerry Harvey Audio Will Make Your Sharonas… Flagship Custom IEMs Like No Other

Consumer Tech Jerry Harvey Audio Will Make Your Sharonas… Flagship Custom IEMs Like No Other Mark Sparrow Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Technology journalist specializing in audio, computing and photography Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Oct 9, 2022, 07:00am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The new Sharona IEMs from Jerry Harvey Audio feature an incredible 16 balanced armature drivers .

. . [+] across four frequency ranges to produce an amazing sound that’s clean and well-babilnced.

Jerry Harvey Audio September was a crazy month with so many product launches and news stories that I didn’t have time to settle down and listen to Jerry Harvey Audio’s new flagship In-Ear Monitors (IEM) called Sharona until now. These custom-fit high-end earphones are aimed at musical professionals and those who appreciate the best quality sound that the audio world has to offer. Custom IEMs are often worn by musicians on stage to monitor their band’s performance and they must be accurate and comfortable.

In this respect, Jerry Harvey and his team are on the money. To test the Sharona IEMs, I first had to arrange for a mold to be taken of my ear shape. This painless process involved an audiologist squirting soft and pliable material into my ears to create an exact impression from which Jerry Harvey and his team could create a pair of IEMS that would fit my ears like a glove.

Almost any audiologist can carry out this procedure and then you can send the molds to Jerry Harvey Audio to get the process underway of making your custom Sharonas. Incidentally, it’s always a good idea to have your hearing checked periodically just as you would your eyesight. Hearing is a precious sense.

These new IEMs from one of the world’s most prestigious names in audio are staggering in their complexity. The Sharonas were developed in close technical cooperation with Knowles Corp, the world’s leading manufacturer of balanced armature drivers that are used mainly in hearing aids and IEMs. The Sharonas have no fewer than 16 of these tiny, high-precision audio drivers which are connected using a true, four-way, passive crossover designed by Jerry Harvey.

The crossover splits the audio signal into low, low-mid, high-mid and high frequencies. The resulting sound is intended to be a balanced response without any of the sonic trickery you’ll find in many new earphones, particularly the true wireless models. These unique high-end earphones are custom made to fit the wearer’s ear shapes but taking a mold of .

. . [+] the ear and then creating a bespoke pair of In-Ear Monitors.

Jerry Harvey Audio The Sharonas use four of the brand-new Knowles Supertweeters in a proprietary quad configuration Jerry Harvey Audio refers to as Soundrive Technology. This cluster of four tiny tweeters produces an extended treble response that kicks in where most other balanced armature drivers and pushes the envelope to an impressive 25kHz, probably higher than many of us can hear. The overall sound is one of accuracy, with a bass that goes down to 10Hz and reproduces low-end sounds with incredible precision that’s detached perfectly from the midrange.

It’s a punchy low-end that works wonders with cellos, bass guitars and kick drums. MORE FOR YOU Hiring Refugees: How One Big Factory Did It Windows 11 Is Introducing New Features …And Other Small Business Tech News This Week Want To Rapidly Scale Up Your Operations? Ask Yourself These 3 Questions First. The bass contributes to shaping Sharona’s overall sound, but it was the midrange that had my ears twitching and, for a moment, me thinking that I might be slightly deaf.

At first listen, the Sharonas sound a little thick and muffled in the midrange. This struck me as odd and I wondered if there was a fault with some of the drivers or the crossover. I suppose I was expecting a shiny and forward midrange that would be punching me sonically in the eardrums.

This was my first mistake in understanding the product I was reviewing. To appreciate my confusion, you need to know a little about how modern earphones are tuned, especially the true wireless earbuds with their own amplifiers that can be tuned to meet a manufacturer’s desired sound signature. A lot of these SoCs (system on a chip) are used in modern earphones.

The chips provide earphone manufacturers with a digital toolkit that can shape the final sound. Many manufacturers will select a V or U-shaped sound profile where the bass and treble frequencies are artificially boosted to give an exciting effect. The overall sound is bright and fulsome, initially thrilling but ultimately fatiguing because the audio processing colors the original signal.

Pepper is just one of the bands that use Jerry Harvey Audio’s Sharona IEMs for live performances. mike davids The best way I can explain the experience is to liken it to drinking coffee for the first time without sugar if you’ve always taken sugar in your coffee. At first, it tastes weird and wrong, but after a while, you get used to it.

Then, one day, someone accidentally adds sugar to your coffee and you take a mouthful, only to find yourself spitting it out. All you can taste is the sugar and the coffee taste is no longer there; you know you can never go back to drinking coffee that way. Listening to the Sharona is like drinking coffee for the first time without sugar.

It takes a little while to get used to how the music is supposed to sound, but once you’ve got used to the new sound, it’s hard to go back to listening to the other earphones which have been tweaked and made to sound artificially exciting. The upshot of listening to the Sharona IEMs is you soon become aware of how variable the quality of so many recordings and music mixes can be. What may sound great on a cheap pair of earphones or a Bluetooth speaker, suddenly sounds awful when listened to with the Sharonas.

That’s because a lot of modern music is mixed and processed with a lot of compression to make it sound good on cheap audio equipment. But don’t let that put you off. You’ll soon learn to seek out better music that’s been faithfully recorded.

Classic albums with impeccable audio quality are brought to life when listening with the Jerry . . .

[+] Harvey Audio Sharona IEMs Verve For example, take a fabulous vintage recording like Verve’s Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins . This superb album was recorded back in 1962 and the Sharonas bring out the best in this stunning recording and show just how adept the IEMs are at reproducing well-recorded and perfectly mixed audio that hasn’t been processed and squashed to death. The use of the Knowles quad supertweeter, in combination with quad Knowles woofers, midranges, and tweeters, creates a soundstage that’s large and expansive, reproducing the full depth and width of the stereo image while providing plenty of space around each of the instruments.

Jerry Harvey Audio has also used something called Freqphase to create the most phase-accurate IEMs by correcting any misalignment created by the varying times at which the low, mid and high frequencies reach your ears. You can think of it a bit like focusing an image sharply with a pair of binoculars, so everything is uniformly clear. All the balanced armature drivers in the Sharona earpieces are mounted in an Acoustic Sound Chamber that Jerry Harvey Audio produces with a 3D printing process.

With its recessed tubing system, the Sharonas are the first IEMs to use this innovative design and the company claims it’s far more effective at keeping sweat away from the delicate drivers and reduces the need for frequent cleaning. Each of the Sharona IEMs are packed with 16 tiny balanced armature drivers split across four brand . .

. [+] frequency ranges to create an extensive soundstage. Jerry Harvey Audio The Sharona IEMs are a custom-made product and they require the customer to supply custom ear molds and then the Jerry Harvey Audio team will return the bespoke IEMs in a deluxe storage case with your name printed on the front.

The whole effect feels luxurious and finishes off what is a deluxe pair of IEMs that fit no one else. Jerry Harvey Audio offers a selection of finishes for the Sharona IEMs which can be from a palette of colors or the option of transparent earpieces with a glitter finish or even special signature designs. The terminators used on the earpieces are T2 connectors which means the cables can be easily replaced or upgraded at any time.

The Sharona IEMs ship with a non-attenuated cable made from high-purity, oxygen-free copper 4N silver-plated Litz wires. Verdict: The Jerry Harvey Audio Sharona IEMs are the most sophisticated and advanced pair of custom IEMs that the company has ever produced. Packing in an incredible 16 balanced armatures into each earpiece and then perfectly tuning them so that the music is reproduced just as it was intended when originally recorded.

The Sharonas deserve an excellent audio source and certainly not a smartphone or any old MP3 player. These are the Rolls-Royce of custom IEMs and they benefit from playing great music with good equipment. The sound is intricate but thanks to the four-way passive crossover and advanced acoustic design, the whole sound comes together beautifully and after a few minutes of listening you soon get used to the wonderful accuracy of these IEMs which are detailed but never harsh or fatiguing.

The Sharonas won’t please everyone but then they’re not priced for everyone. If you’re a professional musician or a keen audiophile, the Jerry Harvey Audio Sharona IEMs are well worth a listen if you want the best. The only downside is they expose how poorly recorded some modern music is.

However, stick to high-quality recordings and you’ll be in musical heaven. Pricing & Availability: The Jerry Harvey Audio Sharona IEMs are available now and cost from $2,299. More info: jhaudio.

com Tech Specs: 16 balanced armature drivers in each earpiece. Quad low, quad low-mid, quad high-mid, Quad Supertweeters. True four-way integrated passive crossover.

Proprietary Knowles Quad Supertweeter. Powered by Soundrive technology. T2 connectors.

High purity OFC 4N silver-plated Litz wire cable (non-attenuated). Freqphase Time and Phase Waveguide. Acoustic Sound Chamber.

Input Connector: 1/8″ (3. 5mm), gold-plated. Frequency response: 10Hz – 25kHz.

Impedance: 16Ω. Input sensitivity: 114dB @ 1mW. Noise isolation: -26dB.

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