JH Audio Lola: The Ultimate IEM?

Although we haven't physically met Lola yet (that's for the next issue, so watch this space), such is the hype surrounding this formidable sounding new IEM from Jerry Harvey Audio, we felt we had to give you guys, our musical audience, a bit of a heads-up.

Lola was introduced a few weeks back at CanJam in Los Angeles. It's ultimately a new hybrid piece which JH think will be a serious game changer - and let's be honest, they should know, they've been changing this particular game for years now. For those of you who aren't aware, Jerry Harvey designed the industry’s first ever two-way custom in-ear monitor some 25 years ago, and has gone on to innovate, redefine, and lead the industry in both the pro touring and audiophile markets.

Before we move on, here's a little video of Jerry telling us how Lola came about:

As Jerry says in the video above, Lola's magic really is in the midrange. JH IEMs are renowned for their amazing quad drivers (we can personally vouch for how good these drivers are, we have the JH Layla at Headliner HQ and it's a mind-blowing sounding piece), and although this allows for very tight, accurate bass response with a great high mid to high frequency extension, Jerry felt more warmth and air could be achieved in the mid bands from 200Hz to 3kHz. And again, he should know - Jerry’s history of working in live audio reproduction has meant he's tuned hundreds of large arena PA systems, and he has long favoured the natural, airy sound of 12-inch dynamic cone midrange drivers. The task with Lola was to overcome the limit of size.

Enter the all-new patent pending D.O.M.E (Dual Opposed Mid Enclosure) technology. In order to get the response Jerry was looking for in this new piece, he sourced 4.9mm dynamic drivers, and designed a phase-correct band pass enclosure to house them inside the IEM (easy, huh?) This tuned enclosure is custom 3D printed in JH's fantastic lab, and holds two 4.9 dynamic drivers that oppose each another, giving Lola a 9.8mm effective midrange driver in a small package. Lola’s hybrid design utilises a proprietary dual low balanced armature covering from 10Hz to 200Hz; the mid utilizes D.O.M.E technology, which handles 200hz to 3kHz; and a quad balanced armature from 3khz to 20kHz. Lola also features Freqphase technology, proprietary four-pin connectors, and 15dB of user adjustable Bass response that JHAudio IEMS are famous for.

So this balance of power, detail, and warmth could well shake things up a bit. In JH Audio's opinion, Lola will have an extraordinary analogue sound stage that complements string instruments, as well as vocals, and makes a ‘58 Les Paul through a Marshall 4x12 cabinet sound 'kick ass'. Sounds good to us!

Check out Lola on the JH Audio website HERE and look out for our review in the next issue; we can't wait to get our hands on her!