Review: Jomo Audio Samba – Makes me want to dance

Jomo Audio (& Effect Audio)

Jomo Audio was founded in Singapore by a broadcast engineer who has first-hand experience to the video and audio content creation in studio, live mixing and post-production every day. The Jomo series IEMs were designed to recreate the exact form of music recorded in the studio. The founder (Joseph Mou, hence the JoMo brand name) was highly inspired by the Japanese craftsmanship and spent months on research and experimenting in order to deliver the finest IEM for musicians, worship groups and audiophiles. (cfr their Bio).

Next to making customs, Jomo Audio also makes universal IEMs, sells hearing protection, IEM drying devices, custom inear sleeves, accessories and Linum and Effect Audio cables. Effect Audio is another company from Singapore I like. Suyang is always a pleasure to deal with and for the creation of the Jomo Samba these two companies teamed up together and the Samba monitor is only using EA’s Ares II cable for internal and external wiring. In this review I’ll cover both the Jomo Samba as the Ares II cable.

The Samba & Ares II

According to Joseph, the Samba is the result of their extensive R&D. Unlike their other monitors, the Samba, together with the Jomo 6R is part of their Pro Audio series. The Jomo 5 we reviewed a while ago is part of the Jomo Series and they also have Signature Series where the CIEMs with the craziest designs can be found.

The Samba comes packed with 8 balanced armature drivers and according to Jomo it delivers “the most exciting and vivid sound you’ve ever wanted”. The eight drivers can be found in the following configuration: Dual low, Dual Mid and Quad high configuration. The Samba has a 3-way crossover and uses 3 sound tubes in the canal to deliver the sound right to your eardrum. Samba’s sensitivity is 116db and it has an impedance of only 19Ohm which should make this an easy to drive custom monitor. Its noise isolation, like in most monitors, is 26db +/-3dB (Custom version)

jomo-audio-2

The Effect audio Ares II cable is part of EA’s Premium series and it is a reworked version of their famous Ares cable. It now features better ergonomics, more balance, treble extension and vocals. The Ares II also has a new geometry design. The Ares II is made out of 26 AWG UPOCC Litz Copper in a proprietary Multi-Size Stranded design within a single encapsulation. Even though sound quality is the critical factor in determining an upgrade cable’s worth, the tensile strength and flexibility matters too. The reworked insulation features high tensile strength and flexibility, while adding as little weight as possible.

Breakdown

In contrary to a normal review I will use the same breakdown as I always do for my Custom Inear reviews:

  1. Build quality & Comfort
  2. Personalization
  3. Cable
  4. Price & Accessories
  5. Customer Service
  6. Sound
  7. Competitors/Comparisons
  8. Driveability & Sources

1. Build quality & Comfort

You can immediately see that Jomo Audio has more experience now and I can’t immediately find any “errors”. The monitors feel smooth without sharp edged, the faceplate is perfectly closed, the lasering on the inside and the faceplate is perfect and the internal build structure is symmetric (yes, some people do care about that).

The Samba has flush sockets (non-recessed) and there are no traces of glue or anything, they fit perfect in the design and shell and changing cables is no issue. The shells are bubble free and I can’t find any shortcomings anywhere. The tube endings in the canals are on the smaller side and they do tend to fill up with ear wax rather quickly. Daily cleaning is advised (but that only takes a few minutes using the provided tool).

Size wise these are a bigger than the Jomo 5 and the 6R. Compared to the other 8-driver CIEMs in my collection, the Samba is rather big. Check out the pictures to see the difference. Comfort wise the Samba, like the other Jomos, is great and while it does stick more out of your ear, its comfort is good. The fit is light but good and the seal doesn’t break when doing normal things, I can break the seal a little while making weird faces but this probably is the result of the very short canals my unit has. Besides the Samba being a little bigger, there’s nothing to complain about really: all is good.

The review continues on Page 2, after the jump below or the click HERE

5/5 - (11 votes)
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Lieven is living in Europe and he's the leader of the gang. He's running Headfonia as a side project next to his full time day job in Digital Marketing & Consultancy. He's a big fan of tube amps and custom inear monitors and has published hundreds of product reviews over the years.

4 Comments

  • Reply January 9, 2017

    Max

    Hi Lieven,

    Would like to know how does it compare against the Lime Ears Aether? 😀

    • Reply January 9, 2017

      Lieven

      Quite a different sound really. The Samba is wider, deeper, richer and more balanced overal. The Aether, which also is very good, isn’t as coherent or neutral as the Samba is. The price level also is different and it depends whet you’re really looking for. Aether has great layering and the sub bass switch which is excellent. They’re different flavors. What flavor is it you want?

  • Reply January 11, 2017

    Max

    Wow that’s really quite an interesting CIEM. I’ve actually ordered the Aether and are awaiting for them to arrive, but I did not try the Samba so I was just wondering how do the 2 fair against each other. Guess if I really do like the Samba in the end, I’d probably get one in the future haha.

    Anyway, love the site and your reviews, keep it up!

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