CustomArt Harmony 8 Pro – Mindblowing

4. Price & Accessories

Most custom IEMs don’t come cheap but then again price is a very personal thing. The CustomArt Harmony 8 Pro’s pricing starts at 925€/±$1050 USD and I think that in today’s market that’s a correct price. Don’t forget you’re getting 8 drivers/ear and prices from most competitors are even higher.

Accessory wise there isn’t a lot to tell, it’s basic and good. The Harmony 8Pro is delivered in a nice classic box. On the inside you will find an original Pelikan case that holds your monitors and a soft case for when you would like to put the monitors in your pocket. On the inside of the Pelican box you will also find a simple but effective cleaning tool and a moisture eater. Each monitor is accompanied by a small card that amongst others mentions your serial number.

5. Customer Service

Just like last time with the Rhines Stage 5 I didn’t really go through the typical way of ordering the monitors. To order, CustomArt works with a form you need to fill in and submit. There is no CIEM creator tool like 1964Ears and JH in example have but most CIEM companies don’t go there either.

I have to say I have heard nothing but good about their customer service. I’ve always received a prompt reply to my emails and Piotr is even on Head-Fi replying to questions. If I remember well it took about one and a half months to get my monitors but I’m pretty sure the normal customers got priority over me. I suggest contacting CustomArt directly in case you’re wondering about their actual delivery time.

6. Sound

On the CustomArt website Piotr made his own little review of the Harmony 8 Pro: “Harmony also stands for balance. Be it Harmony 8 or 8 Pro both despite having a bit different sound signatures will strike listener with their bass, mids and highs quantity and quality. As someone once said “there’s a lot of everything but nothing stands out. Harmony 8/8 Pro is said to provide one of the best bass responses in custom-IEMs that is able to literally push air inside your ear, it also provides very wide and spacious sound stage and tons of details in every part of frequency spectrum”.

He even made this graphic overview:

Bass ●●●●●●
Midrange ●●●●●○
Highs ●●●●●●
Headroom ●●●●●○
Imaging ●●●●●●
Depth ●●●●●●
Cold/Warm ●●●●●○

While a lot of companies just say what potential clients want to read, Piotr actually was pretty good in describing his top of the line monitor. I’ve been listening to the H8P since mid December and from the first time I put in the silicone monitors I have been impressed with his creation. Is everything perfect? No, but it’s quite close. (Following impressions are with the stock cable).

From the first song you listen to, you will notice a very wide sound stage and an extremely good balance. Of all the monitors I have, the H8P simply has the widest sound stage and best positioning/balance. From bass to treble everything is nicely spread and there’s just the right amount of air between instruments and tones. The clarity is superb and detail retrieval simply is excellent. It’s tight, it’s fast and music just flows with each and every song. Beware of bad recordings though because the H8P won’t be very forgiving.

Tone wise it’s maybe a little more to the warm side even though I wouldn’t call this a warm sounding monitor comparing it to say the Stage 5 or CE6E. The Harmony 8 Pro to my ears has a very seductive and “reference” tuning where everything fits in nicely. Ok, maybe the treble can be a bit “out of line” but I’ll get back to that in a bit.

Bass is tight and fast and has good detail. It’s not the deepest bass and it doesn’t have the biggest body but quality and layering is very good. The main thing to remember is that the H8P’s bass is good, layered and tight. But it’s mostly quality over quantity and I’m saying this for the bass heads out there cause most people will probably find the H8P to have more than enough bass body.

The mids are maybe a bit more forward and show a lot of detail and timbre. The H8P makes it all look so easy and it makes it even more impressive. It’s hard not to love the H8P’s mids: they’re not too forward or too much in the back but they’re right where they should be with the correct amount of body and presence. At the same time I can very well understand someone describing the mids as forward sounding. I’m repeating myself but it’s really well tuned. The name “Harmony” is spot on.

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