Comfort and daily use
Isolation
The Janus were good noise blockers, but definitely not the best. Thankfully, the Janus 2 are slightly better in this regard.
The various optimization in the conception definitely made the ddHiFi 2020B more resilient in this aspect. I used them in the train, subway, and my office, where they could (obviously) not cut off all unwanted sound, but it definitely sounded better. At least for me.
In that regard, I may suggest you add Comply Foam tips to your Janus, if you want to use them in really noisy spaces.
Comfort
Unlike the vast majority of ears I tried out recently, the ddHiFi Janus doesn’t get a semi-custom shape. Instead, the brand chose a simple, and proven tubular design.
Thanks to that, you can wear the E2020B with the cable hooked over your ear, or hanged down like any « consumer-grade » earphone.
Whatever your choice, the IEM fitted my ear pretty well and felt pretty comfortable, even a two hours commute. If some might prefer this type of fit, easier to plug in/out, I’m more confident with customs and semi-customs ears.
But, that’s a personal choice and my wife begs to differ, favoring the Janus for their shape, over models like the Shanling AE3 I recently reviewed.
Sensitivity / Hiss
Impedance is low, sensitivity is high, so yes, you can drive those IEM’s very easily, but it will shine only when hooked to a good DAC or DAP.
There were some hiss with badly grounded sources, but that’s more than bearable. Once you’ve launched your music, all of that annoying buzz will immediately disappear. Hurray!
Specifications
For the nitpickers and nerdy ones here, I’m giving the specs and technical sheets. For all the others, you can just go to the next page to see how the ddHiFi Janus2 performs.
New Dynamic Driver + Double Layer cavity
This is the core difference between the previous Janus and the new Janus2. The ddHiFi 2020B enjoys a newly developed, 10 mm wide, high-speed speaker, coupled with a special cavity design, for a better experience.
To my surprise, ddHiFi ditched the Flexible PCB and replaced it with classic cables. It’s less quirky this way, but the brand partnered with Effect Audio and co-developed a copper/silver cable that should offer, at least, the same level of accuracy.
Visually, it’s pretty impressive and makes for a super neat design, where the driver and the plug sockets intertwine in a beautiful hourglass form. On paper, it should ensure some circuit optimization, thanks to direct wiring. And, as a matter of fact, reduce the overall form factor.
Last but least, ddHiFi completely rethink the vent system and ended up with a double-layer rear cavity shell. This ensures a cleaner sound, thanks to better-controlled reverse sound waves in the front cavity. There, the dome metal cover decelerates airflow in the rear cavity, before gathering in the middle section. After that, air enters the outer chamber, where vibrations are absorbed, and finally comes out by the tail vent hole.
We’ll see if that makes a difference, or not.
So, time to check the specs!
Full specs
- Type : IEM
- Style : Dynamic Driver
- Driver: 1x Dynamic
- Socket : MMCX + 2-Pin
- Cable : octo-core silver-plated OCF + copper OCC
- Shell : acrylic + 316L steel
- Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
- Impedance: 12 ohms
- Sensitivity: 105dB/mW
- Cable length: 120 cm
- Price: $199
The review continues on Page four, after the click HERE or by using the jump below.
Page 1: About the brand
Page 2: Design & Build Quality
Page 4: Sound performances and conclusion
