I began testing the 8SH with Jefferson Starships’ “Jane” and was immediately blown away by the crunch of the guitars at the beginning of the song. One can also tell right away that the soundstage of these is wider than the 8SS. The separation of instruments is equal; however, I notice a slightly warmer signature and a beautiful balance of sound from these. Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” sounded sublime and haunting, as it should. The clarity of the arpeggio guitar notes came through brilliantly and Jeff Buckley’s voice was enveloping. I loved how this song sounded on these IEMs. Next was the Thomson Twins, “Hold Me Now”. There is a lot going on in this song. If you listen to the beginning of the song, there is a myriad of smaller sounds in the background and many IEMs cannot do them all justice. With the 8SH you can not only hear them, but you can hear them on stage left. Amazing. The level of detail and musicality of these has made me smile since I first put them in my ears. The tuning is definitely geared towards a fun, fast, precise flavor. Again, the warmth comes through, but not in a heavy way. The bass is there, it’s present, but not in your face. That, to me, is how bass should be. These are VERY engaging IEMs and QDC has done a fantastic job with the tuning.
Moving on to something a bit different, I put on the Black-Eyed Peas’, “Where is the Love”. WOW. Just wow. The intro bass line mixed with the classical violin’s is amazing! Every nuance of the song was superb. The soundstage felt as if you were there watching them live! The highs were sharp without being intrusive, the mids were pronounced and the bass…perfect. I’m three songs in and I am preferring these to the 8SS. Not that there’s anything wrong with the 8SS, they are made for a specific audience, whereas the 8SH is geared towards people who LOVE music.
I decided to throw some of my favorite heavy metal at the 8SH, and they did not disappoint. First, I played Judas Priest’s, “Living After Midnight”. Then I played the same song by the band Disturbed. I love both and can say without a doubt these IEMs can be used for every genre beautifully. The Judas Priest classic brought back emotion from my youth of hanging out in the cars we built from junkers and drinking beers in the park. The newer version of the song has an immense bass drum intro that just opened the way for the ridiculous slam/crunch of the guitar intro. The imagery here is as if you’re at a rehearsal with them and David Draiman is singing right at you in the empty arena. The solo, which had me using expletives, was phenomenal and balanced.
Many more songs followed in every genre and I have to say that these 8SH monitors live up to what QDC claims.