We had the pleasure of testing out Swedish headphone manufacturer latest offering, the a-JAYS earphones for a few weeks now. First impressions, once you get past the stealthy elaborate packaging, is the coolness of it all. We’ve seen earphones between the RM100-RM300 price range hanging on the shop racks, claiming to provide sound clarity, enhanced bass, sonic boom and more but the packaging was just not convincing or matched the luxury pricing.
For a consumer, first impression counts if one is going to splurge on premium earphones. There is no way for one to test or compare the product and it’s not enough for product packaging and description to convince the wallet unless it is through product experience.
That aside, plug it into any sound source, and we did, laptops, iPod’s, phones, stereo systems to test for consistency and fidelity and the product just handled it with ease. As a DJ, producer and sound engineer, i am highly particular about sound detailing and clarity of instruments and heavy reliance on monitoring headphones such as the Sennheiser HD 25-1, which by far, over the years have been pretty tough to beat in terms of the abuse and benchmarking. Yes, this would be an unfair advantage to the a-JAYS but strangely, it held its own and came in a close second in overall sound quality, even compared to the Sennheiser CX series earphones too.
I shall not delve into how great the earphones are. Take our word for it. It is amazing and worth every cent. From the coolness of the flat tangle free cables, to the sound staging and depth in your ears, to its ability to stay calm and collected in the most complex of sounds, and not crack under pressure of high volume and various equalization settings. Not to mention the simple, elegant minimalistic design of the ear piece.
The a-JAYS, beautiful aesthetics aside, does what it claims on the box. Heavy bass impact! What a generous booty helping at that. Other earphone models tend to falter at high volumes, cracking and unable to handle the low frequencies with tight resolution capturing that big room sound. To test this, we went through a very diverse playlist from House, Jazz, Hip Hop, Bossa, Lounge and Latin plus a whole set of equalization settings on an iPod. This test also took place mostly on the road in a loud car to test sound isolation and noise reduction abilities. No issue there either, especially with the five rubber ear sleeve sizes provided in the box.
On a general note, and i hope a-JAYS takes the lead on this, I do have an issue which a lot of other off the rack portable earphones has not been able to address, specifically the ability of the earphones to stay in the ear, despite the various ear sleeves sizes. The problem is over time, it starts to slip out and when that happens, you lose the intensity of the bass and the same song sounds empty and hollow like cheaper alternatives. Maybe it is just my ears. I know that this affects how the physics of acoustics is designed to allow the sonic vibration but on a product level, one would think there would be an industrial design solution for this like how foam ear plugs snugly expand and hug the ear canal.
The other issue of cable flexing at the phono jacks. Durability of earphones on portable devices is subject to the habit of wrapping the cables around the devices and the strained area is where the cable flexes and over time, there is bound to be fractures. With the a-JAYS flat tangle free cables, we do foresee that this could be the only design flaw, especially at the jacks. Yes, the a-JAYS comes with a handy travel hard case to store the earphones but seriously, some people are not going to be as anal about storage in their pocket.
We also heard that the latest a-JAYS Four iPhone (available in black and white) also handles calls, music with purposed built buttons for functional features. Overall, for those who are in the market for aftermarket earphones that does what it does well and has that solid built quality, great sound dynamics and stylish looks in an all round package, this is a highly recommended product. We loved our test unit so much, we bought one.
Contents:
a-JAYS One earphones, Silicone Rubber Sleeves (XXS-L sizes).
a-JAYS Two earphones, Silicone Rubber Sleeves (XXS-L sizes), Airplane Adapter, Stereo Splitter.
a-JAYS Three earphones, Silicone Rubber Sleeves (XXS-L sizes), Airplane Adapter, Stereo Splitter, Travel Case.
Specifications:
Driver: 8.6mm dynamic driver
Isolation: JAYS Sound Isolating System
Sensitivity: 97dB SPL @ 1 kHz
Impedance: 16 Ohm @ 1 kHz
Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 22 kHz range
Cord Length: 115 cm (45 inches)
Weight: 14 grams
Plug: Gold plated 3.5 mm stereo mini plug
2 Years Global Warranty.
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