kiteki
aka Theta Alpha 1
aka Alpha Zeta 5
aka Alpha Zeta 6
aka Nanocat Systems
And many other aliases
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2010
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[Hello, this is my first earphone review on head-fi.
I've been using the A-Jays Three for 3 weeks now, listened to all kinds of genres, used different sources, committed to my usual obsessive EQ tweaking, and done all the side-by-side comparisons I have available (not many yet, new to IEM's.).
These include: A-Jays One, A-Jays Two, T-Jays Three, Sony MDR-EX300/+500, SM PL50, some useless sennheiser earbud, another useless AKG earbud, a useless Yuin PK2 earbud, various sony earbuds, and one Audio-Technica ESW9 headphone, but I'm travelling and without an amp it's useless and I hardly use it).
From sonic memory, I listened to lots of tracks which I've previously listened to with a Sony MDR-SA5000, Fostex T5, AKG K701, and a couple tracks which I've heard performed live.
Since I'm travelling, I haven't reviewed the A-Jays Three with a decent amp, or SACD, but these are for portable use and listening to well recorded 128kbps mp3 tracks and the like, so the review is based on such use
If there are any questions/requests, or anything I have left out in sonic characteristics or the like, I'll be happy to answer].
Foreclosure: I am in no way affiliated with JAYS retail, distribution or testing, I have not had any contact with them or received any free samples, there is no profit or loss incentive in this review or favoritism of certain brands for whatever reason, my sole intention with audio reviews is to review the audio, and give praise or criticism where praise and criticism are due, reviews on the internet are selfish and lacking in this respect
Now on with the show ... =)
At singapore airport there was a shop with lots of earphones, and they had a JAYS stall where you could plug in your portable device and demo the different earphones,
I had no intention of buying jays earphones in that store, I was mostly browsing audio-technica, but after listening to the different JAYS models for a good 20-25 minutes I couldn't resist.
(Plus, I'd never been seen an earphone stall before where you could demo all the earphones of a certain brand, most stores will just snob you off and say you can't demo earphones,
so kudos to Jays and that store for the service).
I mainly demoed the A-jays One, A-Jays Two and T-Jays Three. I ended up buying the A-Jays Three, which wasn't available for demo at the time, I just wanted the best in the A series =)
The T-Jays was - for the price - nothing special to me, I thought it sounded a little dull, at least via the portable device I was using (Sony NWZ-B153F), so I won't comment on the T-series.
The A-jays One sounded alright, but what fastened my attention was definately the A-Jays Two, I thought the A-Jays Two had a remarkable sound, the EQ is certainly not flat, but it's well-crafted resulting in a lively, joyful, acoustic, dynamic sound signature with sizeable bass-impact.
It's true they're not the ideal IEM's for classical music, but with electronica, 1-2-3-4, drum'n'bass, candy raving, EBM, industrial, techno, house, whatever they capture the beat well, making it a joyful experice to listen to, keeping my finger away from the "next" switch longer than usual.
What sold me in the end though, was how surprisingly good timbre they had in rock/pop acoustic music, so if you listen to modern rock or pop they will sound great, if you listen to vintage rock or garagerock I think there's better options out there, and with speed metal they not quite up to the task because these IEM's focus a little more on smoothness than speed, focus a little more on decay rather than attack, and lack the "air" (that high frequency open-air static sound) that you really need for fast complicated pieces which you'll find in speed metal or classical music etc.
There is a very noticable difference between the A-jays One/Two/Three.
Personally, I'd not opt for the "One", but if you're on a budget and what excellent build quality and durability, then they're good.
The "Two" is described above.
The "Three" in the series (which I've been using this month), is debatedly the best in the lineup, but lacks the flavour of the A-Jays Two, so I think some people will certainly prefer Two!
A-Jays Three has a flatter EQ, it's lacking the well-crafted EQ curve present in "Two", the Three is aimed at those that want a more balanced sound, however it's not completely balanced =p
the EQ is still favouring the bass department, I like bass, but after obsessive EQ tweaking over the last 3 weeks my favorite EQ setting [parametric] is like this (on my portable device, range is from -3 to +3 for each freq, and this is using eartip 4).
100HZ
-1
315HZ
-1
1kHz
+1
3.15 kHz
+1
10 kHz
+1
With side by side comparisons (when I was back at the airport next time), between Two and Three, I find that the Three is slightly better defined and has a slightly better reverb, treble and bass quality are the same, and the Two sound a bit more fun, perhaps better for acoustic music, but if you listen to pop or rock or electronica, you won't be dissapointed in either of these.
I've burnt in my A-Jays Three with 20 hours of white noise, 5 hours of high frequency sweeps and 2 hours of deep bass sweeps,
the sound became a bit more soft and instrument seperation a tad wider, but the difference isn't as noticable as when you exchange eartip 4 for eartip 5, (there are 5 eartips, with 1 being the smallest and 5 being the largest, eartip 1-4 are the same, only escalating in size, and eartip 5 is a different eartip with a different sound, the silicon envelope is thinner and they are only half in-ears, the resulting sound becomes less spaced-out and more analytic and a little less bass.
If you think the A-Jays are too bass heavy (they are indeed bassy), then you should try eartip 3 or 5. (The standard ear-tip is number 4).
In summary, if you like the design factor and awesome flat cable these have, cheap price, and think the sonic character will suit you, just remember don't cheap-out on the A-Jays One, and don't feel tempted by the T-Jays series thinking they will sound even better than the A-series due to a high price tag, because they don't, they kindof have better sonic detail and sport a cool scandinavian glossy black plastic design, but they sound pretty dull compared to the alive upfrontness of the A-series.
I won't go into detail about the accessories or design, they look good, the drivers haven't flinched at extremely high volumes, and they come with stuff you will never need like the audio jack you only find on airplanes and in busses, and a splitter so you can plug in two earphones into your portable music device at once and listen to the same song with friends.
I won't go into detail about SPECS, because most companies just conjure them up on the spot and they're aimed more at PR than at science, and most specs aren't relevant to how the earphones will sound at all, they are just relevant to how high the relative volume is (if you need an amp), and sometimes if you can play SACD like frequencies a.k.a. bat-country.
In all of the jays models the answer is:
1) No
2) No
what does matter is stuff like how the drivers look, how they will reverberate and resonate, if they will sound dry or wet, if they are laid-back/detached or up-front/in-your-ear, if they are attack or decay, sharp or smooth, crystal or carpet.
here's the driver of the A-Jays Two:
and the A-Jays Three:
So basically, if you are a standard issue audioholic and want something around 50 bucks that looks good, isolates noise, will last a long time, has no fakes on the market, and sounds terrific, then these are for you.
As a rough guide, chinese iPod earbuds sound like absolute garbage compared to these, and these sound like absolute garbage compared to the Final Audio Design FI-DC1601SS, so these are mid-tier in the HiFi world.
[Disclaimer and subjectivity: I am fairly new to IEM's, so take my raving with a pinch of salt,
This is the track I was listening to when I decided to buy the A-Jays Two/Three, the acoustic timbre was unexpectedly good in this pop track: Maron - For Better Or Worse
http://maron.bandcamp.com/track/for-better-or-worse
This is one of my favorite electronic songs using the A-Jays Three: Ayria - Be Me, the bass is really impactful and foot-tapping, and the female vocals are smooth and seductive, and clearly seperated from the rest of the music,
Price, (in USD).
A-Jays one: $40
A-Jays Two: $50
A-Jays Three: $60
EDIT: Nov 11th, 2010
I am too nice to the A-Jays Three in this review, so I will extend my review with the following critique which I've acquired since.
- they have a \ shaped eq curve so the highs aren't clear enough and the bass will become too much on a bassy source. As you can see in my review I adjusted the eq-curve with a / shape as a makeshift solution to this.
- Their crunchy sound and lack of highs makes me for some reason want to play music at high volumes, and after a long while this becomes fatiguing and then I don't feel like using them for a long while.
- I no longer think these are the best earphones I've heard for $50, I enjoyed them a lot but they were short-lived, not clear enough and too aggressive on my ears with my high volumes and my music taste. In comparison to MDR-E888 and ATH-CK10 (post #9 in this thread), I hear their weaknesses become underlined, natural/lifelike sound of vocals and atmosphere very weak compared to E888 - clarity and highs very weak compared to CK10.
Their selling point remains in the design, packaging, flat cable, build quality, bass, and lively acoustic sound. In defense of the A-Jays Three, if I am listening to the CK10 for a few hours and then try the A-Jays Three, I can be caught off-guard and reminded what I am missing out on in a crunchy dynamic-driver IEM, but the key words in the last sentence are "a few hours", which won't happen with the A-Jays Three, not with me anymore at least.
