[B9Scrambler]

Yes, actually I have both pairs. And share the same observation: the old version sounds a lot more refined.
Here is a comparison picture (old at the bottom, obviously damaged): http://bilder.hifi-forum.de/max/715341/versch-versionen_225540.jpg
Old HJE120 have a golden and more elegant plug

Thanks. Glad I'm not the only one to notice the downgrade.

 

[JK1]

The $12 Soundmagic ES18 sounds fantastic. Imo it gives the best sound available for under $20.
I listen mine quite often, even though i have a number of earphones and headphones that were much more expensive.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/598627/review-soundmagic-es18-measured

 

[paradoxology]

With Comply tips the RPHJE120 IEMs are surprisingly decent. I keep a couple of them around as backups.

 

[thelight1]

I tried these, and they are awful. I bought them as per the wirecutter recommendation. They actually recommended the 125's but the 120 according to amazon reviews, are just as good, without the mic. 
 
--I should add that I also purchased the 125's along with the 120's. As far as I could tell, the 125's sound exactly the same as the 120's. They're basically identical except for the mic. 
 
I tried them with the cables pointed down, and pointed up. I also tried them with foam eartips, along with the silicone tips. These sound BAD. Bass is anemic and the high end AM radio like. 
 
However, everything tightens up and comes to life with my E6 amp. They still don't sound "good" but the SQ is acceptable. 
 
I have the latest recommendation from wirecutter, which is the akg y20u on order. I don't hold high hopes for this set now, based upon how incredibly misleading their review was for the panasonic. Reviews on amazon for the panasonic are sky high, which I find...."interesting."
 
I am sticking with my philipps 3580's. If there is in fact a low cost high quality alternative, I'm all ears. 

 

[phower]

  I tried them with the cables pointed down, and pointed up. I also tried them with foam eartips, along with the silicone tips. These sound BAD. Bass is anemic and the high end AM radio like. 
 

Actually, the bass is plenty when compared with other IEMs. Try all the eartips. The bass response depends on how tight the seal is.
 
The Panasonic have about 30,000 reviews. I don't know of any other headphones on Amazon that has so many reviews. They are really impressive.

 

[thelight1]

I've been using these for a few months now, and at this price point, I've developed a high level of respect for the level of engineering and sound quality. 
 
The bass is what hits you first, but the midrange is pleasant and the highs, while rolled off, guarantee a non-fatiguing listening experience which will allow you to listen to any musical sources at low to moderate volume without fatigue or harshness.
 
The bass is indeed the most pleasing aspect of the listening experience. It's not overbearing but there is enough of an emphasis to suggest realism and detail which is quite surprising at this price point.
 
Noise isolation is about average, which means it's far better than that offered by the earpods, which I think sound a little bit better. As a result, I rarely use the earpods and stick with the 120's in most situations. 
 
The esthetics are very pleasing as well: the all white design is really nice. 
 
The only downside is the oval, and slightly "oversized" nozzle. It doesn't really allow you to insert the driver as far as I'd like to max out noise isolation.
 
To get better noise isolation, I go with phillips she 3580's and 90's which have the smaller nozzle and quite a different sound signature. 
 
Well done, panasonic. Maybe I'll buy a backup pair in a different color? These are awesome though.

 

[Timoteo80]

I agree that these are a great purchase for the price. I found out about them from Wirecutter about 3yrs ago & I use them daily at work (construction).

Because I abuse them on the job I did not want to use my Shure SE215s anymore after going thru 3 expensive cable replacements (even the UE blue cable). I have now gone thru 4 sets of the 120s but at <$10 that's less than one cable replacement for the SE215s.

The 120s are NEVER fatiguing & do great with all genres of music including audio books I listen too. Before finding these I tried getting random cheapies from places like Ross but only came across PURE JUNK! I even tossed a pair into the trash as I walked to my car having just bought a pair because they sounded rediculous horrid & didn't even want to go thru the hassle of returning them lol.

The Panny 120s are my go-to work IEMs & will continue to be just that. When I get home, listen to vinyl or game? At those times they stay in my work pants pocket & other cans come out to play.....

 

[EQGuy]

Today we're going to be giving $19 (cost of 1 box of Spinfits included) headphones a balanced sound signature, as well as protecting them from breaking due to loosened solders. Here's our materials, minus the JB Weld. The tape is Nexcare Absolute Waterproof Tape. The Spinfits are CP100s; the ones for wide nozzles. We'll be using the free software Equalizer APO, Room EQ Wizard and Sinegen.

The below picture is how I always protect my headphones that don't have detachable cables from breaking due to loosened solders: JB Weld stress relief. I haven't had a pair break on me since I started doing this.

Below I've created a coupler using a calibrated USB measurement mic and the waterproof tape.

Below is how the HJE120 measure with the small Spinfits on. The stock eartips measured identically from 20-1000 Hz. The ~10 dB bass boost is consistent with online measurements. This measurement is useless above 1 kHz because my coupler is not an accurate recreation of a human ear canal and won't accurately reproduce actual ear canal resonances above 1 kHz, but it's useful and accurate below 1 kHz as evidenced by the 10 dB bass boost matching the measurement done by GoldenEars.

Online measurements suggest that I will only need two peak filters to remove two treble peaks, so that leaves me six more filters to work with since I'm going to be generating EQ settings for Rockbox, which allows for 8 peak filters. In Room EQ Wizard, I set my target level for the bottom of the valley in the above measurement at ~850 Hz, set up the settings below and then clicked match response to target. This generated EQ settings which made 20 Hz to 850 Hz flat.

I remeasured after applying the six filters in Equalizer APO (system-wide EQ for Windows) and below was the result. Success!

For EQ'ing the treble response I identify the locations, magnitiudes and widths of the two treble peaks as my ears hear them by listening to Sinegen, a sine wave generator. The below online measurement suggests there will be treble peaks at ~5 kHz and ~8 kHz, and with the stock HJE120 eartips, there were peaks to my ears at these locations, but the Spinfits shifted the locations of these peaks while leaving the bass response pretty much untouched.

After playing around with Sinegen for a while I was able to generate two peak filters which successfully remove the treble peaks and create a smooth treble response. My final EQ settings, after adjusting them to make them compatible with Rockbox, are as follows:

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 20 Hz Gain -8.6 dB Q 2.000
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 50 Hz Gain -7.8 dB Q 2.000
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 30 Hz Gain -7.2 dB Q 2.000
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 90 Hz Gain -7.0 dB Q 2.000
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 300 Hz Gain -3.9 dB Q 1.000
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 160 Hz Gain -5.9 dB Q 2.000
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 4,040 Hz Gain -9.0 dB Q 3.000
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 8,400 Hz Gain -7.0 dB Q 5.400

The end result: the sound signature, subjectively, matches very closely the sound signature of my speakers which I just got done correcting with Equalizer APO's convolver. The below picture is my post-correction speaker measurement. I consider this experiment a massive success. If you prefer a Harman target-like response to a flat bass response, you can add a low shelf filter in Rockbox with the following settings to approximate the Harman target response: gain 6 dB, Q 0.7, cutoff frequency 100 Hz. If your EQ uses slope instead of Q/bandwidth for low shelves, do 100 Hz, 6 gain, slope 12 dB/Oct. You won't need to compensate with preamp because the peak filters will bring down the bass response so much that the low shelf won't boost it into clipping. If your EQ of choice uses bandwidth instead of Q, there are tools available online to convert between bandwidth and Q.

I usually have problems getting single flange tips to seal in my right ear but the Spinfits seal great in both of my ears, so I highly recommend them. If you have HJE120s and Spinfits or stock tips, the first six filters here should flatten your bass perfectly. The locations (Hz values) of the last two filters, to your ears, may be different, and you'll need to play with Sinegen to find these exact locations, but I think the gain and Q values should be close enough for your ears, so you can probably just find the locations with Sinegen then enter my gain and Q values and you'll be good to go. You may wish to double-check with Sinegen to make sure my gain and Q values are compatible with your ears, though. Just adjust the Equalizer APO filters, sweep through the treble with Sinegen, and repeat until the treble response is smooth without noticeable peaks and valleys. There SHOULD, however, be a wide, gradual peak topping out at ~3 kHz; do NOT EQ this out, as it's supposed to be there.

The below picture = Post-EQ distortion measurement at ~100 dB, which is quite loud. Odd order harmonic distortion never exceeds 0.73%. Total harmonic distortion never exceeds 0.896%. These are acceptable distortion levels, especially for ~100 dB, which is louder than most will listen at.

The below picture = Post-EQ waterfall response. No treble ringing. Acceptable.
Conclusion: Panasonic RP-HJE120 with Spinfits, at $19, represent an excellent candidate for equalization. The result of proper equalization is an extremely comfortable IEM with a balanced sound signature, acceptable distortion levels and an absence of treble ringing. If you were lucky enough to get a Clip+ before they were discontinued, with HJE120s and Spinfits properly equalized you can have a transparent, balanced sounding, comfortable on-the-go solution for ~$50. I saw a new Clip+ on eBay today for $55 which is still worth it as Clip+ measures transparently, has MicroSD expansion, can use Rockbox for Opus support, EQ and crossfeed and its only flaw is it can be hissy with low impedance, high sensitivity IEMs (It's not hissy with HJE120).

 

[EQGuy]

I wasn't aware until I added my above settings to Rockbox that Rockbox's latest release allows for Q values down to 0.1 now. It used to be limited to 0.5. With this in mind, bass correction for these becomes much simpler: 30 Hz, -10 dB, Q 0.1. That's it. This produces the following response, which is now superior to my results above:

This means you can now EQ the HJE120 with a mere three Rockbox filters.

 

[TrantaLocked]

I've also been trying to EQ my ErgoFit with mic (RP-TCM125-K not HJE120) with Equalizer APO and it's been somewhat of a tricky ride trying to match them to sound like my ER4SR (also EQd but only to a minor extent to lessen the peak in the lower treble). I'm really close to getting them perfect and will give it a rest now and maybe fine tune a bit later. The main issue was I wasn't realizing just how much I needed to slope down everything from 800Hz and below, all of which is way too pronounced on these earphones. They sound quite good when EQd properly, even good enough to be my primary driver considering their secure fit and acceptable comfort level. I'm not sure exactly what the last guy was doing but I like messing with the 32-band EQ built into the APO config on it's own and again trying to get the earphones to sound like an ER4SR.

I tried EQing a pair of cheap Phillips in-ears and those sounded nauseating no matter what I did with them. The Panasonics are actually usable when EQd. The reason I'm doing this is because every year or so the cable on my ER4SR breaks and I'm tired of replacing it. I refuse to pay Etymotic $50 for a damn cable that has bad build quality after I've already paid for a pair of $350 headphones. The warranty really should be more like 5 years on such an expensive pair of headphones. So I'm just going to use the best cheap earphones i can when in bed now (ER4PT for desk, used to be ER4SR in bed but now it's the Panaonics). It's also easier to lay on a pillow with them in so that's a big plus.

Note that this EQ is with my cheap HP laptop which does not output an even frequency response or have a lot of power, so it may not sound right on your setup. But the general idea is, bass=bad, mid range=good, lower treble=bad.
GraphicEQ: 20 -21.4; 25 -22.2; 31.5 -22.6; 40 -22.2; 50 -23; 63 -22.6; 80 -22.6; 100 -22.2; 125 -21; 160 -20.2; 200 -19; 250 -17.4; 315 -15; 400 -13.8; 500 -10.6; 630 -6.6; 800 -4.2; 1000 -3.8; 1250 -3.4; 1600 -4.2; 2000 -7.8; 2500 -11; 3150 -12.2; 4000 -11.4; 5000 -10.6; 6300 -11.8; 8000 -7.8; 10000 -4.6; 12500 -3.8; 16000 -2.6; 20000 -0.2

 

[Sebulr]

I vaguely remember one of my first in ears being some cheap Panasonic phones in the 90s. I loved them on my aiwa Walkman. All I remember is they were about 8 quid, and had massive bass. They put sonys to shame in the bass. Not always a good thing though. Man I'm old...