Jade Audio JD3

INTRODUCTION:

This is my second FiiO unit for review. Again I would like to thank my co-reviewer Adrian Yambao for lending these units. After 5 days of casual and critical listening, this is my impression. Pls do read on.


DISCLAIMER:

My opinions here are completely my own. I am NOT in any way influenced by any form of incentive. This is purely my honest, subjective impressions and experience with the gear on hand. I cannot stress more that you should take this as a grain of salt for we have different perception to sound and what we hear. I always try my best to stick with the stock accessories that come with the gear by default. You are free to try other methods such as tip rolling or cable rolling. Below are worth noting before concluding on what I say here:

1. DAP (digital audio player, be it phone, laptop, mobile, or stationary setup)
2. DAC or dongle or any external amp
3. Ear Tips
4. Cables
5. Source of audio file be it offline FLACS or streaming services like Deezer, Apple music, Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify and the likes..
6. Your playlist. It matters and is worth to be considered when reading from a reviewer's perspective. It is apparent that you get to know your favorite reviewer and what they are listening to leisurely and critically.

My reviews are more on how music sounds in my ears. The technical stuff like frequency graphs and the physics behind the tech and drivers used, I leave to other reviewers.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Configuration: 1DD 9.2mm
Impedance: 16ohms
Sensitivity: 107db
Freq response: 10hz - 40khz

PACKAGING:

Packaging comes with basic inclusions. As expected from a set at this price range.

1. Nice plastic transparent box
2. 3 pairs of silicon tips
3. JD3 itself, with attached cable.


Now let us dive into how JD3 sounds..

LOWS:

The lows, have good tone presentation, but let me tell you early on, it has a strong tendency to be muddy. I know this because I know my jazz tracks too well. The acoustic bass just sounds mushy and soft. And lacks details retrieval like string vibrations and fingerpicking. Sub bass is more prominent than the mid bass. Lows have good impact and weight but it is a bit too colored and elevated to my liking.

Conclusively, the lows turned me off with its muddiness. Lacks speed. Yet, tone and timbre is still commendable.

MIDS:

The mids lack energy and openness. Again details here are compromised. Somewhat veiled and more of this when we come in terms of the trebles later on. Again, tone and timbre is acceptable and organic. Mids have a bit of recessed nature but not too much to put a frown on my face. Vocals are good on both male and female.

Conclusively, tone and timbre is very desirable but lacks openness and details.

TREBLES:

The first time I plugged this in my ears, I noticed the lack of air, openness of the trebles. Brass sections of my Earth wind and Fire lack that shoutiness and impact. This might suit treble sensitives but with the cost of details and energy on top. Cymbal strikes lack grit and bite. And a lot of micro details are compromised as well. This is the weak point of this set by far.

Conclusively, trebles here is my main complaints on how the sound is presented. The only thing that I can think of is this might suit treble sensitive individuals. Other than that, the treble did not appeal to me and I am quite disappointed.


FIT & ISOLATION

Fit is very comfortable. Very lightweight given that the shells are made of metallic material. This is the first bullet type IEM that I reviewed and honestly it is a breath of fresh air for me. Ofcourse, the absence of ear hooks has its cons, but I find the fitting very stable and won't fall off your ears easily. Isolation is very nice too, surprisingly. Shuts off outside noise quite effectively. In terms of comfortability, JD3 is very comfortable. I once left it on my ears while napping for an hour, and it did not leave any physical pain.

TECHNICALITIES:

Sound stage is somewhat narrow to my hearing. It did not give me a sense of good head space. There is nothing wrong with intimate staging. And honestly I enjoy both worlds, be it wide or intimate. Imaging is on the shady side of things. It seems that everything is pushed forward towards the center. Speed has a relaxed nature. Well I think it is because we are talking 20$ range here. In terms of technicalities, I did not expect too much from this price range.


SOURCES AND GEARS:

LG V30 hifi dac (high impedance mode)
Hiby Music player
UAPP app (USB Audio Player Pro)
Tidal Masters subscription
offline FLACS
Hidizs AP80 pro
Deezer Hifi subscription

Here are some tracks I usually listen to when reviewing:

That’s the way of the World by EWF
Africa by TOTO
The Girl in the Other Room by Diana Kral
Balmorhea album All is wild, All is Silent
Sila by Sud
Smooth Escape by D’Sound
Never too Much by Luther Vandross
P.Y.T by Michael Jackson
Ain’t no Sunshine by Eva Cassidy
Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC
Another one bites the Dust by Queen
Good times bad times by Edie Brickell
Alice in Wonderland by Bill Evans
Ain’t it Fun by Paramore
Redefine by Incubus
Far Away by Nickelback
Lovesong by Adele
Lingus by Snarky Puppy
Harvest for the World by Vanessa Williams
Love Bites by Def Leppard
No Such Thing by John Mayer
As by Stevie Wonder
Whip Appeal by Babyface
Ain’t Nobody by Chaka Khan
Futures by Prep
Landslide by Fleetwood Mac
Every Summertime by NIKI
SADE tracks
AC/DC tracks
Queen tracks


And many more… I always listen to High resolution format, being the least quality 16bit/44khz FLACS be it offline or online.

VERDICT:

For a 20$ priced gear, the JD3 is a decent set with a good tone. It just did not fall into my preference. Bass is too much for my taste, and has a tendency to be muddy because of its too relaxed nature. The mids were compromised due to the very noticeable veiled character of the trebles, which sacrificed a lot of details on top. The key points that will save this set are, the lack of energy on top will be suited to treble sensitives, and its comfortability of wear. Sadly, I don't think that I will recommend this. But yet, nice try FiiO for giving a very very affordable set that has a nice tone and timbre. Catch you on the next one! Cheers!!

Introduction:
FiiO is a well-known brand from China that was established in 2007. The "Fi" in the brand name was derived from fidelity (as in Hi-Fi), and "iO" from 1 and 0 (digital signals). FiiO is one of the most versatile brands in the industry, offering a wide range of products including digital audio players, amplifiers, digital to analog converters, in-ear monitors and many more. The JD3 is one of their newest and most affordable offering, that currently retails for 20 USD. The Philippine circle of reviewers was provided by FiiO a unit of the JD3 for review purposes.

International purchase link

Specifications:
Driver unit: 9.2 mm dynamic
Impedance: 16 ohms
Sensitivity: 107 dB
Frequency response range: 10 Hz - 40 kHz

Source:
Poco X3, Redmi Note 10 Pro paired with Cayin RU6, Xduoo Link2 Bal, FiiO KA3, Tempotec Sonata E35 and Zishan U1

Test tracks:
Africano - Earth Wind and Fire
Dark Necessities - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Gurenge - Lisa
The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
Monsters - All Time Low
Ours - Taylor Swift
Stay - Mayday Parade
Snuff - Slipknot
Yesterday Once More - Carpenters
So Slow - Freestyle
Aurora Sunrise - Franco
Attention - Pentatonix
Blue Bird - Ikimono-gakari
You're Still The One - Shania Twain
Anyone Who Knows What Love Is(Will Understand) - Irma Thomas
Salamin - Slapshock
AOV - Slipknot
Hey Jude - The Beatles
The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson
...and a lot more.

Unboxing and Accessories:
The JD3 comes in a rather simple but unique packaging. The box is made of clear, hard plastic with paper inlays for the brand logo, product name and other information. Upon opening, there is the earphone inserted in a thin molded black plastic sheet. Right below it is the instruction manual and four sizes of silicone eartips. The cable also comes with a velcro strap.

Build:
The shells are made of metal. The uniquely designed faceplates also act as a vent, and color coded to distinguish the left and right sides easily. The stem is made of rubber that also acts as a strain relief. On the left stem, there are three small bumps that can be used to know which side is which when in the dark. The nozzles are medium in length, and includes a fine metal mesh filter and a lip to lock eartips in position.

The cable is a very basic oxygen-free copper. Some minor microphonics is there but the cable is very light and the flexibility is great. It does come with a microphone module in a metal housing with three buttons for volume and play/pause. Also worth noting that FiiO does not offer a variant of the JD3 without a microphone. The splitter and gold plated 3.5 mm plug are also made of metal.

Now let's get to the sound.

Lows:
The lows have moderate quickness but packs a heavy punch. Subbass is forward with sufficient depth, accompanied by an average length of decay. Midbass is also prominent. It is slightly bloated and can sometimes feel out of control; smearing nearby frequencies from time to time.

Overall, the JD3 has just adequate decay in the lows but the boominess is what really cements this as a basshead type of earphone. The midbass does get a little too excited sometimes though.

Mids:
The mids take a small step back and have decent clarity. Upper and lower mids are equal in terms of position and both have thicker than average note weight. Instruments have fairly good definition, but vocals, on the other hand, have a tendency to sound a bit veiled or nasal.

Overall, I guess it's only fair to say that this section is the weakest point of the JD3. It can be good for laid back type of genres but whenever the vocals need to shine in a track, it does not receive the push and energy that it needs.

Highs:
The highs are tight laid back just like the mids. Treble reach is below average that dissipates quite fast. Upper region has very little presence, resulting in some instruments to sound grainy. Lower treble also has a tendency to sound thin, causing some details to be easily lost.

Overall, with the current tuning, the highs get easily drowned out by the other frequencies. FiiO could have elevated the highs the compensate for the strong presence of the lows.

Soundstage and Imaging:
As expected, the stage does not have that much expansion. There is equal space in both the height and width. Imaging has acceptable transparency but can definitely feel lacking in genres like rock or metal. Layering and separation of instruments are just average, and congestion is definitely felt especially in complex tracks.

Comparisons:
FiiO JD3 (1 DD, 20 USD) vs. Astrotec Vesna (1 DD, 20 USD)
The Vesna can reach deeper vibrations in the subbass and with a smoother texture, but the JD3 has a bit more rumble quantity. Decay is pretty much equal. Midbass definitely sounds heavier and more forward in the JD3. The Vesna has the clearer, cleaner mids. Vocals sound more airy and more upfront in the Vesna, instruments also have better definition in this section. The Vesna also has a lot more details in the highs. The Vesna also has better treble reach and has a slightly longer decay. Not much difference in the soundstage, only that it is slightly wider in the JH3. The clarity in the imaging is also better in the Vesna, by a mile. The Vesna also presents better layering and instrument separation.

Conclusion:
Budget gears have been slowly but steadily improving over the years, with some of them not even sounding "budget" anymore. With the JD3, FiiO wanted to appeal to the masses by giving this gear powerful bass that may be good for some genres, but made the mistake of reducing the treble a bit too much that it gets easily lost in the background.

I believe that a review as such is not necessary for the following reasons in an extremely cheap product and there are plenty of reviews everywhere.If the pressure in the ear canal doesn't bother you, I highly recommend it. Thanks for reading and blessings to you and your family.