JAYS q-Seven Wireless

Introduction

For those that are new to JAYS, this Swedish company began selling product in 2006, and over the years it has developed a reputation for making good sounding, nicely designed, and affordable headphones / in ear monitors. The last couple of years has seen its focus on wireless designs since this segment of the market continues to gain in popularity. I've reviewed a few of its wireless models during this time, and generally felt the performance and feature set was better than the price would initially suggest.

Today's review is on JAYS' latest Bluetooth headphone, the q-Seven Wireless ($149). This model also incorporates Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) circuitry, the first such design by JAYS.


Impressions

I'd like to begin my review by thanking Martin Nilsson from JAYS for providing me a free sample for my forthright opinion on the q-Seven Wireless. For my review, I used my iPhone SE as my source component playing lossless music from my favorite internet radio station, Radio Paradise. Before I began my critical listening, I burned in the q-Seven for 75 hours.

The q-Seven as the above picture shows includes a manual, a short micro-USB charging cable, a 44" audio cable terminated with standard 3.5mm connectors on both ends, a headphone pouch for protection, and a JAYS' sticker. All in all, everything is nicely finished with good quality materials.

After the burn-in period, I listened to the q-Seven primarily in wireless mode (Bluetooth v5.0). I'm very happy to report the wireless connectivity never wavered, even on my long walks at high speed. Please keep in mind I live in a small town near the ocean, so interference from other wireless devices may be less than in more congested areas.

Regarding the tonality of the q-Seven, there is accentuated mid-bass from the 40mm dynamic drivers giving it a fun sounding presentation, but with noticeable bleed into the lower midrange frequencies. Frankly, I didn't mind this too much since the bass performance can be surprising at times, and addictive. The midrange has a warm character to it, so those who like an up front midrange with great clarity may find the q-Seven wanting. The trebles are neutral to my ears, with good detail presentation. Unfortunately, the q-Seven does not include higher quality audio codecs, e.g., aptX or AAC, but with lossless music I still felt the default SBC codec did a good job reproducing the entire frequency range without introducing any aural anomalies. There is a noticeable bump up in performance when using the q-Seven in wired mode, especially in tightening the bass and increasing the clarity of the midrange.

The ANC circuit was the last feature I explored, and since this is my first ANC headphone, I can't talk about how this feature compares in performance to other brands, but I can say the q-Seven sounded better to me when this feature was disengaged. Many music listeners travel on trains or other public transit, so I can understand how important this capability is; suffice to say, I did find it effective in canceling out external noise.


Summary

In my view, the q-Seven Wireless is a comfortable, stylish headphone with great wireless performance and a sound that is quite satisfying when reproducing low frequencies. Any bass lover with a desire to free themselves from cables will be pleased with this headphone at its affordable price. Recommended!