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JLab - JBuds Pro product page
Got these FREE because of the Microcenter giveaway, so figure I'd post my first reactions review.
Microcenter - Free JBuds offer thread
1. Overall, a 4 out of 5 wireless earphone for the price range, wear, weight, and importantly, SBC BT codec audio quality.
2. The bass/drums/guitars can break up on some tracks like AKB Everyday Cacyusha and Kuroki Wired Life. Just wierd rendition and doesn't sound great. Almost like something was broken in the earphones. Just makes you want to skip that track.
Luckily, that doesn't happen often, like 2 out of 100 tracks tested.
3. Nicely, the earphones are well optimized for "modern music" - meaning music that has been compressed, filtered, and squished into the JPOP/KPOP/POP/CLUB mixes that you hear today.
Also, the vocals are forward, clear, never burried with such music, so perfect for listening to the lyrics clearly at any volume.
One of the few earbuds I've tested that manage to render La La Land's opening freeway dance track much like it was heard in the theaters, with nice bass, good vocals, and a vibrant soundstage.
It isn't perfect, so with the piano ballads later on, Mia's voice doesn't excite as well as it does on better headphones like a JBL E55bt.
But with a wide range of songs from Kpop Twice, to JPOP Misia, Thelma, to Puth's Furious 7 ending, etc., the overall vocal and music reproduction is a happy, solid 4 out of 5 stars. (Meaning if you start paying $$$ after reading the head-fi.org forum reviews of hundreds of headphones, there are better ones. But for the price range of these, they are keepers as daily drivers rather than toss aways that leave you wanting something else.)
Their ability to carve out a space for the vocals to come forward also means they are perfect for listening to movies and tv shows, too. Even at the lowest volumes, you can hear dialog well.
On the other end, push the volume to the highest end and everything stays together and doesn't fall apart. Just becomes more vibrant, exciting, lively - music and vocals.
4. Sadly, older songs that aren't compressed and produced like modern music fail to excite.
Whitney Houston, Gwen Stefani, Eurythmics, etc. - the vocals are a bit lost. Not exciting, not foward, not full in their rendition.
There is hope with remasters however, so Culture Club's Karma Karma plays more vibrantly.
5. Earbuds have 3 tip sizes - you do want to pick the right one for each ear in order to get the best performance out of these.
ie. If I pick the medium for both, the bass doesn't boom. I need to pick the large size for one ear and the bass booms nicely.
Stupidly, they have their logo stamped on the tips, so you may need to rotate the tips so they don't press achingly into your ear. They certainly aren't as soft and comfortable as the SpinFit tips, but once you get the right fit and orientation, they do sit well for hours.
6. Do set the sound profile (by pressing both volume up and down briefly) to neutral first (2 beeps).
This will let you adjust the EQ in your music player better. Their default profile (1 beep) tends towards being brighter on the higher frequencies, and their bass profile (3 beeps) doesn't do anything noticable. (These tiny headphones are not going to rumble like a Sony XBR extra bass.)
The bass can be felt nicely once you've got the right tips in place, but for the price, they obviously aren't going to reproduce the full range of tonal qualities of low bass. Thankfully, they aren't over the top with bass like the Samsung wired earbuds for the S8.
But in no way are they even close to mind-blowingly exciting like the JBL E55bt (when used wired) can be with bass in tracks like Monkey Majik's AI Human, or as clear with vocal reproduction with Utada's Ni Jikan.... But hey, that's trying to compare a beefy 50mm driver to 10mm on these earphones.
7. Mine haven't been broken in with continuous, loud music playback for longer than 2 hours, so the above will likely change with extended use. But unless they get worse, still a solid 4 out of 5 stars.
8. Keep in mind that the BT codec of most cheaper earbuds is going to be SBC (maybe AAC) at best - a good FM quality sound. No where near the CD quality LDAC of top headphones, so don't expect the music coming out of cheaper earbuds to beat the music out of top headphones because the music has been COMPRESSED during transmission by the CODEC used to sound worse than a wired earphone.
But, for the SBC connection, these do quite well - one of the better ones out there for the lively sound reproduction with modern music.
9. The "wings" that you can put on them to help keep the earbud in the ears work well. No pain, fits well, helps keep everything in when jogging.
10. Simple to use, no brainer operation once you've read the guide.
Got these FREE because of the Microcenter giveaway, so figure I'd post my first reactions review.
Microcenter - Free JBuds offer thread
1. Overall, a 4 out of 5 wireless earphone for the price range, wear, weight, and importantly, SBC BT codec audio quality.
2. The bass/drums/guitars can break up on some tracks like AKB Everyday Cacyusha and Kuroki Wired Life. Just wierd rendition and doesn't sound great. Almost like something was broken in the earphones. Just makes you want to skip that track.
Luckily, that doesn't happen often, like 2 out of 100 tracks tested.
3. Nicely, the earphones are well optimized for "modern music" - meaning music that has been compressed, filtered, and squished into the JPOP/KPOP/POP/CLUB mixes that you hear today.
Also, the vocals are forward, clear, never burried with such music, so perfect for listening to the lyrics clearly at any volume.
One of the few earbuds I've tested that manage to render La La Land's opening freeway dance track much like it was heard in the theaters, with nice bass, good vocals, and a vibrant soundstage.
It isn't perfect, so with the piano ballads later on, Mia's voice doesn't excite as well as it does on better headphones like a JBL E55bt.
But with a wide range of songs from Kpop Twice, to JPOP Misia, Thelma, to Puth's Furious 7 ending, etc., the overall vocal and music reproduction is a happy, solid 4 out of 5 stars. (Meaning if you start paying $$$ after reading the head-fi.org forum reviews of hundreds of headphones, there are better ones. But for the price range of these, they are keepers as daily drivers rather than toss aways that leave you wanting something else.)
Their ability to carve out a space for the vocals to come forward also means they are perfect for listening to movies and tv shows, too. Even at the lowest volumes, you can hear dialog well.
On the other end, push the volume to the highest end and everything stays together and doesn't fall apart. Just becomes more vibrant, exciting, lively - music and vocals.
4. Sadly, older songs that aren't compressed and produced like modern music fail to excite.
Whitney Houston, Gwen Stefani, Eurythmics, etc. - the vocals are a bit lost. Not exciting, not foward, not full in their rendition.
There is hope with remasters however, so Culture Club's Karma Karma plays more vibrantly.
5. Earbuds have 3 tip sizes - you do want to pick the right one for each ear in order to get the best performance out of these.
ie. If I pick the medium for both, the bass doesn't boom. I need to pick the large size for one ear and the bass booms nicely.
Stupidly, they have their logo stamped on the tips, so you may need to rotate the tips so they don't press achingly into your ear. They certainly aren't as soft and comfortable as the SpinFit tips, but once you get the right fit and orientation, they do sit well for hours.
6. Do set the sound profile (by pressing both volume up and down briefly) to neutral first (2 beeps).
This will let you adjust the EQ in your music player better. Their default profile (1 beep) tends towards being brighter on the higher frequencies, and their bass profile (3 beeps) doesn't do anything noticable. (These tiny headphones are not going to rumble like a Sony XBR extra bass.)
The bass can be felt nicely once you've got the right tips in place, but for the price, they obviously aren't going to reproduce the full range of tonal qualities of low bass. Thankfully, they aren't over the top with bass like the Samsung wired earbuds for the S8.
But in no way are they even close to mind-blowingly exciting like the JBL E55bt (when used wired) can be with bass in tracks like Monkey Majik's AI Human, or as clear with vocal reproduction with Utada's Ni Jikan.... But hey, that's trying to compare a beefy 50mm driver to 10mm on these earphones.
7. Mine haven't been broken in with continuous, loud music playback for longer than 2 hours, so the above will likely change with extended use. But unless they get worse, still a solid 4 out of 5 stars.
8. Keep in mind that the BT codec of most cheaper earbuds is going to be SBC (maybe AAC) at best - a good FM quality sound. No where near the CD quality LDAC of top headphones, so don't expect the music coming out of cheaper earbuds to beat the music out of top headphones because the music has been COMPRESSED during transmission by the CODEC used to sound worse than a wired earphone.
But, for the SBC connection, these do quite well - one of the better ones out there for the lively sound reproduction with modern music.
9. The "wings" that you can put on them to help keep the earbud in the ears work well. No pain, fits well, helps keep everything in when jogging.
10. Simple to use, no brainer operation once you've read the guide.
