xaf
New Head-Fier
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- Apr 1, 2010
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The s-Jays from Jays are one of my favourite earphones. They are, apparently, the world's first earphone built around the Knowles' SR armature, which was meant to bring to the table, a compromise between a dynamic driver and a balanced armature driver. What transpired was an earphone which had an identity crisis, something which sounded like neither types of drivers.
Speed was good, not as good as a BA but better than many dynamics. It also carried comparatively more mid-bass and lower-mids more in line with a dynamic driver. The treble, likewise was articulate but lacked resolution and rolled off early. This mix of sound, while making it far from the best sounding earphone around, or balanced, was entirely enjoyable to listen to for extended periods of time. Thus for the last year and a half, they were my regular 'phone of choice having bought them when they first came out.
Then, after a year, the what appeared to be very good build quality of Jays' earphones, failed. It started with the cable hardening up gradually over time (a problem which has also plagued my d-Jays and q-Jays, thankfully they are still alive), then the right channel just cut out. And then if that wasn't enough, the cabling dissociated from the y-split. By now, the s-Jays were out of production and buying another pair was more difficult than me winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Then I came across this thread: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/496801/recabling-q-jays, and that's where this story starts.
It was always just my intention to just remould the s-Jays and be done with it. I needed something which had good isolation for when I read anyway. So, I then read through this thread: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/443197/unique-melody-remold-appreciation-and-impressions-thread, got in contact with UM and see what they said. Sure enough, they were able to remould these, but they were also nice enough to tell me that while they could do it, it wouldn't sound much different. Also, the price for doing all of that, was just a little steep for my liking...which got me thinking, what if I paid a bit more, and combined the q-jays with the s-jays?
The intention was to take the best aspects of the q-Jays (the clear, articulate treble and upper-mids) and combine it with the strengths of the s-Jays (the decent mid-bass presence and impact and smooth lower-mids), something like the Super-Fi 5 EB. One can argue that the q-Jays are pretty good as they are, and this has the potential to make something good sound something horrible (like the 5EBs), but I felt mixing armatures and armatures will be a better match than a dynamic and an armature.
So I got back into contact with UM to see if this could be done, and after a little bit of confusion on my side, it appeared they were unwilling to do it. However, they did put me into contact with Rooth, another custom maker in China, and the same Rooth that created the LS8, who I believe is in someway connected to UM, though in what way, I'm not sure. Regardeless, Rooth responded that they were able to remould and combine the s and q-Jays together. And so, that's what happened. I bought a pair of broken q-Jays off the forums from Karthik here, had some impressions made, and shipped everything off to China.
Timeline:
September 3 (am): Ear impressions made
September 3 (pm): Earphones, impressions, order form, sent to Rooth
September 17-20: Package arrived at Rooth Labs
October 7: Remould complete; Payment made
October 8: Package in transit
October 11: Earphones arrived back, safe and sound
Total 39 days from the day package was sent. Took far less time than I thought, or expected, but the final result was no less impressive than the other customs in the UM impressions thread. I present to you, what I will now call, the r-Jays (apologies if you've already trademarked them Jays! I picked 'r' cos it falls between 'q' and 's', and it also stands for 'remould' and 'Rooth' did the remoulding... So, here are some pictures...
What's left of the existing earphones:
What's in the [bag] now:
General Remarks:
Construction:
Seamless. They really are very well built, and everything looks to be very durable. They acrylic housing is smooth, with no rough edges to speak of, except maybe the tip where the dual sound bores are located, but then that's just being overly picky. The colours were close enough to the colours I picked, and with enough transparency to be able to see the internals. In retrospect, I should have picked more grey than white, but nevertheless, they still look quite stunning.
Looking inside, Rooth did a very good job of fitting everything inside. There was never any doubt that the TWFKs from the q-Jays were going to fit in, just look how small the q-Jays are themselves. What I didn't realise was just how big the SRs are. Diameter-wise they push the limits of space available with only a very thin bit of housing protecting them from the outside world. Along with the drivers, you can see the wires connecting everything up, and the crossovers used to control the frequencies. All of these means it looks quite cramped inside the housing. Each driver is then connected via its own sound tubing with sound exiting via dual bores as per my request.
On the cabling side of things, these were Rooth's own cables, but the connector is the same as those used by Westone, so they are interchangable. These are of the braided type with ample stress relief at both the y-split and the L-type 3.5mm plug. Memory wire is found at the opposite end of the cable to keep the cable stable around the ear. Overall a solid cable which doesn't seem to tangle so easily.
Fit and Comfort:
When I first started this...project, so to speak, reading through the forums got me a bit worried about shrinking ear impressions, then having impressions damaged in transit, and then returning with poor fit meaning I have to ship them back to have them refitted. Thankfully, this was not the case. Most of that was due to the audiologist who did a great job of the impressions, which while actually making my ears a bit sore while having them made, meant that the fit would be as tight as possible. Rooth likewise did a great job constructing the housing from them, and frankly I have absolutely no problems with inserting and wearing these for extended periods of time. Seal I find has not been an issue whether chewing on something, yawning, coughing, etcetcetc.........
Isolation and Microphonics:
Like any customs with a good fit, you really shouldn't be walking outside with them, and these are no different. With or without music playing you can barely hear what's happening around you. The advantage of that of course is the volume never has to be high. My Walkman sits around 5 of a volume scale of 0 to 30 no matter where I use them.
Microphonics is minimal, but surprisingly present given the over-the-ear form factor. Walking with them on, you can hear the cable rubbing up against, whatever. It's not enough to be a deal breaker, but it can get a tad bothersome.
Sound Remarks:
As I mentioned from the outset, the aim of combining the s-Jays and the q-Jays was to hopefully bring together the strengths of both these earphones. And listening to both of these earphones, the combined strengths actually cover a lot of each other's weaknesses, making them theoretically quite good when combined...so what are they like in reality? History has shown that simply shoving things together which are conceptually good can have mixed results. Just look at UE's Super-Fi 5 EB: looking to bring the powerful bass of a dynamic driver and combine it with the clarity and detail offered by a BA. The end result was an overpowering and more to the point, muddy bass and lower mid which spoiled the delicate upper half of the sound spectrum. These r-Jays are probably one of a handful of earphones which put together the BA alternative of the dynamic driver with a full range dual BA unit, which hopefully achieves what the SF5EB couldn't: balance.
First impressions are very positive. Having spent quite a bit of time with the q-Jays and DBA-02, before switching over to using the r-Jays, the difference, while varying in subtlety, is evident. Starting off with impressions and comparisons with the q-Jays, these have been known to carry comparatively more bass than other dual balanced armature earphones. The short of it is that the r-Jays have even more bass presence than the q-Jays (and for that matter, the DBAs). More, of course, is relative... compared to most dynamics, these don't come close but compared to the two BA earphones I have, and those that I have had the fortune to hear, the increase is evident. The good thing though is the increase in quantity has not sacrificed the quality of the bass: Speed, control and articulation are all still there, just now with more impact, or kick, if you like and at the risk of being contradictory to my above statements, the bass is also 'wetter', more immersive. If I have to pick on anything, it would be extension. It's still quite good, but I believe it is limited by the technology of the driver. Still, methinks that having 3 drivers now means the SRs can concentrate on what it does best, and it does it very, very well.
The midrange, along with specifically the vocals, is where it shifts its influence from one parent donor to the other, not necessarily a bad thing though. One of the things about the q-Jays is the comparatively recessed midrange when compared to the treble and the bass, and this is one area which I think makes the DBAs more enjoyable to many. The r-Jays' takes more of a leaf out of the rich, smooth, fatigue-free, and neither over or under eager midrange of the s-Jays, but simply more refined with better detail, attack, depth, air and clarity. Interestingly though, overall, the midrange carries a similar sound characteristic to the DBAs, but less aggressive. It is very musical, but suitably analytical as well. The only fault here is, when the upper-mids, lower treble are busy, it can overwhelm the very slight but noticably recessed vocals. This is also evident in the frequency response curve, but this doesn't really affect or bother me in my day to day listening as it never becomes harsh in it's presentation, nor does it ever feel imbalanced against the bass or the treble, especially in vocal-less tracks. And in the event it does, some simple equalisation would minimise its effect.
Speaking of the treble, which while apparent on the q-Jays with again, good clarity and detail, it lacked character, or sparkle. The r-Jays resemble this to a certain extent, although it is gives an impression of being more lively and improves on the ability to produce micro-detail. Sparkles a bit more, but not by much though. Sibilance is well handled and is less so than both the q-Jays and DBAs. I wouldn't mind if the treble overall to be a touch brighter, like the DBAs, but while I say that, I would probably not change it even if I had the chance. As it stands now, it maintains the trend of being very non-fatiguing to listen to, and ultimately, a rather balanced setup (not neutral though) with a very slight bias to the lower end.
And while it may not be a neutral pair of IEMs, the r-Jays I believe still has a place as an analytical option. One other thing which the r-Jays does better than the q-Jays and the DBAs is separation (of instrument, of notes) especially depth-wise (soundstaging width-wise is rather average) and never sounds distant. The ability to render everything audibly clear at all depths and with good positioning, is something special. Mind, I'm not saying either of the dual BA earphones are bad, but this is just evidently better, more 3 dimensional.
Just a few other observations, low volume performance combined with good isolation is likewise commendable, meaning that the volume doesn't need to be turned all the way up in order bring out the best of the r-Jays. Also helps protect hearing, an added bonus. On the other end of the spectrum, amping I didn't feel was worthwhile. It simply didn't have anything more to offer, if anything made the r-Jays sound edgy and harsh on certain tracks. It may simply be the synergy of the hardware, but with un-amped results being, in short, great, it's not really worth the effort to try and change that.
Finally, you will notice in this impressions thread, that I have not included any comments relating the customs to specific songs. While I'm happy to do this by request, I feel a general overview of the sound is more worthwhile as the music I listen will probably not reflect on others. So feel free to shout out if anyone is curious enough to see how these fare on a case to case basis! One thing I will say is that these are very good for classical/orchestral music.
After all that, the question which I've been asked most is whether the investment was worth it. Unfortunately, the answer to that isn't quite as easy to answer. If I was forced to pick from yes or no, the answer would be a resounding yes. At the same time, having the r-Jays won't stop me from using or purchasing other universal fit IEMs even though I can say that these are very much close to the ideal sound I'm looking for, which for some defeats the purpose of getting customs in the first place. The reason for such uncertainty goes like this, while they are ideal for all intent purposes, there are somethings it just can't do, nor do I expect it to. It can't match the soundstaging or sound characteristics of the likes of the Silver Bullets, the sheer fun of the Eternas, or even just the back to basics approach with the mainstream t-Jays and it's in moments like this where you appreciate having all the options available despite having something that is very, very good. To put it into an offbeat nutshell perspective, it's like buying a burger; without fries and a drink, it really can't be considered a meal.
I would like to once again express my appreciation to Rooth for doing a great job creating this custom. Their professionalism, communication and efficiency in the course of completing this is something that has made a potentially daunting task into a much more pleasant experience, so many thanks, and highly recommended if you are looking for a reshelling job!
