391 of 404 people found the following review helpful:
jBuds are Ear Buddies
These were my fourth pair of earbuds and the most impressive I've owned. The wiring and connections are solid and reinforced. I've replaced earbuds when the wiring breaks or the sound volume becomes unequal.
I'm hard on earbuds. My workday starts late in the morning and lasts until late in the evening. I need to still be asleep when the gardeners come with...
426 of 462 people found the following review helpful:
Good Step Up From Apple Earbuds
As Apple headphone replacements, these are very good headphones. Purely on an audio basis, these leave a lot to be desired, highs are muted.
September 10, 2009 Update: Wow JLabs continues to be amazing. In the middle of the summer, the audio jack separated from the headphone wires. Essentially making the headphones useless. They got a ton of play by my son...
These were my fourth pair of earbuds and the most impressive I've owned. The wiring and connections are solid and reinforced. I've replaced earbuds when the wiring breaks or the sound volume becomes unequal.
I'm hard on earbuds. My workday starts late in the morning and lasts until late in the evening. I need to still be asleep when the gardeners come with their leaf blowers and weed whackers. Earbuds serve a dual purpose: they keep sound out and give me pleasant sounds to sleep by. Being a bit of an insomniac, my MP3 player helps me to fall asleep each night as well. This is tough on earphones.
I'm impressed with the construction of these buds. Stress points are well reinforced and unlikely to fail. But ruggedness isn't the primary reason for buying phones ... sound quality is.
These are second to none when it comes to sound quality. Bass is solid with no distortion. The midrange and highs are crisp and clear. I've listened to everything from hip-hop to classical and they have provided a superior listening experience.
The worst feature of these phones is that they have a straight plug into the media player instead of an angled plug. This makes it easier to accidently unplug the phones. At worst, a minor drawback. Also, the barrel of the buds is a bid longer than others. At first I thought this would be a problem with lying on a pillow, but it hasn't disturbed me at all.
These utterly dominate all the other earbuds I've owned, both in terms of construction quality and in terms of sound. Buy a pair with confidence - you can't go wrong.
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As Apple headphone replacements, these are very good headphones. Purely on an audio basis, these leave a lot to be desired, highs are muted.
September 10, 2009 Update: Wow JLabs continues to be amazing. In the middle of the summer, the audio jack separated from the headphone wires. Essentially making the headphones useless. They got a ton of play by my son who loved the design. A few emails to JLabs and no response. After a month or so and a few emails, I gave up. Oh well, go buy some new headphones, and call it a day. Well this past week I got an email saying they were sorry about not responding. Another email back with no intention that they would respond. Oh my goodness was I wrong this evening. They are standing behind these broken headphones and sending me a replacement. There's another little bonus as a great good will gesture. These guys just amaze me. There is also a letter of apology by the owner of JLabs explaining what happened. A rough customer service moment for warranty repairs; and they appear to be back on track beautifully.
September 19, 2009 Update: replacement earphones have arrived. They included a nice vinyl JLabs zipper case for the headphones, and a speaker surprise. So Jlabs did make right on this problem.
Nov. 27 update: JLabs is a very impressive company. They posted a comment to this review and suggested that I burn in the headphones. That is very good advice - sometimes it does take 24 hours or a week or two to free up a speaker and get it to sound optimal. So I ran my iPod for 24 hours, played 394 songs at medium volume (no I didn't listen that whole time). My particular sample improved somewhat, but the highs are still muted (reran the same tests). Clearer now, but still not the fabulous sound I've read about in so many other reviews. They can be brought into line with a large amount of high Hz equalizer.
Sorry guys - customer service, JLab gets 5,000 stars for caring so much. Design and look, they get a solid 5 stars. Comfort, 5 stars. It's just that all those things go away when they are in my ears and I'm listening, they are 3 star headphones. It's possible I have the 1 in 1,000,000 lower quality sample. They still can't be beat as upgrades from the standard earbuds that come with most players.
Back to the original review:
The good. These headphones are comfortable to wear. The ear bud material is soft and fits mosts ears well (there's three different sizes, typical of all in ear headphones). They stay in your ear well. Not recommended for the active person, but they won't fall out while you walk. The headphones are low profile, so if you are laying on a pillow they don't fall out or poke harder into your ear. The construction looks decent, they have a nice solid feel to them. The wires are fairly thin, but they look like they will survive. The jack is a straight one. It appears to be a little extra long, so it might fit an original iPhone.
Isolation - it works well. Anyone moving up from Apple earbuds will be stunned at how quiet these phones isolate the world. You'll be a bit surprised at hearing yourself swallow and breathe. It's the same for all passive isolating in ear headphones. These are no exception, and are not really any better than others at isolation.
The bad. Audio quality. Highs are muted pretty badly. Bass is decent, you should never expect an in ear headphone to rattle or vibrate. These headphones dig fairly deep into the bass. Midrange is decent, voices sound fairly good. Where these really fall flat, the high range. They have virtually no treble to speak of.
My testing. I tried these headphones connected to a Nokia N95-3 cell phone, an iPod (5th gen), a portable DVD player, and Logitech Z-10 computer speakers. I listened to a variety of programs, video games, comedy video, movies, and music. In all cases the highs were definately missing. My reference headphones are Shure E3c's, yes they cost 4 times the price of these (list price), but they are a reference point. I also compared to Apple's earbuds.
Movie viewing: Hancock - John Lee Hooker's opening song and the solo cello music later in the movie all were muted, but had good low tones. Dialog was clear. The explosions were clear. Imaging (the sense of where a sound is coming from) is really poor, most of the sound appered to be coming from the middle of my head. Not a bad headphone for movies.
Music: Garbage - Shirley Manson's voice was not clear and crisp. The band actually sounded separated from her singing (something not heard with the Shures). High guitar notes were muddled. Beth Orton, Central Reservation, I heard similar problems.
Cell Phone: my Nokia has a bit of a hiss whenever music or videos play. It's almost annoying with my Shure headphones. The JBuds did a good job masking that hiss. So as a cell phone headphone for listening only, these aren't bad.
I like the look, feel, and construction of the JBuds. Wish I could say that the sound quality was equally great. I won't retire my Shure headphones.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program(What's this?)
I compared these J2 earbuds directly with a pair of Sennheiser CX300 Earbuds that I bought and reviewed here on Amazon last year. I played some Ella Fitzgerald, Acoustic Alchemy and Brian Culbertson. I immediately noticed a difference in sound. The Sennheisers had more 'presence' -- the highs were clearer and the vocal range (around 1000kH) was brighter and more natural. The J2s sounded a bit muddy or muffled in comparison.
That said though, listening is a very subjective experience. I listen for natural sounding vocals and acoustic instruments. I like a 'live' sound and not overdone or muddy bass. Just to get a different perspective, I did the same music test with my 14 year old son and his two friends. I played for them Life in the Fast Lane by the Eagles and let them switch between the two earbud sets. They hands-down chose the J2s over the Sennheisers. So much for my opinion. :-)
I think I'd conclude that if you like bass-heavier, mid-range type music - maybe genres like rock, hip-hop, alternative, techno - then these J2s would work fine for you. If you tend to be fussy about equalizer settings, like to hear a clear soundstage and presence, and critical listening to music is important to you, then I would shop around some more, or at least compare these earbuds to others in the same price range.
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I bought some earphones not too long ago from Radio Shack. They were the kind you press into the ear. They were awful. The sound was bad and they wouldn't stay in the ear at all.
The jbud j2 are also a kind that you press into the ear (stay in pretty well you you give them a small twist when inserting instead of just pushing them in.) It made me a little nervous, but the price wasn't bad and the reviews were all good, so, I decided to go ahead with the purchase. Amazon got them to me in less than a week and packaged them well.
The sound quality is very good. Some of my classic piano concertos just come to life with these.
The dynamic range may be a little too good. I like to listen to music before I go to bed and I would use the Samsung earphones that came with my player, and by the way they are very good for being the included earphones. Since it's right before bedtime, I'll turn my player's volume down to 2 or 3 (out of 30). The J2s when turned down that low on volume, the higher frequencies I can't hear like I could with the "cheap" earphones. Perhaps it's my hearing. This really isn't a complaint because when I turn the volume up to say 10, It (J2s) sounds fantastic.
The construction seems pretty good, but only time will tell for sure.
The noise canceling part of the earphones also works very well, if that's what you like. The Samsung earphones you could hear other people talking just fine and still listen to the music. J2's you cannot. That can be good or bad depending on the situation.
I may get another set for my son.
They are good,
Bryce
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So I've ordered the Jbuds J-2 in Lambo Yellow on the day before Thanksgiving, and I got them earlier this past week. I've also tried three other sets of noise-isolating earbuds, namely the Creative EP-630 In-Ear Headphones, the V-MODA Bass Freq Earbuds - Bling Bling Black, and the JVC HAFX33A Marshmallow In-Ear Stereo Headphones (Blue). I'm trying to find a good set of noise-isolating earphones to use on a day-long bus trip I'm taking next month, and have tested them while studying in a laundromat (lots of noisy washers and dryers; my laundromat has study tables and wi-fi). Overall, I have liked the Jbuds J2 the best; here's my opinion on all four:
--The JVC Marshmallows had the worst sound quality of all four. They didn't sound very realistic, they were very tinny. I threw them out.
--The Creative earbuds produced very good sound quality, BUT the cord microphonics were too much (the cord was very rubbery, and you could hear it even with the slightest bump, so it was useless to walk with). I'm giving them away to someone else.
--The V-Moda earbuds also have very good sound quality, very little cord microphonics, and may very well have the best noise-isolation of all four; however, I felt they may have been a bit TOO bassy. This gives me somewhat of a headache when listening to something like Star People, so I don't use it for normal listening. But it may be the best option for the bus or laundromat.
--Overall, the Jbuds J2 have virtually no cord microphonics, and very good noise isolation (though slightly less than the V-Moda). Not too much bass, very balanced and the most realistic sound of all four that I've tried. They attenuate noise very well, but the V-Modas are very slightly better at that (which is why I'm giving these 4 stars instead of five).
So overall, if you like lots of bass, go with V-Moda; if you like the best balanced sound quality, go with these. But overall, I think that these are the best all-around.
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This review is from: JBuds J2 Premium Hi-Fi Noise-Isolating Earbuds (White/Gray) (Electronics)
I love listening to music and podcasts on these headphones, especially in crowded areas since they have relatively good sound isolation. However, my second set of headphones has broken in the last six months in exactly the same way. Both sets began having contact problems near the headphone plug (making it so that if you hold it in your hand just so, you can hear everything, but as soon as you let go you hear almost nothing). The company was very kind to replace the first set, but I'm not even going to bother requesting that they replace the second set seeing as it's too much of a hassle to have to replace a set of headphones every three months. If you want quality and *durability*, look elsewhere.
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I am not someone who goes out of their way to bash a product or company, but the particular J2s I bought were sub-par.
I agree with the other reviewers that the construction of the buds is good and I wished they would have worked. The problem I have is that the sound volumes between left and right are way off - like the left bud is 2x as loud as the right. I even did the 24 hour burn in, like Jlabs recommends, and while it did make the sound better, it did not even out the overall volume levels to anything resembling normal.
So I figure it is just a bad set, and Jlabs will make it right. Not so.
After 5 days of waiting, 2 emails with no reply and 3 calls that all end up in voicemail with no way to leave a message I am feeling ignored. A simple auto-reply to the email that Jlabs calls 24-hour would have been nice.
I am considering sending them back to Amazon for a refund, if I don't hear back from the company real soon.
UPDATE
So, I was contacted by JLabs after about a month and their customer service stepped up to the plate to offer replacement and threw in a portable speaker set.
Amazon had already replaced the buds - and the new ones were rock solid. Very good sound through both ears.
If I had to re-rate the product it would get 4 of 5 stars. The only downside to these is that they are a little larger then my Sennheiser pair. Otherwise a great product from a company that does what is right, in the end.
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Let me preface this review with the fact that I have owned several pairs of earphones over the years, from cheapo over-the-ear-clip sony's to premium zune earbuds, to audiophile grade cans like the sennheiser hd-590 and 280 pros.
FOR THE PRICE, these are the best headphones I've ever purchased hands down. I decided to switch to earbuds since I listen to music all day pretty much at work while programming, and decided over the ear headphones left bad hair rings (you know what I'm talking about if you've had them) around my ears, and was kind of annoying. So I switched first to the earbuds from my Zune, which are not bad since they come free with Zune gen2 pmps. So I decided to go shopping to see what was out there, and came across the J2's and was surprised by the reviews being so good for such reasonably priced headphones.
When I read a particularly mediocre review, and found that in the comments a company representative had actually responded, I was sold. If they care that much about what people are saying, then I know they are serious about standing behind their product and listening to customer feedback. Ordered and received the next day through my Prime membership.
At first, I was not too pleased with the tinny sound, but knew that all great headphones need burn-in time, so I left them on for nearly 2 days straight, and now a week later, the sound is full and the tinny sound has all but disappeared. Although comparing them to $150+ headphones is unfair, these really do quite a good job, although I don't think anybody can expect in-ear headphones to be as full and powerful as their over-the-ear counterparts simply due to physics. Compared to my Zune earbuds, these provide much better mid-range sound, with ample bass which my zune buds just didn't have.
With that said, you will be hard pressed to find a better value for your money for some in-ear buds that will leave your hair headphone-matted free, while still being able to enjoy your tunes within reasonable expectations.
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After two weeks, these buds lost sound in one side. I returned them for a replacement. The replacement pair did exactly the same thing - worked OK for two weeks, then one side went mute.
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This review is from: JBuds J2 Premium Hi-Fi Noise-Isolating Earbuds (White/Gray) (Electronics)
I purchased the JBud J2 Ear Buds two months ago. They are already defective. The wire that comes out of the JBud attachment to my Ipod is broken. I only use the JBuds a few times a week and am very careful with their use. I am disappointed in this defective product.
For sure the sound is just fine. Let's see if customer service at JLab Audio will make good on the warranty.In regard to customer service,my calls and emails(2)were ignored. I then sent an email to info at JLabs and was told that I was to be sent a new set of ear buds. After two weeks I still do not have the replacements and my emails(2) on the status of shipment have been ignored. I will not do business with this company again because of their very poor customer support.
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