a-JAYS Five - Bass machine

I received this pair of earphones as a gift.
Or should I say...
I obtained the Logitech Ultimate Ears 600vi as a gift.

I was actually quite pumped up over the UE model itself. However, due to the UE being able to only support iOS devices for its in-line controller and the fact that I had the Samsung Galaxy S4, an Android device, I decided to make a swap at the store. Admittedly, I was contemplating the Sennheiser MM 70s, what I initially thought as an Android ready equivalent for its award-winning CX 300-II. A brief test comparison with the a-JAYS Five gave me quite surprising results.

To cut the long story short, let's just say I settled for this model.
Nuff talk. Let's delve in.

Design

Let's start with the box. The exterior actually is a thin cardboard box that requires the user to rip the rather well designed exterior to shout to everyone that it has been used. The next step requires the vertical lifting of the square shaped box to reveal the hard black circular box flanked at the bottom by two somewhat flimsy boxes with the self-explanatory labels 'Silicone sleeves' and 'Cable clip'. The great part is that you get five different sizes of silicone flanges to fit any permutation of ear size possible. Upon opening that really solid plastic box pop out the a-JAYS Five earphones with a tightly wound cable punctuated by the earphones proper smack in the centre of the box.


On taking them out, the first thing that strikes one is the stylish tangle-free flat type cable that feels really good to the touch.  Going from tip to tip, there is the L-shaped plug on one side to connect with your audio equipment. Somewhere down the middle, the cable is punctuated by the three button (and the actuation of each button is pretty solid) in-line control cum microphone. At the other end, the earpieces themselves are two unassuming rubber pieces that connect to your choice of silicone sleeve via a protruding aluminum tip. Overall, the feeling gotten is that these are a pair of really solid and well built earphones and that much care has been taken in designing the components right down the box opening experience.

Features
Jays Headset Control is a native app that can be downloaded and installed from Google Play. This merits a review in itself, which I shan't cover now. What can be said is that you can set the default music player, set the buttons to actuate based on the latency that you set between two or three button presses (called Click Delays), check for conflicting apps, yada yada. Theoretically, an amazing app to have for any earphones.

Configuring them to my Samsung Galaxy SII (running on Android v2.3) was a blast as everything functioned as it should have. I could set Google Play Music as the default music player, tweak the top and bottom buttons to change track forward and backward. By contrast, running this app on the Samsung Galaxy S4, a more recent model running on Android v4.4 was a head spinner. The top and bottom buttons failed to work, effectively constraining usage of these solely to volume control. Uninstalling and reinstalling the app yielded no better results. Oh and installing the app effectively removes the lock screen music controls of your Android. Do take note all ye Android users. This could have been considered a great unique selling point of these earphones if implemented correctly.
Performance
The audio is quite awesome, bass-wise, though I would hesitate to say mind blowing.

Playing Take That's dance-floor themed These Days allowed a sampling of the thumping bass to the rather tinny vocals of Barlow, Owen and Donald belting 'Take me back to where it all began'. Sarah Brightman's It's a Beautiful Day, never quite convinced me as the vocal clarity was always muffled. Once again, the highlight is the punchy bass punctuating the straining vocals. However, putting things in the bigger perspective, the overall treble beats the stock Samsung or Apple in-ears anytime and this can't be emphasized more.

Fitting-wise, even though the silicone sleeves were stuffed right into the ears, they did give the impression they were rather loose. On walking, they constantly needed to be placed back in the ears to ensure the bass did not escape. On that same note, the cable clip is vital when walking. Just place it under the Y-shaped connector and fit it to your shirt and presto, no more annoying cable rustling sounds.