audiosplitz

Sony Just ear XJE-MH1 - Audio Nirvana?

May 26, 2015

a-JAYS Five - Bass machine

May 01, 2015

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.

Aiwa

Top 5 Budget Earphones

March 27, 2015

After using earphones for many years now, there comes a point where a look back is needed.

Needless to say, over the span of 15+ years, there is absolutely no way to do an apple to apple comparison of every single pair of earphones ever tried. Why so? Through wear and tear, some are discarded and new ones gotten. Some sold, more are bought. I decided to compile a list based on the top earphones that went easy on the budget.

This is a list of a bunch 'o kickass budget (< S$100) earphones that I have had the pleasure of using at one point in my life. They brought back great memories as the experience was so darn awesome. They may not necessarily have the best sound quality but each has a unique selling point that justifies its place in this list.

Let's commence.

1. Aiwa HP-V161

S$11 a pop. Does the price make the earphone? In this case, nope. It is excellent for bass lovers and unique due to the silicon layer with a tiny layer of air on the earphones themselves to provide comfort and a certain degree of sound isolation. These earphones are great, on one condition - That your ear holes are tiny enough to afford a snug fit. My situation was that these plugs were rather tiny so I had to adjust them continually whenever they dropped out and this happened pretty often. When fitted right, the bass kicked in nicely.

S$11? Incredulous ain't it?

2. Creative EP-630

I was using a pair of these with my iPod mini in the mid-2000s and what I clearly recall is that this was an amazing pair of earphones for the S$40 dished out. What you get - well balanced sound with great sound isolation. This was my default pair of earphones for almost a year for a reason. I can't really find that many flaws with a model at this price range. Perhaps the only niggling issue was the cord swishing in the wind when walking, but this is inherent in most in-ear earphones. They are still in production so do get your paws on a pair if you can.

Great value. Great sound.

3. Jays a-JAYS Five

A controversial choice? Perhaps. However, these are a decent pair of in-ears that make up my current choice. Are they the best choice for sound quality? The highs aren't the best. The bass is certainly decent enough.

I give them credit for two things:

1. This is an Android-ready pair of earphones. Not many manufacturers would bother an attempt to dedicate a pair to Android for some reason. Besides the iOS ready earphones, all the other so-called Android-ready units only have an analogue volume control.

2. They actually came up with a mobile app called Jays Headset Control for customization of the 3 buttons on the in-line remote. The downside is it seems they aren't really updating it. It worked great on Android v2.3 but on v4.4, the support for the top and bottom buttons seems to have vanished. Nonetheless, great concept. Other manufacturers should start to develop similar apps for their earphone ranges.

Android ready? Hell yes

4. Sony MDR-EX70SL

The key unique selling point of the EX70SL was that the earbuds fit right into your ears. There were small, medium and large sizes for customization to your ear hole size. The 'SL' meant that the cord could be either S (short cord) or linked to an extended cord to make it L (long cord), ideal for MP3 or Minidisc users sporting a remote. Sound quality is incredible. The tech specs mention 6 - 23000 Hz though these are probably marketing specs to emphasize the strength on the lower frequencies and yeah, the bass delivers.

If iPhones sparked a revolution for phones, the Sony MDR-EX70SL did the same for in-ear earphones. While I am not sure if Sony are the folks who came up with the first pair of in-ears, they certainly popularized them. If you look into any shop selling earphones these days, most likely 80% are all of the in-ears category. That is the impact this model had.

The model that started it all

5. Sony MDR-E888LP

The emphasis of the E888LP was the sound quality. These were the top-of-the-range earphones of Sony's earphones catalogue. The break-in of the earphones took a while. The initial experience was that it was really nothing all that fantastic. However, after a month or so of usage, the delivery started to kick in and the audio coming in from the high and the mid-range certainly made an impact. They are great in the indoor environment with little ambient sound. Bring them to use in a train and that experience suddenly degrades by a lot. The E888LP was the EX70SL's complement to a certain extent. They appeared around the same time period. The former sparkled in the highs while the latter was a bass hitter. Regardless, this was an iconic pair.

Expensive? Damn right. Great sound quality though.

Merit goes to:

Sennheiser CX 300-II

Xiaomi Mi In-Ear Headphones

Bluetooth

Sony Ericsson MH100 Wireless Stereo Bluetooth Headset

March 21, 2015

This is one vestige of my last experience with Sony Ericsson, a brand since evolved and simplified to just Sony. I had actually gotten this headset packed in with the purchase of my humble Sony Ericsson Aino (U10i).

Sony Ericsson MH100 - one solid Bluetooth receiver

It was quite a welcome change as all my previous Sony Ericsson phones came with a pair of wired earphones that connected not by the conventional 3.5mm jack but by that really annoying proprietary FastPort that came fitted with Sony Ericsson phones from 2005 - 2010.

The FastPort is dead. Long live the 3.5mm jack

You may be wondering why I would write about a relic of the past in this day and age. I say tribute should be paid to quality and the MH100 certainly served me well. Long after my Aino faded into oblivion like most other handphones, the MH100 remained my audio receiver of choice.

Design

The MH100 Bluetooth receiver brings back memories of Sony's stylish Minidisc remotes. There is a solid clip at the rear that easily grips onto your shirt. The right edge comes adorned with the standard and essential Play/Pause, Back and Forward buttons. The left one is a touch panel for your finger to slide up or down to adjust the volume of the audio playback. Smack above the LED panel, there's a self-explanatory call button.

The intriguing part of the device is the LED panel. It doesn't actually display any text but just 4 distinct lights. By holding the switch at the base, the lights start illuminating upwards signalling the powering up and finally blink to indicate how much power there is left in the unit. Keeping it simple, 4 green lights show full power and 1 blinking red shows a dire need to charge. You get the idea.

Light 'Em Up

Features

Pairing the MH100 with the Aino is child's play. Turn on the Bluetooth on the Aino and activate the MH100 and boom, they connect and you can already start playing music. The pairing experience with other devices is trickier. When testing with the Samsung Galaxy SII, you need to activate your mobile's Bluetooth. You then reset the MH100 by pressing the power and call buttons together for 5 seconds. The LEDs will then start flashing blue and green like crazy and during this period, find the device on the phone and select it. The LEDs stop flashing and hey presto, you're paired.

Performance

The audio quality of the supplied HPM-78 in-ears is decent enough. Putting things in perspective, they are decent enough to whip the default iPhone/Samsung earpieces into submission. Nothing less from what is demanded from a Sony. The bass is tight and controlled such that the listening experience on the train does not leave you begging for heavier sound. The vocals of Diamanda Galas on Erasure's Rock Me Gently come through well enough, not crystal clear nor overly shrill. but enough for one to appreciate the track. Overall, not for music aficionados who demand studio quality audio but certainly meets the expectations for frequent train/bus commutes to work.

The range of the MH100 is around 10 metres. No problem if you like to walk around your room when gathering your thoughts at the thumping of an Armin Van Buuren track.

Charging is via the Sony Ericsson FastPort. You can either connect directly to the FastPort cable or by docking it on the Aino cradle. The charging process ain't too long. 2.5 hours does the trick.

Looks so good when docked with the Aino, doesn't it?

Players

Classic Walkman - Sony WM-FX511

January 31, 2015

In 2015 where streamed music becomes the norm and CDs fade into oblivion, it's good to take a look back into the not so distant past at the default format used by music lovers around the world - the cassette.

Or rather, let's look at the definitive music players that preceded the iPod generation.

The Walkman, introduced by Akio Morita in 1979, was a revolution selling hundreds of millions of units to the masses. It transformed the stereo system in your living room into a personalised and portable experience that you could bring anywhere with you.

I was one of the folks captivated by the experience. The Walkman was an indispensible part of my life. I had owned many units - in 1992, a WM-FX50 unit with a bulging left rear meant to take in either a chewing gum Ni-MH battery or a normal AA. In 1996, I owned a top of the range WM-GX508 recorder where I could delight in recording the top hits from BBC's UK top 20, albeit in crappy sound quality. Good as the hardware was, I was not quite satisfied. In 1997, I migrated to my final cassette Walkman unit - the WM-FX511.

Sceptical as it may sound, I was actually salivating over this unit.

Now, we take for granted skipping tracks and pristine, skip-free music from our iPhones or Galaxy S phones. Back then, things were very different, especially taking into consideration the limitations of the cassette format. Skipping tracks for cassette players was quite a rarity. Every cassette user in those days who wanted to repeat their favourite song would often have to go through the incredibly frustrating time of rewinding the cassette in a trial and error manner. You could practically pluck out the tape and throw it at the wall if you were impatient. You could wind the tape for 20 seconds only to find you missed the start of the desired track by 3 minutes of playback time, to end up in the middle of one of the (often than not) mediocre filler songs that the artist stuffed into the album.

When Sony came out with their AMS (Automatic Music Search) -branded technology, the FX511 became the first unit I had to allow skipping of tracks. This was based on the primitive way of detecting the interval between tracks - a short silence of 2 or 3 seconds. I was jumping for joy as I was a hardcore user of cassettes. I mean screw the CD users. Let's emphasize that again - I was a hardcore cassette fanatic, not because the format was fantastic, but purely because I had a ton of recordings I had already made that could actually leverage on this method of skipping tracks.

While the experience was not 100% consistent, and scoff as you may, it felt pretty darn good to skip and repeat tracks on cassettes finally. I mean like after so many years of incredulous frustration of rewind > play > fastforward > play > listen to filler music for 30 seconds > start of track

It was good while it lasted...

at least until 1999 where I jumped ship to being a hardcore Minidisc user :)