Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Every now and then, a product comes along that is a shocker, in a good way. This is one. It's an un-pretentiously quiet item, just another headphone from a Japanese electronics giant trying to have a full line of products, right? NO! I was in the true custom high-end audio business for a looooong time up until it became too separated from the next tier of gear. That last 1% performance should not cost 10-30 times as much money. One of my favorite record players (my specialty) jumped from $750 to $2500 with an inferior tonearm and motor and I realized I could not justify staying in the business. I've owned great midrange headphones that qualified at their time as "audiophile on a budget" phones, generally in the $200-300 range, real dollars, starting with AKG 240's, the originals, not the later sloppy versions, Sennheiser 430s, very silky, and even Koss Pro4AAA before that. Later got into Beyer and had several models, including the astonishingly accurate and detailed 880, the lush 990 and the slammin 770, and Grado 225s. They were all great in their way, and for the money, should have been. While not in the performance range of RS1s or other superlux reference phones, they were far better than most speakers at any price range could do, and my hifi's topped out at about a $35,000 system of all handmade stuff before I realized that it was getting silly. THIS JVC HARX-900 headphone proves that with some care, the first few dollars does the lion's share of the work, and that great value can be brought to the market if you don't waste money on bragging at how good a job you did saving money, only to burn it in ads. This is a VERY good compromise headphone for the person who can hear, has taste, and a limited budget. Solidly made, comfortable (even with glasses on my big head), they are a tad heavy compared to those elite models, like the 880s. However, for a sealed, true circumaural design, that is, they go AROUND the complete ear, soft and cushy, and do block outside noise okay, as well as keeping it in, these are a bargain. The head cushion is soft and large. The fitting is easy, you can reduce the pressure with a simple gentle bending of the bar across the top. Here is where money was saved, first: Pleatherette, for the look and feel of genuine naugahide, is what the earcups are cushioned in. Gonna get a bit sweaty in a hot room, but that's how it is with nearly every brand. Like most under $300 cans, the cups are plastic, though there is a metal outer cap. The gauge of plastics is pretty decent, though, so I don't anticipate breakage. Also, the cable is hard-wired (boo) and single sided (boo) making it weigh more on the left than the right. It is, though, a pretty thick cable so it probably has some fiber wound in it to make it hard to break. If I know JVC (Victor Corp of Japan) as I think I do, the wire itself is probably pretty schmancy in these and they just don't say anything about it. Uselessly, they gold plate the plug, which does come with a very snug fitting 1/4" adapter for regular hifi gear. Gold plating is a scam and is not the best choice for sound, but it's hard to undo decades of marketing hype. Ask Stereophile mag: they agree. I listen to all sorts of music. Out of the package brandy-new, these things were "meh." Yep, "meh." They were taut, almost raggedy with weird punchless low end. The highs were grainy but not annoying or harsh. They just didn't sound "nice." However, I've broken in hundreds of headphones and speakers for clients, and frankly, everything sounds crappy out of the package. Everything. What a difference 24 hours of continuous fairly loud hip-hop made!!!! The low end is much more articulate without feeling as "held back," lemme tell you, the people who've reviewed these after a hundred hours of break-in, I can see why they talk about huge bass response, and could hear it coming on, and the highs were sweeter and the mids much smoother. There is definitely a noticeable improvement in articulation with even this relatively short break-in. I just leave them cranking overnight, cups pushed together with a rubber band, on a hip-hop station with the loudness on, the bass turned up and the volume well below any dangerous distorting from either the amp (an HK: VFETs to the headphone jack) or drivers. Every day, they sound better: the telling thing is that they sound less "loud." At the same volume. This is a phenomenon that really good speakers exhibit, and phones: the distortion levels drop so low that they don't seem "loud." But they are. There is really no major coloration to these, so far, though I can sense that a bit of a "warm" sound is coming on, which makes sense with this kind of break-in. I'm a bass player. I can live with that... heheheh. Other than getting a steal on a used set of properly broken in higher end phones, this is the absolutely best sounding overall under $100 pair of headphones new that I have ever heard, and yeah, that includes some well-loved AT models. This is a stupidly awesome bargain, efficient (only 64 ohms, plays great on my iPod), and looks "perfeshinul," so you'll be stylin' in 'em, too, if you wear them out on the go. GREAT FIRST EXPOSURE TO REAL AUDIO. Buy these before you try to buy good speakers. Trust me, just do it so you can hear what's wrong with most speakers more easily. Just do it. Now.