Ahab1973's Full Review: JVC (HA-FX34-BE) Consumer Headphones
Introduction - When you buy a small portable MP3 player like the Sandisk Sansa Clip (As I just did a while back), it's not too long before you start to realize those players have a tough time driving even relatively sensitive headphones to decent volume levels for all of the material you may have.
That's the problem I found myself faced with when I paired the Clip with my trusty old Sennheiser HD497 headphones. I am able to get good volume (as well as good sound) with that setup on some material but not with others. So what to do? I could have purchased a headphone amp but I really didn't want that. I bought the Clip (In part) because of it's ultra portability and even a small amp would add bulk and complexity, defeating the purpose.
My other option was obviously to buy more sensitive headphones. But I didn't have a lot to spend and didn't want to spend a lot anyway so I looked around for the cheapest pair I could find that were supposed to sound OK. The JVC Marshmallows came up again and again as bargain headphones that sound OK. There were a lot of complaints about bloated bass but I figured it couldn't be that bad. After all, audiophiles often have a habit of blowing things out of proportion. So, for $20 at Wal-Mart, I went ahead and purchased them.
The fit - These are quite comfortable. They go in my ears rather easily and (with a little effort) you can get a pretty good seal. They're smaller than I expected them to be. The "Memory Foam" that the tips are made out of seems to be made well enough to last a while (Though it may get a little funky, as it goes right in your ears). It's much firmer than I thought it would be but they're still comfortable to wear for a few hours. I would rank these as great on comfort. Some have complained about the comfort. It apparently depends greatly on your ears.
The Sound - This is what really matters, isn't it? If they don't sound good, what's the point? Unfortunately, these don't sound that great. First of all, the bass. They weren't kidding! If you're thinking of getting these and you like anything approaching accurate bass, you'd better believe the people who say the bass in these is way over the top.
I remembered reading that there's supposed to be a modification for these that helps with the bass. Well, I looked it up and tried it and it does help a bit but not much. The bass still overpowers everything else. Most of the other frequencies sound OK except that there's a really bright, metallic (brassy?) quality to the sound with certain music, instruments and voices that just drives me nuts. Penetrating is a word that comes to mind. They would almost be tolerable for everyday listening if not for that. Conclusion - I'm disappointed with these. Even for the price. There's no way I could listen to them every day. I keep them to use when I just don't want to have big headphones on. If I want to go out and take my player, obviously, the silver Sennheisers are going to make me look like a fool so these would work for that. That is probably the only thing you'd want to use these for. But then, you can get some that are so much better for not that much more. Twenty bucks isn't a lot of money but it's easily half the price of headphones that would sound much better. I would recommend you save your money and get something better.
The all new HAFX34 "marshmallow" headphone is the in-ear canal style headphone which promises a comfortable fit with a soft earpieces made of memory f...More at Adorama
The HA-FX34 Marshmallow is designed for comfort, featuring super-soft inner-earpieces in two sizes for a snug fit that also reduces background noise. ...More at Walgreens
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