ellesboro's Full Review: Sony h.earâ„¢ MDR-J10 Consumer Headphones
Whenever you buy an MP3 player, a CD player, or any product that comes with headphones, they are usually of poor quality. In my experience, I expect the worst when listening to included headphones, and the ones that came with my Sony NX80V Clie were no exception. Although they had a decent sound in the treble range, when anything with bass hit the headphones, there was distortion. The music I usually listen to is Score/Instrumental, and although some may not think so, bass plays a large part in many pieces. When headphones can't handle it, they're not for me. So, I quickly headed to the nearest Best Buy (actually, I headed to the one I'm employed at:P) and looked around for some replacement headphones. There are a couple things I look for when I want headphones:
1) Easy fit, and that won't fall out of my ears or off my head when I move
2) Durable enough to withstand heavy usage
3) Are loud enough (Score and Orchestral music tends to be quieter than other genres, so loud headphones are a plus)
4) Have good sound quality (obviously)
5) Good Value for money
After looking at several pairs, the Sony MDR-J10 headphones fit my requirements well for the last few months now, let's review the headphones now...
DESIGN, FEEL, EASE of USE and DURABILITY
The Sony MDR-J10 are of a different design than most earbud headphones (an earbud is a style of headphone that allows you to place it in your ear "socket" and in theory, they should stay there. Earbud headphones are good for saving space and allow you to store them in a small space like a pocket) These headphones take the shape of an ear. From the main speaker unit, a piece of shaped plastic extends from the top of the unit, then curves backward and back down (see the product picture at the top of the page) The main advantage of this design is that it is fitted for your ear, meaning that when you move around, the earbud tends to stay in place better. This is a great headphone if you like to run as they are less likely to fall out compared to standard earbuds. As well, due to the design, it's easy to remember which earbud is a left and right channel. To place it in your ear, just place the fitted piece of plastic around your ear, and push the earbud into place.
The headphones are smooth in texture, and come in a variety of colours, so it doesn't matter what kind of style you like, you can buy pink, green, black, blue, and red colours. I personally like the blue and black colours. As well, The cable is about 1.5m in length and goes from both sides of the headphones connecting into one cable which then connects to the device using a standard 3.5mm plug. The good news is that it uses an "L" design for the connector so when there's pressure placed on the cable connecting to the device, there is less of a chance of the cable breaking.
I have a couple of problems though. One, the durability of the headphones could be better overall. The connection of the cables to the actual headphone units isn't very strong, and can cut the sound in and out (I've actually had the headphones replaced under warranty for this reason). I believe part of the driver unit blew, resulting in very low bass also found, with the first pair of these headphones. As well, there is the possibility of the fitted plastic piece breaking from pressure.
SOUND QUALITY
I was amazed with the sound quality of these headphones. I was expecting a slightly tinny sound from them due to their size, but I was very pleased. I think this is due to the fact that the headphones have Sony's "Twin Turbo" feature in them, which means that the headphone has a larger, more powerful Driver Unit, which really makes a difference. The sound from these headphones produce great treble, and bass is reproduced very well, even with the high bass boost on my Sony CLIE, which most headphones would give distortion. Due to the design, the headphones stay in place well, so the sound stays constant. I also love the fact that because of the Twin Turbo boost, the headphones are nice and loud, and are good at dampening outside sounds.
OVERALL VALUE/CONCLUSION
Overall, I'm happy with these headphones, they are a great price ($15 Cnd) and offer an excellent design that's keeps the headphones in place, and offer great sound quality with high treble and good, deep bass. If they could be improved, it would be on the durability of the cables hooking into the earbud unit, as the sound can cut in and out and due the design with the curved plastic, the cables can get tangled sometimes. As well, having my driver unit partly blown by bass boost was annoying, because it wasn't an over the top amount of bass that caused that. However, I'm still going to rate these headphones four stars becuase it depends on the kind of situations that they are used in, and my first pair could have just been a dud. In saying that, I can recommend these headphones to anyone who wants an excellent replacement for the usually low quality included phones that come with music players
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