JVC HAFX40A In-Ear Headphones (Blue)

I listen to headphones all day at work, for 12 hours. I wanted comfortable headphones physically that also sounded great and were not fatiguing to my ears in how they sounded. I think I found it.I compared all of these headphones MEelectronics M9P, M6 (or S6), RHA MA350, Brainwavz Delta, Sony MDR-7506, ThermalTake Isurus, JVC HA-FX40, Philips SHE3590, and Koss KSC75 to DUNU DN-12 Tridents.The DUNUs are what I ended up preferring for what I wanted. I also ended up keeping the Koss KSC75s and Brainwavz Delta though. The Sony MDR-7506s are my at-home headphones which I had already.I know, I know. Lots of comparisons. All of these tests were using a Google Nexus 10 with Extreme Quality downloads from Spotify.Warning: I'm not an audiophile but I did want a nice sound and comfort. These are my impressions and opinions only.I needed these to be semi-professional looking so no on-ears or over-ears for work, although I did have some at home to reference as far as sound quality goes.MEelectronics M9P:Dunu's were clearer, and seemed to have more extension. Bass had more clarity. M9P was boomier and seemed to have some of that boominess leak into the mids. M9 is cheaper. I may have just used the M9 as they sounded okay but the nozzle that goes into your ear was a bit larger diameter than the DUNUs. For me, this caused discomfort. My ear canals are on the smaller side though.MEelectronics M6 or S6:Actually a pretty close comparison. Dunu beat out the M6 on the low end. M6 just rolls off, it seems, on the low end where-as the Dunu still has some grunt. Dunu also has better isolation, which could be good or bad. I use the S6 for running. M6/S6 is cheaper than DUNU. I have no comfort problems with these, although of note they will be inserted rather deeply into your ear for a good fit. I used the triple flange "christmas tree" ear tip.RHA MA350:This was actually hard. They both have different sound profiles but it really just comes down to what you prefer. First off... what I really hated about the MA350 was the microphonics (unintentional noise) caused by any slight movement of the cable. It was unbearable. I have a beard, so maybe your experience will be better. For me, unless I was absolutely still, it was way too distracting. The MA350 has more emphasis on the bass than the DUNU and perhaps slightly more clarity (or just emphasis) on treble as well. It was difficult to pick. They were both comfortable in ear. I give the edge to DUNU mainly because I did think there was a bit too much emphasis on treble with the MA350 although I liked the deep bass of MA350 too. The Microphonics and emphasis on treble caused me to prefer the DUNU. Same price with these two.Brainwavz Delta:Oh lord, the Deltas fall somewhere in between the MA350 and the DUNUs. Even more difficult to pick. I kept both. =) Cable is good. DUNUs seem a bit better with mids and both have good bass. Maybe slight edge on Delta with the lows. Similar signature with the higher frequencies/treble. The Deltas were comfortable and lighter weight than the DUNUs. All aluminum housing it seems. Same price.Sony MDR-7506:These are my reference over-ear headphones for home use. They were about twice as much as the DUNUs. Are they twice as good? Not quite, but the bass has more clarity and fullness as well as the vocals. Easier to pick out individual instruments with the Sonys. Soundstage is much better with the Sonys and you can see the instruments placed in your minds eye. No surprises that the Sonys were better. DUNUs held up well though.Thermaltake Isurus:Roughtly same price. Lows seem to roll off. Highs are emphasized without having more clarity. Has okay mids. Clear winner for me was DUNU. The difference is that the Isurus has a mic (as well as an adapter to split mic out from audio out). The driver housings also would not let me put these into my ear very far and would probably be uncomfortable long term. Took me a while to get a good seal in my ear. These may be better for gaming than the DUNUs when you need to focus on hearing footsteps. Not notably better on soundstage though, probably worse.JVC HA-FX40:These are less than half the price of the DUNUs. These had a bit boomy bass that leaked into the mids. Highs seemed a bit thin. Seemed comfortable. Mids were okay. Not bad for the price, but I didn't mind spending twice as much on the difference with the DUNUs.Philips SHE3590:Wow, these are less than $10. Sound wasn't that bad. May have preferred these over the JVCs. I did have this weird thing that happened. You know the sound you get when you turn on noise isolation on a pair of Bose? Where you can -almost- hear a high frequency sound overlay everything? I get that same sound with these Philips when playing anything. I believe that would cause some fatigue with my ears long-term. Otherwise they were quite comfortable. Relatively balanced sound. Did not have the same sound stage as the DUNUs and clarity was in DUNUs favor.Koss KSC75:Wow, another $10 contender. I actually really like these Koss 'phones. Bass is a bit boomy and you're not going to get any crazy soundstage but otherwise it's a fairly balanced sound. I got a little bit of sibilance or harshness out of the "ch" sounds cymbals make as well as some "S" sounds that singers make. Obviously the DUNUs did everything better, but they did it at a bit higher than $10. I was impressed at the bass you could get out of these KSC75's at this price point. Seemed comfortable, too.There ya go people. Think what you will. I know headphones are a pretty personal thing so not everyone may like the same thing. I tried to write down my thoughts about the variety of headphones I've tried in my own personal pursuit of what I wanted. Hopefully it will help you decide.

I must admit, I am not an audiophile. I do keep buying headphones, however, as I like to listen to music all day at work. I like headphones that keep me from having to listen to my neighbors in their cubes. I listen to all kinds of music, including: classical (piano and symphonic), Electric Light Orchesta, Pink Floyd, Beck, Gorillaz, Beastie Boys, Tori Amos, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, and lots more - so heavy on the bass to music with more subtle details required.Active noise cancellation does a good job shutting up the eight core computer that sounds like a 777 taking off, but can sometimes make the neighbors LOUDER, so I would rather have isolation or inactive methods. Earbuds suit me best because I'm rather particular about not having a line across my head from my headphones.My favorite headphones have been a pair of Shure, but those are annoying because the wires wrap around the backs of your ears, and the wires are too stiff. Annoying when I turn my head. They sound decent though. I ran out of the wax screens though, and $10 for a new set?!I have Sennheisers they sound OK, but not terrific. They get the job done, and have been my most heavily used pair.There have been many others. Mostly they are in a landfill somewhere outside Denver.Then I came across these.I left them burning in for about 3 days straight back at home, then I brought them into work. I switched back and forth many times between these and the Sennheisers. Absolutely no comparison. What really got me is that the dynamic range on these was so much larger that the stereo separation seemed so much larger. Those Sennheisers are now in the trash as well.Bass response - just right. Not too exaggerated. Not weak. Perfect to my ears.Higher details - present. I hear subtle details in complex music (high bitrate mp3 very important) that can be difficult to find in low quality headphones.Overall balance - very pleasing. Very natural. Perfect, IMHO.I'm finding that these also do sound better than the Shure headphones that I paid WAY more for. I'm VERY impressed and am going to recommend these for everyone I know.Do there really contain carbon nanotubes? I'm surprised that they were able to use that technology in something so low priced. I'm skeptical that they're really being used to a significant extent in this product, especially at this price point. But whatever JVC did with making this product, they did it right.This is an ABSOLUTE MUST BUY.

"at first you will hate them, then you dont want to take them out of your ear"JVC is a company comparable to JBL and klipsh ranges. so trusting that i've ordered these. opening the package and playing the music tracks ive always heard from few years made me disappointed at first because as others reviewers said the low and mid ranges output are of top notch quality. but the high end region which is where good music always is composed in was too unbearable. so ive followed some instructions on jvc website and obediently burned the headphones by playing some round up music which had all highs and lows. now after burning for some 20 hours(need not be continuously). then you come to know what these head phones are made of. after decent amount of burning the phones turn into something made from out of the world components these are even better than the beats phones i have. i dont like big head phones so ive ordered these. and never been so much satisfied.PS: the ear buds for a little big ear size will be small and a bit uncomfortable, changing buds to what you found to be comfortable from your previous head phones will do you good. i have found them a bit uncomfortable so ive changed them to my previous skull candy buds and the best part was there wasnt much change in the low and mid range regions if i have to say it then it turned out to be a little bit better than what the output was with the stock buds.peace out fellas close your eyes and buy these phones is what will say in the end.

I bought these headphones because I loved the XX series and so I wanted to try other products by JVC. These touted the carbon nanotubes technology and so I was intrigued.The sound was balanced in my opinion. The mids are clear and sharp, the lows too. However, it lacks a bit in bass in comparison to the XX series. These also don't have the same level of noise isolation as the XX. They tend to fall off my ears quite a bit and the cable is think, not thick as the XX series. But still, I like them because they offer me ranges I can't hear quite well with my bass-focused XX headphones.If you don't care about bass (these still deliver quite a good bass response!) and want a clear sound, then these are a good choice!

Comes with multi ear adapters which came in very handy. Good sound for my purpose.

The audio quality is above of what I have expected. Much clearer than the external audio of my Ipod Touch 4G