Concert Hall Clarity In Miniature

The Bullet Points:

• The JVC HA-FX300 series headphones are high-end earbud-style earphones providing superior sound through advanced technology.
• They feature aluminum evaporation diaphragms, bi-metallic movement, aluminum housings and a variety of ear plugs for best fit.
• Specifications include: frequency response - 8Hz - 25KHz; impedance - 16 Ohms. Colors available are red, black, and bronze.

What’s In The Box:

Headphones with 3.25 ft. cord, four styles of earpieces, hard shell zippered carrying case, instruction sheet.

The Review:

Do you have one of those portable media players? Are you happy with the sound quality? If you answered “yes” to the former and “sort of” to the latter, read on. There is a better listening experience in store for you.

I’ve been an audiophile for a very long time, since CDs were made out of wood. Like many music lovers with technodweeb interests, I’ve moved my music collection on to computer: digital technology makes better music. While technically true, you may not think so from the sound that comes out of your computer. What’s happening is that you are victim of the computer equivalent of broadband’s delivery problem; “the last mile”. No matter how good the encoding, no matter how good the amplifier, you will not get good sound from those $20 computer speakers: they cannot reproduce all that the amplifier delivers.

One answer is the JVC HA-FX300 stereo headset. It is an earbud-style headset that employs several technical improvements to deliver superior sound quality. Here’s the technodweeb part: The FX-300 uses aluminum evaporation diaphragms in place of conventional polymer plastic ones. The improved rigidity reproduces midrange and high frequencies better. The drive unit is housed in a stainless steel base wrapped with a brass ring to reduces vibration of the housing. The whole package is then housed in an aluminum casing.

Does all this work? In a word, mostly. The FX-300 delivers brilliantly clear high frequencies and clear midtones. It falls short on the bass, though, so it will not be the favorite of your average head-banging rocker. It is superior for vocals, jazz and classical music, where the clarity and isolation deliver the individual nuance from each instrument. Is is also superior for voices on radio and on movies; it’s much easier to understand voices that tend to blend into background sounds with other headsets.

The sound quality rivals high end full sized headsets. In order to keep all this fancy technology from falling out of your ears, putting on the FX300 is a bit more involved. The recommended method is to loop the cord over the top of your ear, then insert the earbud. The business end of the earbud goes in your ear canal and the back end gets tucked into the hollow behind the ear canal. The extra complication takes some getting used to, but the earbuds do stay in place better. The headset comes with three sizes of silicon rubber ear pieces and one made of memory foam so you can find what fits best.

Ancilliary to its high-end status, the FX300 comes with a fancy hard-shell carrying case. The lid houses a net with two pouches where the earbuds are individually stowed. The cord is then wound and placed in the lower half. It’s intended to minimize tangling, but the stowing procedure is tedious: I quickly abandoned it to just rolling up the cord and zipping the case closed. But at least there is a case to keep the cord from getting tangled with everything else in my carryall.

Conclusions:

The FX-300 is intended to provide a superior listening experience for portable media devices whose size and portability call for an equally small listening device. Its high-tech design delivers superior sound quality that rivals high-end conventional headsets. Its method of fit works well to keep the earbuds in your ears. It’s a bit pricey, but if you are devoted to your portable media player, it greatly improves your listening experience. Get the FX-300 and do your device justice. Highly recommended.

Product Information:

JVC HA-FX300 Stereo Headphones
MSRP $99.95
JVC Americas Corp.
5665 Corporate Ave.
Cypress, CA 90630
800-995-4582
www.jvc.com