Jays are a Swedish brand with singular purpose: producing excellent headphones for mobile devices. Since 2006, they’ve produced well-received headphones in a range of styles and formats. Today, we’re looking at one of their more premium offerings: their a-Jays Four in-ear headphones. These earphones are designed for iOS devices like the iPhone, with powerful 8.6mm drivers, an in-line remote and microphone for hands-free calls. They are well presented for sure, but how do they actually perform? Let’s find out together!
Features and specifications
- Award-winning custom driver
- Full-feature 3-button remote
- MEMS mic for crystal-clear speech
- Tangle-free flat cables
- Effective noise-isolation
- Made for iPod, iPhone and iPad
- Comes with five sizes of silicone sleeves
Unboxing
The a-Jays Four come in a pretty slick box, which my brother described as “a giant roll-on deodorant stick.” The comparison is apt, although the contents slide out instead of sitting under a plastic cap.
Inside the box, you get the headphones themselves, and five pairs of silicone sleeves in various sizes. This should allow you to get a tight but comfortable fit no matter the size of your earholes; you could even mix and match sizes if you’re a bit uneven.
Design
Like most in-ear headphones, the a-Jays Four have a relatively simple design. From tip to tail, that’s a right-angle 3.5mm plug, a flat cable, a three button in-line remote and microphone, more cable and two drivers attached to silicone sleeves. Where the Four shines is in the details.
The 8.6mm drivers used here are custom-built, and designed to offer clear reproduction throughout the range. The sleeves connected to the earpieces are available in a range of sizes, as we mentioned earlier, and are designed to block out ambient noise so that your music or conversations are easier to hear.
The cable is well-designed, with its flattened shape making it look like a strand of ink-black tagliatelle. The flat shape and coating make it pretty difficult to tangle, which is a definite plus for mobile use as you’ll be scrunching these up and throwing them in your pocket on the regular.
The in-line remote works with iOS devices like the iPhone. You can adjust the volume using the top and button buttons, while the middle one will play / pause with a single tap, skip forward with two or skip backward with three. The microphone is also found here.
The 3.5mm plug used here ends in a L-shape, which is a little more durable than a straight connection. It’s a fairly long L, which ensures that the headphones can still be plugged into an iPhone wearing a case.
Testing
In order to give the a-Jays Four a reasonable test, I used them as my go-to headphones at home and on the go for a period of about two weeks. Whether I was playing Counter-Strike at home, listening to K-Pop at work or taking calls while walking, I used the a-Jays if I could.
For music, the a-Jays proved to be one of the best in-ear headphones I’ve ever used. The sound reproduction, particularly for bassy songs, was impressive. I initially found that my ears hurt after using the a-Jays for an extended period, but I swapped in a smaller set of silicone sleeves and found the problem disappeared.
The a-Jays Four are also good for gaming, although of course you won’t get to use the in-line microphone on most computers. Still, you can easily hear people sneaking up behind you in Counter-Strike, and the noise isolation means you can concentrate on the task at hand even working in a noisy café.
I didn’t find the need to use the Four for many calls, but I had no issues talking and listening when I did. It’s certainly more convenient to just use the headset if you’re called while listening to music, rather than unplug everything and use the iPhone’s built-in earpiece and microphone.
Conclusion
The a-Jays Four are a top-notch set of in-ear headphones, great for listening to music and with all of the features you’d need: remote, microphone, replaceable sleeves in various sizes. While their price is significant, the difference between these and the standard iPhone headphones is massive, and it’s an easy purchase to justify.
Pros
- Epic sound that reproduces low-end frequencies very well for in-ear headphones, and way better than the default iPhone headphones
- Stylish and practical construction, with flat tangle-free cables
- Remote, microphone and replaceable sleeves tick all the boxes
Cons
- Relatively expensive
Score
- 9 / 10
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