Jays q-JAYS review

The Jays q-JAYS are the world’s smallest dual-armature earphones- meaning that separate tweeter and driver units are packed into each earbud. Not only are they small, but they’re very light too, meaning that your first impression of them is that they’re more fragile than Cinderella’s glass slippers.

Selling from Jays’ own site at £114.97, their diminutive stature is enough to put the fear into your fingers. If you’re excessively clumsy, you might want to steer away from the q-JAYS. However, it’s not just because you’d run the risk of ruining a ton and a half’s worth of consumer electronics, but a wonderful pair of headphones too.

They come bundled with an unusually prolific selection of accessories. Granted, there are only single-flanged rubber end-pieces, but there are a whole lot of them- seven pairs in fact. To add to these are a stereo jack to two mono jacks airplane converter, a headphone-sharing jack doubler and a pouch. You also get a choice of two different cables: a right-angled one or a straight one. You can even use both if you’re desperate for a ridiculously long earphone cable.

It would be interesting to see how much JAYS would be able to shave off the price of the q-JAYS if they dumped all but the army-issue three pairs of rubber buds, but these earphones have nothing to hide sonically.

They offer dazzling levels of clarity that shame high performing, similarly priced earphones. Coupled with a decent MP3 player- the idea that the q-JAYS would be paired with anything less is bordering on criminal- and source files of decent quality and these buds serve songs up with wonderful separation and openness.

Listening to more bass-oriented rivals such as the Denon AH-C751s after using the q-JAYS and the treble seems over-clipped and artificial. The q-JAYS, on the other hand, excel right up to highest frequencies, remaining natural and lacking the sibilance that’d ruin the sound of less capable ‘phones trying for such an open top end. The result is a sound deserving of the term ‘hifi’.

There is a price to be paid for this clarity. Next to some rivals, the q-JAYS won’t sound all that bassy. They do pump out the lower frequencies with some force, but there’s not the virtual submerging of the entire low end in a swamp-like, but doubtless enjoyable to the ears, bass presence. However unless you’re an un-curable bass head, the pay-off is worth it.