These inexpensive portable Swedish cans are compact and light, with a simple design (59g). Considering their low price, build quality is excellent – easily as good as anything from Sennheiser at or anywhere near their £50 retail price. Their design is also semi-foldable (with two folding joints), making them ideal for portables, whilst they’ll be inconspicuous around the house. The slim 60cm cable isn’t as microphonic as the rival Grado SR60is, for example, and intrudes much less. The good quality foam earpads make them very comfortable to wear; not sumptuous like the Grados or soft like the rival SR238i Sennheisers, but a nice firm, delicate fit all the same. They come supplied with spare foam cushions and an iPhone-compatible 70cm extension cable.
They’re fantastic acoustically. The 40mm Mylar drivers in the v-Jays produce a tight sound that is never analytical. Instead, they’re unexpectedly elegant and sophisticated, as well as remarkably melodious. You wouldn’t describe them as full and rich, but they’re transparent and natural enough to convey the warmth of classic analogue recordings, for example, whereas many competitors simply make them seem digitally enhanced. The treble is clean and sharp, with a surprising amount of ambience right up top, and the vocals and instruments are vast yet gently presented. Overall, a fantastic value for money headphone that outperforms even my favorite ‘cheap’ headphone, the similarly cost, completely foldable Sennheiser PX100.
