I always look forward to Christmas. For some reason I like the idea of snuggling up near the fireplace while its snowing heavily outside. Or doing Christmas shopping along the decorated streets of Orchard, both which I cannot enjoy because well, I'm in Singapore and in camp mostly.
It is also a beautiful season, with colorful lights that almost seem to have a psychedelic effect rather than the glaring crimson of Lunar New Year decorations.
Anyway, Christmas this year has been pretty good. Spent my eve over at a friend's house playing pool, xbox and drinking. To be honest we have been there so many times for party it feels like our standard party house. Granted the parents are very welcoming too.
Christmas itself was celebrated at my cousins house, at usual, with the good food, gift exchange and the usual catching up. (for them) Contributed a combination of gourmet coffee and mug while I myself received a Cars 2 dvd.
That aside, I did get a few pretty good gifts for myself.
My sister's boyfriend gave me a Logitech G105 gaming keyboard, which is apt as my Lycosa had stopped working for almost a year now and the aging dell keyboard is just plain ugly. The G105, while relatively bulkier, comes equipped with custom hotkeys and volume control keys, something which I lost since my Lycosa spoiled.
Also the keyboard has a blue backlight glow. Something reminiscent of gaming keyboards like, well, Lycosa and the Microsoft Reclusa. Thought the G105's light is more balanced focused and concealed, unlike the Reclusa's which seems to leak everywhere. Kinda like a exploding planet of sorts.
I hope you get what I mean.
Recently, after falling sleep while listening to ipod one night, I woke up to find that hours of sleeping with my earphones on had caused it to lose sound in the right side. Something very familiar with my Sony Ericsson earphones.
Of course, this is a crisis of utmost importance and I immediately went online to find a replacement. With my NS allowance, my budget was bigger and naturally my ear wanted better.
It came down to 3 major brands, Klipsch, Sennheiser, or a-jays. I had Sennheisers before, and was pleased with the sound. Tried my friend's Klipsch and while it was quite powerful the sound was a bit too sparkling for my liking, albeit my friend told me it was a low-end one.
I was drawn to the a-jays line due to its packaging and flat cable characteristic. After doing some reading, I concluded that a-jays one was of mediocre sound, two was more bass driven and three while not as bass heavy, included a travel case. Four was out of the question as it had no accessories at all and was more suited for iphone users as there are buttons for answering calls and such.
After some deliberation, I went with a-jays two. A trip to Tampines Challengers revealed that they had went out of stock so I had to get mine from Simei's East Point.
Then comes the testing. Of course, one would need a playlist of songs to judge and compare, so here's my carefully* selected list of songs from different genres to test its abilities.
1. I Remember - Deadmau5 feat. Kaskade
2. Cinema - Benny Benassi
3. Uncharted -Late Night Alumni
4. In the Ashes -Late Night Alumni
5. Don't Confess - Tegan & Sara
6. I Miss You - Blink 182
7. Undisclosed Desires - Muse
8. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) - Florence & The Machine
9. I Caught myself - Paramore
10. Heart Burst Into Fire - Bullet For My Valentine
11. What You Do For Money - ACDC
12. Before I Forget - Slipknot
13. We Laugh Indoors - Death Cab For Cutie
14. Sick Muse - Metric
15. Turn If Off Acoustic -Paramore
16. Fair Game -The Like
17. Lupin - Kara
18. Stormwind (City Theme) - World Of Warcraft Soundtrack
19. Halo Theme (Mjolnir Remix) - Martin O'Donnell & Micheal Salvatori
20. Superman Theme - John Williams
* denotes Open to debate.
So there you have it, from dance, house, punk rock, classic rock, metal, to Indie, Acoustic and even Kpop and instrumental/Orchestra.
From what I can hear, the a-jays delivers a much richer bass, accompanied by a noticeably warmer sound that has more 'feel' so to say. The instruments are more accentuated and manages to shine more compared to my old earphones. However when it comes to vocals the a-jays seems to lack as it tends to fade off slightly easier during higher pitches compared my old Audio Technicas. This may prove to be a problem for songs with female vocals, which majority of my songs are. Fortunately one has to focus and be in a very quiet condition in order to notice it so I guess I'm okay with it.
Overall, as stated by the manufacturer (which is a Swedish Company btw) the a-jays are biased towards bass and lacks that extra sparkle in clarity that my Audio Technica has. However it makes up for in having a rich, sweet sound and quite resonant thereof.
In conclusion, it is definitely a step-up from my Audio Technica ATH-CKM30 as it provides a more powerful yet balanced sound and it comes with accessories like Stereo Splitter and Airplane Jack included, the former which I used to compare between my current earphones by listening one on each side. The flat cables also helps to reduce tangling, albeit it may be more prone to microphonics from what I read.
I think I can say the a-jays is comparable to perhaps Sennheiser's CX-200 series, maybe even matching the CX-300. After all this is no beats, but for what it's worth, I think one should never buy beats. The quality of its products warrants $100+, perhaps $200 at best, never those ridiculous prices that they offer.
For a mere $78, I reckon that I've made a pretty good purchase this time.
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