JayBird JB-200 review

JayBird JB-200 Review

Reviewed by: Nate Lanxon

Reviewed on: 5 June 2008

A useful feature is the ability to have the JB-200s connected to both an iPod, for instance, and your mobile phone (with buttons to control volume mounted on one earpiece). In our tests using an iPod classic, music would automatically be paused when a call came in on a Sony Ericsson W880i, and the call transferred to the left earpiece. Stereo would've been nice, JayBird.

When the call ends, the music resumes. This didn't work well with a Samsung YP-P2, however -- music continued to play during a call, and instead paused when the call ended.

Performance
Call quality when used as a headset was pretty good and volume goes high enough for use in the car. It's quite a bassy sound overall, much less tinny than the typical sound of a mobile phone's earpiece, with extra depth and bass.

As a music headset, we weren't that impressed. Sound quality is very average, with massive emphasis on the mid-range, making music sound muddy, lacking detail and brightness in the high end. We heard better-defined audio from Sennheiser's MX 560 earphones -- they can be picked up for little over £10 now. That's not a limitation of Bluetooth either, as we heard beautiful sound from Etymotic's A2DP-enabled ety8s.

But above all else, pairing is simple and pain-free, and it worked well having both iPod -- though you can only control the iPod's volume using the small buttons on the headset -- and mobile phone connected together. It's even simpler to charge the 'phones simply using the supplied cradle and USB, though there's no way of charging directly into the earphones themselves, which is a shame.

Conclusion
The JayBird JB-200s are pleasant and affordable for Bluetooth use, if you have an MP3 player or A2DP-enabled mobile phone built in. They're also great for use in the gym or jogging down the Thames.

But if you're planning on using an iPod, as a result of needing to buy an additional adaptor, we'd opt for the Etymotic ety8s, which offer massively greater sound quality. That said, the JayBirds are good for the gym. The choice is yours!

Edited by Shannon Doubleday