These headphones are a blast from the past. As identical to the Sony Walkman as you'll care to reproduce (or risk some kind of lawsuit) but with the advantage of no heavy wire.
Pairing is easy, amazon tab, Sony mp3 Walkman and Sony xzs phone all done in seconds and swapping between them is effortless.
Sound quality is easily comparable to other wireless headphones in this price bracket but the comfort level raise these up. No painful throbs from in ear plugs or ache from full encapsulated over ear sets, you can easily get to the 10K mark with hardly noticing you're wearing them.
Battery life is class leading, a whole tour at the fire station (for gym sessions) and a long run before they dropped low on battery. The twelve hour mark advertised wasn't fully reached over the last three recharges but it was close at just under 11 hours of active wear over six days. I guess the full twelve is possible in one epic PT session or over two days.
Construction is really good, everything is well put together and thought through. The charge port is well placed and the detachable earfluff is essential for cleaning - trust me, after the 16th kilometer they've soaked up a lot of sweat!
Overall you can't go far wrong with these headphones.
So why only three stars? Well there are some glaring issues that future development will hopefully iron out.
The wires that connect to the ear pieces bulge out, if you have a small head these push against your temple giving a slight but noticeable pressure as you wear them. If the wires went outside the set this would be solved.
The angle of set in the earpieces are designed to sit over the angle of your ears. Unfortunately they seem to fit no one other than the designers model. I can't find anyone who's ears are set at that angle. Is this a problem? In the main no, you don't really notice it - but others do. Sound leakage is a problem with these due to the poor fit. I was watching an episode of the Grand Tour on a tab whilst on a running machine at work and my colleague next to me had no problems keeping up with the action due to the sound leakage. On the road you get a good margin of wind noise. You'll need to turn the volume up to get good sound but if you need to touch or re-sit your headphones you'll get a shock of sound like a bullet to the brain. How can this be evolved? Easily, just give a pivot on the speakers so they have some rotation.
Lastly, and the biggest issue, is the fluff that covers the speakers. They slip on and off very easily for cleaning or changing (you get two colour sets, retro orange and traditional black). But because of this ease, they slip off all the time. In the last three weeks they've come off my head six times and I've lost two fluffs. I've now got one orange and one black and I have to be very, very VERY careful when I take them off or put them into a bag to carry as if I lose one more the speakers would be ill to use. To solve this would be easy, just make fluffs that actually fit. Those of us of a certain age will remember how difficult it was to replace fluffs when we pulled them off, if J Lab made theirs a little smaller we'll have that level of security.
With the pros and cons of these headphones I'll have to put them squarely in the three star category, this is proved when set next to their immediate competition. With some redesign they could easily step up the rankings and prove essential work out or audio head furniture.