JBL J55 High-Performance On-Ear Headphones with JBL Drivers and Rotatable Ear-Cups - White

Okay, so I won't claim to be a headphone junkie since these are the only headphones I own besides those annoying little buds by some company called Apple, but I will say that I am absolutely blown away by these headphones for a few reasons: Price Very affordable. My girlfriend got me a pair of these a year ago while spending the holidays in Abu Dhabi, and I regret to say that she paid the equivalent of roughly $130 USD for them at the local mall. At first I did not know how much she had paid for them, but when I first tried them out I thought to myself "Ugh...these are just awesome, so I'm sure she spent way more on me than I'd have liked her to." Anyway, after I'd found out what she paid for them, I looked them up on Amazon and was stunned to see how cheap they were. As a point of comparison, I decided to buy a "better" pair to see how they would stack up, so I went with some Street By 50 set which ran me just shy of $120 while on sale on Amazon. Well I honestly didn't notice a difference or find that I liked one set better than the other as far as sound quality, but the 50s (over-ear style) would become annoyingly painful after just a short time wearing them...so I did what any sensible consumer would do - I paid postage to return the 50s and used the refund to get three more sets of these babies with plenty of change to spare (one extra set for me at home and two to give as gifts, even though I didn't have anyone in mind to give them to). It's just a no-brainer. Comfort On average I'd say I wear these phones over thirty hours per week, as I am generally listening to music while at work and frequently at home as well. Over my past year with these, I've spent many working days bumping whatever suits my mood for a solid 10 hours straight without ever feeling anything other than comfort. Though I don't have a lot to compare these to, I can at least say that, in my opinion, these beat the pants off of the Streets I had. Further, with my only point of comparison being a miserable experience, I guess I can give a pretty unbiased opinion that while I've never worn a pair more comfortable than these, it's honestly really hard for me to even imagine what it would be like given how much I love the feel of these. Sound quality I listen to a nice variety of music, with my most frequently jammed genres (in no particular order) being 90s-style rock/metal, dubstep/chillstep, classical piano, and 90s-style hip hop (both instrumentals and non). Everything I've heard in these - ranging from Tool to The Glitch Mob to Frederic Chopin to DJ Premier - has been thoroughly enjoyable. Again, I don't have much to reference in comparison, but these are far superior to any set of earbuds I've ever used, and when using these I can pick up on subtleties which I wouldn't catch in my car or on my home entertainment system. 10/10 would recommend to all. Great for personal use, and better as a gift (since any music lover without much knowledge of headphones will probably react similarly to my "Man, these sound like they were really expensive..." reaction when they were given to me).

Very well built pair of headphones with decent sound quality. They are very comfortable to wear. A little bulky for my taste though.

Great sounds. Great price. Very sturdy. Wore on a plane and were comfortable enough to sleep with. Cancelled out back noise. Not too bass driven. Had kitsch ear buds but these are much better. Nice carry case.

These are extremely uncomfortable. The ear cups are fairly large. Definitely not large enough to be over the ear, but just large enough that my ears get pinched in an unbearable way. I couldn't wear them for more than 10 minutes. They sound fine, but let's be honest, there are no audiophiles up here in the cheap seats.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but.... I bought these to replace a broken set of AKG 451's. I was hoping that because both headphones are made by the same company, and that the drivers in both headphones have almost identical published specs that they would sound the same. Plus, these headphones looked tougher than the AKG's. I also have used JBL's car audio products and have had nothing but stellar results in that arena. So, I had very high hopes for these headphones. The good- Compared to a lot of popular headphones right now, these do offer a much more balanced sound and a much more balanced appearance. The design just looks fresh- attention getting without being gaudy. The level of detail on the phones, from the subtle JBL logos to the laser etching on the band to show size makes them look the part of an expensive headphone. The padded parts are also great. I had no problems with skin irritation or sweating, even after wearing the earphones for a full work day. The covering material is very soft and supple. The not so good- Although the sound is okay, it's nowhere near close to where the AKG 451's were. But even comparing these phones to my five dollar panasonic earbuds left me disappointed. These phones do have good stereo separation and more of a soundstage than earbuds, but the low and the high end are lackluster. Vocals sound okay. These headphones are advertised as having "pure bass" and being able to hit the low lows, but I'm not sure why. Higher frequencies (8khz and up) aren't that dazzling either. So, they disappoint bass heads and audiophiles equally. Any attempts to boost the low or high ends made the headphones sound muddy and smeared, respectively. The other problem is ear cup fitment. They aren't on-ear, and they aren't over-ear either. I have very small ears, and my ears just kind of fit inside. After a short time my ears hurt, so I can imagine that those with normal sized ears would be even more uncomfortable. But you can't give these phones to your kids, because the head band is for adult sized heads, so who could possibly use these headphones? Fitment also plays a large role in sound. These sound awful if they aren't on my head "just right", and even then they are just okay. Finally, the deal breaker was that the right ear phone was quieter than the left. It was just enough to really bother me. It wasn't that I'm being picky, it really felt uncomfortable to listen to them if I didn't swing the balance over to the right. Unfortunately, most things I listen to don't have a balance control. I even tried breaking these headphones in with white noise to see if that could help, but no luck there either. As a product design engineer, I can understand how difficult it is to get things right. But Harman already got headphones right, several times, across several product lines and price points. So why these? Why would they make headphones that don't fit anyone? Why would they make fantastic looking headphones that sound mediocre? I can't figure out who their target market was or what the goal was with these headphones. I really wanted to like these headphones, but in the end I had to send them back.

These are the perfect headphones for me! What I look into when i purchase headphones is for the clarity of the sound ...bass and treble. I put the volume all the way up and if the headphones still give you that clear sound and doesnt sound like its cracking ... Then those are the keepers. And these you can put the volume super loud and still get that clear bass sound! So worth the price!

I liked the design at first. It was pretty portable for on-ear headphones. It was relatively comfortable but wears on the user after long-term use. At first, I really liked how the cord could be disconnected from either end -- from the headphone and from your device. But then, this feature became less and less useful until it became the reason this product failed me. The cable is relatively short so I needed an extension cable to use it in most "normal" settings. And now, after only 4 months of owning the product, the left channel is no longer functional. For the price, I liked the sound and functionality until it failed me and now it seems like a waste of money. I expect for my headphones to last me much longer than this product lasted for me.

Nice headphones! The bass is very smooth and they are very comfortable to wear. I wish the cord was longer, bit it's no big deal. Highly recommended if you want some cans with a lot of bass.

This is a piece of Art! It is my second JBL phone, and they just do not disappointed me. Is very solid build and also the sound quality is just amazing!

The headset broke in less than a year . Using duct tape to keep it together :(