Panasonic RP-HJE125 review

Not the hardest blister pack to open, it won’t injure you, but it is a blaster pack, and non‐reusable. Skinny wire, plasticy—expect tangle. Plug, joins, no strain relief, all are the minimal cheapest, but enough. Housings are a bell‐shape. Tips go deep enough and feel like they will hold. Tips are angled, which makes Left/Right identification easy. For what they are, they’ll be robust. They’re reasonably comfortable, the bell housings are ok to use, though not the best shape for pushing into ears. I don’t know why I’ve got this idea, but wearing them I thought I should be wearing big furry snow boots.

Reasonable volume. HJS125s loose volume on mid‐strings. Volume range is good. Attack/decay is damped, but nice. Timing overall is laggy. There’s precision here, an outstanding amount. Swells are outstandingly controlled. HJS125s get strings and horns into balance, a good trick. Frequency range is good, though it does roll off at highband, and lowband is not there. Frequencies overall are notably clean, only a small echo on mid‐strings, and a small boom, from the housing, near bass drums. As you may gather from those notes, HJS125s are only reasonably detailed, gray in the lowband—papery near woodwinds, but thin, effective color everywhere. Positions are outstanding, scale surprisingly big.

A good vocal earphone, no question. For keeping everything in place and clean, the HJS125s are also a good orchestral listen, though not lively. The lag makes them an unusual listen for rock, good at making shape, but only passable for the ride. For pop, where timing matters less, HJS125s show good. Not that many people listen to mininal/solo instruments, but HJS125s are outstanding. For games/soundtracks the HJS125s handle everything, but dull. If it’s important, there’s not much here that scales to better sources and equipment—HJS125s are better in the cheap end.