Atomic Floyd AirJax + Microphone

The Atomic Floyd AirJax + Microphone earphones are designed for use with an iPhone, iPod, Skype and BlackBerry devices and they offer amazing audio quality and style. They come at a price of $329 (or $299 without microphone), and while this is a lot of money, the AirJax are certainly worthy of your hard-earned dollars.

First things first: wow! Nice work Atomic Floyd. We were really impressed with these babies right from the start. The AirJax earphones come with a black leather carry case lined with red suede which opens when you apply pressure to the sides. The earphones themselves feature a fabric weaved cable, which is a feature also found on the high-end Sennheiser HD 800 headphones. This type of cable significantly reduces that annoying noise rubber cables make when they bump or rub against your clothes or other surfaces when in use.

According to Atomic Floyd, the earphones are handcrafted in metal including 'AcousticSteel' (which is ultra-thin metal), titanium and 24k gold; indeed they feel sturdy and well made — if you take good care of them they will last a long time. The microphone for using AirJax with an iPhone or BlackBerry is a flat metal plate about 5mm thick and it sits at around level with your sternum. The left and right earphone cords converge at the microphone and the plate has a button in the middle for answering calls.

Removable metal loops give versatility to the AirJax in terms of how you can wear them; the metal loops slot in and out of the main earphone piece, converting them from humble ear buds to a pair of sporting earphones. The metal loops are a tad confusing to work out initially; once you fit them to your ears, they are virtually unnoticeable.

So we've established that the AirJax are aesthetically beautiful and carefully crafted by a great design team, but does the audio quality measure up? The short answer is yes, the audio quality rocks. If you have $329 in your hand right now and want good earphones then go out and buy these. But before you do that we should explain a little more in detail as to why the Atomic Floyd AirJax + Microphone earphones rock our collective socks off.

The audio quality is superb; mid-range sounds are audible and clear at all times, bass is spot on with no weak points or nasty overpowering booming at higher volume levels. Treble is not muffled or compromised for the sake of other properties; in fact, everything seems to work together in a beautiful symphony which effortlessly invades your brain space. We tested the Atomic Floyd AirJax + Microphone earphones with a variety of music genres (from rock to electronica) from bands including the Fleet Foxes (they must be amazing if they can make the Fleet Foxes sound good), The Ting Tings, The Clash, Bob Marley and AIR. The AirJax earphones easily made every genre we listened to sound great.

There is unfortunately a downside for anyone living in the dark ages without an iPhone, iPod, or BlackBerry, as the Atomic Floyd AirJax + Microphone will be of no use to you. The Atomic Floyd AirJax + Microphone model is only compatible with iPhone, iPod, Skype and BlackBerry devices. We tried testing the earphones on other devices, plugging them into both a PC and a digital radio but alas they did not work properly; only one ear phone worked or the audio was at half the volume. This is probably the only thing we could really complain about, the lack of compatibility with a range of devices. If you don't use an Apple or BlackBerry device as a portable music device (like this heathen reviewer) then you are missing out on a great set of headphones, although you may want to check out the Atomic Floyd AirJax Titanium 2 as these are designed to work with other MP3 players.

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