FiiO JadeAudio JD3 Review Bullet Style IEM With Single Dynamic Driver

 

The blue and red arrow transformer styling makes the FiiO JD3 earphones stand our from other IEMs. The JD3 have a bullet casing shell design made of a single piece of stainless steel, straight nozzle neck and metal mesh tip guard. The back end of the earphones has blue and red arrow cutouts reminiscent of a Transformers' insignia.

The cable running out of the earphone is reinforced at the joints with thick rubber strain reliefs. The letters R and L are engraved on the strain reliefs too, although very subtle making it hard to read. Fortunately, you can easily tell the right (R) earphone from the left (L) channel earphone by the blue and red marking cutouts, which are very prominent.


Inline the cable, there is a y-splitter and a barrel-shaped remote control with mic made of aluminum alloy. The remote has a plastic 3-button rocker for controlling play/pause, track skipping, volume and calls (answer/end). The buttons are clicky with a recessed centre button to help differentiate the buttons. The y-splitter is reinforced at the joints with rubber strain reliefs and features FiiO branding with white printed lettering. The y-splitter is located 36cm down the cable, which is made with OFC (oxygen free copper) twisted wiring and semi-transparent rubber sheath.


The inline remote/mic is located 13cm down the cable so, it dangles at neck level, which is a good location for the microphone to pick up the voice nice and clear. There is very little noise suppression but, you can easily bring the microphone closer to the mouth in loud environments. The inline remote measures 4cm long and, it's thin and lightweight so, it doesn't drag the earphone down.  Total weight is 20 grams, including the cable which is 1.2 meters long and has a straight plug with 3.5mm gold plated connector at the end of it.

The FiiO JadeAudio JD3 are equipped with single 9mm dynamic drivers with high sensitivity (107dB) and low impedance (16 ohms) so, you can easily drive them to proper fidelity and volume from a phone or digital audio player without an external amplifier. Despite not being a multi-driver IEM, the JD3 single dynamic drivers have been tuned to reproduce a lot more frequencies than regular earphones. 


The overall sound is good, although the instrument separation isn't as detailed due to the narrow sound stage, which is typical of single dynamic drivers. The bass response has a more elevated sub bass than mid bass, which makes the bass sound more thumpy and weighty. The midrange is elevated too so, vocals sound richer and more lively.  The treble is recessed so, it isn't as bright sounding but it's also not fatiguing, which is good if you're treble sensitive.

Overall, the FiiO JD3 sound and look good. The performance is similar to what you would get from a typical pair of IEMs with the exception of the cable. The JD3 cable is not detachable like other IEMs such as the FiiO FH1S and FiiO FD1 which use a detachable 2-pin cable. Detachable cable IEMs are less likely to break when getting snagged on something and, you can always replace them with a different one. 

 

With the JD3 earphones, you cannot replace the cable with a different one and, you cannot use an IEM bluetooth adapter for wireless conversion. That said, you can use a bluetooth adapter - like the BTR3 dac amp - and convert the JD3 earphones into wireless earphones so, the earphones don't have to be tethered to a phone or portable player


Another difference between the JD3 earphones and standard IEMs is the wearing style. The JD3 earphones are worn with the cable straigth down rather than around the top of the ear like most detachable IEMs. Having the cable around the top of the ears can become uncomfortable during long listening sessions but has the advantage of greatly minimizing microphonics (rustling noise), which is something you typically get when wearing earphones straight down. Luckily, the JD3 cable microphinics noise is minimal, thanks to the think rubber outer sheath

The FiiO JD3 ship inside a premium-looking packaging box that isn't the standard cardboard box you get with most earphones. It is a clear, hard plastic protective case that opens up in two halves, revealing a black plastic insert along with the earphones and accessories, which include various sizes of bowl-shaped silicone ear tips and a satin-like drawstring pouch. You can buy the FiiO JadeAudio JD3 from amazon.