JVC Gumy Plus in-ear headphones review: It's dirt cheap but sounds good

One of the most popular sets of cheap earphones is Panasonic's ErgoFit RP-HJE120, which you can find online for around $7. It offers impressively decent sound for the money and a comfortable fit, which is why I gave it four stars.

7.5

JVC Gumy Plus in-ear headphones

$7 at B&H Photo-Video

$9 at eBay

The Good

The <b>JVC Gumy Plus</b> sounds very good for a $7 pair of earphones. It's lightweight, comfortable to wear, and attractively styled.

The Bad

The treble isn't as smooth as the bass and there's no inline remote/microphone for making cell-phone calls.

The Bottom Line

At around $7, the surprisingly good-sounding and comfortable JVC Gumy Plus is a bargain.

But the RP-HJE120s aren't the only sub-$8 earphones that sound surprisingly good for the money. At this price point you'll also find iLuv's City Lights earphones, as well as the JVC Gumy Plus (HAFX5) reviewed here -- and a few other models I haven't reviewed yet.

The Gumy Plus doesn't offer quite as accurate sound as the Panasonic ErgoFit RP-HJE120, but it, too, is a well-balanced set of earphones, it fits comfortably, and its cord doesn't tangle as easily as the Panasonic's.

Design and features
The Gumy Plus comes in a variety of colors. There's nothing fancy about its all-plastic construction, but it's an attractive enough looking earphone and lightweight.

Like the ErgoFit RP-HJE120s, these are sort of hybrid earphones, part hard earbud like your basic Apple earbud and part soft bud. They come with three different-size pairs of silicone eartips. At this price, you're more apt to see hard-bud earphones, but being able to jam the soft tips into your ears helps with sound isolation and maximizes the bass output. I was able to get a tight seal with the largest of the eartips, and I as I said in the intro, I thought the earphones were comfortable and they stayed in my ears well.

As you might expect for a $7 pair of headphones, you don't get anything in the way of extras: no inline remote/microphone for making cell phone calls nor any sort of carrying case.

While the Panasonic HJE120s have an L-shaped plug, the JVCs have a compact straight plug that will be easier to fit into more smartphone cases but may not be as sturdy as an L-shaped plug.

The 3.28-foot cord is a little thicker than the cord on the Panasonic, which helps tamp down on tangles. That's a big plus.

Performance
Overall, the the Gumy Plus is very pleasant-sounding for the money. The bass isn't huge, but it's relatively tight. The treble isn't quite as smooth -- there's a touch of harshness -- but it isn't offensive. The sound compares favorably to many earphones in the $25-$35 range, though the JVCs didn't offer as detailed sound as the $49.99 Klipsch S3Ms I put them up against.

I also compared them to iLuv's City Lights. Those earphones serve up a lot of bass for $7, which is probably why a lot of people like them ("contemporary" listeners seem to love bass these days). Both the JVC and the Panasonic have better balanced, slightly clearer sound, with the HJE120 delivering the most natural and accurate sound of the dirt-cheap trio.

Conclusion
I'm not sure if all these sub-$10 earphones come out of the same factory in China (they probably do), but there are now several models that deliver an excellent amount of bang for the buck. I had a minor quibble about these earphones' top-end (treble) performance, but in all they sound very good for the money -- and they're lightweight and comfortable.

If you're looking at these versus the competition, I'd say the Panasonic ErgoFit RP-HJE120 sounds a touch better, but the one drawback of that model is that the cord has a tendency to get tangled. And if you're a bass lover, you'll probably be more satisfied with iLuv's City Lights earphones.

Of course, you could buy all three models and do your own comparisons. The three combined will only set you back a little more than $20, and if you add a fourth (and get past $25 total), you'll qualify for free shipping on Amazon.