Some Jaybird Freedom headphones have left and right earbuds reversed
A software glitch in some early units of Jaybird's hot new headphone has caused the sound to be reversed in the left and right earbuds. There's a fix coming.
- Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column/Consumer
A Twitter user named Joe contacted me the other day about a problem he was having with his new Jaybird Freedom in-ear Bluetooth sports headphones. He said the sound of the left and right earbuds was reversed. Or as he put it: "Right is left & left is right."
How did he learn that? Well, he was watching a movie and a car went from left to right across the screen but the sound went from right to left.
He then watched a YouTube video that allows you to test whether your left and right speakers are connected correctly (it's also a headphones test) and confirmed that the "wires were crossed" on his headphones.
After he contacted me, I ran the same test with my review unit and discovered it had the same problem. I then contacted Jaybird, now owned by Logitech.
Jaybird had this to say:
We are aware that an early May shipment of Jaybird Freedom headphones shipped with a software version that had the left and right channels switched. All factory shipments since that time have the corrected software version and most of our customers will not experience this issue. However, anyone with incorrect left and right channels will be able to easily correct this issue via the MySound app in an upcoming app update scheduled to be released later this month.
I suggested that Jaybird post this statement to its Facebook and Twitter accounts, but in case it doesn't, I'm writing this story.
Most people probably won't even notice the problem (I didn't). With a lot of music it won't impact the sound much. But with, say, classical music, the reversal would have a big impact in terms of the way the instruments are mixed and placed in the sound field.
As far as how Joe feels about his new Jaybirds, he likes them except for the left/right problem.
"I love the size fit & being able to tune them to my taste," he says, "but to pay $200 & the sound is reversed, wth!"