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The vast sea of inexpensive earbuds can be hard to navigate, but there's no reason to search any further. The $25 Brainwavz Jive is an affordable pair of earbuds that doesn't cut any corners, despite its low price. With a sleek, colorful design; secure ear inserts; and an inline remote, the Jive earbuds offer a lot more than just solid sound quality.
Design
The Brainwavz Jive earbuds look like mini megaphones, with bulbs at the ends that stick in your ears. The buds' all-metal body is smooth and sleek, and the ear inserts at the ends cap them just right. The buds have a satin finish and feature the Brainwavz logo in small, white lettering, as well as left and right ear designations, so you easily know where each bud goes.
On the left wire is the inline remote, which features a volume rocker and a multifunction button for pausing/playing songs and answering/ending calls. My review unit came in a lovely forest-green color, but the Jive are also available in violet and red. There are separate Android and iPhone versions of the earbuds, so be sure to pick up the right pair.
Comfort and Fit
The Brainwavz Jive buds come with four pairs of ear inserts — three silicone and one foam. I used the largest silicone ones, and they were sturdy in my ears, gripping the inside of my ear canal like suction cups.
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Every so often, during my morning commute or at the gym, I would have to readjust the Jive buds and push them deeper into my ears. I generally prefer extra security and a tighter fit that ear wings provide, such as those on the $39 Sennheiser CX 685 Adidas Sports earbuds.
Audio Quality
The 9-mm dynamic drivers in the Brainwavz Jive pump out solid sound. One Republic's "I Lived" came through with all of its intentional white noise in the beginning, and the background vocals were crisp enough to act as the underlying blanket of sound for Ryan Tedder's rich voice to play upon.
The chanty anthem "West End Kids" by New Politics resonated with punchy drums and buzzy synths as the vocals encouraged me to sing along. While there was some occasional muddiness in the highs and mids, the $20 Brainwavz Delta earphones, by contrast, played the same song with muted, fuzzier drums and a more demure sound overall.
Tove Lo's "Not Made for This World" came off as sultry, sexy and dark as it should have, with rich pianos, haunting vocals and powerful drums that faded to echo in the background. While the Delta earphones played the track in a cloud of sound, the Jive managed to be sharper and more nuanced, thanks to the right amount of definition between the lows and mids.
Bottom Line
The Brainwavz Jive is an affordable set of earbuds that sounds more expensive than it is. With a comfortable, sleek and secure design, these earbuds provide booming yet defined sound that doesn't lose its luster, even in chaotic situations.
While the $20 Brainwavz Delta earphones offer similar quality, it's worth spending the extra $5 for the Jive's more defined audio and sleeker design. At $25, the Brainwavz Jive earbuds are an easy choice for your go-to, in-ear music makers.
