Little known outside its home country, Swedish manufacturer Jays has managed to build up something of a cult following for its excellent in-ear headphones at low prices.

A quick look around their website shows how many professional hi-fi publications have commended the Swedes for their top-quality headphones.

These Q-Jays, part of the same family as the slightly cheaper D-Jays, are the flagship product. 
Handling

The Q-Jays come with an impressive bundle of accessories

The first surprise comes as soon as you open the packet.

Jays boldly claims that these are the smallest in-ear headphones with two transducers on the market, and we're prepared to believe them.

Much smaller than Shure's SE serieds, the Q-Jays are hardly visible outside your ears when you're wearing them.

The next pleasant surprise is the healthy collection of accessories that you get.  

There are no fewer than seven different sizes of silicon ear plugs, and two pairs of black foam plugs.

On top of that there are two adapters--one for using your headphones on aeroplane, the other for splitting a mini-jack signal in two to share with a friend--and two extension cables, one straight and the other flexible.

The big choice of silicon plugs is a very wise move on Jays' part, and allows you to get a lot closer to a perfect fit than with the three sizes usually on offer.

The foam plugs are good quality, too, and keep their shape a lot better than the traditional yellow pads still found on the majority of in-ear headphones.

Finally, while wearing these headphones in the 'traditional' way is perfectly comfortable, a very clear manual from Jays suggests passing the wire up over the top of your ear, and it's a good tip that makes the Q-Jays fit even more snugly.

Sound Quality

If the tiny size of the Q-Jays is a good thing when it comes to comfort, the same is not necessarily true of sound quality.  

Nevertheless, the two transducers definitely make their presence felt and the performance is impressive.

We found it very hard to find any faults with the audio produced by these headphones: a sense of space is delivered, and the sound feels open and attractive.

The separation of all of the different instruments in a track is particularly impressive, meaning you can hear a whole wealth of detail.

Right down to the slightest sigh or warble, or the scratching of a bow over strings, you can hear everything clearly.

Counting the number of instruments you can hear in a Tchaikovsky or Mahler recording becomes a real pleasure, but the Q-Jays do equally with jazz and rock.

With these in your ears, you should get great results from just about any type of music, although a tiny little more bass would push dance music into the realms of the totally exceptional.  

One final criticism would be that the Q-Jays are just too probing, giving a slightly cold sound.

Headphones like the Shure SE 420 and SE 530 are a little warmer, but lack so much of the Q-Jays' excellent detail.

When it comes to isolating outside noise, you need look no further--the Q-Jays are excellent at that too.