JBL is one of the brands produced by the audio specialists harman/kardon.  In general, it includes more affordable products, so it's entirely logical to find in-ear headphones as part of its range.  The JBL Reference 200Ss are already several years old now, but they're still on sale. 

Accessories: quantity, rather than quality

The References come with a large bunch of accessories, including three pairs of silicon tips, ear cuffs, a pair of foam pads, a head band, a semi-rigid case, a mini-jack to 6.35 mm jack convertor and an in-flight adaptor.  It's great to see so much stuff, but accessories need o be useful too.  You can read about the ear-cuffs and the head band in in the inset: here I'm going to talk about the foam pads.  They're large, with a huge central section made of rubber.  As soon as it's time to mould them to the shape of your ear, it's like concrete, and the end result is that it's impossible to get them in your ear without pain.  In short: they're a total failure.  It's funny to look back at other tests performed when they were first released, which said exactly the same thing.  The problem was pointed out, but nothing was done about it.

The case is large, and can hold the headphones, all of their accessories and a large MP3 player like the iPod Classic all at the same time.  That's useful, but it would have been good to have a second, smaller case, to avoid filling up your pockets (that's if you can fit this one in, that is).

Reference 220, CX300, EP-630: same difference

We are increasingly of the opinion that in-ear headphones that are sold for between £40 and £80 perform exactly the same as those available for half the price, but come with more accessories.  It's the same story here.  The Reference 220s have exactly the same faults as their friends: dominant bass that sounds like you're listening through a marshmallow.  The treble is shiny and aggressive.  In short: nothing particularly exciting, or particularly interesting.

These Reference 220s are a real disappointment.  We had hoped for a bare minimum, or something to rival competitors like the D-Jays, for instance.  It's far from being the case.  We're much closer to the EP-360s with a few extra accessories thrown in.  So, not much point then.