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JVC is a Japanese electronics company that is best known for developing the original VHS technology and beating out Sony’s defunct Betamax technology. They’ve since merged with Kenwood, another longstanding Japanese audio company, but still produce a variety of audio equipment under the JVC brand.
Pretty bare-bones packaging. Be careful opening the non-easy plastic because the replacement tips are just sitting at the bottom and might go flying if you try to pry it open.
Included with the headphones:
- manual pamphlet
- two pairs of different sized silicone replacement tip
The buds and nozzle are pretty shallow and I didn’t feel like I could really firmly set them in place in my ear, but the fit was fine and I was able to maintain a seal when moving my head and jaw around.
The cable is pretty basic and flimsy, no outer layer of insulation beyond the joint, but not the worst I’ve seen on budget earbuds. It’s very short though, a mere 3 feet, and the joint does not slide.
The Gumy HA-FX7-D also comes in a version with an inline mic for just a little bit more, like less than a dollar, so that’s an option if you want it.
The plug support is flimsy and stayed bent after coming out of the packaging in that position, but it plugged into my devices securely and without issues.
Check out the Gumy earbuds more on Amazon (affiliate link)
Sound And Performance
General impression:
The Gumy earbuds sound about how I expected for the minimal price: not that great. Pretty narrow and stacked on itself. Definite lack of basic detail an clarity.
Any major issues:
The bass is overturned to a significant enough degree to make certain songs hard to hear or even arguably unlistenable.
Sound signature/response curve:
Very bassy with perpetual roll-off, significantly recessed mids and highs.
Bass:
The packaging claims a response floor of 10 Hz, which would be unbelievably good for cheap-as-possible earbuds, in theory. But I’d say it’s a faux rating – if they can actually reproduce sound that low (this is about where elite home theater subwoofers get to), they’ve accomplished it by way over tuning the bass, more so than just about any budget earbud I’ve ever listened to. Which is a lot. too many probably.
I prefer a warmer and bassy sound signature, but even for me the bass is far too overemphasized, muddy, fatiguing, and totally drowns out the rest, and it’s too bad because from what I can tell the mid/high reproduction is pretty decent.
Power/Volume:
The Gumy earbuds got plenty loud on all my devices and shouldn’t have any volume issues.
Isolation:
Ok, somewhere just below medium. The emphasized bass kind of helps drown out external sound.
Overall Take, As Compared To The Competition
There’s not much to be expected from a pair of earbuds that costs less than an actual pack of gummy bears at the airport, but the Gumy HA-FX7-D gets a hard pass from me, mainly because the bass is just bad and way over tuned, to the degree that it totally drowns out the rest of the mids and highs.
There are other ultra-cheap earbuds that are similarly less than $10 that, while they don’t sound amazing obviously, are solidly passable and sound better than these. Moreover, if you’re willing to spend a little more, in the $20 range, options open up vastly and there are earbuds that are night-and-day better. See the links below for alternative recommendations.
I’m also really not a fan of marketing a child choking hazard product to look and sound like candy. I mean there’s literal jelly beans on the display case. Why anyone would ever sign off on that is frankly beyond me. A bit of a digression but there it is.
See the Gumy earbuds on Amazon (affiliate link)
