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The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Nice and affordable headphones with good sound

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  I have been using these headphones/nearphones for last 1 week and I like them. So, first thing first, in my opinion these are not fit for intense workouts like fast running etc as they kind of hang over your ear canal. My usage has been mostly indoor (for work calls and online meetings) and for some walks outside. And I like them precisely for the reason that they simple hang over which makes them more comfortable to wear for long periods of time as compared to other in-ear or over-ear headphones that I have tried. The battery life is pretty good. These last whole day for me and I only charge them in the night. The sound quality is good. Obviously it is not as immersive as in-ear or over-ear headphones but it is better than other bone conduction near phones that I have tried. The design is good so that even though you can hear the external environment noise/audio, others can't hear what you are listening to. So overall, they are a good fit for people who want to be aware of their surroundings while enjoying their music/podcasts etc. Their price point makes them pretty affordable as compared to other nearphonse available without compromising on the quality of audio.

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  Posted 1 year ago by Shail

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Great, but for a very specific need

  • Top 500 Contributor
  • Tech Insider Network Member

  This is a hard product to review because it’s good at what it does, but it’s not good at what headphones usually should do. Let me explain. The idea of this style of headphones is so you can hear around you and not have that “plugged ear” feeling. When you talk or chew with these on, you won’t hear yourself in your head as if you had your ears plugged. And that is SUPER useful for certain situations. What these headphones do not do is provide full body sound at a high volume. And that’s going to make a lot of people rate them low despite the fact that they do still serve a purpose. I have been wanting a pair of headphones like this for awhile. There’s also bone conducting headphones, which I have not tried yet, but are also way more expensive but claim to do a similar result. However, for this lower price and my needs, I thought these JVC nearphones headphones would get the job done. And technically, I was right. I wanted this style for things like zoom calls, discord voice chats while gaming and even phone calls. I figured for the occasional music while working with or around others might also be useful but that didn’t work so well, and that’s where I had some not so good experiences, but more on that later. PROS: For voice chat type audio, these work fantastic. Since that was the main reason I wanted them, I’m happy with it. I can put these headphones on for a zoom chat and when I am talking, I don’t have that annoying plugged ear feeling where my voice is extra loud in my head making me talk quieter or not hear others. I can talk just like a normal phone call. However I could see issues with volume since these speakers are not in your ear, they are quieter and less full. In a noisy environment, it could be harder to clearly hear the voice on the other side. Overall though, I used these headphones in a controlled environment during multiple video chat calls and zoom calls on my PC and had no issues with connection or hearing the other people. I was using a pro audio mic at my computer and not the mic on the headphones, but when I tested the headphone mic, people said they could hear me fine. CONS: The first thing I’ll mention is the fit because it probably has a lot to do with the rest of my issues. The instructions from JVC that come with the nearphones headphones show how to put them on and how they should look/fit when in the correct spot. There is a picture of how they shouldn’t fit but that’s the only way I could get them to stay put. So how the manual says is wrong is how I was forced to wear them. I guess to be fair, I was more in the middle of the two pictures, not quite correct, not quite wrong. I do have smaller ears so maybe that’s some of it, but the issue was the headphones kept pushing themselves away from my ear instead of moving inward toward the ear hole like the manual says they should. I rotated them back and forth and tried forcing them into place, but they would always settle into this hybrid style fit that was loose but worked good enough. I felt like they would fall off, but I jumped around a lot and couldn’t get them to actually fall off. So they fit good enough for what I wanted them to do, but I also noticed if I pushed them in closer to my ears they would be louder and fuller sound. So you may have different experiences based on the ear shape. But because of the fit I had two major issues. Quality and volume. By far the biggest con of these headphones is the audio quality. If you want crystal clear, full range music from headphones that float over your ear, you’re gonna be searching for a long time. Those of you old enough to remember the old style of headphones that came with every walkman or discman will know what I’m talking about when I say it sounds like those old style headphones when you would put them slightly in front or off your ears a little. You still hear the music but 90% of the low end is gone and it’s very tinny. Now, you can adjust this a bit with EQ but you’re not going to recover the lows. It’s just not how this style works. I do wish JVC was a little more upfront about that instead of claiming to still have full range clear sound, it would only help their marketing if they were more honest, but if you’re skeptical about how these sound, you’re probably right. Again, for voice, it doesn’t matter and it works great, but once you play music you’ll notice a lack of quality. It works for low volume background noise while still wanting to be present in the room, but you’re not gonna toss these puppies on and kick back in your chair to dissect some classical tunes. The other glaring issue is the lack of volume. Again, to reference those 90s headphones we all had that sat over our ears, if you didn’t have them lined up perfect with your ears, the volume would drop off dramatically. These are the same way. They’re designed to sit over your ear opening, but like I mentioned about the fit, they don’t really sit right for me and because of that gap, I lose a lot of quality and volume. There is a chance MAYBE they fit better on others, like I mentioned, the instructions seem to show a different fit than I can get, so maybe that’s part of the volume issue too, but generally speaking, for my fit, I had to turn everything up to full volume just to get an average level. If I pushed the headphones in closer to my ears, it was better, but they would not stay there. OVERALL So like I said, I still really like these headphones if you use them in ways that benefit from their unique design. Many of us are on virtual calls more than ever these days and having a headphone that allows you to hear the room around you and the people in the call is something you just cannot get with new standard in-ear headphones. People opt to not use headphones at all making calls harder to hear with ducking every few seconds. These headphones allow for clearer calls without that annoying plugged ear sound when you talk. I think if these were marketed as video call headphones they would fly off the shelf. Everyone should have a pair of these at their work or gaming computer.

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  Posted 1 year ago by bTobin

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  These Are Really Great JVC Nearphones!

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  I was so happy to receive these JVC HA-NP40 nearphones in black with the open-ear styling. That is my all time favorite type of earbuds now. They arrived with an included USB-C to USB-C charging cable but no charger. Your charger must have a minimum of 2.5 watts to max of 10 watts per the instructions. I proceeded to charge them which didn't take long and as I mainly use them for making calls and listening to audiobooks I was excited to give them a try. There is some paperwork with a QR code to scan for the manual which I did. There is no app available but I wasn't bothered by that. One of the first things I noticed was the ear wrap has a pivot motion so you can adjust to fit your ears perfectly. I also like the fact that I can use one single earbud and when the battery depletes I still have the other one to use. These offer true wireless, 16mm large drivers sound, Bluetooth 5.4 and up to 26 hours battery life with charging case. They come in black, blue or green. They also have 3 sound modes ~ Normal, Bass, High and a touch sensor control. A female voice does alert you to various things like POWER ON ~ CONNECTED ~ POWER OFF, etc. That's part of the auto off/on connect feature and a microphone which is superb for hands free calls. When I used them straight talking they made it about 7 hours then I switched to the other one. Started charging the drained battery and in about 2 hours it was fully charged again. They are ever so comfortable and lightweight weighing about 0.28 ounces. I honestly forget I have them on! I found I can get about 30 feet away from my phone before the sound starts cutting out. I personally like the Normal setting. It's all around ideal for my various uses. The sound is crystal clear for myself as well as the listener on calls. I am so very pleased with that ~ no muffled noise or unpleasant racket. When listening to my audiobooks at night and I fall asleep then wake up they are still on my ears with absolutely no discomfort. Being a back sleeper these are fantastic for me. Not much else I can say except they are quite impressive and I have no CONS to note. Well made, great sound, easy to wear and well worth the purchase!

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  Posted 1 year ago by Mizshutterbug