Customer Ratings & Reviews

Budget headphones are a segment absolutely flooded with options. Thousands of different models saturate the market and manufacturers are looking for any advantage they can, whether by leveraging the power of a brand name bolstered by an obscene marketing budget or standing out with features and sound quality transcending their meager price point. Both are present here with the HA SR185 wired headphones, combining the eminently recognizable JVC audiovisual brand with a bass-centric alternative to run-of-the-mill headphones in the $20 and under segment. Given their target price and audience, these headphones get the job done but make few attempts to be anything better than more or less what you expect for the money. - Unboxing Impressions Competing in an entry-level space, I didn’t expect these on-ear headphones to be particularly meaty. The all-plastic construction doesn’t impress, but at the very least makes for nicely lightweight headphones. Joints have a little play in them which is also understandable at this price point. When unfolded the headset is sturdy. I was disappointed to find only the ear cups are padded, as other over-the-head headphones include a padded headband, and there even appears to be a cutout within the headband for them. The 3.5mm connector is a typical four-pole which will allow most phones and tablets to use the microphone, but devices with separate headphone and microphone jacks (e.g. computers, game systems) will need a breakout adapter, which JVC does not include. - Sound Quality Budget headphones will almost never deliver a flat response curve (where bass, mids, and treble are all balanced and none overpower the other) and the HA SR185s absolutely skew heavily towards bass response as advertised on the packaging. The heavy bass drowns out the mids and highs, and even after adjusting equalizer settings I couldn’t get decent response from the high end of the sound spectrum. Mids were fine once the bass was dialed back, but running these as-is will make sure you’re in Rave mode all the time. Sound isolation from the outside environment is almost non-existent. The overpowering bass is rough but workable for dialogue and lyrics, but is surprisingly fun to listen to heavy metal, electronic dance, and other drum-heavy music. The bass is clear if not overly boomy. I won’t say that these are a clear step above the bog-standard earbuds that phone manufacturers include in their devices, but they definitely invert the response curve to bring back the bass that was otherwise missing from earbuds. There’s some distortion across the entire audio spectrum at very high volumes but that’s to be expected. On the bright side, these headphones are low impedance so they’ll get plenty loud when used with a phone or handheld game system. With an inline microphone, these headphones can be used to make calls or audio recordings. The microphone is of decent quality and the positioning is similar to that of a lapel mic, resulting in very clear speech. - Comfort & Convenience The lightness of the headphones makes these reasonably comfortable on the ears. The clamping force isn’t overbearing and combines with the pivoting ear cups to make these easy to wear for long periods. The adjustable headband expands to accommodate an enormous head size. As a larger-headed individual I only needed a short extension to make these fit my head with at least an inch to go on each side. Unfortunately there are a few downfalls to the headphones’ design. The ear cups are at times difficult to pivot into a contracted position, and even when fully closed the headphones still take up quite a bit of space. These are only decently portable and will need to be stowed in a bag or backpack rather than a pocket as a result. Further, the headphone cord is on the short side, which makes it hard to use with desktop computers and stereos without a headphone extension cord. A little more length would’ve been appreciated. - Bottom Line For their $19.99 MSRP you could do a lot worse. The JVC HA SR185 wired headphones indeed deliver on their bass-boosting promises, and are quite comfortable to wear, even if there are options closer to a neutral frequency response in this market segment. As a self-proclaimed audiophile I do see some use cases for these and I didn’t detest the sound. Kids will likely enjoy these for their music and games, making them a good gift option for tech-addicted youngsters. With a few caveats as described above, these are Recommended!

I bought these for my husband because he was going through earbuds like candy! Either losing or breaking them. I feel better about his hearing in these verses the buds because he listens to his music so loud I can hear it! He is soooo happy with them and claims he has a better sound experience with these than with the earbuds. Great purchase!

My son had a set of gaming headphones and they seem to be a nuisance as the mic was annoying and just was not as good as he thought they would be when we bought them. Here comes a simple JVC set with mic on the wire, only thing I needed to do was get a extension suitable for a headset with a mic inline and boom, got myself a new headset for under $30 which he loves. He could take them with him to use with his ipad as well. My son for some reason does not like bluetooth headsets, I bought him a high end set of JBL's and he hated them. He is using these on his nintendo switch. When it is docked he plugs these in with the 10' extension purchased on amazon. When you purchase the extensions anywhere, make sure they are compatible with headsets with mics. bestbuy does not carry them unless ordered. The correct extension is the one with the 3.5mm plug with 3 lines on the actual plug itself, the other extension will have audio but no mic on it. I highly recommend this headset and would buy them again for the reasons I purchased them. I myself use wireless jbl headphones for most everything I do, specifically over ear headphones.

The JVC wired head set is pretty much basic in all its design and quality. However before you put this headset off you need to take it for its face value and see who it may be geared for. Once you do that then i think you may find these head sets to be a decent buy. First off this head set is as basic as it comes. It is an ear cup design however it is not an over the ear design. The ear cups are rather small and the head band is your basic plastic band set up. The cord is hard wired in and cannot be removed. There are no special functions with the head set other than an an action button positioned on the cord near the ear cups. This button also houses a mic that allows for voice commands to your phone or phone call conversations. Other than that its pretty basic in all its glory. So why the 4 star rating? Well for a couple reasons in fact. First off you have to understand that this is not a $200 headset, heck its not even a $ 50 headset with that being said you can't get upset for it not feeling like and performing like something similar to a Bose or like mind. Second i personally feel this head set is perfect for kids. I gave this head set to my 11 year old daughter to try out and she loved it. The ear cups fit her perfectly and even though the design looks cheap and flimsy its actually very durable. She's not the type to take really good care of her items in fact she has already dropped this head set two times and stepped on it once and yet there is no damage. And third the sound quality on this head set is actually pretty decent. Now lets talk about that for a minute, after all that's the main reason for looking at head phones. While streaming music on this head set i noticed my bass and mids were really clean. The vocals and high hats seemed a little muffled however once i tweaked my equalizer a bit everything came to together like a dream. As i streamed some rock such as "Bat Country" by Avenged Sevenfold, I was very surprised to notice how clean everything sounded with no one beat over powering another. On top of that it did a pretty good job at keep out outside noise pollution for not being a full over the ear back design. The bass is rich but not over powering. If your looking for a deep bass head set then you may want to pass on this set up. And well that's pretty much about it. As much as i would like to talk more about this head set that's pretty much all there is. Here's the bottom line guys. If your buying this head set and expecting it to perform like a $200 head set then you have no right to get upset at its design and function. If your going to compare anything it needs to be apples to apples. However if you are looking for a decent set up for something that's near pocket change then i think you will be pleasantly surprised to how well these head sets sound and hold up. If your looking for a headset for your older kids or young teens then i think this is going to be a good buy for you guys. Whatever you decide to do just make sure you take it for its face value and nothing more. Pros: -Decent sound quality -Durable -Built in action button Cons: -3.5mm cable is hard wired -not very comfortable -small ear cup design

The JVC HA-SR185-B headphones are a basic smartphone compatible on-ear headphone setup. The headphones are a low cost option that are compatible with anything sporting a 3.5mm jack. I’ve played around with them for a few days to get a feel for them. Design The design of these headphones is pretty straightforward. Each earcup has its own wire (about 18” long) that meet in a Y junction with another 3.5 feet of cord following the junction. The jack is a 3.5mm TRRS connector (stereo sound with mic). The jack has a decent strain relief that should help prolong the life of the cord. The right earcup cord holds the inline mic and audio control. The control hangs in a reasonably good position, right above the collar bone. However, the controller does not have any volume wheel or button located on it. Rather it only has play/pause (1 press), skip song (2 presses), and voice assistant (press and hold). The earcups can both swivel, and can fold up whether the cup is swiveled or not…if that makes sense. The headband is all plastic as well as its extension and swivel/folding knuckle. The earcups come with a soft, albeit thin (1/4” thick) earpad. The all plastic design does have me a bit concern about lifespan, but as long as you are forceful or rough with them I think it should hold up alright. Comfort Comfort is subjective. However, in most cases I am able to get a general sense of how comfortable a headset would be to most users. I have an average sized head (wear a S-M fitted hat for reference). For my size of head these headphones aren’t too bad to wear for extended periods of time. There is no padding on top part of the band, but headphones are so light that you don’t feel that pressure band for a while. Unfortunately, I had difficulty finding these comfortable for long periods due to the on-ear cushions. I wear thicker framed glasses, so the on ear cushions tended to squeeze my ear against my frames. I tend to drift towards circumaural (over ear) pairs for this reason. With my glasses off, the headphones became a lot more comfortable. So if you wear glasses, keep this in mind. I can tell from the squeeze that these give my head, though, that you may find these a tad tight if you have a large head. These work great for smaller heads though – my 6 year loves them, and they stay on pretty well. Sound Quality Sound quality is just what I would expect from a pair of headphones in this price range. Pretty average, and nothing special. The audio was clear, and not tinny. However, depth of sound was a little lacking – needs a bit more punch on the bass. These are also not the most efficient speakers, I found myself bumping the volume up 10-15% over my other headphones for the same level of sound. These being non-isolating headphones, I can see this being annoying if you are in a crowded/noisy area and having your music drowned out. The microphone works well. Its on par with the inline microphone found on the earbuds included with smartphones. Nothing spectacular, but the caller on the other end can understand you just fine. So far I’ve had no complaints with the call quality. Thoughts For the most part I let my son use these headphones around the house when he is playing games or reading along on his tablet. He likes the headphones a lot. To be honest, I think these will hold up better than his Spiderman headphones he broke a couple of months ago. The sound quality is certainly better. Just keep in mind that these headphones are not tailored specifically for kids, so they don’t have the volume limiting feature found in a made-for-kids headphone. For the last week I’ve also been tossing them in my laptop bag since they fold up so nicely. I use an Android device (LG V20), and the control has no issue working with my phone. Overall these are a nice inexpensive pair of headphones. Buy them for your kid, bring them in your carry-on for in-flight entertainment, or a myriad of things. They work well and do a good job for a budget set of headphones.

I got these headphones to use at work. I have previously used the freebie headphones that came with my phone and not been happy so was hoping for a vast improvement. First impressions: The portability of the headphones is good as the ear cups will fold up so you can easily fling them in a bag or drawer and they don't take up too much space. They are comfortable to wear (at least for this late 40's guy!) and I had no problems wearing them for a couple of hours in a warm office. I've had other ear-cup headphones start to make you sweat which is unpleasant but happy to report these were fine in that department. They plugged into my computer just fine (standard 3.5mm jack) and once I had set the sound output to that port, I was listening to tracks on Spotify and putting the headphones through their paces. (On a related note, if you want to plug these into the recent Apple phones, you will need the Lightning adapter. Not an issue for me as I just use mine with a computer). The sound - actually pretty good and better than I was expecting. Some frequencies are handled better than others, with the best being the bass and the worst the mid-range (vocals). I tested the headphones a variety of tracks from Spotify - John Williams themes, some European techno and a few instrumental pieces to check it with a variety of sounds. Most of the bass tracks on the albums I played were handled well by the headphones, especially considering the price point they retail for. JVC does promote that they have a "Deep Bass Port" and whatever the technology behind it, they do seem to benefit from this. I thought the highs were handled fairly well and my only disappointment was around vocals and mid-range. It's a minor gripe though as I could and will happily listen to tracks on these headphones at work. They are a "night & day" improvement over the freebie phone headphones I had previously relied on and I'm happy to have these on hand now. I would definitely consider purchasing more of these for younger family members - they are universal (will work with almost any audio device, with or without an adapter and have phone capability), comfortable for various head sizes and put out some pretty good sound for the price point. If they get lost or damaged by a younger one, it's not quite as hard on the wallet and they can be fairly easily replaced. All in all, I found this a good product from JVC and especially recommended for casual listening or for those who don't want to risk losing more expensive on-ear headphone (at the gym, at work or public transport) or young ones who want better sound than the free headphones they usually end up with.

These are comfortable for casual music enjoyment, for telephone communication, and work well for active sports such as running. Noise isolation is passive, but is adequate. Microphone is of good quality and provides smooth clarity (I have had other headsets where it could become impossible to reliably have a coherent conversation). Sound quality is decent, but not stellar. Build quality is pretty decent - Most headsets last only a couple of weeks and break, but this one has gone nearly two months and has remained intact. It seems like a longer period of time. The only complaint is with the session button. It is sensitive and jittery, and you may find that your music abruptly stops, Or begins when not commanded. Occasionally, it may unintentionally "hang up" in them middle of a call. The button on that key is too sensitive. No, I just cannot win when it comes to headsets. But this one comes very close to a winner.

Bought this to work from home and it is perfect. The ease of hearing and the fit was perfect. Very comfortable and keeps outside noise out. Love it and the price was right.

This product is way better than your average two hundred dollar versions people waste their money on. Its built in microphone works with ps4 and its comfortable too. Sound is great. No need to spend hundreds for the same quality.

Sound is great, and very comfortable to wear. The price was definitely acceptable and I am very pleased with this product and would recommend for anyone who would like a reasonably priced headphone set.

If you're shopping for headphones, then you already know that there are a bazillion choices out there. We picked up this set for one of our kids, and it works well. I'm not going to say that the sound is anything revolutionary, but for the price, they do sound a lot better than a lot of the brands simply targeted for children, and are worlds better sounding than earbuds. The durability is above average and they are very comfortable. I would rate them highly for a budget pair of headphones.

These headphones sound really good. They are comfortable on your ears. If you like a lot of base, it has an extra base boost. JVC has always been one of the better brands.

I wanted a good set of headphones for use at my computer, though I don’t use my desktop as often as I used to so they didn’t need to be spectacular. These offer really good sound at the price point, and they fold a bit smaller so they don’t take up a lot of my desk space. I have a higher quality bluetooth headset for my phone but my computer doesn’t do bluetooth so I needed a wired set for the rare times I want to play some games without bothering my husband

Comfortable to wear and don’t hurt my ears. Light weight and clear sound quality of my music makes experience enjoyable for listening.

I have finally found a set of wired headphones which work with my various devices that are reasonably priced. I find them comfortable with very good sound. I recently started books with Audible and after the 1st couple of books, I'm very impressed . After 3-4 hours of listening to 1 book, they were not irritating, hot, nor do I just want to shove them aside.

Good sound quality and comfort, especially for given price.

I bought this headset to plug into my iPad while listening to a movie on a flight. The sound was good and I no problem with connecting it. The fit was a little tight for me, so I had to take "head breaks" to give my ears a rest. Despite this, the headset was a good value.

These are really good. I like a lot of bass when listening to music. I have since founded the skullcandy witeless crusher headphones and they are waaay better. So much bass its awesome. And they are cheaper than the jbl headphones.

Needed a wired set with an inline mic for taking Skype calls on my work computer. Didn’t want to spend much. These do the job. Sound quality is a bit muddy and takes some getting used to compared to my much higher-end Audio Technica set. Even my cheaper Skull Candy buds sound better, but I can’t wear those for more than a few minutes at a time. The headband on these has no padding, but they’re pretty lightweight so not too big of a deal. For $20, I’m satisfied. 4-stars. Set your expectations accordingly for the price.

These headphones are awesome when it comes to good quality sound. That includes good balanced bass. But for me, they tight and uncomfortable to keep on long time. For the price you pay, you get really good sound!