Panasonic RP-HJE900 Zirconia Review

[lestatar]

Holy crap. Man that SUCKS. I was kinda worried about the glue seam.

Shit, I would still ping Panasonic and beg for a warranty exchange/repair tho - nothing to lose.

[CrowdAds]

[j4r3du]

I will give that a try later, I found the box and receipt and I purchased them last October so their may be hope. If anyone still has the warranty paper that came with their's could you give me the phone number please?

[monkeyninja]

Sorry to hear this. Same thing happened to mine yesterday: All has been well since January when I got them - using them on an almost daily basis, but not abusing them. One bud went quiet, then stopped working altogether. Tried switching connectors around but nothing - tried on a different player, still the same.

However, I gave the silent one a few firm taps with my finger and it kicked back into life, much to my relief.

This of course is not a good sign and I need to start making plans. Going to contact Amazon regarding an exchange or whatever it is I need to do.

Probably will also buy a second pair as backup as I don't think I can live without them.

[lestatar]

Hmmm, a bit ominous indeed, 2 issues in a row. My own Panas purchased in Sept. 2010 still look and sound like new for the moment...

Wonder if you guys somehow got stuff from a bad batch? Definitely stuff to watch out for.

@Monkeyninja, did you happen to check the inside of the misbehaving IEM? Do you still have the mesh grill? Sounds horrible, but maybe some wax buildup in there?

[j4r3du]

I don't think mine was from a bad batch. It sounded great and looked like new until a few days ago. I honestly was shocked when the monitor came apart with such ease. I'm hoping Panasonic will do something for me when I call them. What concerns me though, is Panasonic's website has no mention of the hje-900 from what I can find.

[lestatar]

^ well, the lack of mention on Pana site is known - possibly discontinued.

[j4r3du]

Well I contacted Panasonic this morning. After spending 45 minutes on the phone they told me that the hje900 only have a 3 month warranty (mine being 8 months old) and said they could not do anything. They then tried to sell me an inferior pair rp-hje450 which retails for $49.99 at a "discounted price" of $42.99 (what a deal!). What a joke, these things aren't even good and they are $25 on Amazon. They then transferred me to the parts department and told me that the RP-HJE900 are "obsolete" and they do not stock parts any longer. Well that is crap, definitely will not be purchasing any Panasonic products in the future.

Oh well, If anyone wants to purchase my cable or working monitor for cheap just message me. May be a good idea as Panasonic apparently does not care about this product any longer.

[lestatar]

^ this makes me sad.

Just for the heck of it, what would you consider selling the Pana cables for?

[sYlt]

Indeed, this makes me somewhat scared if anything would happen to my Panas, which makes me ask:

For how much would you sell the working monitor and would you ship it to Portugal, Europe?

I think it's a good idea to have a backup monitor in case one some day one fails (I HOPE NOT!).

[j4r3du]

lestatar, what country would it be going to? Assuming your in the US you could have it for $18 shipped if you want. Should note that this is the US model headphones which supposedly have a thicker/better cable than the Japanese ones.

sYlt, you can have it for say $22 shipped it that sounds good to you. I'm in New York, so it's not too far away. The dust filter fell off on it as on many peoples. Even the original images in this review appear to have it missing. Review picture below:



I think these are fair prices considering the only places I could find that still sell the IEMs and have them in stock are asking over $200. That being said I am willing to negotiate. If either one of you wants the carrying pouch you can have that as well (for free).

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by j4r3du

Even the original images in this review appear to have it missing.

I removed the mesh on purpose, since I stuffed some foam in their nozzles.

[sYlt]

It sounds like an awesome deal, but I can't give a definitive word for now. Feel free to sell it someone else meanwhile. I'll say something when I'm 100% sure. Thanks!

[j4r3du]

dfkt -Ah, fair enough. I was trying to just point out that it had no effect on sound quality

Since the hje900 are sort of out of the picture, have you found a different model recently, which you enjoy as much. I originally bought the Panasonics based solely upon your review and I agree they were awesome, which makes how the one monitor turned out , more tragic.

sYlt, contact me any time. It will just be sitting in my drawer unless someone else needs it.

[dfkt]

Sorry, no, haven't heard anything similar for that price. They sure are rather unique in that price range. Too bad they seem to be 100% discontinued by now, and Panasonic doesn't seem to give half a crap about them. Maybe they didn't sell well, and Pana makes more money off their cheapo phones - or maybe they are planning to release an upgraded high-end model, who knows... either way, I'm sorry about your issues, and that they can't be resolved the usual warranty replacement way. Big corporations sometimes seemingly really serve all clichés as far as customer support goes.

[j4r3du]

Alright, thankfully I got Kicker EB101BBY headphones free when I purchased 6x9" car speakers a day before my hje900s' broke, so that can hold me over until someone else makes good and reasonably priced IEMs

[lilghost]

So, I got my replacement pair this morning (if only everybody were so fast with their shipping...) and as a complete layman, I must say these are suh-weet ^^ Time has yet to tell if their sound will change with burn-in. What I've noticed so far is that the highs can indeed be a little bright, but bass is just great. My Samsung M1 has mostly electronic music on, so the experience they deliver is like a whole new sonic world. I'm actually hearing things I never even knew were there ^^ Hiss seems to be negligible, and I find myself actually turning the volume down to 12 from the usual 20 I was used to.

As for the build quality of this pair, the buds are much harder to rotate and detach from the cable, which was apparently the problem with the first ones. Hofelly they won't crap out on me. For now, this is one happy camper.

At the time of writing, amazon.de has one pair left on sale for a hefty 150 Euronen.

[lestatar]

Originally Posted by j4r3du

lestatar, what country would it be going to? Assuming your in the US you could have it for $18 shipped if you want. Should note that this is the US model headphones which supposedly have a thicker/better cable than the Japanese ones.

sYlt, you can have it for say $22 shipped it that sounds good to you. I'm in New York, so it's not too far away. The dust filter fell off on it as on many peoples. Even the original images in this review appear to have it missing. Review picture below:



I think these are fair prices considering the only places I could find that still sell the IEMs and have them in stock are asking over $200. That being said I am willing to negotiate. If either one of you wants the carrying pouch you can have that as well (for free).

@j4r3du: Well, I am very interested. Only problem is that, while I normally live in NYC as a native NYer, I am now in Hong Kong. Ping me via email at lestatar at yahoo dot com if you get a chance - maybe we can work something out...

Sorry for your issue and really not intending to take advantage of your woes...

[cnhardwick]

Well guys J&R has the HJE900 open box for $67.90. Do I bite?

[sYlt]

Originally Posted by cnhardwick

Well guys J&R has the HJE900 open box for $67.90. Do I bite?

Yes, definitely!

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by cnhardwick

Well guys J&R has the HJE900 open box for $67.90. Do I bite?

PFFT!!! Jump on it!!!