Design and features:0
Sound quality: We found the Vista 2 delivers sound quality that falls in the very good range - it reproduces music and voice very well although it does have some noticeable sonic quirks and excellent active noise reduction. With the Jaybird app tone controls set to flat (as received state of the earphone) and the noise cancelling mode engaged bass (as in bass drums, bass guitars, stand-up bass, etc.) has good impact and goes deep, but is somewhat prominent and a bit boomy. The midrange (voices, guitars, horns, etc.) is slightly thin, hazy, and grainy. The treble (cymbals, the upper range of violins, etc.) is extended, but slightly smeared. The sound also has a good sense of liveliness and is somewhat open--sound-wise it almost seems like you don't have anything plugging up your ears and does a good job of recovering room ambience. Mixed character - warm bass with neutral midrange and treble. The overall sound can best be summarized as slightly lean midrange with somewhat prominent bass. The tone settings of the app do have a noticeable effect on the sound of these earphones. Noise Canceling: Excellent noise reduction across the entire frequency range with the low frequencies reduced the most. Orientation changes the noise reduction characteristic - when the noise is coming from the front more high-frequency noise can be heard. Very, very faint hiss is audible when there is no audio program present to mask it.
Comfort: This is a hybrid ear insert/ear bud design - the earpieces seal the ear canals but they don't insert into the ear canals as far as typical ear insert models, and they are supported by ear bowls like a ear bud model rather than the ear canals. Users with small earbowls might find that the earphone body feels bulky in their earbowl and that they stick out too far and feel like they may lever out of place; the larger earpieces are too big, and when the smallest earpieces are used the earphones will stay in place during casual use but may not fit securely enough to stay in place during vigorous head movements. Users with medium and larger earbowls will probably find that they stay in place with no problem, and that the ear bowl supports make the ear pieces very stable even with vigorous head movement.
