“The different Chord & Major products are easy to differentiate in store and in ear. The Major 8’13 Rock Tonal Earphone is a black earphone in a black presentation case with black accessories (this fits well with the ‘none more black’ Spinal Tap meme). The Major 9’13 Classical Tonal Earphone is supplied in a red wood case and the earphones are in matching wood and gold, while the Major 7’13 Jazz is in a mid-ash presentation case and the earphones are finished in ash and a kind of light gun-metal finish. The packaging also highlights the instrument central to that musical genre – electric guitar for rock, sax for jazz, violin for classical, and so on. In the box is a little cleaning device, a set of small and large silicon tips (the mediums are fitted as standard), a velveteen pouch, and a cable winder card.”
“The single-driver earphone is common to all C&M designs, but is tailored slightly to suit the model. The on-paper specifications of the Rock and Jazz are identical (16Ω impedance, 94dB sensitivity) although the Classical delivers a 21Ω impedance and a 96dB sensitivity, but their characteristic tonal balances are shifted slightly. In a way, the names ‘Rock’, ‘Classical’, and ‘Jazz’ do the C&M models no favours. It might make people think of exclusivity – that the Classical earphone is no good at anything else, for example. In fact, it’s more like a loose impression of that musical genre, expressed in earphone form. You can ‘rock’ through the ‘Classical’ earphones quite well (in fact, that slight extra sensitivity of the ‘Classical’ models helps, especially with European volume-limited iDevices). They are voiced slightly differently though, with the Rock and Jazz distinctly bassier than the Classical, with the Rock having faster, more aggressive bass and the Jazz having deeper and more textured bass. On the whole, I preferred the even balance with the slight top-end emphasis of the Classical. It’s not ‘toppy’ enough to sound bright or forward, just honest.”
Original source : http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/chord-major-earphones/
