JBL Endurance Peak 3 - Dust and Water Proof IP68 True Wireless Active Earbuds JBL Pure Bass Sound

I was looking for new earphones specifically for fitness with the main usage test being running. I wanted to test across several price points to see which would be most worth the money. I've only had cheap running earphones before (though I have nicer cans that I use to listen with in other scenarios and some nice wired in ears for when I perform live). I don't really care about noise cancelling. My primary criteria were about comfort (and if it can stay in my ear while running), and the sound quality vs price (how much marginal return do I get per dollar). I ended up picking a premium pair because you can really notice how much more digital/fake the audio sounds when testing side by side, the lower down in price you go. (note: a lot of what I put were just notes I was jotting down while testing them. I try to do a more succinct summary in the first line of each option, and then it gets more rambly/random after that) In the running: Sony WF-1000XM4 $189.00 | Beats Fit Pro - $179 | Power Beats Pro - $179 | Jabra Elite 4 Active - $89 | JBL Endurance Peak 3 - $89.95 | Soundcore Sport X10 - $69.99 | JLab JBuds Air Sport - $69.88 | Golrex $29.99 | BMani T16 $39.99 Here are my thoughts: Power Beats Pro - $179 (149) - My winner overall Sounds great. It is not the best sound I've heard in earphones, but doesn't seem to lack anything. Has good thumpy bass, presence in the mids, and good clarity up high. Nothing to complain about the sound. Big/heavy case (doesn't matter that much, but I do take these on big hikes so smaller case would have been nicer) I think ultimately will be more comfortable for long use than the Fit pro. The stock medium tips fit fine, unlike the fit pro for some reason. Sounds essentially the exact same as the fit pro which makes sense Beats Fit Pro - $179 I wanted this to be my favorite. It's light, small, has fun color options, and sounds great. But it ultimately was just not comfortable enough to leave in my ears for longer than 45 minutes. This would vary from person to person obviously. Pretty comfortable, but had to switch to the small eartips (only earbuds I had to switch from the medium/stock tips). Stays in the ears well, but I think that the whole thing being in there will get uncomfortable pushing my ears after a while. Really little case which is nice. Really great clarity, feels perfect Can't find any eq in the app, but I didn't feel the need to adjust any eq settings either, every band/frequency was very satisfying, so that's kind of nice not having to set it myself Sony WF-1000XM4 $189.00 I believe this has a slightly fuller sound quality to it. Can't really pinpoint how or why, but seems to be the most superior sound quality of all of them. I thought it might be better bass but that's not it. I can't pick a part any individual component that seem superior, it just has an overall fuller sound There just doesn't seem to be any way that these are going to stay in during a run. Would be great for any non-exercise application, but just wasn't what I was looking for. I would choose these if I were looking for just walk around town kind of earbuds. Jabra Elite 4 Active - $89 Great clarity and bass out of the box. I am the kind of guy who can only really tell sound differences when a/b testing it. If I only listened to these earbuds, I would have been fully satisfied with the sound quality, the comfort, and the security. It's only because I tested it next to the premium models above that I decided not to go with this. But if this is your budget range, these are definitely the winners. Excessively comfortable, like the most comfortable of any of the earbuds (premiums included), and feel like they will stay in on a run even though they don't have any sort of little hook like the soundcore or powerbeats, or over ear hook like the others. Definitely the best ergonomics. Would take this over the JBL endurance or any other in the sub $150 price range. Soundcore Sport X10 - $69.99 more satisfying for non edm music than the other options down below. Better separation for instruments and vocals. Compared against JLabs with blue tips in, the bass is more comparable. Soundcore keeps more clarity than on higher end (albeit a little tinny sounding), than JLabs Bass is definitely much better than JLabs. It does feel a bit more muddy because of the heavier bass, there may have been better vocal clarity with JLabs Everything else seems fine ANC is decent small profile is light, really comfortable and stays in the ears JLab JBuds Air Sport - $69.88 bigger profile, slightly less comfortable than the Soundcore. Bass is lacking out of the box. There's better mid and high clarity on these than the soundcore. Bass improves a noticeable amount by switching to blue tips, but you lose some clarity higher up bass feels punchier in edm in these than x10 These are definitely more satisfying for thumpy edm music than the x10 The sound quality just feels lacking in depth, no matter which eq setting you choose. Has a connected usb charger on the case as a charger (rather than a separate chord to plug into both charger and power), which I don't think I like JBL Endurance Peak 3 - $89.95 Clear vocals and instruments in mids and highs. Slightly more clear and crisp than the soundcore Nice bass as well, (slightly worse bass than soundcore), less satisfying than the sound core on lyrical song but actually has punchier bass on edm Plenty loud (other reviews saying they don't get loud) The equalizer app gives lots of control This bass is also superior once equalized. So both bass and instrumental/vocals have more clarity. After messing with eq, is better than soundcore. This sounded perfectly fine until compared with higher tier, then when a/b compared it sounded a bit more fake, a bit more digital, definitely enough to notice a difference Golrex $29.99 It is okay sound, probably the best in this price range. If you just want something cheap that will give you sound, these are fine. If you care about sound quality even a little bit, it's worth it to get a better headset. There is no clarity at any frequency, just a decent amount of noise. Has an attempted cheap premium look with led interfaces. BMani T16 $39.99 Sounds way below average, worse than the golrex. Really similar packaging and look to the golrex, so they're either just copying each other or made by the same people Read more

These are great! Good base and sound quality, you can choose presets or adjust the sound settings directly in the app. The microphone is pretty strong too, I drive big trucks for work and it's really noisy in the cab, other headphones I've used struggle to hear what I'm saying when using voice prompts for siri or Gemini but not one issue yet (when prompting with the earbuds). I've used them in the shower, at the gym, even in the sauna and they still work really good. In the app you can set the touch buttons to do nothing so you're not interrupting music or anything. Pretty good battery life, comfortable for long term wear, has a really good ambient mode to be able to hear what's going on around you, worth the money id say. ***In the shower before I figured out the touch button thing I put the ear buds down while I washed my hair, water got into the ear bud holes, they still worked but the right one sounded a tad bit weird, put em in rice for 24hrs just case and no problems Read more

After about a month of having those here’s the takeaways: PRO: they hold in place. Gym - running, jumping jacks…. All of that. Battery lasts a long time no need to worry even daily (depends on use of course). Ambient is sort of like noise cancelling but not to a degree that one is used to by Apple or Bose. I consider it a positive thing. Sound is very fair. Not the best - but very fair (I’ll explain in the cons) CONS: Even tho they fit firmly, wearing it for a prolonged period of time begins to sort of irritate the ear. Depend on biology of your ear, they tend to slide out of the canal (not fully of course) thus lessen the quality of sound. So I keep adjusting them, which is sort of annoying. I live in a metropolitan city and bluetooth is fine in an enclosed space - home, gym. But once in the open space (big city), bluetooth is constantly interrupted. Something that JBL needs to look at. Lastly, the case is kinda big. Unlikely to keep in one’s pocket. Bottom line - not bad for a price. Read more

I love my JBL earphones. They're easy to wear and don't hurt the inside of your ear, they're easy to use and set up with your device. The case that holds them is sturdy and portable. The quality of sound is good and I like to use the noise cancellation a lot. I wish they had more colors, but black and white seem to be the default. This set is a good value for the price. Read more