JBL Tour One M3 Smart Tx - Wireless Over-Ear Noise Cancelling Headphones with Smart Transmitter Hi-Res Audio 3

Updating my review from 4 stars to 5. After spending a but more time with the EQ, I'm really happy with the sound quality. ...and I am EXTREMELY nitpicky when it comes to sound! Trying to replace my Nuraphones: I wanted a pair of headphones to replace my Nuraphones I've had for about 8 years. Those are VERY clear, very loud, very bass-heavy, with really clear mids and highs. The down sides are, they're bulky, no longer made or supported, so you can't buy replacement parts like ear tips, etc., they also have ear tips which fall off and make me not want to travel with them and toss them around much for fear of losing the ones I have. I tried the Momentum 4 headphones and, to me, the top-end was traaash (boxed and sounded cheap, zero instrument separation) and volume was way too low. After doing a bunch of research, the JBL Tour One M3 seemed like it might check the boxes of cutting down the bulk, keeping sound quality, and improving battery life. I got these today and spent quite a while with them. Here's where I'm at: First impressions: - They look pretty basic, like a $150 headphone. Plastic all around. This actually isn't a deal breaker. I'd like something a bit more stylish but also, having a sleeper headphone maybe they'll be less likely to get stolen in an airport or something, idk. - The battery was at 10%, practically dead when they arrived - brand new /sealed. So as soon as I got them I couldn't update them or even really try them without chargin first, which is a bit of a buzz kill. I'd expect around a 60% to 80% battery charge on arrival. Sound quality: - They are pretty tricky to dial in - I guess most things are. - The Personi Fi setting seems to cause a volume dip, assuming because of reductive EQ'ing, which I didn't like - also can't be enabled with LDAC anyway, so I left Personi Fi off and kept LDAC ON. - The highs and mids are really decent. I initially didn't think the instrument separation was exceptional but it is actually really decent considering the price of these headphones. 9/10 for the top end separation. It's actually quite good once the EQ is set up well. - The bass is decent, obviously nothing as crazy as the Nuraphones as they are like basically wearing a subwoofer on your head. I do have to say, I'm happy with the bass resolution. Initially I thought is was a bit boomy but was able to nail it down with very precise EQing, this took quite a while to get perfect but I'm super happy with the end result. Dialing in: The ANC slightly affects the bass and treble - I found that I liked these best with ambient mode on with the slider at or almost all the way up (one notch down). I have 2 EQ presents, one for ambient and one for ANC where I boost the treble just a tiny bit. I prefer the sound with LDAC turned ON. I added just a touch of custom EQ to very slightly boost bass and treble. Samsung S24 Ultra issues: - Checking your phone settings, turning off EQ and Atmos, and enabling senior level hearing (even though I'm not a senior) - Make sure Normalization isn't on for things like Spotify (and definitely don't use "loud" as it will reduce sound quality). - What really annoys me is that Nuraphone seemed to be the only company that had a way to not only turn the regular sound limter off, but to turn of the EU sound limiter specifically. I'm not sure if these are the same thing, but the JBL headphones have no concept of this and the volume is on safety rails where you can tell they'd be amazing if you could just squeeze 3-6db more out of them. It's just an obnoxious problem every bluetooth headphone seems to have. ANC Defaults to ON: This really annoys me. Why doesn't the ANC/Ambient setting persist when turning these on and off? I prefer the sound of the ambient pass-through being ON and I do not want to have to set this in the app every damn time I pick up my headphones! Nor do I want to cycle through the modes on the headphone switch. This is absolutely terrible! I really hope they fix this soon with a software update. Power button: I kind of hate that they oriented the power button where your thumb switching it DOWN turns it ON and switching it UP turns it OFF. I never get it right the first time after days of use and I feel like it would be way more intuitive the other way. They solve so many issues but the hidden EU volume limiter and ANC persistence really frustrates me. I also wish they did sell this without the little remote - I've heard that was supposed to be a thing, but I find the little remote kinda useless tbh and would rather save $50 to $100 on these to not have that included. Verdict: I have decided to keep them. They solve my bulk issue. The sound and comfort is 98% of the way there and the battery life is actually insane. I've been using these for 3 days straight and the battery is STILL AT 100%! Now THAT is cool! I'm deciding to ditch my Nuraphones for these and ultimately want to checkout the Focal Bathys MG as a possible future replacement for these... but these are definitely good enough for now. Definitely far better than the Sennheiser Momentum 4's. Read more

So I have been a Sony and Bose guy for years and I love their products. But another brand I have loved for years as well is JBL. However, every time I’ve tried their true wireless earbuds and or their over ear headphones up to and including their flagship models, I have been disappointed. Now enters The JBL Tour One M3. These headphones seriously have everything I want in a set of headphones and I have been putting them through their paces. I know for the grammar and punctuation nuts out there, my review may not fit well into your form and factor approach, and in addition , I wanted to make this simple and succinct by putting in bullet points. First of all, I wanna say that the noise canceling is top notch. I travel enough to be able to test them out and they work great on planes. Second, they have a feature that I love and of course Sony was one of the first to bring it to market and that is the speak to chat feature JBL has added that to these headphones so that when you need to talk to somebody, when you start talking, it will automatically turn on the ambient mics so that you can converse with this person and you can adjust the interval from 5 to 15 to 20 seconds. The only slight issue with that is, it would be nice if the music would actually pause, but the music continues to play in a muted form. Third is The ambient aware and talk through features. You can hit a button and put it on ambient aware or hit that button twice and it’ll just stay on talk thru until you take it out of that mode. Fourth is the fact that they’ve incorporated a volume rocker along side a touchpad. So the volume rocker is a physical button while a touchpad on the right ear cup pauses and plays your music while double tapping, and triple tapping skips to the next track or reverses to a previous track. It’s a great incorporation of physical buttons and touchpad. Fifth is these headphones are very comfortable and I have a big head and I’ve tried a lot of them. The clamping force is enough to get a good seal around your ears, but not so much to wear. It brings fatigue and headaches. Six is the fact that they include USB-C to USB-C alongside a USB a adapter and then couple that with this new TX transmitter which really just creates a way that you can stream your music from an older device with a 3.5 mm jack. But also with the USB-C to USB-C cable you can stream that directly from the USB-C port on the headphones to a USB-C input on a phone or tablet and stream lossless audio. Just to clarify there is no 3.5 mm output on these headphones as the USB-C charging port on the headphones acts also has an audio output for wired connection. I know that I already mentioned some of these, but just to make abundantly clear, these headphones come with a USB-C to 3.5 mm cable, as well as a USB-C to USB-C cable alongside a USB-A adapter. Yes they included all of that. Seventh, of course is the sound and with the sound JBL offers spatial audio, which works really well. I do prefer to use that for movies while keeping it off for music. One thing I will say is do not judge these headphones in regards to their sound off of their default setting when you first purchase them and take them out of the box. Make sure to of course download the JBL headphones app and adjust the equalizer to your preference. Though these headphones do get loud, they may not be quite as loud as Sony‘s’ flagship models. But I have to tell you I’ve got these tweaked to a sound profile that I really enjoy. And if you tune up the bass, if you do like bass, they will not disappoint. You basically can adjust them to almost any sound profile you like along with presets they have built into the app. And in regards to the app, they literally have everything you could want in the app for these headphones. Eighth is the fact they come with a very compact traveling case. I am very very picky and I’m telling you for those of you that like technology alongside customizable features and of course great sound, You can’t go wrong with these. Read more

These are definitely the most expensive headphones I have ever owned, but they have by far been worth every penny! I was looking for headphones that I could use for everything and these definitely fit the bill. I use them in Zoom meetings while I'm at coffee shops and my coworkers can hear me just fine without hardly any background noise. The noise cancelling also works so well, I can use these to edit videos in loud spaces with no problems. The sound quality overall is spectacular. It feels like I'm in another world when I'm wearing these. I don't ever have any connectivity issues when I toggle back and forth between my computer and my phone. These headphones are also super comfortable. I can wear them for hours with no problem at all. Overall quality is truly a 10/10. Read more

Great sound and very comfortable for long flights. I have a big head. I wore these for 9hrs on a flight to Europe. I used the Bluetooth dongle it comes with so that my headphones were wireless on the flight. It was easy, just plug the Bluetooth dongle into the headphone jack and it wirelessly sends the music/dialogue. I would recommend that the inside case pouch needs some sort of closure so the accessories don’t fall out. I did a ton of research and wanted the best headphones for flights and long-term wear. I’ve used them to rake leaves in the yard and they stayed on with no problem. Even constantly bending down didn’t make these slip. The app is nice too as you can make adjustments and keep the headphones updated. Read more

Very good quality. Expensive but it feels worth it. I have been using it for a month. It is super easy to connect to my phone. Read more

I bought these for my son and he loves them. Said they are comfortable to wear and the sound quality is great Read more