JBL has an extended historical past of delivering headphones that punch above their worth vary. Certain, JBL headphones aren’t essentially one of the best sounding headphones on the market, however they’re arguably the best-sounding for his or her worth, plus they provide cool options like Google Assistant integration, a pleasant design, and extra. Now, the corporate is unveiling a brand new line of JBL headphones — JBL Reside — beginning with the JBL Reside 650BTNC headphones.
The brand new cans boast noise cancellation, a pleasant, pleasant design, and extra. However are they definitely worth the $199.95 price ticket? We put JBL’s newest flagship headphones to the check to seek out out.
Design
The JBL Reside 650BTNC headphones are unmistakably JBL on the subject of their design — and never simply due to the big JBL emblem that you just’ll see on the ear cups. Additionally they characteristic a pleasant material headband, and are available colours that you’d count on from JBL — like the good darkish blue. They’re additionally obtainable in black and white.
On the left ear cup, you’ll discover a MicroUSB port for charging, which was very disappointing to see. If you happen to’re like me, you’re trying ahead to the day when you may have one single charging cable on your laptop, telephone, and equipment — and the connector that JBL ought to have adopted in 2019 is USB-C. On the suitable ear cup, you’ll get quantity and playback controls, an influence swap, aux enter, and a button to activate and off noise cancellation.
Typically, the JBL Reside 650BTNC headphones look good, and really feel good. They’re largely constructed from plastic, however they don’t really feel low cost or weak, and will face up to most day-to-day abuse.
Within the field, aside from the headphones themselves you’ll get a MicroUSB charging cable, aux cable, and a canvas carry pouch. We’d have preferred to see a stronger case for these headphones — particularly given their worth vary and the truth that they provide noise cancellation, and as such may be used for journey.
Consolation
The JBL Reside 650BTNC headphones don’t simply look good — they’re additionally comparatively comfy. They characteristic loads of padding across the ear cups and underneath the scarf, they usually’re not overly heavy, which is useful for sporting them for prolonged intervals of time.
There are a number of consolation quirks to bear in mind. For starters, the headphones have a comparatively heavy clamp, although we discovered that it was simple to get used to after listening for some time. After you get used to them, it is best to be capable to put on them for prolonged intervals of time with out them getting overly uncomfortable.
Sound
Finally, an important factor is how the JBL Reside 650BTNC headphones sound — and fortunately, they sound fairly good.
The bass response on the headphones is fairly good — but it surely’s not overpowering. Many listeners will desire that, whereas some will desire a heavier bass response, however the reality is that these headphones are likely to emphasis the high-end, particularly when noise cancellation is disengaged. When noise cancellation is engaged, the headphones sound fairly a bit hotter and somewhat heavier on the bass.
The mid vary additionally modifications fairly considerably relying on whether or not or not noise cancellation is on. When it’s on, the low mids are somewhat heavier, making for a hotter sound basically, whereas the excessive mids are rather less outstanding. When noise cancellation is off, high and low mids swap — there are somewhat extra highs and rather less lows.
The excessive finish response basically is fairly good on these headphones. With out noise cancellation, excessive finish is essentially the most prevalent side of the headphones’ frequency response, making for a typically clear and detailed sound. Arguably, with noise cancellation off, the headphones put somewhat an excessive amount of emphasis on the excessive finish. When noise cancellation is on, the excessive finish is a bit more tame, and we expect it makes for a greater listening expertise general.
As talked about, the JBL Reside 650BTNC have noise cancellation, and it’s not dangerous. It’s not fairly nearly as good on these headphones as it’s on the Bose QuietComfort 35 II headphones or on the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones, but it surely’s nonetheless fairly good — and we discovered may simply reduce out engine drones and different noise fairly successfully.
Efficiency
The JBL Reside 650BTNC headphones connect with your listening system via Bluetooth 4.2, and as such you’ll get a listening vary of as much as 10 meters, or 33 toes. We discovered that the headphones appeared to attach completely effectively — we by no means actually skilled any main skips or jumps whereas utilizing the headphones.
Relating to battery life, the headphones provide a reasonably first rate 20 hours with noise cancellation on, and 30 hours with noise cancellation off. That’s fairly good — and implies that the headphones ought to get you thru an extended day of journey.
Conclusions
JBL has hit one other house run with the JBL Reside 650BTNC headphones. Not solely do they appear fairly good, however they’re additionally comfy and sound fairly good too. Noise cancellation is an added bonus, too.
However are they one of the best noise cancelling headphones of their worth vary? Effectively, they’re a minimum of a stable competitor. The Audio Technica ATH-ANC700BT headphones are one other nice choice. The very best noise-cancelling headphones underneath $200, nevertheless, are in all probability the Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC headphones, which sound barely higher, regardless of the marginally decrease battery life.
Nonetheless, these are wonderful headphones, and due to their wonderful worth for cash we’ve awarded them the Headphone Evaluation Silver Medal.
| Retailer | Worth |
|---|---|
 |
$199.95 |
| JBL | $199.95 |
| Frequency response | 16Hz – 20kHz | Energetic noise cancellation |
Sure |
| Driver dimension | 40mm | Noise attenuation | Unknown |
| Driver kind |
Dynamic | On-ear controls | Sure |
| Design |
Closed | Microphone | Sure |
| Sensitivity | 100dB | Earpad materials | Foam |
| Rated impedance |
32Ω | Magnet materials | Unknown |
| Whole harmonic distortion |
Unknown | Water resistance | No |
| Rated enter energy |
Unknown | Battery life | 20 Hours w/ ANC, 30 hours w/o ANC |
| Most enter energy |
Unknown | Wi-fi distance | 10m (33ft) |
| Wi-fi connection |
Bluetooth 4.2 | Cable size | 1.2m (4ft) |
| Wired connection |
Sure | Case kind | Carry pouch |
| Removable cable |
Sure | In-the-box |
|
| Weight | 249g | Colours | Black, blue, white |