JBL is one of the bigger names in portable speakers. They have been developing earbuds and headphones for years and the recent wireless headphones I reviewed impressed me much. This is the Tour One M3, the Mark-3 version of the series. The version with a separate Smart Tx transmitter retails at S$499 in Singapore, while the standalone version sells at S$399.
Smart Tx Transmitter
The Smart Tx works just like the true wireless earbuds Tour Pro and Live series where the charging case as a small touchscreen display. This Smart Tx transmitter basically allows user to operate the headphones, like EQ, volume, track changes, ANC, etc. On top of that, it also accepts digital input via USB-C, so you can connect it to any output device to stream audio to the Smart Tx and wireless transmit to the Tour One M3, similar to LG TONE Free T90. The Smart Tx can also broadcast audio to any Auracast-enabled listening device. With all these features, I would say this additional S$100 is worth the money.
Headphone Features
Coming to the headphones unit itself, the Tour One M3 offers so much features that it totally rivals most premium headphones in the market. It fondly reminds me of how Plantronics threw everything including the kitchen sink into the BackBeat Pro headphone series. When most wireless headphones only support wireless mode, a few would support wired USB-C digital and analog 3.5mm. The Tour One M3 supports all, albeit through a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter, and it requires active battery operations, so it cannot work if the battery is dead.
I definitely appreciate that the power switch is a physical slider so that I am 100% sure when I turn it off instead of press-hold. Other physical buttons include the ANC button and volume buttons. The right earcups support tap gestures to play-pause, change tracks, or activate voice assistant.
App Settings
When it comes to audio codecs, the Tour One M3 offers everything from the basic SBC, Apple’s AAC, to the hi-res LDAC, and even the broadcast-friendly LC3. It is generous when it comes to audio modes, like the 10-band EQ, Spatial Sound 360 Head Tracking, Left-Right Sound Balance, Max Volume Limiter, Low Volume Dynamic EQ, as well as Personi-Fi 3.0, a listening test to optimise the sound based on your ear sensitivity across the frequencies (I was unable to start the test because the app detects I am not in a quiet environment). For calls, the headphone offers features like Sound Level Optimzer, Sound Setting, Voice Setting, VoiceAware (hearing your own voice during calls).
The headphones also come with built-in ambient sound mode called “Relax Mode”, letting you listen to sounds of sea waves, crickets, crackling fire, rain, trees rustling. I thought they sounded noisy and not so relaxing, but to each his own. If you prefer silence, the “SilentNow” lets you set a timer while enabling ANC, during which the Bluetooth is disabled so you will not receive incoming notifications.
ANC and Ambient Sound
The ANC is really good when Auto Compensation feature enabled, so good that I feel a bit concerned about using it when commuting, as I could not hear most of the noises around me when listening to music. Fortunately, you can adjust the ANC level if you wish, or select Adaptive ANC. Ambient Aware mode is also working well, with ability to adjust the openness. But interestingly, JBL has another mode called Personal Sound Amplification. With this, the ambient sound is more open, and you can also just Left-Right balance. This mode is actually for hearing-impaired users, but I find the amplification level not too excessive.
Audio Quality
As for audio quality, JBL takes the safer audio tuning with the Tour One. It does not sound as exciting as other heavily-tweaked headphones like Sennheiser Momentum 4, which has more intense sub-bass presence, more sizzling vocals with better sibiliance controlh. Even the Technics A800 has fuller bass, though the staging and instrumentation is tighter, the vocals are less forward. The Tour One M3 is comfortable to listen to it and less fatiguing, there is good instrumental separation and comfortable sound staging, which contributes to the audio comfort. A slight hotspot is the upper midrange, which I find can be overbearing for some recordings like Hikaru Utada “First Love”. For this song, the Momemtum 4 delivers the goosebumps.
Verdict
The JBL Tour One M3 is a comprehensive product that offers many features that would meet the needs of various user profiles – the active lifestyle users, the self-love advocates, the discerning audio lovers, and busy executives. Ultimately, it depends on whether you want to pay for these features as not everyone would need them. For audio quality, the Tour One M3 is not the best out of the box, but with EQ function, you can tune it the way you like it.