Considering the JBL Live 300TWS’s worth and comparatively easy design, I anticipated an equally easy expertise—however I should not have judged a pair of true wi-fi earbuds on its subdued seems. A few weeks on, the Live 300TWS’s options nonetheless dazzle me, and the music high quality is much better than I anticipated from buds on this worth vary.
The 2.7-inch-wide case alone seems as if it may come from a premium set of earbuds. Smooth, compact, and pocketable, its notification lights have an elegant air paying homage to luxurious items: A hoop across the USB-C port alongside the underside pulses white whereas the earbuds cost inside—the higher to see the place to stay the plug in low mild—and it shifts to pink as soon as the cable is in. The act of opening the case could possibly be extra elegant, although; ultimately, I fumbled far much less with the lid after studying to drag it up from the edges.
The case can be enticing in mild of JBL’s estimate that they ship 14 further hours of battery life, as you may want it. Despite JBL’s declare that the buds will play music for a full six hours, on two events they sputtered out earlier than I reached the fifth hour.
Here’s the charging mild in motion and a peek on the surprisingly orange (and quick) USB-C charging cable.
As for the earbuds themselves, the Live 300TWS match completely in my ear proper out of the field. In what was a primary for me, I did not have to experiment with the 2 different ear gels or 4 stability fins. They match so snugly that they virtually doubled as earplugs—they even look a bit like them from a distance. (Or not less than as black, blue, purple, or white metallic bolts drilled rigorously into your cranium, relying on which colour mannequin you acquire.)
However, do not go leaping into swimming swimming pools with them. They might look waterproof, however in reality, they solely have a ranking of IPX5. So whereas these earbuds will survive exercises—talking of, they by no means budged from my ears throughout out of doors jogs—you are going to be in for an disagreeable shock in the event you submerge them. If you want that type of sturdiness, try the various different earbuds with a ranking of IPX7.
Features
The JBL Live 300TWS lack energetic noise canceling, however their passive noise cancellation from the nice match and seal works about in addition to a low-grade set of earplugs. In different phrases, it will not drain out airplane noise, but it surely does an excellent job of muffling regular workplace sounds. And conveniently, JBL outfitted these buds with a few options to deal with how unwieldy it may be to take them out of your ears typically.
First is “Ambient Aware” mode, which makes use of the microphones to choose up sounds out of your environment. While I’ve heard higher, it really works effectively sufficient that I by no means felt compelled to drag these out to listen to site visitors and conversations. The second, extra distinctive mode is “TalkThru,” which drops the quantity of your music to barely audible ranges so you’ll be able to preserve jammin’ whereas carrying on a dialog. I used to be significantly grateful for it whereas standing in checkout traces on the grocery retailer.
Normally, I’d look forward to finding these options in ANC buds, they usually’re a welcome addition. There’s a small catch, although: You should select which of the 2 you wish to assign as to the ahead swipe on the left earbud. You’ll at all times should activate the opposite by the My JBL Headphones app.
Leif Johnson / MacworldAs you’ll be able to see, there’s not a variety of room to work with for this vary of contact gestures.
Why the limitation? It most likely has to do with how JBL tied a legion of different contact gestures to those buds, leaving little room for these newcomers. The proper earbud handles the extra intuitive duties, reminiscent of tapping as soon as to play or pause, tapping twice to skip to the following monitor, or tapping 3 times to leap again to the earlier tune. Hold down the precise earbud and you will set off your cellphone’s native voice assistant—Siri in my case. Beyond that, you’ll be able to increase the quantity with a ahead swipe and crank it down with a reverse swipe. For its half, the left earbud lets you activate both the Google Assistant or Alexa through their cellphone apps with a protracted press. (You’ll set your most popular alternative within the My JBL Headphones app.) With all these choices at my fingertips, I used to be greater than a little bit stunned that JBL does not enable you tie the left bud to a triple faucet. I’d like to tie Ambient Aware or TalkThru to this gesture, however alas, it is to not be.
All of the contact gestures work in addition to you would possibly count on. Sometimes the JBL Live300TWS has bother distinguishing between a single faucet and a swipe, however (a lot to my shock) I hardly ever struggled with this after the primary day. Setup within the My JBL Headphones app additionally goes high quality, although Google Assistant gave me far much less bother than Alexa.
Sound
Let’s get this out of the best way: I hated the sound of the JBL Live 300TWS out of the field. The bass felt flat and virtually non-existent, and the highs felt as if they had been coming from one other room. Almost all the things else about these buds leaves an amazing first impression—together with the microphone, which yields crisper recordings than Apple’s AirPods Pro—however that first expertise of the sound can really feel like a punch to the intestine in the event you’ve simply paid full worth for them.
Fortunately, that impression modified shortly as soon as I hopped into the JBL app and fiddled with the equalizer there. By default the EQ has 4 settings: Off (ugh), Jazz, Vocal, and Bass. The actual approach to make these buds sing, although, is to create your individual EQ preset by the app. With some tweaking, I may get Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” to ship a satisfying (however not excellent) thump from the well-known bass line. The identical goes for Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy.” It helped significantly, although on the different finish of the equalizer spectrum, the intense highs continued to rob tracks like Sigur Rós’ “Glósóli” of some energy and depth.
MacworldThe parametric equalizer within the app presents a stunning diploma of management and customization.
Overall, the JBL Live 300TWS do much better with music that sits extra firmly in the midst of the equalizer spectrum, like Tilly and the Wall’s “Let It Rain,” Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel,” or orchestral tracks like “Samwise the Brave” from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. It handles heavy tracks like Rammstein’s “Deutschland” effectively sufficient, however I missed the pleasant menace that tune delivers within the low and center ranges with costlier earbuds.
Price
The JBL Live300TWS might technically retail for $149.95, however recently they have been promoting for as little as $119.95 at each Amazon and JBL’s web site. These are wonderful earbuds for that worth. They might not have energetic noise cancellation or the vary of sound you get from different earbuds, however their options, respectable bass, construct high quality, and common consolation do a lot to make them set up them as enticing options to pricier actually wi-fi earbuds.
Leif Johnson / MacworldThe JBL Live300TWS contained in the case with the Bluetooth pairing mild energetic. Merely opening the case and opening my Bluetooth menu was sufficient to begin the pairing course of.
Bottom line
If you are on a little bit of a price range, the JBL Live 300 TWS’s many options, equalizer, and good sound high quality (with tweaking) make them a worthy choice. The battery life is probably not as spectacular as JBL advertises, however the case not less than permits for a few further prices.