Why you possibly can belief TechRadar
We spend hours testing each services or products we evaluation, so that you might be positive you’re shopping for one of the best. Find out more about how we test.
JBL Tour One M3: two-minute evaluation
JBL has pitched its new Tour One M3 wi-fi over-ear noise-cancellers proper into the center of the motion. They’re priced to compete with hitters as large as Bose and Sony, however the firm hasn’t simply slapped a premium price-tag on and hoped for one of the best. These headphones are specified to compete, and even have an non-compulsory further that elevates their performance past that of any price-comparable rival.
Wi-fi connectivity, frequency response and battery life are all properly as much as commonplace. Management choices are quite a few and properly applied. And with the non-compulsory Sensible Tx transmitter, JBL is ready to flip the Tour One M3 right into a wi-fi receiver of non-wireless sources, in addition to facilitating group listening for as many individuals who’ve Auracast-compatible headphones wish to take part.
There’s no arguing with the usual of construct and end that’s on show right here, both, although nearly all of the plastics used within the building don’t really feel as costly as you may anticipate in a product as dear as this. Nonetheless, not less than the consolation quotient is excessive, due to some even handed padding and a low general weight.
And when you like your sound punchy, upfront and animated, there’s a lot to get pleasure from right here and the JBL don’t scrimp on the small print, both. Their spatial audio impact is delicate and efficient, and the noise cancellation places them up there among the many best noise cancelling headphones combine with something that hasn’t received the phrase ‘Bose’ on it.
Don’t enterprise into larger (greater) quantity ranges, although, as a result of no good can come of it. The treble response, which is assertive at one of the best of instances, can change into unruly and the general sound turns into two-dimensional and somewhat shouty.
JBL Tour One M3 evaluation: Worth and launch date
- Launch date: April fifteenth, 2025
- Worth: $349 ($399 with Sensible Tx transmitter); £329 (£379); AU$479 (AU$549)
You don’t want me to inform you that is critical cash for a pair of wi-fi over-ear noise-cancellers, even earlier than you add in the price of the Sensible Tx transmitter – $349 ($399 with the transmitter); £329 (£379); AU$479 (AU$549).
JBL has picked a combat with manufacturers as credible as Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Sennheiser and Sony (to call simply 4) by pricing the Tour ONE M3 this fashion, which may imply considered one of solely two issues. Both JBL is totally assured or JBL is totally rash.
Whichever your desire, it is most likely not sufficient to place the JBL Tour One M3 among the many contenders in the best wireless headphones market.
JBL Tour One M3 evaluation: Specs
|
Weight: |
278g |
|
Drivers: |
40mm mica dome dynamic |
|
Battery life: |
40 hours (ANC on); as much as 70 hours (ANC off) |
|
Management: |
app; bodily/contact; voice |
|
Bluetooth: |
5.3 (SBC, AAC, LC3, LDAC) |
JBL Tour One M3 evaluation: Options
- Bluetooth 5.3 with LDAC codec compatibility
- As much as 70 hours of battery life
- Optionally available Sensible Tx transmitter
There are packing containers to be ticked while you’re charging this kind of cash for a pair of wi-fi noise-cancelling over-ears, most of that are marked ‘one of the best model of X’, and the JBL Tour One M3 ticks all of them.
As an example, they use Bluetooth 5.3 for wi-fi connectivity, and have multipoint connectivity in addition to compatibility with LC3 and LDAC codecs in addition to SBC and AAC. They may run for as a lot as 70 hours (at average quantity and with noise-cancellation switched off) between fees, and you’ll anticipate 40 hours even when you hear at excessive quantity and with ANC switched on.
The ANC itself is a three-stage system: select between ‘ambient conscious’ (an in-app slider controls how a lot of the skin world is allowed in), ‘talk-thru’ (which pauses music whereas considerably boosting exterior sounds, voices particularly) and ‘noise-cancelling’. There’s one other slider right here, to regulate ANC depth – or you possibly can swap on ‘adaptive ANC’ to mechanically modify the extent based mostly on ambient circumstances. ‘Auto compensation’, in the meantime, assesses the headphones’ place in your ear relative to your ear canal with a view to modify ANC on the fly.
JBL suggests the Tour ONE M3 have a frequency response of 10Hz to 40kHz, which, if it’s something like correct, must be ample. Sound is served through a few 40mm mica dome dynamic drivers.
The management app itself has loads of performance past twiddling with energetic noise-cancellation, after all – ‘JBL Headphones’ is free for iOS and Android and is without doubt one of the most complete apps round.
As an example, it lets you choose a ‘spatial audio’ setting (‘mounted’, ‘head-tracking’ or ‘off’) and examine your EQ choices (there are six presets and the flexibility to specify some customized settings utilizing a 10-band equalizer). You possibly can take a listening to take a look at to assist the headphones adapt to your particular listening to profile, exert some affect of the bodily strategies of management, set a quantity limiter and many extra in addition to. These embrace checking on firmware updates and remaining battery life, plus adjusting the size of time with out an incoming sign required earlier than the headphones energy down – mainly, this app is a mannequin of usefulness and stability.
Then there’s the Sensible Tx transmitter (a value possibility, let’s not neglect), by means of which JBL has an genuine Level of Distinction. In case you’re accustomed to the ‘retransmission case’ that the top-end Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 true wireless in-ears have been provided with for the previous few years, you’ll know one of many issues the Sensible Tx can do – connect it to a non-wireless supply of music, such because the in-flight leisure system, through considered one of its USB-C slots and it’ll wirelessly stream to the headphones.
However there’s extra to this little brick than that. It additionally makes use of Auracast to permit a number of gadgets to take heed to no matter is taking part in into it (so long as all headphones are Auracast-compatible, after all). Its full-colour touch-screen duplicates numerous the app’s features, too, so to make modifications you don’t need to fish your telephone out of the pocket on the again of the seat in entrance of you. Sure, it wants charging (through its second USB-C) and, additionally sure, it’s one other factor to vanish down the again of the couch or one thing, however for individuals who fancy its performance, it’s a really helpful little system certainly.
JBL Tour One M3 evaluation: Sound high quality
- Punch, drive and element in pretty equal measure
- Efficient and fairly nuanced spatial audio impact
- Simply spooked by larger volumes
Some headphones don’t actually thoughts the kind of stuff you take heed to, or the way you select to take heed to it – they only get on with the job, regardless. The JBL Tour One M3, I feel I can safely say, aren’t these headphones.
So far as music kinds are involved, they’re not particularly fussy, however the place high quality of recording is worried, they’ve particular preferences. It’s principally attributable to their treble response – the highest finish as reproduced by the Tour One M3 is completely as shiny and bitey as is appropriate. So when you provoke it with a recording that shares that very same high-end edginess – Nick Lowe’s You Obtained the Look I Like is an effective instance – issues can get compounded into one thing very near hardness.
There’s no scarcity of element revealed on the high of the frequency vary, although, and that’s the case all through. At each level the JBL are an observant and insightful hear, in a position to determine even probably the most fleeting episodes in a recording. Midrange decision is spectacular, and on the backside finish they punch with the kind of weight and willpower we’ve all come to anticipate from JBL tools. There’s a slight bias in the direction of the underside of the frequency vary when EQ settings are left alone, however this may be mitigated slightly within the app. What EQ adjustment can’t do, although, is have an effect on tonality that’s properly naturalistic proper till the highest finish will get concerned.
Dynamic impetus is appreciable, particularly the place the largest shifts in quantity or depth are involved, and the upheavals in Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters are described in full. The smaller, however no much less important, harmonic variations get acceptable weighting, too. Soundstaging, when listening in straight stereo, is organized and fairly expansive, however there’s a pleasing unity to the stage, an thought of efficiency, that makes for a assured and convincing presentation.
Change on spatial audio and the impact is way much less showy than some rival designs shoot for, and it’s all to the great so far as I’m involved. The stage opens up in each route with out dropping an excessive amount of of its definition, and the feeling of house doesn’t really feel in any manner synthetic.
No, the main situation right here considerations quantity, and the Tour One M3’s lack of ability to deal with it. Flip up the amount and the sound turns into two-dimensional and somewhat too assertive – each a part of a recording appears to hurry to the entrance of the stage, and the top-end tonality (which is problematic on a regular basis) turns into fairly abrasive and nearly glassy. ‘Composure’ is the phrase I’m after, and it deserts the JBL the second you determine to hear at large ranges.
The energetic noise-cancellation, by the use of distinction, wants no excuses making for it. Does it cloak you in an eerie blanket of silence just like the equal Bose headphones can handle? No, it does not. Does it bear comparability to the easiest alternate options on the market that aren’t by Bose? Most undoubtedly. With out altering their sonic traits or introducing a suggestion of counter-signal, the Tour One M3 cope with the overwhelming majority of exterior distractions and depart you free to get on with listening.
Not too loud, although, clearly.
- Sound high quality rating: 3 / 5
JBL Tour One M3 evaluation: Design
- Fold flat and inwards, so have fairly a small carry-case
- Alternative of three finishes
- Perceived worth just isn’t all it could be
Don’t get me incorrect, there’s completely nothing incorrect with the way in which the JBL Tour One M3 are constructed and completed. Regardless of having a lot articulation within the body that they will fold up right into a winningly compact carry-case, they provide each impression of being fastidiously constructed and able to final. However in terms of perceived worth, the embodiment of the phrase ‘premium’ that comes from the look, the texture and, let’s face it, the scent of a pair of headphones, the Tour One M3 don’t have it in something just like the portions of their price-comparable rivals.
When it comes to the look, that could be all the way down to the truth that my evaluation pattern is in an insipid end referred to as ‘mocha’ – maybe the looks is a bit classier within the black or blue alternate options. However the colour has nothing to do with the way in which the Tour One M3 really feel and the plastics which make up quite a lot of the body are laborious and really feel cheap. All of which is unlucky, given how costly these headphones truly are.
The practicalities of the design are completely nice, although. The contact factors are pleather-covered reminiscence foam, and so they’re softly pliant. The scarf adjusts with a really optimistic motion, and the clamping pressure it exerts is properly judged. These 278g headphones are straightforward to put on and it’s easy to get and stay comfy inside them. JBL isn’t quoting an IP score, although, so it’s value ensuring you don’t get too comfy in inappropriate environments.
On the left earcup there’s a slender ‘quantity up/down’ rocker swap. On the precise, in the meantime, a ‘energy on/off/Bluetooth pairing’ slider is positioned above an ‘motion’ button that cycles by means of ‘noise-cancelling’, ‘ambient conscious’ and ‘talk-thru’. The floor of this earcup additionally has a contact floor that permits management over ‘play/pause’, ‘skip forwards’, ‘skip backwards’ and ‘summon voice assistant’, and that is the place telephony features are accessed, too. It’s doable to unintentionally set off contact controls when feeling for that ‘motion’ button, however broadly talking these are efficient, well-implemented person interfaces.
The USB-C slot can be utilized each for charging the battery and for knowledge switch – which implies the Tour One M3 are genuinely high-resolution headphones if hard-wired to an acceptable supply. And there are eight mics unfold over the 2 earcups caring for voice-assistant interplay, telephony and noise-cancellation.
JBL Tour One M3 evaluation: Worth
- Variable sound
- So-so perceived worth
- Glorious management choices, together with the Sensible Tx transmitter
In the end, the JBL Tour ONE M3 can’t be mentioned to supply cast-iron worth for cash. They’ve quite a bit going for them the place consolation is worried, their noise-cancelling is excellent, their management choices are all very properly realized and, in some methods, they sound very pleasurable and entertaining, too.
However the laborious, fairly cheap-feeling plastics that make up quite a lot of the body, the tendency to lose slightly self-control at quantity, and the sheer energy of the merchandise they’re competing in opposition to all conspire to make the JBL a diverting different somewhat than a nailed-on candidate to your ‘worth for cash’ shortlist.
Ought to I purchase the JBL Tour One M3?
|
Part |
Notes |
Rating |
|---|---|---|
|
Options |
Bluetooth 5.3 with LDAC codec compatibility; non-compulsory Sensible Tx transmitter a possible game-changer |
5 / 5 |
|
Sound high quality |
Glorious ANC; dynamic impetus; nuanced spatial audio; however too simply spooked at excessive volumes |
3 / 5 |
|
Design |
Fold flat into neat carry-case; comfy; laborious plastic do not lend premium end |
4 / 5 |
|
Worth |
Superb management choices; so-so perceived worth |
3.5 / 5 |
Purchase them if…
Do not buy them if…
JBL Tour One M3 evaluation: Additionally contemplate
How I examined JBL Tour One M3
- Related to iOS and Android music gamers, wired and wirelessly
- Related utilizing the Sensible Tx transmitter to a laptop computer
- Numerous completely different music, a lot of completely different file sorts and sizes
I listened at my desk, connecting the Sensible Tx transmitter to a laptop computer, I listened whereas out and about and I listened on public transport, to a lot of music of many alternative file sorts and sizes. I spent over every week critically to get one of the best really feel doable for the JBL.
First reviewed: Might 2025