Good and a little more: We tested the JBL Tour One
Clean and accurate sounds, rich and not just deep bass and equalizer control option: We took the sound giant's new headphones - and came back with some pretty clear conclusions.
And what slightly ruined the experience?
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The full review
Ariel Gavish
21/12/2021
Tuesday, 21 December 2021, 09:43 Updated: 10:06
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JBL Tour One (Photo: Walla! Technology, Ariel Gavish)
About half a decade ago, when Apple's AirPods were launched, a wave of white in-ear headphones swept the world.
If you got on the London Underground five or six years ago you could not have a conversation with anyone in the caravan as everyone was immersed in their smartphone screen listening to music.
And whoever "dared" to wear bow headphones might have looked like a strange bird.
A few years passed, the trend changed and rainbow headphones conquered the world.
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Design and level of finish
Before we get to that, let's just say that this is the most successful part of the JBL Tour One. The headphone design is polished and clean. The matte black color is reminiscent (in a good section) of a chalk board and it fits perfectly in the aluminum frame on which a leather strap is sewn. On the right headset is the Bluetooth button which is also used to turn on and off; Beneath it are two small buttons for volume control. Both are located relatively at the bottom and not so convenient to use.
It takes time to get used to finding them easily and many times when trying to arrange the headset on the ear one of them accidentally touches and then the volume changes or the headset disconnects. However, the power button is not present in all headphones and as strange as it may sound, it is a necessary and useful button - are you done with the headphones? Just turn them off and do not wait for them to disconnect on their own.
In the left earpiece is the audio switch button and you will find it easily.
Here too many times when we arranged the headphone arc we realized we had accidentally pressed it and switched from ANC mode to Ambient or vice versa.
At the bottom of the left headset is a USB-C charging socket.
The design of the headphones is polished and clean (Photo: Walla! Technology, Yinon Ben-Shoshan)
Give me some air
The big advantage of rainbow headphones, beyond a much higher quality surround sound than in-ear headphones, is additions like an environmental noise filtering mechanism or "listening" to the environment.
The technology is also present in the headphones that sit in the earlobe, but if not the headphones anymore, then according to the experts, it is more effective in "button" headphones such as those from BOSE, Sony, Samsung, etc.
The main disadvantage of rainbow headphones is that they are closed;
The ears are not exposed to the air and may heat up quite quickly and this is what happens with the JBL Tour One, who will teach you that ears are also an organ that can sweat.
The feeling of lack of air started to bother us after about half an hour of training in the gym.
Of course it depends on the personal sensitivity of the user but we found ourselves removing them for ear ventilation needs several times an hour.
The feeling of lack of air began to bother us after about half an hour (Photo: Walla! Technology, Ariel Gavish)
Let it grow quietly
The feature that makes headphones from good to excellent is the ANC Active Noise Cancellation quality, a noise cancellation mechanism. In JBL he tries to adjust the cancellation volume according to the ambient noises. If you are indoors and the background noises are from TV or family members - the ANC will operate poorly while if you are outside and say there is a tractor working close - the mechanism will work more powerfully.
In headphones with a price tag of a thousand shekels, we expected a slightly higher quality noise cancellation mechanism. One that will be able to better detect environmental noises and really adjust itself but in practice it does not always work. For example, in a gym workout sometimes the music played through the speakers is detected and the ANC mechanism manages to hide it and sometimes not. Too bad.
Another mode is Ambient mode.
It can be called environmental awareness (or listening to the environment), and it allows you to continue listening to music without disconnecting from the environment.
This means that the ambient noises are lowered but they are heard in the background so that you can continue to listen to the music and not disconnect from the environment completely.
And it works great.
We expected a slightly higher quality noise cancellation mechanism (Photo: Walla! Technology, Ariel Gavish)
Widget and battery
The JBL widget allows you to change how the buttons are activated and set up to use Google Assistant, which is quite a bit;
From Google's assistant you can request many things, such as volume control, forward or backward transfer of songs and also enable or switch between different audio modes.
Coupling to a smartphone is an example of efficiency - without code requests or other complications.
The reception range of the Bluetooth is also effective and the music is heard well even from a distance of 15 meters.
Another useful thing about the Tour One is the detection of removing the headphones that freezes their use to conserve battery power.
According to the manufacturer, the headphones should provide a 24-hour usage time for a single charge.
We did not try because we charged them about once a week but according to online reviews they reach 30 hours of use.
JBL Tour One (Photo: Walla! Technology, Ariel Gavish)
The bottom line
The Tour One are better headphones and a little better.
Its sounds are clean and accurate, the bass is rich and not just deep and those who like can play with the equalizer settings using the widget and improve the audio quality even more.
However, we felt there was room for a little more power.
The JBL Tour One comes with a relatively high price tag - about a thousand shekels - and at such a price we would expect a noise cancellation system at the highest level possible.
The quality of construction, finish and design do all fit the price tag, but give us a little more boost, or alternatively a price tag.
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