Great sound, clear calls, and comfortable sleep
I bought two pairs of these and love them. It took some getting used too, but inserting the earbuds and rotating each a little backwards (toward the back of my head) and I get a perfect seal and they don't fall out when running. At first, I was disappointed by the battery life. I fully expected ANC to drain the battery more quickly, but with that off, I was getting about 3 hours of playtime before "Battery Low" would be announced in one earbud, then several minutes later the other. After a few software updates, I get 8 hours or more. I also use these to sleep. They stay in, as I'm a pretty stationary sleeper. On the rare occasion I've moved my head across my pillow, it'll loosen the earbud and it'll come out. That wakes me up, so I've only lost one, once. Taking the other earbud out and choosing to find the earbud was easy. I do wish these were designed to go a little more into the ear. I though a solution as a bit longer earbud tips, but those keep popping the earbud loose inside the charger and they won't charge. Finding the right tip is key. Many just go with the larger tips thinking it'll keep them in place, but that's not right. Find the tip that fits, insert into your ear and rotate is a bit. You notice the difference in them staying in, but also clarity increases as well I also use LDAC, which again, I expected it to drain the earbud batteries way faster. It really doesn't. Unless you're blasting these at a high volumes, well yeah, the batteries are going to drain way more quickly. Even with LDAC on, I don't have any issues with connectivity remaining strong without any random disconnects. When I use ANC, it is quite good, though not perfect. I still hear my partner snoring with ANC on and the music or audiobook volume up higher. The soundstage is whatever you make of it. If you turn on the surround function on the earbuds, and you're on android, you may want to turn Dolby off or you'll get an over the top hollow cave like sound. Personally, I don't like it, and since I keep mine with LDAC on, it disables the feature anyway. Talkthrough is something you have to get used to. At first, it's almost like the feature amplifies everything but the person you're talking to. The volume is the issue, but this can be tweaked in the app and saved to the case. I've not had any issues with the case outside of a random earbud turning on and attaching to my phone. A good cleaning of the pads on the earbuds and the pins in the case fixes this issue, even though they look clean. A cotton swab with a little rubbing alcohol can be used to clean both contacts on each earbud and the case contacts, though a good wipe down inside the entire case is a good idea. I did, however, experience one earbud suddenly sounding lower in volume than the other. There's a hole right where the ear tip attaches to the earbud. Make sure to keep that hole clean and uncovered by the ear tip. I believe this hole serves as a port to allow the earbuds speaker to move without the seal of the earbud be affected. This should be in the manual. With nothing playing, I've got other earbuds that still have a small hiss or other noise. These go nearly silent. That's to say, without ANC, or audio playing, you don't suddenly hear everything around you nor do the earbuds make noise themselves. It's like a pair of earplugs until you power the earbuds off. All in all, I love these. They have been unseated by the Tour 3 Pros. If you think these sound great, try the Tour 3 Pros, they make all other earbuds sound dull. But, I still highly recommend these. Just make sure to go into the app and turn them off if you're not going to use them for a while. It'll keep the case and earbuds charged. With that, why isn't there an option on the case to power the earbuds off? I have had one persistent issue, with both pairs, since the last firmware update. The case will show 100% charge for the case battery and each earbud until I open the case and the earbuds connect to the phone. I've had them suddenly drop to as low as 60% with no play time. Putting each earbud back into the case triggers them to charge properly. It's most prevalent when using wireless charging. A temporary work around has been to let them charge for about 10 minutes, open the case, take the earbuds out let them connect to my phone, then put them back in the case and close the lid. Wait about 10 seconds and open the case to make sure both earbuds start flashing the at the same time, and close the case. I shouldn't have to do this. My Tour Pro 3 works and charges flawlessly 100% of the time. My only other wish is better controls. I feel I may be spoiled by the Tour Pro 3s, but I should be able to disable all ANC controls from the case and it turn it off on the earbud 's touch functions. There's nothing worse than reaching up to scratch or adjust the earbud only to have the touch control turn on talkthrough. Overall, I still give these 5 stars, though replacement eartip options should be offered by JBL. It's pretty hard to guess which aftermarket eartips will or more likely, will not work. The shallow eartip design is understandable, in design, fo audio quality, but there's more than 3 sized ear holes for people! The EQ adaption for foam tips on the Tour Pro 3 should be an option for these too! The entire sound changes between foam and silicone. Maybe this and the battery issues can be added in the near future.
