OK, let’s position the $129 JBL Tune 710BT – they have 50-hour battery life and have reasonable bass. They are the twin brother to the JBL Tune 760NC 8.2/10 but without the noise cancelling.
The JBL Tune 710BT offer excellent, no-frills value. They don’t have a wanky app or EQ – what you hear is what you get. And I like it.
JBL Tune 710BT
| Website | Product page |
| Price | $129 |
| From | JB Hi-Fi and JBL retailers |
| Warranty | 12-months ACL |
| Country of origin | China |
| Company | JBL (Est. the mid-40s) is short for James B Lansing (Yes, he was the Lansing in Altec Lansing.) Now it’s part of the Harman group of companies owned by Samsung. |
| More | GadgetGuy JBL news and reviews |
First impression
Sorry to repeat so much of the JBL Tune 760NC 8.2/10 review but apart from noise-cancelling, the JBNL Tune 710BT is an identical twin. And there is room for good, well-made headphones without an app or techno-wizardry like ANC.
They are kind of chunky, small, well-made over the ear cans. More press buttons than most as there is no app. Buttons are good and don’t play up as touch controls can. They fold flat for storage and weigh 220g – nice and light. There is no carry case.
You have Power on/off, Volume up/down, Fast forward and back, Google Assistant/Siri/Pause and a Bluetooth (BT SBC 16-bit, 44.1kHz) pairing button.
You can listen over BT or a 3.5-2.5mm cable. There is no USB DAC.
They are quite comfortable with slightly too much clamping force but give that a few wears, and it will back off.
I like the simplicity.
Battery
The trick to giving 50 hours (ANC on/off at ) is that it has a 690mAh battery that takes about 2 hours to charge at 5V/1A via USB-C. It does not fast charge, but you can use any USB-C PD charger.
We left it playing an audio loop from PC storage at 70% (if you like rock and roll, up that to 80%) and achieved 45.5hrs.
Sound – a good bass that does not overwhelm
Maximum Volume is 84.1dB (100%), and comfortable listening is about 70-80%. The signature was the same on BT and 3.5mm cable.
Note: Frequency response is from 20Hz to 20kHz
| Deep Bass: 20-40Hz | Nil |
| Middle Bass: 40-100Hz | Hints of bass slowly building |
| High Bass: 100 to 200Hz | Still building – it is not ‘deep and powerful’ |
| Low-mid: 200-400Hz | Still building |
| Mid: 400-1000Hz | Still building |
| High-mid: 1-2kHz | Still building |
| Low-treble: 2-4kHz | Flat |
| Treble:4-6kHz | Flat |
| High Treble: 6-10kHz | Controlled lineal descent to 10kHz |
| Dog whistle: 10-20kHz | Continued decent to 20kHz |
It is an odd signature for JBL that is invariably flat all the way – neither adding nor subtracting from the original sound. It is a balanced signature also called V-shaped and the default on many devices that don’t have digital signal processors and EQs. It is pleasant enough for most music genres unless you are looking for heavy bass.
Handsfree calls
Not bad, but no sidetone, so you can’t hear your voice in the headphones and end up shouting.
BT 5.0
BT can connect to two devices, and they support Google Fast Pair for Android devices. The single codec is SBC 16-bit 44.1kHz, and the latency is around 250ms, so it is not for gamers.
GadgetGuys’s take
The market is more crowded at $129, including the run-out $89 JBL Tune 700BT Plantronics Backbeat Go 810 with ANC $119 and a companion app and EQ. But JBL wins on battery life.
For $129, what’s not to like?
I bought them for 30 euros. I guess value of products like this depreciate very quickly.