OK, let’s position the $199 JBL Tune 760NC – they have a 35-hour battery life (50 without ANC), have reasonable bass and more than acceptable noise cancelling.
You would be hard-pressed to get better for the price, although Sony WH-CH710N and Sennheiser HD 450BT are worthy contenders. In fact, the competition is closer to $299 to get the battery life and then you are in JBL Club 950 territory.
And I think that is the problem with so many reviewers of so many tech things. They look at the price but expect champagne on a lemonade budget. The JBL Tune 760NC 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 760NC
| Website | Product page and JBL noise-cancelling headphone page |
| Price | $199 |
| 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
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, ANC 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 35/50 hours (ANC on/off at ) is that it has a 610mAh 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 33.5hrs ANC/BT on.
Sound – a good bass that does not overwhelm
Maximum Volume is 83.6dB (100%), and comfortable listening is about 70-80%. The signature was the same on BT with ANC on/off and 3.5mm cable.
Note: Frequency response is from 20Hz to 20kHz
| Deep Bass: 20-40Hz | Nil |
| Middle Bass: 40-100Hz | Nil |
| High Bass: 100 to 200Hz | Hints of bass – it is not ‘deep and powerful’ |
| Low-mid: 200-400Hz | Slowly building |
| Mid: 400-1000Hz | Slowly building |
| High-mid: 1-2kHz | Slowly 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.
Noise-cancelling
Forget several levels- it is on or off, and there is no ambient pass-through. It is great for cutting voice and background noise but won’t cut out lower bass aircraft noise. The plus is that there is not a lot of ear pressure.
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
90% of people will buy and enjoy these headphones. Its real competition is the Sennheiser HD 450BT with a companion app and EQ, but JBL wins on battery life.
For $199, what’s not to like?
If you don’t need noise-cancelling the JBL Tune 710BT.
