JBL Tour Pro 3 – The most feature-full BT/ANC earphones yet (AV review)

08/11/2024
By Ray Shaw
In Reviews

The JBL Tour Pro 3 are undoubtedly the most feature-packed buds ever invented. They sound great, have a touchscreen case, and a comprehensive app—the category killer!

It is hard to review these as every aspect—from the bud design to the case usability and the app—works together to make them very different from premium buds from Sennheiser, Sony, Bose, etc.

So, I will start with a little exercise and ask what you want in the perfect BT/ANC buds. You can use the checklist below as thought starters.

Subject: Earphones

Assignment: Think of everything you have experienced with earphones and develop the perfect earphone.

Results

Sound is most important – not audiophile standard but really good consumer standard.
Dual drivers (speakers) because single drivers are usually bad at Bass or Treble.
Hands-free call noise reduction that only allows clear voice to get through.
Decent sidetone to hear what you are saying in transparent mode.
An EQ that allows the sound signature to go from Neutral to balanced, to bassy, to warm and sweet.
Spatial 3D and head tracking.
At least 8 hours ANC between charges.
Qi and USB-C charge case.
At least 20dB noise reduction, but also the ability to select the level you want.
Transparent mode that automatically recognises when you speak.
BT multipoint with a selection of codecs, including hi-res and low latency.
Comfort and fit test.

OK, class – a few top-end buds do most of that. What more can you think of?

Auracast is interesting (and it is the future).
The LG Tone Free case can connect to a 3.5m socket to broadcast to the buds.
A fully featured app that I never use because it is on my phone.
Solar charge

Well, apart from the solar charge, there is one set of BT earphones that has everything above and has a 1.57” touchscreen carry case that can do almost everything the app can.

Australian Review: JBL Tour Pro 3 Model JBLTOURPRO3BLK

Website	Product Page Manual
Price	$399.95 in Black or Latte
From	JBL Online, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Bing Lee, Myer, Officeworks
Warranty	1-year ACL
Made in	China
Company	JBL (founded in the mid-40s) is short for James B. Lansing. (Yes, he was the Lansing in Altec Lansing.) It is now part of the Harman group of companies owned by Samsung.
More	CyberShack JBL news and reviews

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.

We are also tightening up on grading. From now on, Pass, for example, means meeting expectations for the price bracket. We consider a Pass mark to be 70+/100 with extra points added for class-leading and excellence.

First Impression – WOW

Well, it was not quite wow as I have reviewed the excellent JBL Live 3 BT – choose your style – Buds, open or closed stick where I first saw Gen 1 of the smart case with a 1.45” touch screen and JBL’s new headphone app. And if you don’t want to spend $399.95 these are very acceptable at $249.95.

So, it’s the ‘triangle’ that makes these special. One leg is the hardware (and JBL’s extensive tuning expertise), one leg is the very comprehensive app, and the last is the 1.57” touchscreen case that does more than any other case. Working together, they meet or exceed any other premium buds and add considerable value to them.

These buds have a short 12mm ‘stick’ style that simplifies ear insertion. They also have a shorter stem, so the ear tips don’t bury too deep in the ear canal.

The case has a larger touch screen that covers most of the app’s functionality and is USB-C and Qi charging.

But what impressed me the most was the new JBL Headphone app, one of the most comprehensive I have ever seen. Forgive the following details as it does so much that may be handy for you.

Comfort – Pass+

The small stem makes insert/removal easy, and they are not a deep in-ear fit. There are four extra sizes of ear tips, along with a set of foam ear tips for those who don’t like silicone tips. At 5.6g they are about average weight.

We wore them for eight hours to see if they cause itchy or hot ear – they don’t.

However, this is a closed-back design and pulsatile tinnitus sufferers will hear their heartbeat in their ears. If you fit this category, you need open-back like the Sennheiser Momentum Sport BT/ANC earphones – fine music, no sweat.

Bluetooth 5.3 – Exceed

It had BT 5.3 with SBC, AAC, and LDAC codecs. Normally, we would suggest that buds have at least some of the Qualcomm aptX suite, but JBL has done something more interesting.

It has a playback quality setting that adjusts the bitrate for Best effort (adaptive), Optimised for audio (909/990kbps), Balance between audio and Connection Quality (606/660) and Connection Quality (303/330).

It also allows you to select the LDAC codec from 16/24/32-bit/ and 44100/48000/88200/96000Hz sampling. High-res is impressive especially when the best I can get from my Sennheiser Momentum 4s is 24-bit/48000Hz.

What is Auracast?

Auracast allows an audio signal from a transmitter (e.g., tour guide systems in museums, public address systems and increasingly in TVs) to be transmitted to unlimited receiving devices (e.g., headphones, hearing aids) within a fixed transmission radius.

The app selects one of the available Auracast channels (these might be for different languages), and audio is transmitted to the earbuds.

This may be the answer to hearing-impaired use of TVs.

Bluetooth case Auracast transmitter – Exceed

Simply plug in the 3.5mm (3-pole) or USB-C out (which supports sound out) into a TV, computer, radio, aircraft entertainment system, or anything with a 3.5m jack or USB-C and the case becomes a BT 5.3 Auracast transmitter.

The buds automatically pair – nothing else to do. The secret is that they don’t pair with Bluetooth Classic using the usual codecs. They use the new BT 5.3 LE LC3 codec which can use a low bitrate (from 160-345 kbps) but not sacrifice sound quality compared to SBC and AAC. Another benefit – it can support multiple connections.

LC3, often called Auracast is now appearing in other brands of BT 5.3 or later buds and heading aids. If your devices support that, you can pair with the case.

We tested with the Sennheiser Momentum 4, and it connected over Auracast via its app. The music quality and volume seems pretty good, and the app said it was connected at High Quality.

Auracast is a game changer.

The case supplements the app – Pass+

The 1.57” colour touch screen is used to access 19 tiles – functions of the app. Each tile has is set the value in the app and you can make changes without your smartphone. The case can also display the song, notifications, caller ID, battery life and use different wall papers or your photos.

ANC – Exceed

We cannot fully test ANC effectiveness in dB reduction, but we can generate noise from 20Hz to 20kHz and see how effective it is. It was 100% effective on noise between 20 and 400Hz. We started to hear sounds from about 450Hz – typically a 20dB reduction – excellent. You can select the amount of ANC or let adaptive mode do its job.

Ambient Aware lets the world in – again with a slider control. It is excellent.

Talk through is good – but don’t forget to enable Voice Aware if you want sidetone (hear your voice) and it has low, mid and high settings.

I can’t say that it is as good or better than Sennheiser, Sony or Bose but it is up there with them.

Hands-free – Pass+

The six mics (three per bud – one voice beamforming, one ANC and one internal ANC) are good. They control wind and background noise quite well.

Callers commented that the app defaults produced a slightly tinny voice and over-processed sounds. The key is to customise the Calls tab to suit your needs, and these will then meet or exceed your expectations.

The App – Exceed

We will let the screengrab say it all.

firmware updates
Equalizer presets studio, bass, club, extreme bass, vocal, jazz
10-band EQ
Active noise cancellation settings
An ear tip fit test, Find My case (and earbuds)
The ability to use your earbuds as a personal sound amplification device
Customizing the earbud controls
Spatial audio
Personi-fi (personal sound adjustments)
Channel balance
Volume limiter
Transparency settings

Relax Sound has five different nature profiles that can be combined or played individually to calm and relieve listeners during a set time.

Battery life – Pass+

JBL claims 11 hours ANC/off plus 33 in case or 7 ANC/on plus 24 in case. This is measured at 50% using BT SBC. Our test confirmed that these figures are conservative.

USB-C (5V/1A/5W) charge time is about two hours and fast charge is 10 minutes for three hours. We did not test Qi, but we expect about twice the charge time.

IP 55 – Pass+

The first ‘5’ means dust ingress is not entirely prevented, but it must not enter in sufficient quantity to interfere with the safe operation of the equipment.

The second ‘5’ means water projected by a 6.3mm nozzle from any direction shall have no harmful effects.

So as long as you don’t swim in them, they will withstand sweaty gym use.

How do they sound? Superb – Exceed

It has a 10.2mm dynamic driver and a 5.1mm x 2.8mm balanced armature setup to achieve true 20Hz to 40kHz frequency response. Most buds have only one speaker to do it all.

This provides clean bass, natural vocals and crisp instruments. Using the hi-res LDAC brings out nuances that some premium buds lack.

I love the JBL neutral sound signature as it allows presets and the EQ to recess frequencies to achieve almost any sound signature. We test with a white noise generator and a sound meter to get the native signature – regardless of EQ settings.

Mid-bass (the most critical bass where you get all the musically important bass) is strong It is a pleasure to listen to Blues Brothers Peter Gunn Theme with magnificent trumpets over a deep-bass backbeat – Just the facts, ma’am. Great for testing deep-and-mid-bass and vocals. I could listen to Blues Brother Jazz all day long on a good speaker.
Upper-bass is strong and adds that bass vibrancy, so notes are clear – thumps, mot whumps.
It is flat from 100Hz (high-bass) through 200Hz to 4kHz where most music action is, and critical for a critical area for clear dialogue.
Low-mid treble 4-10kHz is excellent defining the high notes character and crispness.
High Treble 1-20kHz is superb adding that feeling of air – as if you were there.

The preset that matches this is Studio, but I enjoyed Club and Jazz. There are also presets for bass, extreme bass, vocal (podcasts) and custom.

JBL Tour Pro 3 sound signature

Deep Bass 20-40Hz	Nil
Middle Bass 40-100Hz	It kicks in at 40Hz and steeply jumps to 80Hz, where it is then flat to 100Hz.
High Bass 100-200Hz	Flat
Low Mid 200-400Hz	Flat
Mid 400-1kHz	Flat
High Mid 1-2kHz	Flat
Low Treble 2-4kHz	Flat
Mid Treble 4-6kHz	Flat
High Treble 6-10kHz	Starts a very slow decline (it is almost flat to 20kHz.
Dog Whistle 10-20kHz	Reasonably Flat
Volume	Loud enough not to have to use full volume,
Sound Signature type	It has a Neutral sound signature (the Nirvana) and the audiophile standard. It neither adds nor subtracts from the original music. The bass is excellent—the best I have heard from buds—and the EQ could easily change this to warm and sweet, making it easy to listen to music and movies.
Soundstage stereo	The closed-back means it is not wider than your ears. It has excellent left/right separation and sound object tracking.
Soundstage Dolby Atmos	If your host device decodes Dolby Atmos, you get some 3D Height, surround spatial sound, and a far wider sound stage.
Sound leakage	Negligible
Comment	You won’t be disappointed.
Read	How to tell if you have good music (sound signature is the key – guide).

JBL 360° spatial

Spatial is not Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, but it does add a sense of height and surround to some music. To use it you calibrate your head for head tracking (three easy head movements) or simply have the sound come from a fixed source. It has three presets – movie, music and game.

We used a DA track and it certainly gave a sense of height and surround. The head tracking is more of a gimmick with music but may be useful with movies where you may look away from the screen.

Build-quality – Pass+

Sure, they lack the real metal highlights and woven fabric cases of more expensive brands, but overall, the build quality is well above what you expect at this price.

CyberShack’s view – JBL Tour Pro 3 will impress – give them a go

Readers know that I have a fondness for Sennheiser and use the $499 Momentum 4 as a reference device.

The JBL Tour Pro 3 exceeds the Sennheiser specs in almost every category and throws in a touch screen case and a more comprehensive app. Looks like these are the new CyberShack reference device.

JBL Tour Pro 3 rating

Another difficult one because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Features: 90 – by far the most fully featured App, case and hardware. We like that the App downloads all changes to the buds.
Value: 90 – At around $100 less than the brand leaders they compete well on music quality and exceed by a more comprehensive app and the touch case.
Performance: 90 – superb music and excellent ANC
Ease of use: 85 – Best Fit, five sets of ear tips and so much more.
Design: 85 – As a whole both the hardware and functionality is well ahead of the pack.