The JBL Tour One M2 hold their ground well and make for a great pair of headphones in their own right. They sound well out of the box, have great build quality and fit, and are decked out in terms of features as well. They were the best pair of headphones launched this year and make for a great purchase at ₹19,999 or below, in case their price drops during sales. The sound of these headphones leans on the warmer side, out of the box, but can be tweaked using the app, and the comfort and features that these provide, are some things that make these an instant recommendation from me under the 20K price bracket.
However, if anything from these headphones is not to your liking, then you can go for either the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless or the Sony WF-1000XM5. Both these headphones are priced above the JBL Tour One M2, but are worth the extra penny you would spend on them. With the Momentum 4 Wireless, you get better battery life, with slightly weaker ANC in my opinion, and with the 1000XM5, you get one of the best ANC headphones in the market right now, well-rounded with features and a great sound signature.
JBL has been in the audio business for some time now. The brand has its entries across budget ranges when it comes to consumer audio, especially in-ear/on-ear/over-the-ear headphones. The latest in the high-end segment of over-ear headphones was the JBL Tour One M2. The headphones showed up at the Digit Test Centre as a part of JBL’s entries in the Digit Zero1 and Best Buy Awards 2023.
Given that it was this time of the year, I compared these headphones against all the other contenders that had shown up at the Test Centre, not only as a part of Zero1, but also before that. And, the fact that these headphones outclassed every other pair of headphones that competed in the Zero1 Awards, speaks volumes of the kind of headphones these are. At ₹19,999, you get a pair of headphones that brings the fight to the stalwarts of the space, like Sony and Bose, with a lot of credible features, performance, and overall user comfort as well. The winner of the Digit Zero and Best Buy Award in the Best Performing Wireless Headphones Category in 2023, JBL Tour One M2, impressed us all at the Digit Test Centre. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the detailed review of the JBL Tour One M2 –
The JBL Tour One M2 impress from the get go. Right from the unboxing experience to the hard carrying case included in the box, to the build of the headphones itself, there is not much to complain about. You get a fabric finish on the carrying case on the outside, with the inside covered in a suede-like, soft-touch material. The headphones sit in the case comfortably, and do not move around much. You will not have any complaints whatsoever about how safe these headphones would be inside the case.
Coming to the headphones themselves, you get a full plastic build on the cans and the headband, with the headband having a metallic inlay as a part of the adjustment mechanism. The earcups/cans have a matte finish to them, which continues on to the headband. Much to my surprise, this part of the headphones is quite prone to scratching, so be mindful of where you are keeping these headphones. At the junction of the cans and the headband, you get a glossy finish, which also appears on the headband, where the cushion meets the rest of the band. The controls are solid, and mic grills have also been colour-matched to the rest of the headphones. The branding on these headphones is also subtle and does not draw attention.
The build quality of the headphones is also solid, and despite the earlier mention of the fact that the earcups are prone to scratching, the overall build quality of the JBL Tour One M2 is solid and leaves almost nothing to complain about. The overall design as well is fairly muted, making these headphones suitable for use across a variety of scenarios. Whether you are out in public or in an office, you will not have much attention drawn to you, apart from the folks who are fans of gadgets that carry a minimalist aesthetic.
If there were one pair of headphones which I would recommend to anyone with my eyes closed, the JBL Tour One M2 would be it. And, that too, because of the features that compliment the package of performance and build quality that these headphones are. You will not have much to complain about in terms of the feature set of these headphones. First off is the adaptive ANC.
This feature has become increasingly popular in high-end headphones, both in-ears and on-ear headphones. Brands like Sony, Jabra, and the likes have been working hard on to ensure that they are the first to perfect the technology. Even Apple is the run, with their AirPods line of headphones. With the JBL Tour One M2, you get a good taste of what this technology would be like in its final form. Granted, there are a couple of scenarios where the ANC switching is not the best. However, what you get with these headphones in terms of Adaptive Noise Cancelling, is great.
The change that I could notice between walking into office and back out again into a noisy environment, and the way these headphones adapted to the noise in the office as well was something that really impressed me. As I mentioned earlier, there were a couple of scenarios where these headphones did not perform as expected. For example, if there is a sudden spike in noise activity around you, then the ANC adjustment feels very odd. It is as if the headphones were unsure of what to do when the noise set in for a brief period. The Ambient Sound feature, which works similarly, worked wonderfully though.
This is something that JBL can possibly fix via an OTA update, so I am not that worried about it.
The JBL Tour One M2 also comes with Spatial Sound baked into the headphones, which makes the experience of listening to stereo-mastered tracks more immersive. When listening to tracks on Spotify, I did notice the difference between the experience, switching between vanilla stereo to Spatial audio. Additionally, you get Personi-fi 2.0, which is a software-level tweak that adjusts the sound of these headphones to match your physiological makeup. When I listened to tracks after completing the test, there was a noticeable difference. However, personally, I prefer the sound of these headphones out of the box. It hits the right notes for me.
For additional customisation, you also get in-app EQ on these headphones, which makes tuning the audio to your liking an even better experience than what you already have. The app also has a host of other customisation options which you can explore and make the headphones your own even more. The app is called the JBL Headphones App, and even in terms of the UI it is really appealing, un-intimidating for first-time users and easy to explore. It works well both on Android and iOS devices, so you won’t have much to worry about here.
The two major gripes that I had with these headphones is their lack of the more widely accepted high-resolution CODECs like LDAC or aptX and no IP rating. JBL has added in support for LC3 and LC3+ CODECs, which I believe would be a better fit in headphones that are released later this year or early next year, when the industry has accepted them. And as for an IP rating, there are more expensive headphones that lack it as well, like the Sony WH-1000XM5. However, there are headphones cheaper than these that have an IP rating. So, for my occasional encounters with sudden showers of rain, or for use in the gym, it would be ideal that these headphones pack a basic IP certification. Splash resistance would be enough.
Moving on, to the performance of these headphones.
If you have read my article about the winners of the Digit Zero1 and Best Buy Awards 2023, then you would know how the JBL Tour One M2 performed in our tests. As you can see in the graph below, the sound profile of these headphones out of the box, in the typical JBL fashion, is on the warmer side, with a subtle boost to the lows. However, unlike other JBL headphones, where the bass tends to eat into the mids and the highs, sounding muddy, in the Tour One M2, it has been managed fairly well.
These headphones sport a nice V-shaped sound signature, with the highs being boosted and managed well to balance out the lows, and the mids come close to our reference flat sound signature recorded using pink noise. This meant that the headphones were suitable for most genres of music and would provide a great listening experience out of the box. In our test suite, we have tracks like Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars, Rescue Me by OneRepublic, and Skyfall by Adele, and I could barely find points to complain about when listening to those tracks.
The latency when consuming content or playing games was minimal as well. So, no complaints there. Be it dialogues in movies or the thump of the bullets in games, all the sounds were reproduced well by these headphones. At ₹19,999, these headphones close in on the territory where a lot of audiophiles would also have an eye out for a pair of headphones they would daily-drive, ideally with a flatter sound than that of the Tour One M2. However, I am comfortable with recommending these headphones to audiophiles and purists who prefer a flat sound signature. The reason is that the drivers of these headphones are tuned well, and you can also change the sound signature of these headphones as you like using the app. So, if someone prefers a flatter sound signature, then they can easily get it by changing the software level settings, and the hardware will keep up with the changes. I tried it out myself and it did work well. With some tweaking, you can get a flat sound from these headphones if you are someone who likes it that way.
As of the microphone, I had no problems taking calls in the office, or outside in a noisy environment. In some cases where there was a whole lot of noise, then it crept in and the receiver had problems comprehending what I was saying for brief moments. However, that should not be an issue, because that happened very rarely, and I had to put myself in extremely specific scenarios to be able to replicate those results. For day to day use, these headphones do the job well.
The ANC on these headphones also matches up to what one would expect when shelling out ₹19,999 on a pair of headphones. The isolation provided by the headphones adds to the overall effectiveness of the ANC on these headphones. In some notably noisy environments, there were a few instances of background noise filtering through. However, overall, the headphones performed admirably. Their active noise cancellation (ANC) proved superior to all other headphones tested this year at the Center, effectively eliminating nearly all ambient noise, with only occasional instances of sudden, sharp noises managing to seep through.
JBL claims that these headphones can last 30 hours with ANC turned on. And, with ANC off, the number goes up to 50 hours. In my testing, I found these headphones to clock in 28 hours with volume set to 50 per cent and ANC turned on. Not bad at all. However, we have seen headphones like the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless packing a battery that lasts well over 50 hours. So, if you are someone who is looking for that extra bit of battery life, you might want to look away from the JBL Tour One M2.
However, if you are fine with the 28 hour battery, then you can definitely get these headphones. You also get a claimed 5 hours of playback after only 10 minutes of charging time, so that is a bonus. And these headphones support both wired and wireless playback. So, in crunch moments, AUX to the rescue!
The JBL Tour One M2 hold their ground well and make for a great pair of headphones in their own right. They sound well out of the box, have great build quality and fit, and are decked out in terms of features as well. They were the best pair of headphones launched this year, and make for a great purchase at ₹19,999 or below, in case their price drops during sales. The sound of these headphones leans on the warmer side, out of the box, but can be tweaked using the app, and the comfort and features that these provide, are some things that make these an instant recommendation from me under the 20K price bracket.
However, if anything from these headphones is not to your liking, then you can go for either the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless or the Sony WH-1000XM5. Both these headphones are priced above the JBL Tour One M2, but are worth the extra penny you would spend on them. With the Momentum 4 Wireless, you get better battery life, with slightly weaker ANC in my opinion, and with the 1000XM5, you get one of the best ANC headphones in the market right now, well-rounded with features and a great sound signature.
