JBL E65BTNC Review – Premium features come at a price

Features

The feature set of the 65s is pretty similar to many of JBL’s recent noise-canceling headphones. They offer active noise canceling in closed-back over-ear cups. They can transmit over Bluetooth 4.1 with or without noise canceling or via an included 3.5-mm cable that allows the headphones to be used passively even if the headphones are completely drained, giving them a nice bit of flexibility that some other headphones don’t offer.

The noise canceling itself isn’t bad, but it’s not great, either. It does cut out a significant amount of background noise, but it’s mostly the low-end stuff. The hum of the background and low chatter. If someone’s playing music or having a loud conversation, that will still leak through. If you’re looking for airplane noise canceling, though, these will get the job done.

The battery does perform pretty close to what JBL promises. If you have Bluetooth and active noise canceling, you’ll get about 15 hours of playback, and my experience is pretty close to that. If you turn off one or the other, that time extends significantly, and they only take a couple hours to charge up to full.

Sound

Comfort aside, how do they do with the other major pillar, sound? Pretty good – conditionally. I listened to them with noise canceling on and off. When turned off, the headphones have a pretty full, warm sound. Turning on ANC, though, gives a feeling akin to listening to music through a cold. You can still hear the music fine, but it’s not as lively. It feels decidedly stuffy. The bass shallows out and the high notes sound like they’re hitting a ceiling and some detail is noticeably lost.

With the noise canceling off, though, the 65s sound pretty good. If I get them placed just right, bass has a nice punch in tracks like Eric B. Rakim’s “Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em,” though again that seal problem meant that was constantly shifting as I wore them. The iconic piano at the beginning of “Still D.R.E.” is crystal clear on these, though the bass isn’t quite up to snuff compared to my Shure SE215 earbuds or ATH-M50x headphones. The trumpet in Miles Davis’ “Blue in Green” sounds clear, though it loses out in some depth compared to headphones with a better seal.

With that said, the sound is far from bad. Listening for problems with sound on these is a matter of extreme nitpicking. These are good-sounding headphones purely in terms of how the music sounds in a good listening environment, as you’d expect from JBL.

If you can try these out in a store before you buy them, I highly recommend it. At $200, they’re good sounding headphones with a pretty nice set of features and nice styling. For noise-canceling headphones, the pricing is competitive, and that shouldn’t be overlooked. But if you’re like me, you’ll find them uncomfortable even compared to other JBL headphones. For me personally, the E65BTNCs are a disappointment just because they’re so danged difficult to wear. If your heart is set on active noise canceling and you can save up a few more bottle caps, go for something a bit pricier. JBL’s own Elite Everest 750NC headphones fit the bill, for example, as to offerings from companies like Bose and others.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/reviews/jbl-e65-btnc-review/