Buying good wireless headphones today is not a problem - the choice is quite large, in any size and color. The struggle for sound quality between manufacturers is no longer so fierce: improving what is good is not so easy, especially since not every music lover will feel the difference.
How then to surprise users in new models? For example, unusual features that make using headphones more comfortable. It is they who are of interest in the new JBL LIVE line. In this review, we will talk about two interesting models at once: the full-size JBL LIVE650VTNC and the overhead JBL LIVE400VT.
Plastic puffball
We quickly and briefly meet the clothing device. JBL Live 300 are packaged in a hefty case for storage and charging by the standards of TWS headphones. You can’t put it in your jeans pocket for a condom. In the front pocket is also not an option - they stick out noticeably. So you will have to store the gadget either in a bag or in a baggy windbreaker. Quite so, with such and such a summer...
The case is made of the most ordinary plastic. On the back side, the seams and gaps do not look very neat. However, everything fits together perfectly inside. There is even a characteristic and pleasant click when closing the lid.
Bottom USB-C port. You insert the cable (included in the kit), the border around it begins to flash white and red until the case is charged.
Description
The minimalistic design of the Live 400BT headphones does not make it any less attractive for creating any look, both business and sports.
Durable, high-quality materials are used in the exterior decoration. The headband of the Live 400BT wireless headphones is covered with thick fabric. Its interior has a soft lining along its entire length.
The outer part of the bowls is made of impact-resistant polystyrene with a matte surface, on which the JBL logo stands out in a glossy sheen. The ear pads are made of durable elastic eco-leather.
Live 400BT model with folding design. Thanks to 3D hinges, the bowls can be rotated around an axis and placed inside the headband, which reduces their size and makes them convenient to carry.
The versatility of the Live 400BT headphones is reflected in the abundance of control buttons. So on the left cup along the rim there is a microUSB charging port and a charging indicator, and on the outside there is an Acton touch button for calling the voice assistant.
On the right side of the Jbl there is a 2.5 mm jack for connecting an Aux cable, a hole for a microphone, and 3 button pads:
- with Power slider button, LED indicator;
- with three buttons for controlling music, telephone conversations and calling the Alice voice assistant;
- with a Bluetooth key for smooth transition between two connected devices and a button that turns on the Ambient Aware and TalkThru functions.
Houston, we have no problem!
Connecting headphones to Android devices is extremely simple. I opened the cover of the case, a connection banner popped up on the smartphone - in general, that’s all. And yes, it's worth downloading the My JBL Headphones app in advance.
If something goes wrong, and this happened to me after updating firmware 3.3.0, you can force the “ears” into pairing mode by double-clicking on one single button inside the case.
With the iPhone it’s pretty much the same, but there won’t be any animation at the top edge of the screen. We just go into the Bluetooth settings and connect there manually, and then go to the My JBL Headphones application. It's simple.
By the way! On iOS, in the proprietary utility you can select one of two voice assistants: Google Assistant or Alexa. Siri is not available, although it is listed in the official specifications. This is strange.
The headphones hold the connection perfectly: I walked around the apartment with the connected device - no problems. Thanks to the fifth blue tooth. And if Bluetooth 5.0 is also in the phone, that’s absolutely good. I had.
Design
JBL Live 660NC are classic wireless over-ear headphones with active noise cancellation.
Additional design features include a rotating hinge on which the cups are attached, allowing them to be folded inside the headband for convenient carrying in a bag or backpack.
The bowls and headband are made of high-quality plastic, making the JBL Live 660NC very light and almost weightless on the head.
Let's look at each design element separately.
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Headband
The headband is classic, thin, light, the basis of the design is elastic plastic.
The adjustment of the headband extension is wide, which is rare; for my large head there is even more of it, but at least half of the headphones that I test and listen to are small for me precisely in this parameter. Just for taking care of users with large heads, JBL should give an additional point to the evaluation of the headphones. It’s so simple to make the headband extend just 0.5–1 cm more than usual, and JBL did this, unlike many famous manufacturers whose headphones cost well over $500. We live in an amazing world. In the JBL Live 660NC, the designers decided to borrow the technology of braiding the device with a special weave, which has long been developed on JBL wireless speakers. The upper part of the headband is covered with the same woven material that covers the speakers. This is a great idea, because it makes the headphones look stylish, interesting, and noticeably contrasts with their competitors, while unlike ordinary fabric, the coating easily withstands repeated washing in running water without the slightest consequences such as shrinkage or fading. In other words, even though the headband is covered with fabric, it can be washed as many times as you want without fear, and this is another coup from JBL engineers and designers.
The lower part of the headband is also covered with fabric, but a different one, softer, with a small lining of damping material so that the headphones do not put pressure on the top of the head, but rest gently.
The expansion of the headband is gently but firmly fixed in steps, it is easy to adjust and put on the head without changing the settings, another noticeable plus to the design.
Due to the JBL Live 660NC's active noise canceling system, the ear pads need to fit snugly against your head to achieve maximum passive noise isolation. Therefore, be prepared for the fact that the headband is quite elastic, and when you are unaccustomed to wearing the headphones, it will seem to you that it is noticeably pressing on your head with the ear pads. In fact, even though the pressing force is above average, the successful design of the ear pads makes it possible to neutralize this effect and after 10 minutes the pressure becomes almost unnoticeable. In return, you get effective suppression of external noise, allowing you to enjoy your favorite music.
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Bowls
The bowls are entirely made of high-quality plastic, and they consist of two parts, articulated with a small swivel joint, which allows you to conveniently and securely put the JBL Live 660NC on any head.
The bowls are attached to the headband with another rotating mechanism, which allows you to fold the bowls inside the headband, or rotate them around the mounting axis by 90 degrees.
All the control buttons are located on the right cup; they are not touch-sensitive, but regular mechanical ones, which makes me very happy. It’s easy to remember their location, easy to feel with your hand, give the command you need and get the expected result. This is more difficult to achieve with a sensor.
Also on the right earcup is a jack for connecting an audio cable, so you can listen to music in the rare case when the battery is completely drained. Be careful, the jack that connects to the headphones is proprietary, do not lose the included cable. Jack for connecting to the source is a regular 3.5 mm.
On the left side there is a USB-C socket for connecting a charger.
The outer decorative panels of the bowls, on which the JBL name is printed, are not buttons, nor are they sensors, which we have long been accustomed to. And this is a plus, because you often accidentally touch the external panels with your hand when you put on or take off the headphones from your head, but this will not happen with the JBL Live 660NC.
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Ear pads
The ear pads of the JBL Live 660NC are deep, soft and thick, as befits over-ear headphones with a noise-canceling system.
Outwardly, they do not look too big, but even my male ears easily fit into their internal space. Even the earlobe hardly touched the ear pads, which makes them very comfortable when listening to music for a long time.
The ear pads are made of soft artificial leather, pleasant to the touch.
The manufacturer does not indicate the filling material of the ear pads; it is elastic, but after being crushed it expands tightly, with a delay, which indicates that the inside is not ordinary foam rubber. Either there is memory foam or some other material similar to it.
I also noticed that after 5-7 minutes of listening, the ear pads heat up and finally sit on the head, due to which maximum comfort is achieved. Foam rubber usually does not behave this way.
I already wrote above that the force of pressing the cups to the head is higher than usual, and the large ear pads effectively compensate for the pressure, gently but firmly adhering to the head. Be prepared for this, and know that this is not an oversight by the engineers, it was done intentionally for your comfort.
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Wireless connection
JBL Live 660NC is based on Bluetooth 5.0 module, SBC and AAC codecs are supported.
Do not rush to get upset, indeed, it is usually difficult to expect high sound quality when using SBC, but let’s not forget that this particular codec is the most flexible in terms of settings by the manufacturer, and in the case of the JBL Live 660NC, I believe it was used to the maximum effective. We can say that the JBL Live 660NC sound the most impressive when compared with headphones from other manufacturers for the same money that also use the SBC codec.
Moreover, if you install the proprietary JBL Headphones application on your smartphone, you will see a special headphone connection setting that allows you to choose one of three connection methods:
- Normal – should be used to achieve the greatest stability; it makes sense to use it when there are a lot of other wireless devices around you that use the Bluetooth protocol. For example, in the gym during rush hour;
- Audio mode – used by default, provides the best quality music playback;
- Video Mode – If you want to watch a movie, or a long YouTube video, or play a game, you should switch to this mode to achieve minimal audio latency.
You may have a question: why use a special mode for watching videos, is it really necessary?
All wireless headphones that work via Bluetooth have a delay in audio playback. This is due to the fact that before sending the signal from the source to the headphones, it is encoded by a special codec program to compress the transmitted data, and the reverse decoding operation occurs in the headphones themselves. This takes some time, in some headphone models up to 100 ms.
When listening to music, this is not important, because there is nothing to compare it with, you just hear the sound. But when you watch a video, the delay becomes noticeable. For example, on the screen a person is saying something, his mouth and lips are moving, and the sound of his speech is delayed by about one-third of a second, which has a very unpleasant effect. This is the same delay.
Engineers know about this and are looking for solutions; there are special codecs that provide minimal signal processing time so that, although the delay remains, it is no longer noticeable by humans.
JBL engineers took a different path; they did not reinvent the wheel, but using the standard SBC codec through its configuration, they achieved an operating mode in which the delay becomes almost imperceptible. And it really works.
Even in audio mode, when watching video, I felt almost no delay. Of course, it exists, and if you carefully and purposefully monitor it, it becomes noticeable. But if you switch to video mode, it decreases and almost completely disappears.
This setting will be even more useful for those who play a lot of active games on their phone, for example, Call Of Duty or PUBG. In games, lag is extremely annoying, and not only that, it can cause a loss, which is completely frustrating for the player.
And if you select the video mode, the delay in games also almost completely disappears, you can play quietly and have fun, it will not have a negative impact.
As for the stability of signal transmission, at home I was able to move 18 meters away from the source, while two false walls and furniture acted as an obstacle; there was no interference during signal transmission, nor any interruptions. The signal stability is good, there shouldn't be any problems.
The JBL Live 660NC also uses Multi-point technology, which allows you to simultaneously connect to two sound sources. For example, this could be a laptop and a smartphone.
However, please note that you will not be able to hear sound from both sources at the same time. If you listen to music from your phone, audio from your laptop will not play. You need to turn off the music and start playing it on the laptop, after a second the headphones will automatically switch to it, and vice versa.
Also remember that after turning off the headphones and turning them on again, they will automatically be connected to the device from which the sound was last played.
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Drivers
JBL does not emphasize the technologies used in the production of drivers, indicating only a diaphragm diameter of 40 mm.
From this we can conclude that dynamic emitters of a classical design with neodymium magnets are used. The only nuance that may indirectly indicate a special modification of the driver is sound reproduction at 16 Hz, which differs from other JBL headphone models within the Live line.
But don't worry, the JBL Live 660NC sound good, which means you don't need to worry about the driver design.
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Microphone
Both bowls of the JBL Live 660NC have microphones, some are designed for talking on the phone, others are used for the active noise reduction system.
I made several test phone calls, all interlocutors noted that they could hear my voice well, cleanly and clearly, although it was noticeable that I was talking without using the phone.
In general, I can rate the quality of voice transmission as “good”. The JBL Live 660NC microphone did not receive an "Excellent" rating because it becomes difficult to talk in a noisy environment, although it is possible with a raised voice.
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How noise reduction works (passive)
JBL always has its own vision of popular technologies. There is no active noise cancellation, only passive noise reduction due to the closed design. There are also two additional “transparency” scenarios. A certain Ambient Aware involves the penetration of all surrounding noise into the ear at once: street, cars, signals, etc. The second mode is TalkThru. He focuses the microphones on the voices around him.
On the left earphone you can select either the first or second mode. The only question is what you will switch to. In my opinion, TalkThru is a useless option. Through Ambient Awar you can hear everything perfectly, you can talk with your interlocutor without removing your headphones. No more is needed.
Huawei FreeBuds 3i and JBL Live 300 TWS
In general, the noise reduction here is weak - there is a lack of active technology, when external microphones pick up and force silence into the ear. In this regard, the ears are inferior to classmates like Huawei FreeBuds 3i.
Equipment
The JBL Live 400BT comes standard with:
- Packing box - 1 pc.
- Bluetooth headphones JBL Live 400BT – 1 pc.
- USB Type-A/microUSB charging cable - 1 pc.
- Aux cable 1.3 m long with jack 2.5 mm and jack 3.5 mm plugs, as well as a remote control with a built-in microphone - 1 pc.
- Brief user instructions - 1 pc.
- Warranty card - 1 pc.
The Live 400BT package does not include a protective case for storing and carrying the gadget, so to prevent contamination of the non-removable fabric headband, you should purchase it yourself.
Touch control
On the one hand, sensors are cool. Every conceivable and not so imaginable gesture is present. There is even volume control, which is a terrible rarity in the TWS crowd.
On the other hand, you constantly get confused in gestures. I wanted to turn it up, but I paused it. On the go, you won’t be able to make the necessary swipe sloppily. You need to touch carefully, clearly, confidently. It takes skill and getting used to. And perhaps this is a minus.
In any case, the left channel has its own gestures, the right channel has its own. In the My JBL Headphones application, you can reassign some of them to your own, although everything is already well organized.
Landing
From an anatomical point of view, the headphones fit very correctly, the silicone tip looks directly into the ear canal, and the spacer secures the cup gently but securely. In general, this rarely happens when you don’t want to correct or touch anything while listening. I sat with the headphones for about an hour and a half - yes, they are not as comfortable as the Bose NCH 700, but there is nothing to criticize. For a miniature model everything is fine. Please note that you can change both the regular nozzles and the “seal”; the kit comes in different sizes.
Please note: in the photo above, the girl is wearing the headphones incorrectly - the top tip should go inside and rest against the auricle.
Sound quality
There's nothing to worry about. The sound is clean, pleasant, all frequencies are in place and without kinks in the lows or highs. If you need thumping headphones, then these are clearly not the JBL Live 300 TWS. They are configured in a balanced manner, and therefore are suitable for most users and a wide variety of genres.
Overall, I think the point about sound quality is unnecessary. Yes, at one time not all manufacturers were able to create high-quality products in this regard, but now, in 2022, everyone can do this. Especially JBL, which has been around with sound for a very long time.
