JBL Tune 510BT  Headphones Review

The JBL Tune 510BT are simple-looking on-ear headphones very similar in design to the JBL Live 400BT Wireless, with an embossed manufacturer logo on their small ear cups and a slim plastic headband. They're available in a couple of different color schemes, including the conservative black colorway of our unit and a similarly conventional white color scheme. They're also available in dark blue or light pink if you're feeling a little more adventurous.

The JBL Tune 510BT have a fairly comfortable fit. They feel very light on your head, have ear cups with a wide range of articulation, and don't clamp your ears especially tightly. Unfortunately, only the middle of the headband is padded, making it fatiguing to wear them for long periods. Their ear cups are shallow, too, even by the standards of other on-ear headphones, which can cause some discomfort if you have large ears.

These on-ears have a decent physical control scheme. All the buttons are found on the right ear cup and are easy to tell apart. The buttons are also clicky, offering good physical feedback. There are audio cues to let you know when you've reached maximum and minimum volumes, as well as chimes for powering on the headphones or pairing them to a device over Bluetooth.

'+' and '-' buttons:

• Single press: Raises and lowers the volume of audio.
• Press and hold: Skips the track forward and backward.

The middle button:

• Single press: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends calls.
• Double press: Activates voice assistant.
• Press and hold: Rejects incoming calls.

These on-ears have a decently breathable design. They don't cover the outer edges of your ears completely, so air can circulate a little bit. They still trap in some heat, and your ears will feel warm if you wear them during workouts.

These on-ears are decently portable. Their ear cups can swivel to lay flat, and they have hinges to fold the ear cups and arms inwards to reduce their footprint, making them easier to store. Unfortunately, they don't come with a carrying case or pouch to protect them when you're on the go.

These headphones have mediocre build quality. They're mostly made of cheap-feeling plastic, though their padding is lined with faux leather. Their ear cup hinges and yokes aren't especially solid, though the hinges offer a wide range of articulation. They may survive an accidental drop or two, but they won't be the most durable long-term.

These headphones aren't very stable. Even low-intensity movements can cause them to loosen their fit and slip off your head, so they aren't the best option if you like to headbang to your favorite tunes.

• JBL Tune 510BT wireless headphones
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Quick Start guide

The JBL 510BT have a slightly V-shaped sound profile. This adds extra kick and boom to your favorite EDM and hip-hop tracks but slightly muddies some vocals and lead instrumentals. Sibilants like cymbals are also bright. Unfortunately, they lack sound customization features, with no in-app graphic EQ or onboard EQ presets. If you want on-ears with an adjustable sound profile, check out the Sony WH-CH520 Wireless and JBL Tune 520BT Wireless.

These on-ears have very good frequency response consistency. They're somewhat sensitive to fit and positioning, and if you wear glasses or have thick hair, these features can cause a gap in their seal against your ear, and you'll notice a drop in bass. However, if you take the time to ensure a good fit, you'll experience more consistent bass and treble delivery.

These on-ears offer decent bass accuracy. It's mostly overemphasized across the range, adding extra thump and kick to EDM and hip-hop tracks to songs like Starboy by The Weeknd. However, the extra bass is overwhelming and muddies the rest of the mix.

These headphones have excellent mid accuracy. The response is fairly flat, although a little bass-tilted. The over-emphasized high-bass range carries over into the low-mid, slightly cluttering vocals and lead instrumentals. Thankfully, the flat, even mid-mid range ensures that vocals and lead instruments are still present within the mix. A slight dip in the high-mid slightly weakens them, though.

They have very good treble accuracy. The response is slightly overemphasized, with slight bumps in the low-treble range, which helps bring out the details of vocals and instruments. However, sibilants like S and T sounds are slightly harsh and piercing.

These on-ears have a decent peaks and dips performance. A bump in the low through mid-bass range results in an extra thump and kick. A small dip in the low-mid thins out vocals and lead instrumentals, while another broader drop in the high-mid through the early low-treble range weakens them. The following rise in the low-treble range makes the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments slightly harsh, and another peak in the mid-treble range makes sibilants, like S and T sounds, piercing and painful.

JBL offers a wide array of headphones. While most of their products have solid imaging, others have large driver mismatch, which isn't great, especially as imaging indicates quality control and ergonomics. That said, imaging can vary across units. Our unit's L/R driver is well-matched regarding group delay, ensuring tight bass and transparent treble. Our unit's drivers are also well-matched in amplitude, which helps balance the stereo image. However, there's some mismatch in frequency, which skews the stereo image. There's also high phase response mismatch. However, it won't be audible with real-life content.

Their passive soundstage performance is poor. It isn't spacious or natural, and sound is likely to be perceived as coming from inside the listener's head rather than speakers placed around them. However, it's noticeably more open than other closed-back over-ear headphones like the JBL Live 500BT Wireless.

These on-ears have decent weighted harmonic distortion performance. Aside from some distortion at moderate listening volumes in the bass range, which is hard to notice with real-world content, audio reproduction is fairly clean and pure.

These are the settings used to test the JBL Tune 510BT. Our results are only valid in this configuration.

These on-ears have bad noise isolation performance, but that's normal from their design. They don't block out any of the low rumbles of bus engines and barely make a dent in ambient chatter. They can reduce some high-pitched noise like the hum of an AC unit, though.

These headphones have acceptable leakage performance. Leakage is concentrated between the mid to treble range, so escaping audio sounds somewhat thin. If you're listening to audio at high volumes and are in a noisy environment like a busy office, people are likely to hear parts of your audio.

The integrated mic delivers decent performance. Recorded speech sounds reasonably clear and quite natural but lacking in body.

The integrated mic offers mediocre noise handling performance. People on the other end of the line can struggle to understand you if you call from a noisy or crowded environment, like a subway car or a sports stadium.

The JBL Tune 510BT offer satisfactory overall battery performance. They manufacturer advertises them to last 40 hours continuously, and we measured a nearly similar amount. However, keep in mind that battery life can vary depending on use. These on-ears have a quick charge feature, so five minutes of charging can supply two hours of playtime. Unfortunately, they don't have any power-saving features, like an auto-off timer or a standby mode, to help conserve the charge when not in use. If you want a longer battery life and the auto-off feature, check out the JBL Tune 520BT Wireless.

These headphones have great Bluetooth connectivity. They support Bluetooth 5.0 and multi-device pairing, allowing you to listen to content from your phone or computer without going through the re-pairing process. However, incoming phone calls take priority over any other system's audio. Unfortunately, their latency on PCs, mobile iOS, and Android devices is somewhat high, which can be disruptive if you use them to stream video content. That said, apps and devices compensate to varying degrees for latency.

These on-ears only come with a USB-C to USB-A cable for charging purposes.

You can connect these on-ears to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic compatibility. However, they don't support any wired connections.