JLab Audio JBuds Air ANC Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The JLab Audio JBuds Air True Wireless are black truly wireless earbuds with ANC. They look almost identical to the JLab Audio JBuds Air Truly Wireless but have a silver accent on their touch buttons as well as their company logo on both ears instead of black.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air True Wireless with ANC are decently comfortable. They don't go that deeply into your ear and are angled to give you a more comfortable fit. However, using the controls can put a bit of pressure on the ear canal and the cush fin can move around when you're putting the earbud on your ear. They come with three pairs of differently-sized silicone ear tips and one pair of foam ear tips.

These headphones have decent controls. There's one button on each earbud but they can be a little confusing. The left bud lowers the volume when tapping the left side of the button, and a double-tap activates voice assistant. Holding this button allows you to turn ANC on/off or use talk-through mode. The right bud raises the volume with a tap on the right side of the button or answers calls. You can press and hold one second to reject calls, double-press to hang up, and double-tap twice to play/pause. You can press and hold for one second to skip tracks forward or press and hold for three seconds to turn them on. You can cycle through EQs by triple-tapping either bud or change modes between movie and music by pressing and holding both earbuds for three seconds.

Unfortunately, there's no feedback when adjusting volume and the touch buttons aren't always responsive. The EQ can also only be changed if audio is playing.

Just like many other truly wireless earbuds, these headphones are outstandingly portable. You can easily put them in most pockets. They also come with a slightly bulky carrying case but it can be put in a bag or a larger pocket.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air with ANC have a decent carrying case. It's made from hard plastic and has a magnet to keep the earbuds in place. It also has a built-in USB charger that stores at the bottom of the case. There are three LED light battery indicators that turn blue when charging as well. However, there's no locking mechanism to keep the case from accidentally opening. It also doesn't support wireless charging.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air True Wireless with ANC have a good build quality. Although they're mostly made out of plastic, they feel solid. They also have an IP55 rating for dust and water protection. However, we don't currently test for this.

These headphones have good stability. While they may fall out of your ears if worn during intense physical activity, they shouldn't fall out if you're jogging or working out. They also come with three differently-sized silicone ear tips as well as a pair of foam tips to help you get a suitable fit.

• JLab Audio JBuds Air earbuds with ANC
• Charging case
• 3x silicone tip sizes
• 1x foam ear tips
• Manuals

These headphones have an excited v-shaped sound profile, which helps to bring out a boomy, sparkling sound. While they don't have a companion app, they offer three different EQs via their physical controls.

The frequency response consistency is outstanding. If you're able to achieve a proper fit and an air-tight seal using the ear tips that come with these earbuds, then you'll get consistent bass and treble delivery every time you use these headphones.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air True Wireless have alright bass accuracy. They're overemphasized across the range, resulting in a thumpy boomy sound. However, some users may find this bass overwhelming and muddy.

These headphones have great mid accuracy. Although there's a slight overemphasis from the bass range, the rest of the response is flat and neutral, resulting in clear and detailed vocals and lead instruments.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air True Wireless have alright treble accuracy. They're overemphasized across the range, resulting in harsh as well as bright vocals and lead instruments. Sibilants like S and T sounds are also piercing.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air True Wireless' peaks and dips performance with ANC is decent. There's a bit of unevenness in the bass range, resulting in a bit less thump and rumble, but more boom. There's also a dip between the low to mid-mid which nudges and slightly thins out vocals and lead instruments. There's a peak in the low-treble and another one in the mid-treble too, so vocals and lead instruments sound harsh and piercing while sibilants are piercing.

The imaging is just passable. The group delay response stays well below the audibility threshold, suggesting a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. The L/R drivers of our test unit are also well-matched in frequency and amplitude. However, the phase response mismatch is extremely high, which affects the placement and localization of objects (voices, instruments, video game effects) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air True Wireless with ANC have a poor passive soundstage. An important part of creating an out-of-head and speaker-like soundstage is activating the outer ear with resonances. However, in-ear earbuds bypass the outer ear altogether and don't interact with it, resulting in a closed soundstage that feels like it's coming from inside your head rather than from out in front of you.

These earbuds don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is great. The entire frequency range falls within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air True Wireless with ANC's results are only valid for these settings. However, we were unable to determine the firmware version. If you own these headphones and know where to find it, let us know in the discussions.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air's noise isolation performance with ANC is satisfactory. Their ANC feature can cut down some bass-range noise but it may not be enough for bus or plane rides. The ANC also performs very similarly to these earbuds' passive noise isolation. Mid-range noise like ambient chatter is reduced while treble-range sounds like the hum of an AC unit are also cut down. If you're looking for in-ears that do a better job of isolating you from sounds like bus or plane engines, try the EarFun Air Pro True Wireless.

The leakage performance is outstanding. Their leakage is concentrated in the treble range, so if you're listening to your audio at max volume, others may hear it. However, it sounds thin.

These headphones have an integrated microphone.

The integrated microphone's recording quality is disappointing. Your voice sounds dark, muffled, and lacking in detail.

Update 03/31/2022: These headphones have been updated to test bench 1.5. In this update, we made changes to the way we test noise handling. We now use a subjective evaluation of our audio clips. This new method has resulted in different results than what we had reported in our previous test bench. As a result, the scoring of this box has changed, and we have updated our results.

The microphone has okay noise handling. The mic has some difficulty separating your voice from moderate background noise. You should be heard clearly if you're speaking in more quiet environments, though.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air's battery performance is decent. With their ANC on, they last over eight hours on a single charge. Their carrying case also offers three additional charges and they charge in just under an hour and a half. They also have an auto-off timer to help conserve battery life.

These headphones don't have any app support. For in-ears with a companion app that lets you customize their sound, check out the JBL CLUB PRO+ TWS True Wireless.

Update 03/31/2022: These headphones were updated to Test Bench 1.5 and their latency values have changed. As a result, we have updated our text to better reflect the new test bench measurements.

These headphones have satisfactory Bluetooth connectivity. They support Bluetooth 5.2 but lack NFC or multi-device pairing, which is a little disappointing. They offer two different latency modes, though. 'Movie Mode' is designed for streaming video, and it provides the better of the two latency results. When using this mode, audio latency is low when connected to your iOS or Android devices. Their latency falls outside of good levels when using this mode on PCs, though, and slight syncing issues may present. The second latency mode is 'Music Mode'. Using this setting, there's 336 ms of latency on PC, 217 ms on iOS, and 122 ms on Android. Unfortunately, these values are quite high on PC and iOS, so your audio and visuals may fall out of sync. That said, some apps compensate for latency differently.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air with ANC are Bluetooth-only earbuds.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air with ANC are truly wireless earbuds and can't be used wired. Their carrying case charges via a built-in USB cable.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air with ANC aren't compatible with the Xbox One.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air True Wireless with ANC have a charging case that offers around three additional charges. It doesn't have any inputs.