JBL Endurance Peak True Wireless  Headphones Review

The JBL Endurance Peak have a very sporty and well-built look, with dense, rubberized earbuds and thick ear hooks. They have a magnetic base behind each earbud that the ear-hooks snap onto, allowing you to easily clip the headphones on a bag or keychain. They have a flashy design and, like the JBL Endurance Sprint Truly Wireless, are available in red, blue, or black.

The JBL Endurance Peak True Wireless are decently comfortable. The ear hooks are fairly malleable and fit well behind your ears, but it can take a couple of tries to get the twist-to-lock wearing style right. They come with three different tip sizes and are comfortable enough for sports and most casual uses, but won’t be ideal for longer listening sessions. However, the in-ear fit may not be as comfortable for everyone and some may feel ear fatigue after a while.

Their control scheme is identical to that of the JBL Endurance Sprint Wireless. The right earbud manages all call and music controls through touch gestures. Swiping up and down controls the volume and you can take or end calls, pause, skip, or rewind tracks by tapping the touch-sensitive surface. Unfortunately, this surface is rather small and feels overly sensitive – it can be difficult for commands to register accurately, and sometimes commands will activate by simply repositioning the earbuds, which is annoying. On the bright side, they turn on/off automatically when putting them on or taking them off, which is convenient.

These headphones have excellent breathability. Like most in-ears, they don't cover the outer ear, which remains relatively cool when exercising and working out. They do cover a bit more surface area than typical in-ears due to their bulkier ear-hook design, but it's a negligible difference and they shouldn't make you sweat like on-ears or over-ears do.

The Endurance Peak are very easy to carry around on your person. Even though they have ear hooks that are quite large in comparison to other models like the Anker SoundBuds Curve, the Peak are quite compact and should still easily fit into most pockets and bags. They also have a clip mechanism that makes them easy to attach to a bag or keychain.

The JBL Endurance Peak have a good hard charging case, though it's a bit larger than the case for most truly wireless in-ears. It seems sturdy enough to protect the headphones from accidental damage, but it doesn’t lock, so it may pop open upon impact. It also doesn’t have the same rubberized finish as the earbuds and feels plasticky when compared to the headphones.

The Endurance Peak feel well-built and durable. They're made from a dense, rubberized plastic build that feels solid and relatively durable. Like the JBL Endurance Sprint Wireless, they have an IPX7 rating for sweat and water resistance, though we don't test for this.

These headphones have a very stable fit thanks to their large ear hooks that twist and 'lock' into place. However, there’s a bit of a learning curve, and if you don’t get the twist-to-lock procedure exactly right, the earbuds may pop out of your ears. They also come with 'Stability Enhancers' that help them fit snug and stable in the ear. Once you get a good fit they're stable enough for working out and running, especially since their truly wireless design means they have no cables that can get snagged or tugged.

• JBL Endurance Peak headphones
• 3 Earbud tips
• Stability Enhancer
• USB charging cable
• Charging case
• Manual

The sound profile of these headphones is very well-balanced. While they have a bit of extra thump and kick, it isn't overpowering, and they're well-suited for a very wide range of genres and content, from hip-hop to audiobooks.

The frequency response consistency of the JBL Endurance Peak is excellent. Once you get a proper fit and seal using the different tips provided, you should be able to get consistent bass and treble delivery every time you use these headphones.

These headphones have good bass accuracy. The entire range is quite flat, though it's slightly over-emphasized. This results in a punchy bass with a bit of extra thump that feels warm without sounding boomy or muddy.

The mid accuracy of these headphones is remarkable. The response throughout the range is quite even and follows our target very closely. This results in accurate and near-perfectly-balanced vocals and leads.

The JBL Endurance Peak True Wireless' treble accuracy is excellent. The response is quite even throughout the low and mid-treble ranges and is overall well-balanced. Low-treble is very even and accurate, ensuring that vocals and instruments are articulate, present, and detailed. High-treble is quite recessed, which may cause some sounds to appear lifeless and dull.

These headphones have excellent peaks and dips performance. Most of the frequencies are flat and well-balanced with minor peaks or dips that shouldn't be too noticeable to most people. While the large dip in high-treble may reduce the airness of their sound, they still produce a good amount of brightness and detail overall.

The Endurance Peak have excellent imaging. The weighted group delay is very good and the GD graph shows that the group delay response never crosses the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble. Additionally, both the left and right drivers of our test unit are very well-matched in amplitude, frequency, and phase response, which is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects (voices, instruments, video game effects) in the stereo image. It's worth noting that these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

The soundstage of these headphones is very poor. Creating a large and speaker-like soundstage is dependent on having a speaker-like activation of the outer ear. Because in-ear headphones bypass the pinna (the outer ear) and don't interact with it, their soundstage is perceived to be small and located inside the listener's head. The JBL Endurance Peak also have a closed-back design, which means that their soundstage doesn't feel as open as that of open-back earbuds like the Apple AirPods (1st generation) Truly Wireless, Google Pixel Buds, or the Bose SoundSport Free.

These headphones don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The weighted harmonic distortion of these headphones is excellent. Even at higher volumes, you should notice clean and pure sound reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones, therefore, our results are only valid at these settings.

The JBL Endurance Peak do a good job at isolating noise. While they don't have an active noise cancelling (ANC) feature, their in-ear fit helps physically block out background noise. While they won't help too much with the low rumble of bus or plane engines, they do an excellent job at blocking out background chatter. For similar headphones with better noise isolation, check out the JBL Endurance Peak II True Wireless.

The leakage performance of these headphones is excellent. Their leakage sounds very thin and the overall level of the leakage isn't very loud. Even at higher volumes, you likely won't bother those close to you.

These headphones have an integrated microphone in the earbuds.

Like most Bluetooth truly wireless in-ears, the JBL Endurance Peak's microphone has poor recording quality. Speech recorded or transmitted with this mic sounds thin, lacking in detail and noticeably muffled. On the upside, the gain is very high, so the mic will pick up your voice well even when you speak very quietly.

Update 12/16/2021: 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 noise handling of the microphone is satisfactory. While your voice is easy to hear in quiet situations, it gets completely lost in noisy environments. If you're taking an important call, it's best to speak in a quieter environment to ensure your voice is heard clearly.

The JBL Endurance Peak have mediocre overall battery performance. Although the battery only lasts for about 4 hours, there's an auto-off timer that switches off the earbuds after a short period of inactivity to help conserve battery, as well as turns them off automatically when you remove them from your ear, which is convenient. According to JBL, the Endurance Peak also have a quick charge mode that gives an hour of playback for 10 minutes of recharging, though we don't test this.

These headphones don't have a dedicated companion app.

The JBL Endurance Peak don't support multi-device or NFC pairing. Their latency is quite high, though it's worth noting that some devices and apps appear to offer some sort of compensation though, so your mileage may vary in real-life usage. They also have one of the highest line of sight ranges we've measured to date, though again, this will vary greatly in real-life usage.

These headphones are Bluetooth-only.

The JBL Endurance Peak are Bluetooth-only headphones that can't be used wired. If you want a pair of wired headphones with a well-balanced sound profile, check out the 1More Triple Driver In-Ear.

These headphones are Bluetooth-only and aren't compatible with Xbox One.

The JBL Endurance Peak come with a charging case that charges over micro-USB but has no additional inputs.