JBL Everest Elite 700 Wireless Headphones Review

The JBL Everest 700 have a simple and sleek form factor that's a bit reminiscent of the Beats Studio Wireless. They have thick padding on the ear cups and look somewhat high-end thanks to the subtle accents on the headband and the matte finish. However, because of the thick pads, the ear cups tend to stick out a bit, leaving a gap between your head and the headband that's not always aesthetically pleasing. Overall though, the design looks premium and will stand out in a crowd.

Comfort-wise, these headphones are above-average. They are a bit tight on the head and won't be as comfortable as the more recent JBL E65BTNC. They have sufficiently large ear cups to fit most listeners and they're well padded so even though they're tight, they don't feel too uncomfortable when you put them on. However, after a long listening session, they get a bit fatiguing and the headband doesn't extend far enough to accommodate all head sizes, which is not ideal.

The controls scheme is a bit confusing but provides all the essential functions and the buttons are responsive. You can skip tracks, play/pause audio, and control the volume. They also have an additional button for the optimizer (press and hold) that also doubles as the toggle for different aware modes (quick press). Unfortunately, the button layout is not the best as you may accidentally press some of the controls when putting the headphones on and the control scheme takes a bit of time to get used to.

The JBL Everest Elite 700 will are not the most breathable headphones so they won't be ideal for more intense workouts. They have an over-ear design with fairly thick pads that are not porous like the pads on some gaming headphones such as the Logitech G433. This means they trap a considerable amount of heat which will make your ears sweat during physical activities but should be fine for more casual uses. They will make your ears a bit warm after a long listening session, but it's not out of the ordinary for most closed-back over-ear designs.

Decent portability. The JBL Everest 700 fold into a more compact format that's easier to carry and takes less space in a bag. However, they are relatively big over-ear headphones so even if they fold, they're still a bit cumbersome to carry around on your person since they won't fit in any pockets, except maybe some larger jacket pockets.

They come with a soft case that doesn't protect the headphones against impacts, drops or water exposure but it will prevent them from getting scratched if you carry them in your bag.

The JBL Everest Elite 700 have a good build quality. They creak a bit when unfolding them and putting them on, but the headband has a metal frame that makes it decently sturdy. The ear cups are also dense enough that they won't get damaged if the headphones fall once or twice. However, the hinges are somewhat susceptible weak points, and the plastic coating on the ear cups and headband feels prone to scratches and may even crack if you twist the headband a bit too far.

The JBL Elite 700 are tight enough on the head that they won't easily fall during casual listening sessions. That and their wireless design make them decently stable since they won't be yanked off your head because the audio cable got hooked on something. Unfortunately, the ear cups stick out a bit too much, and they're somewhat heavy, so they sway a lot when running. They won't be the ideal headphones for working out or take to the gym as they will slip off your ears during high-intensity physical activity.

• JBL Everest Elite 700 Headphones
• Carrying case
• Audio cable
• USB cable
• Manual

The JBL Everest Elite 700 has great frequency response consistency. Although these headphones don't have the most ergonomic design, they perform very consistently both in bass and treble ranges, with the maximum deviation in the bass range being about 4dB. This is either due to their TruNote self-calibrating mechanism, or the fact they are using the ANC (active noise-cancelling) system to get feedback about their bass delivery, similar to what is done in the QuietComfort 35 II and the WH-1000XM2.

The JBL Everest 700 has an excellent bass. LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 10Hz, indicating a very deep bass. Additionally, low-bass, mid-bass, and high-bass are basically flat and within 1dB of our target response. This indicates a neutral and well-balanced bass, with enough thump and punch to handle bass-heavy genres like EDM, Hip-hop and film scores. The only remark is the slight mismatch between L/R drivers in low-bass, which won't be audible.

The mid-range of the JBL Everest 700 is great. Low-mid and Mid are within 0.5dB of our target, which is excellent. Ensuring a clear mix and well-balanced vocals and lead instruments. High-mid shows less than 2dB of overemphasis, which is going to make the sound of these headphones very slightly forward, especially on vocals/leads.

The treble is about average. Low-treble is hyped by about 2dB, which is the continuation of the high-mid overemphasis. This is going to add a bit of excess presence to the sound, which will be mostly noticeable on vocals/leads. The dip surrounding 5KHz won't be very audible due to its narrow width. However, it will have a negligible negative impact on detail and articulation. The 10dB bump centering around 10KHz makes these headphones noticeably sibilant, and could sound sharp and piercing to those with hyper sensitive ears on overly bright tracks. Unfortunately, their treble range sound s a lot sharper than the AKG N700NC which have also be tuned by Harman.

The imaging is great. Their weighted group delay is 0.35, which is within good limits. The GD graph also shows that the entire group delay response is below the audibility threshold. This ensures a tight and fast bass, and a transparent treble. Additionally, the L/R drivers of our test unit were well-matched in frequency, amplitude, and phase response. This helps with the accurate placement and localization of objects, (voice, instruments, footsteps), in the stereo image.

The JBL Everest 700 have a lacking soundstage. Their PRTF response doesn't follow our speaker's very accurately, but there's a decent amount of pinna (outer ear) interaction regardless. This suggests a soundstage that is not very small, but is not quite natural and speaker-like either. They also don't have a "10KHz notch", suggesting their soundstage will be perceived to be located inside the listener's head as opposed to in-front.

The JBL Everest 700 have a decent active noise cancellation. They provide about 9dB of isolation in the bass range, which is about average. The bass range is where the low sounds like the rumble of airplane and bus engines located. In the mid-range, important for cancelling out speech, they achieved 19dB of isolation, which is quite good. They also do well in the treble range, which is occupied by sharp sounds like S and Ts, and isolate by more than 34dB.

The leakage performance is good. The significant portion of their leakage sits between 500Hz and 8KHz, which is a relatively broad range. However, the overall level of leakage is quite low, below the noise-floor of most offices, meaning that the sound leaking out of these headphones will be fuller and mid-rangy compared that of an in-ear/earbud, but not loud. So unless you are in a very quiet place and blasting your music, the leakage shouldn't be an issue.

The integrated microphone has a mediocre performance. In quiet environments, speech recorded/transmitted with this mic will sound a bit thin, and quite muffled and lacking detail. But, it would still be decently understandable. In noisy situations, however, the JBL Everest Elite 700 will struggle to separate speech from ambient noise, even in moderately loud environments, like a busy street. Additionally, they could pick up low-frequency noise from the environment, like thumps and rumbles.

The microphone has a below-average recording quality. They are a bit uneven in the bass range and show a lot of sub-bass and mid-bass. This could add noise and thump to the sound. The dip in high-bass makes recorded or transmitted speech a bit thin sounding. The HFE (high-frequency extension) of 2.9KHz results in a speech that lack detail and brightness.

The integrated microphone is mediocre at noise handling. In our SpNR test, they achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of 13dB, indicating that the microphone performs best in quiet environments and may struggle moderate and loud environments.

These headphones have a good battery life and decent charge time but are loaded with power saving features. You can enable the auto-off function via the companion app. They have passive playback, and you can use them while they charge which makes them great office headphones if you don't mind having the USB cable plugged into your PC.

The JBL Headphones Connect is an excellent app that gives you so much control over the active features of the Elite 700. You get a full graphic equalizer, auto-off and noise cancellation control that allows you to set the level of isolation in each ear cup. The app is well designed, and for the sheer number of customization options, it's pretty easy to use. Overall, it's an efficient and well thought-out app that enhances your listening experience. Their app overall feels a lot more useful than that of the AKG N700NC.

They connect wirelessly via Bluetooth. Unfortunately, they can't pair simultaneously with multiple devices like the E45BT or JBL Everest 310. They also do not have NFC support but on the upside, their hold-to-pair procedure is easy to use and has good feedback.

These headphones have about 133ms of latency. It's relatively low for a Bluetooth headphone with no low latency codecs but will still be a bit too much to watch movies and a lot of video content without any sync issues.

The headphones come with an iOS cable that has an in-line remote microphone compatible with the PS4 but not the Xbox One. This gives them a secondary connection option in case you do not want to use Bluetooth to save on battery life or for less latency while watching videos or gaming.

These headphones do not have a base/dock. If you want a versatile headset with a base that you can also use wired check out the SteelSeries Arctis 7.