JBL JR300BT Wireless Headphones Review

The JBL JR300BT are brightly-colored headphones designed for young children. They're quite small and come with an assortment of stickers to allow kids to personalize them to their hearts' content. They're available in three eye-catching color schemes: the blue-and-orange of our test unit, a teal-and-purple variant, and an all-pink model.

These headphones are decently comfortable. They're lightweight and barely clamp the head, so they shouldn't place too much pressure on the wearer's ears. That said, the padding around the cups isn't especially plush, so users may experience some fatigue during longer listening sessions.

These headphones have a very basic physical control scheme. There are only two buttons. One is a power on/off button that's also used to play and pause media as well as answer and end calls. The other only serves as a Bluetooth pairing button. Turning them on or off and pairing them with another device comes with an audible chime. Overall, this is a no-frills control scheme that children should have no trouble understanding.

These headphones are decently portable. While the headband doesn't fold, the ear cups swivel inwards to shrink their overall footprint.

These on-ears don't come with a case or pouch.

The JBL 300BT have a mediocre build quality. Except for the faux leather-lined padding, they're made entirely from cheap-feeling plastic that could break if they're dropped a few too many times. If you're looking for kids headphones that feel better-built, check out the Puro JuniorJams Wireless.

These headphones are fairly stable. Since they don't clamp the head especially tightly, they may fly off with vigorous movements. However, thanks to their wireless design, there's no chance of having an audio cable snag on something and yanking them from the listener's ears.

• JBL JR300BT wireless headphones
• Micro-USB charging cable
• Stickers
• Manual

The JBL 300BT have a somewhat balanced sound profile. While they have slightly uneven treble and a bass response that's a little on the boomy side, making some mixes sound a little muddy, they should be well-suited for a broad range of audio content.

The JBL JR300BT have adequate frequency response consistency. Bass and treble response can vary significantly based on the headphones' fit and positioning. If your child wears glasses or has long hair that covers their ears, it may be somewhat tricky for them to achieve a consistent listening experience.

The bass accuracy of these on-ears is good. Low-bass is slightly underemphasized, so some EDM tracks might be missing a little thump and rumble. High-bass, on the other hand, is overemphasized, which generates a slight bit of boominess in some tracks. However, bass response is dependent on the headphones' fit and positioning, so the user's listening experience may slightly vary.

The JBL JR300BT's mid accuracy is very good. Vocals and lead instruments should sound present, clear, and detailed, though some listeners may perceive a little bit of harshness due the slightly overemphasized high-mids.

These on-ears' treble accuracy is acceptable. It's a little uneven throughout the range, with a recessed early mid-treble dip that causes vocals and instruments to sound slightly dull. That's immediately followed by a spike in the middle of the range causing higher notes to sound overly bright and piercing. All that said, their treble response is heavily dependent on their fit and positioning, so the wearer's listening experience may vary.

These headphones' peaks and dips performance is reasonable. A bump in the high-bass range creates some boominess while the dip in the mid-mids pushes vocals and lead instruments toward the back of the mix. Bumps in the high-mid and low-treble range make some notes sound honky and harsh. The highly uneven mid-treble range causes some mixes to sound alternatively dull and piercing.

The JBL 300BT's stereo imaging performance is satisfactory. Their weighted group delay falls almost entirely beneath the audibility threshold, ensuring tight bass and transparent treble. The L/R drivers are well-matched in regards to amplitude response and experience only minor frequency response deviation, but more severe phase mismatch is present. This mismatch has a slight impact on their ability to accurately localize the placement of objects in the stereo image and generate a more immersive listening experience. That said, these results are only valid for our test unit, and yours may perform differently.

Like most closed-back headphones, the JBL JR300BT's passive soundstage is poor. Their on-ear fit and closed-back enclosure are both factors in creating a closed-off listening experience that causes sound to be perceived as coming from inside the wearer's head rather than speakers placed in front or around them.

These headphones don't have any virtual soundstage features.

These headphones' weighted harmonic distortion performance is bad. Since these are made for children, the max volume setting is limited to 85dB, meaning that this test was conducted at 85dB and 75dB rather than the conventional 100dB and 90dB. In any case, distortion is present across the entire frequency range at both volumes, impacting their ability to reproduce audio cleanly at near max volume.

These are the settings used to test the JBL JR300BT. These headphones have a volume limiter that prevents them from exceeding 85dB, which does have an impact on our tests where volume is normally set to 100dB and 90dB. Our results are only valid when they're used in this configuration.

The JBL 300BT's noise isolation performance is poor. They don't block out any noise in the bass and mid-range, so listeners should hear the rumble of bus engines as well as the chatter of people nearby. However, they're slightly more effective when it comes to filtering out higher-pitched noises like the hum of an AC unit.

These on-ears have outstanding leakage performance, though this might be a result of their 85dB volume limit. This limiter prevents escaping audio from being as loud as in our conventional testing, which measures leakage at 100dB.

These headphones have an integrated microphone.

The integrated microphone delivers passable recording quality. While speech should sound natural, it may also be perceived as thin, muffled, and lacking in overall detail.

The integrated microphone has middling noise handling capability. People on the other end of the line may have trouble understanding the wearer if they're calling from an especially crowded or noisy environment.

The JBL JR300BT deliver an unremarkable battery performance. They provide just under 11 hours of continuous playback on a fairly quick 1.3-hour charge. Unfortunately, they don't have a standby timer to stretch out their battery life when not in use and they can't be used while charging via the included micro-USB cable. If you want a pair of kids headphones with a much longer battery life, consider the iClever BTH02 Wireless or the Mpow CH9 Wireless.

These on-ears don't have a companion app.

These headphones have decent Bluetooth connectivity. They don't support Bluetooth 5.0 or NFC quick pairing, but they do have fairly low latency when paired to PCs and iOS devices. Their wireless latency on Android devices is even lower, so users shouldn't experience much in the way of audio delay while streaming videos or playing games on their Android phones. That said, apps and devices compensate for this lag differently, so their experience in the real-world may vary.

These are Bluetooth-only headphones.

The JBL JR300BT are wireless-only headphones that don't support passive playback over a wired connection. They come with a USB-A to micro-USB charging cable. If you're looking for a pair of wired kids headphones, take a look at the Mpow CH6, the iClever Boostcare, or the Mpow CH1.

The JBL 300BT can only connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs, though some listeners may find their wireless latency to be a little too high for gaming. They're incompatible with PS4 consoles.

These headphones can't connect to Xbox One consoles.

The JBL JR300BT don't come with a base or dock.