JBL LIVE 300TWS Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The JBL LIVE 300TWS are fairly straight-forward and standard looking truly wireless in-ears. While we tested the 'black' version, the earbuds themselves are covered in a matte finish that's closer to a dark grey color, with a copper-colored ring around the touch-sensitive controls. They're also available in a wide range of other colors, although selection seems to vary depending on where you live. Despite being made entirely of plastic, they don't look too cheap overall. The case doesn't look exceptionally premium but doesn't look cheap either. It also has a white light around the charging port that lights up when the headphones are being charged.

The JBL LIVE 300TWS are quite comfortable for in-ears. They come with three sizes of tips, and four pairs of stability fins to help you get the most comfortable fit and seal. The earbuds themselves aren't too bulky and don't cause too much fatigue during most listening sessions.

The touch-sensitive controls of the JBL LIVE 300TWS are easy to use and are decent overall. They give you a good amount of control options, including volume control and voice assistant. Unfortunately, swiping forward and backward for volume is difficult as the touch-sensitive surface is quite small. They also only give audio beeps for feedback, which is somewhat disappointing.

Like with most truly wireless in-ears, the JBL LIVE 300TWS are very portable and can easily be tossed into a pocket.

The case of the JBL LIVE 300TWS is good. It's made out of plastic but doesn't feel too cheap overall, though it doesn't look or feel nearly as high-end as some more premium options, like the Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless. They have white light around the charging port that lights up when they're charging, which is nice.

The JBL LIVE 300TWS look and feel quite well-built and durable. Both the earbuds and the case are made out of good, dense plastic. The buds are also rated IPX5 for resistance against direct water contact. Overall, they feel like they should withstand a few accidental drops or bumps without sustaining too much damage. If you want better-built in-ears, consider the JBL CLUB PRO+ TWS True Wireless.

The JBL LIVE 300TWS feel very stable in the ear with the stability fins attached. Even during fairly intense movements, they don't move or fall out. Without the stability fins, they're stable enough for light movements, but may move or slide out when working out or jogging.

• JBL LIVE 300TWS headphones
• 3 pairs of earbud tips
• 4 pairs of stability fins
• Charging case
• USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

The sound profile of the JBL LIVE 300TWS is quite well-balanced and versatile. While they provide a fair amount of extra kick and thump, their bass isn't too overpowering for genres like rock or country but it can still help bring out the drops in EDM and hip-hop.

The frequency response consistency of the JBL LIVE 300TWS is outstanding. Once you achieve a proper fit and seal with the included tips, your listening experience is the same every time you use them.

The bass accuracy of these headphones is good. The entire frequency range is over-emphasized but is fairly even and flat throughout. They provide a good amount of extra kick and thump without sounding too boomy or muddy.

The mid accuracy of the JBL LIVE 300TWS is great. Almost the entire range is even and accurate, providing present and clear vocals and instruments that don't sound harsh, honky, or cluttered.

The treble accuracy of these headphones is great, and overall, the entire range is quite well-balanced and even. Low-treble, responsible for detail and presence of almost all instruments, is very accurate and even, resulting in instruments and some vocals that sound detailed and articulate, without being painful. While the mid-treble range isn't quite as even, it's still even enough that instruments and vocals in that range shouldn't sound too piercing, painful, or dull. Some sounds in the high-treble range, like sibilants (S and T sounds), may sound hissy, while others sound lifeless, though these are likely at high enough frequencies that it won't be too noticeable to most people.

The peaks and dips performance of these headphones is excellent. The only noticeable peaks are likely in mid and high-treble, which may make some sounds come across as harsh or painful, though they're in high enough frequencies that they may not be too noticeable to most people.

The imaging of these headphones is excellent. The GD graph shows that the entire group delay response is below the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. Additionally, the L/R drivers of our test unit are very well-matched, which is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects and instruments (like voices and footsteps) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

Like most other in-ears, the soundstage of the JBL LIVE 300 is bad. This is because in-ears bypass the pinna (outer ear), and don't interact with it. Activating the resonances of the pinna is one of the key factors in creating a speaker-like and out-of-head soundstage. Also, because of their closed-back design, their soundstage tends to be less open than that of open-back headphones.

These headphones don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The weight harmonic distortion of the JBL LIVE 300TWS is very good. While they distort a bit more at higher frequencies, it's still all within good limits, resulting in clear and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Therefore, our results are only valid when using the JBL LIVE 300TWS with these settings.

The noise isolation of the JBL LIVE 300TWS is only okay overall. Provided you achieve a proper fit and seal with the included tips, they do an excellent job at blocking out office sounds, like background chatter and A/C units or fans. Unfortunately, on buses or planes, they do a very bad job of blocking out the low rumble of engines. If you're looking for a pair of truly wireless JBL headphones with an ANC to help isolate more ambient noise, consider the JBL Live Pro+ TWS True Wireless.

The leakage performance of these headphones is outstanding. When listening at high volumes they leak very little audio, so people next to you likely can't hear what you're listening to.

These headphones have an integrated microphone.

The recording quality of the microphone is surprisingly decent. Unlike many Bluetooth in-ears, your voice sounds very natural and clean without any distortion, though it's still fairly thin-sounding.

Update 12/01/2021: 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 sub-par. With moderate ambient sound, your voice should be understandable, but background noise is also audible. Your voice can be completely drowned out by loud noises like the sound of a passing train.

The battery performance of these headphones is mediocre. They last 4.4 hours off a single charge, which is similar to many other truly wireless headphones but is a lot shorter than the six hours JBL advertises. They take 1.3 hours to charge, which is fairly long, and their case only gives around two full additional charges, which gives them a disappointing total battery life overall. On the bright side, they feature an auto-off timer to help conserve battery life.

The dedicated companion app for the JBL LIVE 300TWS is great. It gives you a ton of customization options, including button mapping, EQ presets, and a fully parametric EQ. You can also turn the headphones' auto-off feature on or off within the app, though it's set to 'on' by deafult.

The Bluetooth connectivity features of these headphones are only okay. They're Bluetooth 5.0 headphones but unfortunately, they don't feature multi-device or NFC pairing for the easily pairing or switching of devices. Their line of sight range is great, though this is very dependent on your environment, and your real-world usage may vary. Unfortunately, we recorded high latency on PC as well as on both Android and iOS while watching a YouTube video, so you may want to consider the JBL Tune 125TWS Truly Wireless if lower audio latency is a concern. However, it's worth noting that apps and devices seem to compensate for this differently, so you may experience different results.

The JBL LIVE 300TWS are Bluetooth-only headphones.

The JBL LIVE 300TWS are Bluetooth-only headphones that can't be used wired. They come with a very short USB-C cable to charge their case.

These headphones aren't compatible with Xbox One since they're Bluetooth-only.

The JBL LIVE 300TWS come with a charging case that gives you around two additional charges. Like with most truly wireless headphones, the case doesn't have any inputs.