JBL Tune 130NC TWS Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The JBL Tune 130NC have a somewhat non-descript look, with the manufacturer's logo is on both buds in large, glossy print. They're also a bit bulky and stick out of your ear like similarly oval-shaped earbuds like the JBL Tune 125TWS Truly Wireless and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds Truly Wireless. They come in three colors: 'Black', 'White', and 'Blue'.

The JBL Tune 130NC have a comfortable fit. They're lightweight and don't enter your ear too deeply. They're a bit bulky, though, and they stick out of your ear a bit.

The JBL Tune 130NC have okay controls. There's a touch-sensitive surface on each bud, which is easy to use and responsive. There are beeps to let you know when you've registered a command, and an audible tone to let you know when you're pairing as well as cycling between ANC on, 'Ambient Sound Control', and ANC off. You can also remap the controls to add volume and voice assistant commands. On the downside, while you can use either bud at a time, you lose some access to controls.

On the left earbud:

• Single tap: Cycle between ANC on, 'Ambient Sound Control', which allows you to better hear your environment without taking the headphones out of your ears, and ANC off.
• Double tap: Turns 'TalkThru' on and off. This feature lowers your media's volume and enables 'Ambient Sound Control' so that you can have conversations.

On the right earbud:

• Single tap: Plays and pauses audio.
• Double tap: Skips to the next track.
• Triple tap: Skips to the previous track.

On either earbud:

• Double tap: Answers and ends calls.
• Tap and hold: Activates voice assistant. Also rejects a call. When you're on a call, this function mutes and unmutes your microphone.

The JBL Tune 130 are very portable, which is to be expected from truly wireless headphones. They're small, lightweight, and should easily fit into most bags or pockets without an issue.

These headphones come with a decent carrying case. It's nearly identical in design to that of the JBL TUNE 230NC TWS True Wireless, although the inner molding is designed to fit these specific earbuds. It's also made of plastic, but it feels a bit cheap overall. The lid especially feels flimsy compared to the case's body. That said, it has magnets to hold the buds in place and there are LED lights to display the battery life of the case.

The JBL Tune 130NC's build quality is good. They're mostly made of plastic, although it feels a bit cheap. The ear tips also feel thin and could be a weak point of the build. However, they still feel solid enough to survive a couple of accidental drops without taking too much damage. They're also rated IPX4 for protection against splashes of water.

The JBL Tune 130NC have decent stability. They come with three differently-sized pairs of ear tips to help you get the best fit possible. While they shouldn't move around if you're sitting at your desk, they can fall out of your ears during intense physical activity.

• JBL Tune 130NC headphones
• 3x ear tips
• Charging case
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

Out of the box, these headphones have a very neutral sound profile. They're well-suited for a variety of audio content. That said, if you prefer a different sound, their companion app offers a parametric EQ and presets so that you can adjust the sound to your liking.

These headphones have great frequency response consistency. Although there's a bit of deviation in the treble range, once you achieve an air-tight seal, they should deliver audio consistently each time you use them.

The JBL Tune 130NC have outstanding bass accuracy. The range is fairly flat and neutral, resulting in thump, rumble, and body. A small dip in the high-bass slightly lowers their boom.

The mid range is exceptional. This range is also very flat and neutral. Vocals and lead instruments sound bright, clear, and accurate, although a bit intense.

The JBL Tune 130NC have excellent treble accuracy. The low-treble is fairly neutral, so vocals and lead instruments are detailed. However, the mid-treble is underemphasized, so sibilants like S and T sounds are dull.

The JBL Tune 130NC's peaks and dips performance is excellent. There's a small mismatch between the left and right driver, and some peaks and dips affect one driver more than the other. The low to mid-bass is overemphasized, more so in the left driver, adding extra thump and rumble to mixes. A dip in the high-bass weakens boom in your mixes, while a small peak in the high-mid makes vocals and lead instruments bright. An uneven mid-treble means that the left driver dulls sibilants like cymbals while the right driver makes them sound harsh.

The JBL Tune 130NC's imaging performance is satisfactory. The group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The L/R drivers are also well-matched in frequency and amplitude response, ensuring a stable stereo image. However, there's a lot of phase mismatch that's audible with real-life content, which skews objects like footsteps or voices to one side of the stereo image. The low-mids are louder in the left driver, while the high-mids to treble range are louder in the right driver. The peak in the high-bass can be very hard to spot, though. That said, our results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

These headphones have a terrible passive soundstage, which is to be expected for in-ear headphones. To create an immersive and speaker-like passive soundstage, your outer ear needs to be activated with sound. By design, they bypass your outer ear, and sound seems like it's coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you. Since they also have a closed-back design, their soundstage won't seem as spacious as headphones with an open-back enclosure.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is good. Although there are some peaks in the treble range, it can be hard to hear with real-life content. Most of the frequency range falls within good limits, resulting in mostly clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when using them with these settings.

The JBL Tune 130NC's noise isolation performance is okay. The ANC doesn't offer significantly better performance than the headphones' passive isolation capabilities, and overall, these headphones block out less noise than the JBL Tour Pro+ TWS True Wireless. As a result, they struggle to isolate you from the low rumble of bus and plane engines. While they do a better job of cutting down office chatter, high-pitched noise like the hum of an AC unit is more challenging for the ANC to reduce well.

The JBL Tune 130NC's leakage performance is excellent. Leakage is mostly concentrated in the treble range, which sounds thin. However, if you like to listen to your favorite tracks at a high volume, you shouldn't bother others around you.

The JBL Tune 130NC's mic has a satisfactory recording quality, and your voice sounds natural but thin and lacking in body. You should have no problems being understood clearly, though.

The JBL Tune 130NC's noise handling performance is okay. The mic has some trouble separating your voice from moderate ambient noise around you. As a result, it may be difficult for whoever's on the other end of the line to hear you clearly if you're taking a call from a busy street.

The JBL Tune 130NC have a good battery performance. They're advertised to last roughly eight hours with their ANC on, but we measured a bit less than that. However, battery life can vary depending on use, so your real-life experience may vary. That said, their carrying case holds roughly three additional charges, and they have an auto-off timer to help conserve battery life when you're not using them. You can also use one bud while the other one charges.

The JBL Tune 130NC have a good app. It allows you to adjust their sound using their parametric EQ and presets, turn on and off ANC, toggle between 'Ambient Aware' and 'TalkThru', and remap controls. You can also toggle 'Smart Audio & Video' between the following settings: 'Normal' (for a stable connection), 'Audio Mode' (which is the default setting and is designed for the best sound for music), and 'Video Mode' (which lowers latency for streaming video). You can adjust the auto-off timer too, turn the auto play/pause feature on and off, and access 'Find My Buds'.

The JBL Tune 130NC have alright Bluetooth connectivity. Unfortunately, they don't support multi-device or NFC pairing. They also have high audio lag on PCs, iOS, and Android devices. However, they have a low-latency 'Video Mode' in their companion app, which lowers their latency to 203 ms on PC, 91 ms on iOS, and 132 ms on Android devices. That said, some apps and devices compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary.

You can't use these truly wireless headphones wired. They come with a USB-A to USB-C cable to charge their carrying case.

These headphones are fully compatible with Bluetooth-enabled PCs. However, you can't connect to a PC in any other way.

The JBL Tune 130NC come with a carrying case that holds roughly three additional charges. It only has a USB-C input so that you can charge the case.