JBL TUNE 230NC TWS True Wireless Headphones Review

The JBL TUNE 230NC have a similar design to the JBL Tune 225TWS True Wireless and the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro Truly Wireless with a sleek ear stem design, and there's a manufacturer's logo and indentation on both stems. They come in three color variations: 'Black', 'White', and 'Blue'.

The JBL TUNE 230NC have a comfortable fit. They have a lightweight design that doesn't put pressure or enter your ear too deeply. You shouldn't experience fatigue if you're wearing them during long listening sessions. However, they stick out of your ears a bit.

The JBL TUNE 230NC have okay touch-sensitive controls. Their commands are similar to the JBL Tune 130NC TWS Truly Wireless. There are audible tones when pairing the headphones and cycling between the ANC on, ambient mode, and off. However, if you use the buds in mono mode, you lose some controls as the command layout is split between the left and right earbuds.

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 off, which turns off both ANC and Ambient Sound Control.
• 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.

These headphones are very portable, which is to be expected for in-ear headphones. They're small and compact, so you can easily fit them in most pockets or bags without an issue, even when they're inside their carrying case.

The carrying case is good. It's very similar to the JBL Tune 130NC TWS Truly Wireless, although the inside of the case is molded to specifically fit these earbuds. The case is made of plastic, and there's a magnet to help hold the buds in place. There are LED lights to indicate the battery life of the case. However, the plastic feels a little cheap, and the lid feels flimsy compared to the body of the case.

The JBL TUNE 230NC's build quality is good. They're mostly made of plastic and feel sturdy enough to survive a couple of accidental drops without taking too much damage. They're also rated IPX4 for protection against splashes of water. However, the plastic used on the buds seems like it could mark or scratch easily. The carrying case also seems cheap, and its lid feels flimsy.

These headphones have good stability. Although they don't have stability fins, they shouldn't fall out of your ears during moderate movement like a jog in the park. However, if you wear them during more intense physical activity, they may move around in your ears.

• JBL TUNE 230NC earbuds
• 3x tip sizes
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Manuals

The JBL TUNE 230NC have a slightly bass-heavy sound profile that delivers a touch of extra thump, rumble, and boom. That said, vocals and lead instruments are still clear and detailed in your mixes. If you prefer a different sound, their companion app offers a parametric EQ and preset to help you adjust their sound to your liking.

The JBL TUNE 230NC's frequency response consistency is outstanding. Once you get a proper fit using the included ear tips, you should get consistent bass and treble delivery each time you use them.

These headphones have very good bass accuracy. The response is overemphasized across the range, resulting in more thump, rumble, and boom to your mixes. However, it shouldn't overwhelm vocals and lead instruments.

The JBL TUNE 230NC's mid accuracy is fantastic. The range is very flat and neutral, ensuring that vocals and lead instruments are clear and detailed. However, a small dip in the mid-mid can nudge these sounds to the back of your mix.

The JBL TUNE 230NC's treble accuracy is great. The response is slightly underemphasized across the range, but it's still fairly even. Vocals and lead instruments are slightly veiled, but sibilants like S and T sounds are dull.

The JBL TUNE 230NC's peaks and dips performance is excellent. There's a slight peak in the low-bass that affects the left driver more than the right, adding thump and rumble to your mixes. A dip in the mid-mid nudges vocals and lead instruments to the back of your mix. A peak in the high-mid to low-treble affects the left driver more than the right, so vocals and lead instruments sound a bit harsh. A dip in the low-treble dulls sibilants like cymbals.

The JBL TUNE 230NC's imaging performance is outstanding. Their group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The L/R drivers are also well-matched in amplitude, frequency, and phase response, which is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects like footsteps in the stereo image. However, our results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

The JBL TUNE 230NC have a bad passive soundstage, which is to be expected from in-ear headphones. To create an out-of-head soundstage, your outer ear needs to be activated by sound resonances. However, these headphones bypass your outer ear, resulting in a soundstage that seems like sound is coming from inside your head. Since they also have a closed-back design, their soundstage also doesn't seem very spacious.

The JBL TUNE 230NC have a very good weighted harmonic distortion performance. There's a peak at normal and high listening volumes, but it shouldn't be audible for most people. As a result, all frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in clear and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the JBL TUNE 230NC. Our results are only valid when used with these settings.

The JBL TUNE 230NC's noise isolation performance is mediocre. Although they have active noise cancelling (ANC), there's very little difference between ANC on and off. We also noticed subjectively that there wasn't much improvement between both modes. With the ANC on, they struggle to block out the low rumble of bus and plane engines and perform worse in this regard compared to the JBL Tune 130NC TWS Truly Wireless and JBL Live Pro 2 TWS True Wireless. They do a better job of reducing office chatter as well as the high-pitched hum of AC units, though.

The JBL TUNE 230NC's leakage performance is outstanding. The leakage is mostly concentrated in the treble range, and escaping audio sounds thin. That said, if you're listening to audio at a high volume in a moderately busy environment like an office, people around you shouldn't be able to hear it.

The integrated mic has sub-par recording quality. Your voice sounds dark, unnatural, and a bit muffled.

The JBL TUNE 230NC's noise handling is okay. The mic can separate your voice from moderate ambient noise. However, when there are loud sounds present like a train pulling into the station, your voice becomes hard to hear among the noise, and there's some distortion present.

The battery performance is very good. They're advertised to have eight hours of continuous battery life with their ANC on, and we measured just a bit more than that. However, battery life can vary depending on usage, and your real-life experience may differ. That said, their carrying case holds roughly three additional charges, and they're equipped with an always-active standby mode to help conserve battery life. It activates after 15 minutes of inactivity, regardless of whether the auto-off timer is on or off. You can adjust the auto-off timer to fit your needs via the app, though.

The JBL Headphones app is good. It offers a parametric EQ plus presets to help you customize their sound to your liking. You can also see the battery life of the headphones as well as the case, turn the ANC on and off, toggle between Ambient Aware and TalkThru modes, and remap controls. You can adjust the auto-off's timer too, set the TalkThru level, and access Find My Buds. There are three different modes you can access: 'Normal' (for a stable connection), 'Audio Mode' (for better audio quality), and 'Video Mode' (for lower latency).

The JBL TUNE 230NC's Bluetooth connectivity is okay. Unfortunately, they don't support multi-device or NFC pairing. Their latency is also high on PCs as well as Android and iOS devices, meaning you may notice syncing issues between your audio and visuals. However, these headphones have a 'Video Mode', which is advertised to help lower their latency. Using this mode, they have 259 ms of latency on PCs, 182 ms on Android, and 248 ms on iOS, which still means they fall outside good levels. That said, some apps and devices compensate for latency differently, and your real-life experience may vary.

You can't use these headphones wired. They come with a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging their case.

The JBL TUNE 230NC have full audio and mic compatibility with Bluetooth-enabled PCs. However, you won't be able to use them in any other way.

The JBL TUNE 230NC come with a plastic charging case that supplies roughly three additional charges. It doesn't support wireless charging, though, and it has a USB-C port for charging.