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 the following color variations: 'Black', 'White', 'Sand', and 'Blue'.

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

These buds have touch-sensitive controls, similar in layout 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. They lack volume controls by default, but on the upside, you can always add them on via the companion app. 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: Cycles 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.

These buds have a good build quality. 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 won'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 can shift in place, so you may need to readjust their fit.

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

These buds 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.

These buds have outstanding frequency response consistency. Once you get a proper fit using the included ear tips, you'll 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. In songs like Starboy by The Weeknd, the bassline throughout the track sounds full-bodied and rich. However, the extra bass doesn't overwhelm vocals and lead instruments.

The mid accuracy of these buds 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 nudges 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 still fairly even. Vocals and lead instruments are slightly veiled, but sibilants like S and T sounds are dull.

These buds have excellent peaks and dips performance. For the most part, the peaks and dips are mostly minor, which means that the headphones can control their sound profile well. A peak in the low-bass mostly affects the left driver, adding thump and rumble to that driver. 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 slightly harsh. A dip in the low-treble dulls sibilants like cymbals.

JBL makes a lot of headphones, and across their products, they've shown fairly consistent quality control and ergonomics, which helps ensure a solid imaging performance. While imaging varies between units, our unit's L/R drivers are well-matched in group delay and amplitude, frequency, and phase response, which helps ensure the accurate placement of objects like instruments in the stereo image.

These buds have a bad passive soundstage, which is normal 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 makes it seem like sound is coming from inside your head. Since they also have a closed-back design, their soundstage doesn't seem 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's very difficult to hear with real-life content. As a result, all frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in clear and pure audio reproduction.

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

These buds have a mediocre noise isolation performance. 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 than the JBL Tune 130NC TWS Truly Wireless and JBL Live Pro 2 TWS True Wireless. They do a better job of reducing office chatter and the high-pitched hum of AC units.

The JBL 230NC's leakage performance is outstanding. 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 won't hear it.

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

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

These buds have a very good battery performance. The manufacturer advertises them to last eight hours continuously with their ANC on, and we measured over that. Keep in mind that battery life can vary depending on use, though. On the upside, their carrying case supplies an extra three charges if needed, and their always-on standby mode helps conserve battery life if you forget to turn them off. This feature turns on after sensing 15 minutes of inactivity. These buds also have an auto-off timer you can customize via the companion app.

The JBL Headphones app is great. It offers a parametric EQ plus presets to help you customize their sound. 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 also adjust the auto-off's timer, 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).

These buds have okay Bluetooth connectivity. 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. These buds have a 'Video Mode' via their app too, and it's advertised to help lower their latency. However, while this mode can lower latency, it's still quite high across PC, iOS, and Android devices, so you'll notice lip sync issues. That said, some apps and devices compensate for latency differently.

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

These buds have full audio and mic compatibility with Bluetooth-enabled PCs. However, you can't use them in any other way.

These buds have a plastic charging case that supplies roughly three additional charges and a USB-C port for charging. It doesn't support wireless charging, though.