JBL Tune 660NC Wireless Headphones Review

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless are on-ear headphones with a simple, quite nondescript appearance. They have a narrow plastic headband and the manufacturer's logo stamped onto each small round ear cup. They're available in a few different colors, including 'Black', which is the variant we tested, as well as 'Blue', 'White', or 'Pink'.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless are fairly comfortable. They're light and don't put too much pressure on your head. The ear cups' hinges have a good range of motion. Unfortunately, the headband only has a small amount of padding in the middle, which may make them a little less comfortable if you're wearing them for long periods.

The JBL Tune 660NC headphones have good controls. The buttons are all found on the right ear cup and are easy to distinguish from each other. There are volume up and down buttons that you can also press and hold to skip tracks forward and backward, respectively. The middle button allows you to play/pause music as well as answer and end calls. You can also hold it down to decline a call or double-tap to activate your phone's voice assistant. There's a power button, as well as an ANC button. Pressing it once turns active noise cancelling on or off, or mutes and unmutes your mic during a phone call. The buttons are clicky, and you hear audio cues when you reach maximum or minimum volume and when you pair the headphones with a device via Bluetooth.

The JBL Tune 660NC have good breathability. Their on-ear design means they don't completely cover your ears, which should allow for more airflow than most over-ear headphones. While they do trap a bit of heat, you shouldn't sweat more while wearing them.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless are reasonably portable. The ear cups swivel to lay flat, making the headphones more compact and easier to store or fit into a bag. However, they don't come with a carrying case or pouch to protect them when you're on the go.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless have an unremarkable build quality. They're made of cheap-feeling plastic, and the faux leather padding on the headband isn't very comfortable. While the ear cups have a good range of motion, the headphones' yokes and hinges don't feel particularly solid. They lack an IP rating for dust and water resistance, although we don't currently test for it.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless aren't very stable. Like the JBL Tune 510BT Wireless, they aren't well-suited for use during a workout or any other activity where your head moves around a lot since they can easily fall out of place, even with low-intensity head movements.

• JBL Tune 660NC Wireless headphones
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• 1/8" TRS cable
• Quick Start guide

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless have a slightly v-shaped sound profile. It lends mixes some extra rumble and punch, while vocals and lead instruments sound present and clear. There's some overemphasis in the mid-treble range that adds extra brightness, but it may make sibilants like S and T sounds and cymbals seem piercing or harsh for some. Unfortunately, they don't have an EQ or presets to help customize their sound profile.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless have decent frequency response consistency. Their bass delivery is fairly consistent, but you may experience a drop in bass if you wear glasses or have thick hair. There's also some inconsistency in the mid and treble ranges depending on the headphones' fit and positioning, so you may need to take the time to adjust them each time you wear them to get a consistent sound.

The JBL Tune 660NC have good bass accuracy. The low and mid-bass ranges are overemphasized, which adds thump, rumble, and punch to your music. There's also some extra high-bass, which adds warmth but also a bit of boominess.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless have amazing mid accuracy. The range is quite even and well-balanced, so vocals and lead instruments sound clear, present, and accurate. That said, the slight overemphasis between the mid-mid and high-mids also makes these same sounds a bit more forward and intense.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless have decent treble accuracy. The low-treble is very well-balanced, so vocals and lead instruments sound present, detailed, and accurate. The peak in the mid-treble adds brightness, but may also make some sibilants like cymbals or S and T sounds seem harsh and piercing.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless have decent peaks and dips performance. A shallow dip across the low-mid range slightly thins out instruments and lead vocals, while a small bump across the mid-mid and high-mid ranges adds a bit of harshness to their sound. There's also a dip in the mid-treble followed by a bigger peak in the same range, making sibilants like S and T sounds seem alternately piercing and dull.

The JBL Tune 660NC have an incredible imaging performance. Their weighted delay is almost entirely below the audibility threshold, except for a very small bump in the bass range which loosens their bass ever so slightly. However, it shouldn't be noticeable overall. Also, the L/R drivers of our unit are very well-matched in terms of amplitude, frequency, and phase response, so objects like voices and footsteps are accurately placed within the stereo image. That said, these results are only valid for our test unit, and yours may perform differently.

The JBL Tune 660NC have a poor passive soundstage. Sound is perceived as if it's coming from speakers placed in the room around you rather than coming from inside your head, but the soundstage doesn't seem very natural or wide. It's also not very open or spacious, which is typical of closed-back headphones.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless have a very good weighted harmonic distortion performance. There's some distortion at moderate volumes in the mid-treble range, but it may not be noticeable to all listeners. Aside from that, all frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the JBL Tune 660NC Wireless. Our results are only valid when the headphones are used in this configuration.

The JBL Tune 660NC have a disappointing noise isolation performance. They have an ANC system, but it doesn't isolate you well from bass-range sounds like rumbling bus or plane engines. It does an okay job of blocking out higher-pitched noises, like a background conversation or humming A/C unit.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless have a good leakage performance. They leak less audio than the JBL Tune 510BT Wireless, and you should be able to listen to music at high volumes in a moderately quiet environment, like an office, without much risk of bothering people around you.

The integrated mic has a decent performance. Recorded speech sounds thin but fairly clear and easy to understand.

The integrated mic has a mediocre noise handling performance. If you're on the phone in a loud environment like a subway station, your voice may be drowned out by background noise.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless have a very good battery performance. With their ANC on, they provide just over 42 hours of continuous playback, which should be more than enough for a few days of use. However, they're advertised to last around 55 hours with the ANC off. Also, the manufacturer says you can get two hours of playback from a five-minute 'Quick Charge', but we don't currently test for that. Unfortunately, they don't have any power-saving features like an auto-off timer or standby mode. If you run out of battery life, you can use the headphones passively with the included audio cable. Note that battery performance can vary with real-life use, so you may have a different experience.

Update 11/08/2021: These headphones were updated to Test Bench 1.5 and their latency values have changed. Our previous Test Bench 1.4 measurements reported 'iOS Latency' at 119 ms and 'Android Latency' at 166 ms. However, our new test bench uses an average of three measurements instead of one, resulting in 160 ms of latency on iOS and 237 ms on Android. As a result, we have updated our text to better reflect test bench 1.5 measurements.

The JBL Tune 660NC have great Bluetooth connectivity. You can pair them with up to two devices at once, which allows you to switch from listening to music on your phone to watching a movie on your computer without re-pairing the headphones. An incoming call always takes priority, no matter what device's audio you're listening to, though. Unfortunately, their latency on PCs as well as iOS and Android devices is somewhat high, which could be an issue if you want to use them to watch videos or play games. That said, some apps and devices seem to compensate for latency, so your real-world experience may vary.

Update 05/10/2021: We have provided additional information regarding the audio cable. The scoring of this box hasn't changed.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless can be used wired with their included 1/8" TRS to TRRS cable. However, you can only receive audio when using this cable as the TRS connector can't transmit stereo audio or mic audio at the same time. They also come with a USB-C to USB-A cable to charge the headphones.

The JBL Tune 660NC Wireless are compatible with Xbox and Xbox Series X if you plug their 1/8" TRS to TRRS cable into a controller. However, you can only receive audio.