[Academic Tech] JBL Tour One M2 Noise Cancelling Headphones

*Note, I was sent these headphones for review by JBL nearly a year ago, but they’ve had precisely zero input into this review (obviously, given I haven’t written it until now), and it doesn’t affect what I’m writing at all. The only benefit I stand to gain is the amazon affiliate link I’ll shove at the end, but you should feel free to ignore that.

This review falls under ‘academic tech’ much as my Galaxy Buds Live review did. We’re in a hybrid world now, and even if you go into work, you’re still probably on Teams or Zoom half the time. Or, if you’re in UK academia, you stand a good chance of being stuck in a shared office even as a professor (luckily, I’m not!), and just want to drown out what’s around you.

The JBL One Tour One M2 headphones, despite having an overly long, complex name, are fairly straight forward over-ear headphones, retailing for £279 (but available for far less – see the end of this review). They are comfy, well made, attractive without being particularly ostentatious, and have good sound quality.

Let’s start with what’s in the package:

We start off with the headphones themselves, packed neatly inside a carrying case.

The case has a semi-rigid outer to it, to protect them, and a pocket on the inside that velcros shut. Inside that little pocket are instructions, plus really high-quality USB A->C cable and 3.5mm -> 2.5mm cable.

The USB cable is flat, meaning you get a decent length that rolls up nicely. You also get a single 3.5 to double 3.5mm adapter, I assume for aeroplanes or high-end stereo outputs? I don’t have anything that takes one of those.

Ok, so the headphones themselves are good looking, and fit nicely, adjustable in the band, and in the orientation of the cans.

Controls

Both sides have controls:

On the right, we’ve got a power button, that slides to turn the headphones on or off. Slide and hold, and you enter Bluetooth pairing mode. Below that is a volume rocker, then the 2.5 mm jack. On the other side, we’ve got the noise cancelling button, which will cycle through noise cancelling, ambient, and off. Then there’s the USB-C port which is used for charging.

It’s worth noting that in addition to the physical buttons, both sides are touch-sensitive and use standard inputs like single, double and treble tap to play/pause, skip, and answer calls etc.

The headphones are really nice – black, but with chrome highlights.

Connectivity

As stated, they connect either by wire or by Bluetooth. I’ve used them almost exclusively by Bluetooth until this review, and the connection has been excellent. I can also pair them to both my laptop and my phone and they’ll switch automatically. There’s no app for Windows though, so if you want to change settings you’ll need a phone (see below).

Sound Quality

Sound quality is really good. I’m not an audiophile, it turns out, but listening to classical music on Apple music with Dolby Spatial Audio sounds fantastic. Similarly, the few FLAC files I have sound far better on these than anything else I’ve used, with the finest audio details really being present. The sound stage is much broader than I’m used to with buds.

I’m sure an audiophile would tell you that you’ll never get the very best sound over Bluetooth, and they are probably right, but I struggle to tell the difference between Bluetooth and using them wired. [Edit, writing this review made me try and play a bit, going back and forth between Bluetooth and wired, and maybe I can tell the difference actually, though it’s subtle].

Audio going the other way, i.e. the mic, is fine too. Windows tends to butcher mic audio over Bluetooth, so I’m not going to bother with samples here, but it’s enough to say that people on Zoom and Teams meetings have found me to be clear.

App (Android)

I’m still on my Fold 3, so I’ll talk you through the Android App:

It’s actually really full-featured and easy to use. I’d say it’s quite a bit more complete than the Galaxy Wearable app for the Galaxy Buds. The app is generally smooth and fast once it’s launched, but it does take a little while to launch. Everything is also really nicely explained, with a little ‘i’ that tells you wat every function does.

You can use it to change different buttons and gestures, but it can also recognise your voice and pause music/disable noise cancelling when you talk to someone. It has a function called ‘silent bubble’ that can setup a mode where it’s in noise cancelling, and it disconnects from Bluetooth for a set period of time so you’re completely isolated. You can amplify environmental sound, which is cool.

One thing that’s really neat is I can do things like turn spatial sound on or off from the app on my phone while using the headphones on Windows, because they can connect to both my laptop and phone simultaneously.

Noise Cancelling

It’s really good. I mean, there’s a lot of passive noise cancelling from the ear pads, and then there’s the active noise cancelling which is superb. One of the reasons this review has taken me quite a while to write is that last year we had our first child. This is not unrelated to my appreciation of the noise cancelling of these headphones (Pro tip: for those parents suffering from really screaming, and close by infants [being responsibly taken care of by another parent], active noise cancelling buds like my Galaxy Buds, fit underneath, and work great in tandem!). With noise cancelling on, I can’t hear other people in the room with me, nor can I hear the train/plane when travelling.

Conclusion

These are really nice headphones, great sound quality, great noise cancelling, and an app with a ton of features. I highly recommend, though that’s with the caveat that I actually have very little experience of over-ear headphones, having been an almost exclusive user of buds – cheap stuff until my Buds Live (and more recently I moved to the Galaxy Buds Pro 2, and I’ll review those in coming weeks).

If you want to give them a try, you could use this Amazon Affiliate link, from which I get a pittance. At the moment, they are £179 from that link, as opposed to the £279 they currently are at Currys.