JBL in-ear headphones in tune with your needs

Earbuds have excellent sound quality but bass is a little lacking

JBL Live Free NC+

The JBL Live Free NC+ TWS arrived to me in the flesh colour (rose) but are also available in black, blue and white. The Live Free NC+ come with three silicone ear tips and two different sized gel-sleeves, which help to hook the buds into your ears more securely. The ear tips and gel-sleeves are the same colour as the buds as is the charging case.

There are no buttons on the earbuds, but the outside pad is touch-sensitive and sports a white JBL logo. They don’t stick out too much and the flesh colour makes them almost invisible at a glance. Of course, the other colours will stand out more.

The pill-shaped charging case has the JBL logo emblazoned on the lid. The front has four LED light strips to indicate charge state and the base is flat.

The buds fit nice and snug in the case and can be a bit of a struggle to remove but snap right back into place for charging. Around the back of the case are a Bluetooth pairing button and a USB-C charging port. A short cable comes supplied and you can charge the case wirelessly too, which is great.

Fit and comfort

The default ear tips (medium) and gel-sleeves fitted my ears the best and I had no fear of them falling out no matter what I was doing.

Features and performance

Although the Live Free NC+’s come with ANC I would not buy them for this feature alone. Other earphones like the Seinheiser Momentum 2 or Sony WF-1000XM3 offer much better ANC performance but cost more too. There is an option to tune the ANC, but I didn’t find it much use in improving its effectiveness. That being said, I wasn’t able to test these on a commute, busy street or cafe.

JBL’s Smart Ambient technology helps to keep you aware of what’s happening around you and works well as does the Ambient mode and TalkThru feature. These can be configured to work with the touch controls.

There’s an IPX7 rating, which is ideal for those who like to train in the rain, snow or just sweat a lot.

Battery performance is pretty standard at six hours from each bud with ANC on and seven with it off. When you include the charging case you should be able to get up to 21 hours of battery with a full charge which takes two-hours from empty.

Sound

The Live Free NC+ come tuned with a distinctive JBL sound signature. There’s a decent amount of bass but nothing that will knock your socks off. The highs are nice and clean although a little thin. The soundstage is nice and expansive which I really like and this makes these excellent for watching movies or good TV show. JBL provides three smart modes via the JBL Headphones companion app. Use Normal mode for the most stable connection, Audio mode for the best audio quality and Video mode for the lowest latency, improving lip-sync performance.

There’s support for Google and Alexa voice assistants — take your pick — and there’s the automatic Smart Ambient feature too.

Verdict

The Live Free NC+ have a nice open sound signature with lots of clarity. The sound quality is excellent although the bass is a little lacking. ANC performance isn’t up there with the best but the ambient modes are nice to have and the touch controls work well with very few accidental touches causing mayhem.

Available from amazon.co.uk €176.10 (including import duties)