- JBL announces its new Live 780NC and 680NC headphones
- Not to be confused with the Tune 780NC / Tune 680NC, unveiled last September
- Oh, and there’s also a portable AI karaoke speaker
The Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) earbuds aren’t the only best wireless earbuds worth spending a lot of money on; You might not associate JBL with high-end headphones, but the successful brand has a few mid-range options, and two more are on the way.
The company has just announced two new pairs of cans – not to be confused with the two options with the 780 and 680 suffixes revealed last September and available starting in November – both upgrades over the pairs released in 2023.
And unlike the Tune 780NC and 680NC unveiled six months ago, this new “Live” duo costs a little more than the mid-range or cheap headphones I associate the brand with.
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The duo’s first release is the over-ear JBL Live 680NC, which costs $159.95 (around £120, AU$230, but we’re waiting to hear about these gadgets out in the world). This set of headphones features an upgraded 40mm driver, improved noise cancellation, 80 hours of battery life, and a redesigned look (all compared to the 670NC).
Then there’s the JBL Live 780NC on-ear, which costs $249.95 (around £190, AU$360). It’s largely like the other model but an over-ear proposition. They feature a larger number of mics for more precise noise cancellation, an EQ designed to work at lower volumes, and something called “personal sound amplification” that sounds like a listening test, although JBL’s press release doesn’t specify.
Key points to remember? Compared to the X70NC or Tune prefixed models, the Live range sees small tweaks and improvements across the board, and they feel more premium…but are also slightly more expensive. Such is life, I suppose; the year of rising prices continues.
The party speaker is home tonight
Let’s not forget that there is a third gift under the JBL tree: the PartyBox On-The-Go 2 Plus, the latest in its line of portable speakers turned karaoke machines. It offers 100W of power, with two tweeters and a woofer, and lasts 15 hours on a charge.
The selling point of this $419.95 (around £320, AU$600) speaker is the brand’s JBL EasySing technology, which can identify and reduce vocals in songs, so you can sing along without competing with the singer. It also appears to have technology that lets you record your singing, reducing background noise, and increasing the pitch if you’re having trouble sustaining those high notes (or even carrying a melody faithfully).
All of these have the marketing label “AI”, but reading between the lines it appears to be a type of algorithmic AI focused on specific tasks (rather than actively super-intelligent, job-stealing, evil AI).
The PartyBox comes with a wireless microphone, which seems to facilitate these features, but JBL also sells them separately: there are the EasySing Mics for $199.95 (around £150, AU$280, and Mics Mini for $179.95 (around £130, AU$250). It appears the former is designed for PartyBox speakers, and the latter for Go, Grip, Flip, Charge and other ranges of JBL speakers.
The best noise-canceling headphones for every budget
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