JBL Quantum TWS Earbuds - Review
Over the past few years, I have had the pleasure to review a number of JBL headsets and others in the team have as well, but that has been one issue with all of them, they are big headsets, designed for gaming at home. JBL were kind enough to provide me with their new Quantum TWS in-ear buds and having put them through their paces for a few weeks, I have concluded that they really know their sound.
Ok, JBL knowing sound is not a surprise, or at least it shouldn’t be to anyone who has even any knowledge of sound history. The company has been making speakers of all shapes and sizes for over 70 years now and while it has only been the last few years that they have turned their attention to the gaming landscape, that focus has delivered some great headsets. Of course a gaming headset can vary in quality from its overall shape to the materials used to make it, in-ear buds however rarely see much difference across their design, just look at the first ones in the 80s, they look quite similar to those made today. So going into using these, I was not going to be blown away by their look, because by nature the overall look is the same, but its more in the function, which started out in a unique way. The buds come with a number of size cups, small through large and the purpose is to the find the one that suits you, now that is pretty standard stuff, but here the ear buds wanted to scan my ears, which was new.
Putting the buds in and then downloading the app to my phone, the scan process was fairly simple, however this is where I found a problem. What the scan does is play some melody and then using the microphones in the buds, determines how much leakage there is, if there is to much, it won’t complete the setup process. I say it doesn’t complete the process, but it does let you use them, it just won’t provide the best sound that they can offer, at least so they say. I then spent far to much time attempting to remove the rubber inserts to change to the other sizes, in an attempt to get them to balance and work right, but all the frustration they provided, proved to be pointless. I was unable to complete the setup, at least in the way they would have preferred, but it did not stop me from using the earbuds.
Giving up the set-up process, I just went with the default settings, though the app does let you tweak settings like bass and game mode, thankfully most of the options can be changed on the buds themselves. Once specific feature that I used a heck of a lot was the active noise cancelling, which provides three settings, Noise Cancelling, Ambient Aware and TalkThru. Each of those modes can be swapped through by tapping on the left earbud, one tap swaps through most, but a double tap enables TalkThru, which lets you hear everything around you, like a reverse noise cancelling. Each mode works as you would expect, but in the app you can tweak some settings for the noise cancelling, should you want to. The right earbud is your play/pause and song control side and once you learn the taps required for each function, you shouldn’t have an issue going forward. Pressing and holding on either earbud will activate your phones assistant, so Siri for me and it works just like you would expect.
All those functions are nice and all, but how is the sound, this is where I knew the Quantum TWS would shine and it is honestly where it exceeded the expectations that I had for it. Without tweaking any settings, when connected to my phone the bass levels were astounding, but you can up them if you need to. I through on some Daft Punk, specifically the Tron Legacy soundtrack and was able to just enjoy all that if offered, however when that got a bit to dance for me, I put on the new Robbie Williams album and found it to be just as wonderful. When playing the new Mighty DOOM, I was treated to some great sounds and of course, some iconic announcer lines, but I don’t game on my phone often, so I took the earbuds to my Switch. Included within the carrying case for them is a USB-C dongle, which you can plug into most devices and get great sound without any additional setup. The earbuds are Bluetooth as well, so you can connect them to your Switch that way, but the dongle just plugs in and you are good to go and doing it that way, lets you swap between the modes, meaning if you get a call, you can just reactivate Bluetooth on your earbuds when you need it.
On the Switch, I had to try out DOOM Eternal with them, not for the visuals, but the sound and hearing some familiar sounds proved I was on the right track. After that I threw on some Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, because that game has a killer soundtrack and everything came through nice and clear. To prove that they are versatile, I just plugged the dongle into the USB-C port on my PlayStation 5 and was able to enjoy some great sounds from a few games, GRID Legends sounded amazing. The only platform I didn’t connect them to was my PC, which was more so because I didn’t want to mess up my setup, but if you do they support a surround sound mode, which could be nice.
JBL have done something that I honestly wasn’t sure they could, make me a convert on earbuds. For years, I have avoided using them as they never felt right in my ears and while there are times when these feel a little lose, those moments were rare. On the sound front, even without a perfect ear seal, I was treated to a great audial experience no matter the source and platform, from music via my iPhone to gaming on my Switch, everything sounded great. The included dongle makes connecting them to a plethora of devices a breeze and being able to swap between them with a few taps is incredible.
The Score
9.0
Review unit provided by JBL
The Pros
+The sound quality out of the box is amazing, once you customise the settings for yourself, its even better
+Being able to switch between Bluetooth and the dongle, without needing to touch another device is incredible
The Cons
-The set-up process is kind of pointless if the included rubber caps don’t fit…
-… plus getting the rubber caps off and on will test even the most patient of users
