I review headphones for a living, and I’d buy them from Sony, Bose, or Apple anytime

I’ve been reviewing headphones for a few years now, and every year, the same three names always dominate the conversation: Sony, Bose, and Apple. They are beautiful. I won’t pretend otherwise. But “good” and “best value for money” can be two very different things, and after spending time with a personal pair of JBL Tour One M3, I’m sure the headphone space has a new answer for anyone looking for more from their $400. There’s a reason they made our best list, after all.

The battery difference is embarrassing

The JBL Tour One M3 delivers 55 hours and 37 minutes of playback with ANC. That’s not a typo: that’s what we measured in our standard tests.

By comparison, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra lasted 27 hours and 37 minutes in our test. AirPods Max lasted more than 20 hours. Sony’s WH-1000XM6 lasted 37 hours, which is respectable — but 18 hours behind.

If you travel internationally, commute to work every day, or simply hate being tied to a charger, traveling here makes a noticeable difference.

Another area where the Tour One M3 pulls ahead of the competition is in connectivity. The headphones support USB-C lossless audio with cable, analog 3.5mm, Bluetooth with SBC/AAC/LDAC/LC3, and Auracast. Sony’s WH-1000XM6, which costs $50 more, doesn’t support USB-C audio at all. AirPods Max are actually a paperweight if you’re not in the Apple ecosystem.

The JBL SMART Tx accessory takes this further. It’s smallremote transmitter that allows you to connect any wired source – turntable, in-flight entertainment system, game console – and stream audio wirelessly to headphones using Auracast. You can even share that stream with multiple listeners at once, if they have Auracast-compatible devices.

The ANC and sound quality is up there with the best

Sony, Apple, and Bose have owned the ANC conversation for years, but I have to say, the Tour One M3 matches them, and our objective testing bears that out.

JBL headphones reduce external noise by an average of 87%, one percent behind the original AirPods Max, and in line with the new Sony WH-1000XM6. It continuously cancels about 30dB of noise below 1kHz, and the deep earcups provide solid separation of high-frequency sounds.

Now, I have to admit, the default sound wasn’t the best to begin with. There was a pronounced dip between 3–7kHz which made everything sound flat and dull. I chose to use the Jazz EQ preset, which helped me a lot. Bass and treble are both open, and the sense of spatial width and depth is improved.

Recently, however, JBL pushed out a firmware update that refined the auto-tuning with a 3–5 dB boost in the 4–8 kHz range for more clarity, and an almost 2 dB cleanup in the low-ends for more natural noise. JBL listened to the feedback and introduced those tuning improvements to users at no additional cost.

That should be applauded, because not every product uses firmware updates to give you more. For example, earlier this year, Bose pushed out an update to the QuietComfort Ultra 2 that removed the battery level announcement, removed the two Bluetooth switches, and didn’t offer a rewind option. So it’s nice to see that JBL has gone in a different direction. The Tour One M3 is now a better sounding product out of the box than it was originally.

I also want to highlight the human audio amplification mode (PSAP). By turning the obvious mode into something like a hearing aid, JBL is doing something the big three haven’t prioritized at this price point. Apple has done something close to the AirPods Pro’s Hearing Aid feature, but it’s closed to their ecosystem. Here, it works regardless of which phone you have.

At $399.95, the JBL Tour One M3 costs less than the Sony XM6 ($449.99) and significantly less than the AirPods Max ($549). For that price, you get excellent battery life, more connectivity options than any competitor, similar ANC performance, and sound that rewards minimal EQ effort.

The Sony still wins in microphone performance, and sound quality out of the box. Apple still wins when you’re deep in its ecosystem. But for everyone, anyone who values ​​flexibility, better longevity, and getting more features for their money, the Tour One M3 is an easy recommendation.