It may seem like JBL launches an endless series of products every year, and this is partly true.
Just this year, the American company – which also celebrates its 80th anniversary this year – launched the Xtreme 5 and Go 5 Bluetooth speakers, as well as a new range of Live 4 wireless earbuds, as well as over-ear 780NC and 680NC noise-cancelling earphones – all in a variety of new headphones.
There is also a brand new JBL Sound Curve tuning announced for the Tour One M3 headphones, which improves the sound quality to be more balanced and forgiving – and less focused on the bass – to acclimatize listeners who wear the headphones for a long time and prevent them from getting tired.
And that’s before we even get to the more popular Party Box speakers – not the core What Hi-Fi? category, but JBL’s biggest, which dominates 90 percent of that particular market.
However, the brand is cautious about making products for that reason. The product cycle is not necessarily clockwork, and relies on the latest technology available, too – and JBL also has to decide what not to install. For example, the interval between JBL Charge 5 and Charge 6 was a good four years (although both were available in April of those years), and new technologies such as Auracast sharing made way for the entire series to be renewed.
On the other hand, the new JBL Sound Curve – an adaptation of the frequency curve directed by the parent company Harman – is currently reserved only for the Tour One M3 to show its premium status, and has not been reduced to mid-priced headphones/earbuds to ensure a clean separation between the ranges.
A regular product cycle also allows JBL to keep its pulse low and familiar with its target audience, and to meet the needs of customers, “we expect. [JBL] driving the competition and coming up with new things”.
The new colors of green and orange stand out against the sea of green, black and even blue of its competitors, with some noting that the particular shade of orange chosen by JBL for the Live 780NC/680NC headphones is similar to the recent orange finish of the iPhone 17.
That is not by accident. The product team (including marketing and commercial operations in the “triangle”) tries to “see trends long enough”, says Jurjen. “Design trends, technology trends – all the colors you see in the live series, they don’t have this color because we like it. This is part of a long trend that we try to look at in terms of colors.”
Despite the proliferation of JBL products, the brand does not like to make products just for its own sake.
“No – we don’t want to make products because we can. We want to make products because we want to address a specific consumer need.”
In the live range, the thing that JBL really wanted to focus on was “lifestyle”, and the target demographic is “Gen Z and above” – pushing down the 15 to almost 30 age range of the target.
“There may be a number of people who want to use it in [pair of] headphones will decide whether they want a live series or a Tour series.”
Not everyone can afford the 349 euro touring flagship, he said, and the gap between the budget range of the Tune and the Tour is quite large. This is where Live-ground comes in: “This is the ultimate compromise of good quality, great noise cancellation, comfort and looks really good,” says Jurjen.
Style is an important part of live headphones and earbuds.
“Yes, many people will buy the black color,” he said, “but we also want to give people the opportunity to buy white, blue, green, orange, purple…” As we speak, Jurjen points to the young influencers around us during the launch who are happy to wear colorful headphones and take pictures, as proof that this product is aimed at young people, a crowd that has the power to share “enthusiastic” music.
“It really fits the JBL brand – it’s the essence of JBL’s target audience.”
Even JBL’s Headphones app opens up a bunch of faces that run the gamut of identities. It’s welcoming, diverse and fresh, but without trying too hard. You would never guess that the product was pushing 80.
Passing on the new Live 780NC in-ear headphones – which I decided to get in their bright orange finish – to my colleagues at What Hi-Fi? in the office, the general consensus seems to be that the colorful shade and style come out of the sea of empty, functional designs that we see from other brands, even premium models from Sony and Bose.
Whether JBL’s new mid-range model can reach the heights of five-star sound quality achieved by its flagship rivals remains to be seen, of course. But it’s an area that JBL is absolutely driving.
“In headphones, we’d like to dominate.”
Jurjen puts the headphone market into context. “Headphones are bigger than all the other things we put together. This is a 4 billion market in Europe. If we add portable audio, party box, games, wireless speakers, soundbars – if we add all that together, it’s still less than headphones.”
“In headphones, we are at 10-11% market share. Of course we would like to increase that.”
The headphone market is incredibly tricky with over 300 brands vying for a piece of the pie. It’s a huge market dominated by one key player (Apple, mainly in wireless earbuds, with Sony and Bose in over-ears) that a lot of people spend a lot of money on.
“So we know, even with these people that we’re aiming to have, we know that they have money to spend – because we see that they’re spending money on other high-end brands.”
“But the aim is to build credibility,” he said. “Sony is a good example of that – you get five-star reviews a couple of years in a row, no one thought Bose would ever lose that position. Sony still has that position. We believe we both have a good quality product.”
I ask Jurjen if there are any surprising trends in this current product cycle, that consumers have been clamoring for?
“No. It’s not; it’s all about sound quality. It’s all about design. It’s all about wearing comfort.” Ultimately, he says, live headphones and earbuds are “the best alternative to what’s on the market”.
We hope so, as we still find that there is a general lack of excellent recommendations in this mid-£100-£200 price range. We’re currently testing the Live 780NC wireless headphones (£170), so stay tuned for a full review later.
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Two years on, I’m still waiting for this open hole in the wireless headphone market to be plugged
Read ours JBL Tour One M3 review
JBL Live 4 earbuds have a better case, new high-fidelity drivers and improved noise cancellation.