JBL's new noise-cancelling headphones undercut AirPods Pro and AirPods Max

(Image credit: JBL)

JBL has appear an array of headphones ahead of CES 2021, including a new Bout line of racket-cancelling headphones to rival the AirPods Max and AirPods Pro.

The JBL Tour One are over-ear cans challenge upward to 50 hours of bombardment life, while the JBL Tour Pro Plus are a pair of true wireless earbuds. Both include "adaptive" active noise cancellation (ANC) that automatically adjusts to the wearer'southward surroundings, a handy tool to have equally both will exist going up against some of the all-time headphones on the market when they're released on May 30.

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Revealed alongside the Dolby Atmos-set up JBL Bar 5.0 MultiBeam soundbar, the Tour One and Bout Pro Plus volition toll $300 and $200, respectively. This puts them in a practiced position to undercut the $549 AirPods Max and the $250 AirPods Pro, even if both JBL headphones are still priced for premium quality.

What, then, do you get for your money? The Tour One offer an ambient fashion to augment the adaptive ANC, big 40mm dynamic drivers and the Hi-Res Audio certification, meaning they can get the most out of lossless music streaming services like Tidal and Amazon Music Hd. And, while that l-hour battery life only applies to elementary Bluetooth playback, JBL still promises a respectable 25 hours with ANC enabled.

The JBL Bout Pro Plus earbuds, meanwhile, come up in at 6 hours of playback with ANC, with one 60 minutes reclaimable from 10 minutes of charging. They also characteristic customizable touch controls and IPX4 h2o resistance, and then are essentially sweat-proof. The Tour Pro Plus don't have the Tour One's Hi-Res Audio support, just practise share like ambient and "Talk Thru" modes for when you desire to amend hear your surroundings.

JBL too announced new wireless earbuds to join its existing Alive series of headphones. The Live Pro Plus offer the same adaptive ANC and IPX4 rating every bit the Tour Buds Plus, just at a slightly cheaper $180. The Live Free ANC Plus also feature active racket cancellation, but in a more basic class that doesn't accommodate to environs. These will cost $150 and will release on March 14, the aforementioned twenty-four hours as the Live Pro Plus.

Rounding out JBL's major announcements was the Accuse five, the latest addition to its pop Charge family unit of Bluetooth speakers-slash-power banks. This will release onetime in April for $180, the aforementioned as the JBL Charge 4 currently costs, and promises the aforementioned 20 hours of bombardment life. Even so, the Charge 5's weatherproofing has improved to accomplish an IP67 rating, making it dust-proof equally well as waterproof.

The Tour One and Tour Pro Plus were very much the stars of JBL's reveal, then come up the end of May it volition exist interesting to see how well they stand up to Apple tree's more expensive noise-cancelling headphones. The AirPods Pro in item will also face competition from the upcoming Samsung Milky way Buds Pro, so there'll at least be enough of ANC buds to choose from this Spring.

James is currently Hardware Editor at Rock Paper Shotgun, but before that was Audio Editor at Tom's Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and annihilation else that intentionally makes racket. A PC enthusiast, he besides wrote computing and gaming news for TG, normally relating to how difficult it is to discover graphics card stock.