Over the last few months voice assistant integration on headphones has become increasingly popular.
It all started with the Bose QC35’s, now the majority Sony’s headphones supports
both google and Alexa voice assistant integration, and now Apple’s latests AirPods and Powerbeats
Pro have always listening Siri.
And adding voice assistant integration is the main focus of JBL’s latests crop of
ANC headphones.
So today we’re going to checkout the new JBL Live 650BTNC… they’re ok but I would
have liked to have seen more.
The new JBL Live 650BTNC is nothing more than a slightly refreshed version of the JBL E650BTNC.
So if you are considering picking these headphones up, just make sure you’re getting the latest
and greatest version.
The Live 650BTNC’s have a retail price of $200 but I actually got these on sale for
$130… which is definitely going to play a big part in how I feel about these headphones.
So if you want to pick these headphones up, or any of the other headphones mentioned in
this they’ll be linked down below.
Just like before, these headphones come included with a carrying pouch.
And just like before, these headphones have great quality.
These headphones can be laid down flat or totally collapsed, they’re fairly light
weight, and when you flex their headband there isn’t any worrisome cracking or squeaking.
These are a pair of headphones I would have no problem roughing around a bit.
Now the entire headband is covered in a fabric mesh similar to JBL’s speakers and the rest
is just plastic… and when it comes to leatherette on the ear cups it doesn’t feel half bad
either.
I really wanna stress that build quality on these headphones is great.
But when it comes to fit, for me these are not the most comfortable headphones out there.
Now I know fit is subjective so this definitely isn’t going to apply to everyone.
But there are some things I wanna point about how these headphones fit.
Now first off, the headband clamping force on these headphones is very easy to adjust
so they are technically big head approved.
But my first issue with these headphones is the range of motion of their ear cups.
They swivel just fine but they don’t pivot as much as other headphones with a conventional
yoke design.
So for me, the 650BTNC’s do apply a little more pressure on the top portion of my ear
instead of applying an even amount of pressure all around which is what you want.
But my other issue with these headphones is that their ear cups are pretty cramped.
Even though the ear cups on the 650BTNC’s are deep, they aren’t as spacious as the
ear cups on the Audio Technica SR50BT’s and they definitely aren’t as spacious as
the ear cups on the Sony WH-CH700N.
So personally, I don’t think these are the most comfortable headphones out there cause
of how they rest on your head and cause of their cramped ear cups.
And like I’ve said in the past, Fit is the most important thing to take into consideration
when picking a pair of headphones.
Personally I think the Audio-Technica SR50BT’s should fit most people just fine, but if you
need super spacious ear cups then I would spring for the Sony WH-CH700N’s.
But putting aside my subjective feelings about how these headphones fit, objectively these
headphones perform fairly well.
Now first off these headphones are great for watching videos on your phone cause they have
zero latency across the board whether you’re using an apple or android device.
But from what I can tell, these headphones are only using the SBC codec.
There’s not AAC, APTX, or LDAC support.
Now JBL also claims that these headphones can be connected to 2 devices at the same
time, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get it to work.
Ultimately its not a big deal but I did want to point that out.
But more importantly, the Live 650BTNC’s have an advertised battery life of 30 hours
with ANC turned off and a 20 hour battery life with ANC turned on.
Now for $200 headphones in 2019, a 20 hour battery life with ANC turned on is respectable.
But since this is mostly a hardware refresh, I would have like to have seen these headphones
be upgraded from Micro USB to USB C charging.
Cause these days more and more headphones are starting to come with USB C charging.
But like I mentioned earlier, the main upgrade on the JBL Live 650BTNC’s is the addition
of voice assistant integration.
And you can choose whether you wanna use Google assistant or Alexa.
Personally, I find Google assistant to be more useful than Alexa.
Now the way that you interact with your voice assistant is by using the new touchpad found
on the left ear cup.
You can simply tap to get a read out of your notifications or you can press and hold and
talk to your voice assistant
like this.
Now personally I really like that JBL has added a dedicated touchpad for interacting
with your voice assistant cause you can still do other things like skip through your music
or manually being able to toggle your ANC on or off.
Now I know this sounds simple, but you’d be surprised at how many other headphones
haven’t managed to get this right.
Namely Sony and Bose.
But my problem with JBL’s new touch pad is that it is extremely sensitive.
Everytime I put these headphones on or readjust them Google assistant gets activated and Ive
even gotten some phantom presses as well.
They’re rare but they’ve happened.
But I think JBL can fix this sensitive touch pad issue through a firmware update, and also
you can just not use a voice assistant on these headphones period.
But when it comes to the active noise cancelation on these headphones its kind of a mixed bag.
For starters the ANC on these headphones manage to block out more noise than the ANC on both
the Audio-Technica SR50BT’s and the Sony WH-CH700N.
And the ANC on the Live 650BTNC doesn’t have a lot of cabin pressure which is good.
But just so that you can see for yourself we’re about to jump into an ANC test.
Like you may have just seen, the JBL Live 650BTNC managed to block out the most amount
of noise here across the board.
But unfortunately the ANC on the 650BTNC’s really does affect the way these headphones
sound.
Specifically the sound stage on these headphones gets super narrowed and instrument separation
isn’t as good when ANC is turned on.
Now its pretty common for the soundstage on ANC headphones to get a little narrowed when
their ANC is turned on but the degree at which its happening on the 650BTNC’s is very high.
So if you want to get the best sound quality out of these headphones, you gotta use them
with their ANC turned off.
Now when it comes to listening to music with these headphones, you can easily customize
how these headphones sound through their app.
But definitely these headphones are geared towards people who like using a neutral sound
signature.
If you max out the bass on these headphones they have a good amount of kick but its definitely
not going to be enough to satisfy a bass head.
But to get technical, the bass on these headphones doesn’t bottom out and the highs stay crisp.
Instrument separation and soundstage is decent… but again keep in mind that’s with ANC turned
off.
Personally I would only use ANC on these headphones if you absolutely need to.
And finally here’s the microphone test.
Personally I wouldn’t take phone calls with these headphones cause there is a lot of echoing
and there is a lot of peaking.
But this audio clip is being recorded with the microphone on the JBL Live 650BTNC, so
you can be the judge of that.
So over all, personally for me the JBL Live 650BTNC’s don’t rank all that high on
my list.
From a subjective standpoint I don’t think these are the most comfortable headphones
out there cause of how they rest on your head and cause of their cramped ear cups.
And from an objective standpoint, even though these headphones manage to block out more
noise than a lot of other $200 ANC headphones out there that they do so at the expense of
sound quality.
And also there are a few other things to nit pick like the lack of high quality Codecs
like APTX and AAC, the lack of USB C in 2019, and the complete lack of an ambient mode.
Personally I can’t recommend picking these headphones up for $200, but if they’re on
sale then maybe you should try them out.
But personally I think that if you’re looking for a great pair of $200 ANC headphones then
I highly recommend the Audio-Technica SR50BT’s or if you’re looking for a deal then I recommend
the Sony WH-CH700N.