JBL Tour One M3 review: The next generation of ANC

The world of high-end ANC headphones is dominated by only a handful of options, and is ripe for a shakeup. But can personal audio behemoth JBL force its way into the conversation? We were able to test out the JBL Tour One M3 for a week before it released to find out. One thing’s for sure: people will be talking about it.

What’s it like to use the JBL Tour One M3?

The JBL Tour One M3 is meant to slot into your life as a complete daily driver. As it’s a set of higher-end active noise canceling (ANC) headphones with just about every feature most people would ask for, it’s a credible competitor to the AirPods Max, Bose QuietComfort Ultra, and Sony WH-1000XM5s of the world. Kitted with 8 microphones with windscreens, up-to-snuff signal processing with an internal DAC, and 40mm drivers, the JBL Tour One M3 has all the parts to be a top-flight set of ANC headphones.

Using the JBL Tour One M3 is fairly forgiving, as we’ve reached a point in headphones history where we’ve settled pretty uniformly on what makes a good set of headphones. There aren’t really any surprises with the build of the JBL Tour One M3: the faux leather ear pads are comfortable, the plastic build is mercifully light, and the band of the headphones is adequately padded for longer listening sessions. I found the JBL Tour One M3 to be just as comfortable to wear as any of the other top-end ANC headphones on the market, though those of you with smaller heads may struggle a bit to get a decent fit with the band.

But the most unique feature is the SMART Tx remote and transmitter. Said transmitter is essentially a carbon copy of the system used by the JBL Tour Pro 3: you can control your headphones’ performance and playback with the brick while also using it as a transmitter to listen to audio over a low-energy codec. The brick has a charging port on the right of the unit, and a USB-C input to the left. A capacitive screen on the front serves as the only control interface as well.

The JBL Tour One M3 comes stuffed into a carrying case that’s thankfully slim, though it requires you to use the headphones’ ability to lie flat and fold up. On the top shell lid is a mesh pouch, where I suggest you keep the included USB-C and 3.5mm cables stowed — they’re really easy to lose. This case is perfect for air travelers, as its flat design makes it less of a pain to keep in your carry-on, and it shouldn’t get caught on the seat when it gets shoved under the one in front of you.

As far as advanced features go, the JBL Tour One M3 has pretty much all of them. Find My, Spatial Audio, a volume limiter, customizable passthrough and vocal modes, ear detection for auto-pause… the list goes on. For those who need to chill out sometimes, there’s even a set of relaxation tracks that you can play through the app for a preset amount of time.

What are the best features of the JBL Tour One M3?

The best feature of the JBL Tour One M3 by far and away is the JBL SMART Tx remote brick — despite my colleagues’ reticence. Though it can be a bit of a pain to have yet another thing to lose in your pocket, it’s convenient to be able to avoid opening your phone to access an app. Instead, you just flip out this tiny little brick to access the advanced features of your headphones and music playback. Like the smart case of the JBL Tour Pro 3, the brick is much more than that.

If you find yourself with a source that doesn’t support wireless, or is just locked behind some walled garden BS like Apple devices: you can simply use the JBL SMART Tx as a transmitter to sidestep the issue. By offloading the processing and transmitting to the brick and not relying on the source device’s hardware to handle everything, you can safely forget about what compatibility issues or shortcomings you might have with this brick. The main drawbacks are that it’s easy to lose, and it’s yet another thing that needs charging.

The transmitter allows you to pair multiple Auracast-compatible devices to it — several at a time, too. If you’re traveling with family, you could all listen in on a movie or show at the same time, provided each of your headphones supports Auracast. This fits in with the company’s strategy to move away from proprietary solutions for multi-device setups, and this is a big check in the plus column. By enabling this sort of flexibility, the JBL Tour One M3’s success could drag other manufacturers into doing the same.

So far, this is my favorite implementation of the capability, and it’s a shame that it’s not making more headlines yet. Being able to start your own shared broadcast over LC3 is such a game-changer for traveling families, friend groups, or people simply looking to tap into a single source of entertainment is going to be one of those things that we take for granted in the future, but was an unbelievable pain in the butt in the early days of wireless. Hurdles like these disappearing is always a good thing, especially when it was a capability we lost with the death of wired headphones. I’m still not wild about an easily-lost accessory being integral to any product, but maybe replacement bricks will be affordable.

Finally, I was very heartened to see JBL add a personal sound amplification (PSAP) feature, which helps the JBL Tour One M3 blur the line between headphone and hearable. By adopting hearing assistive features for the mass market, products like the Apple AirPods Pro 2 and the JBL Tour One M3 are making some of these capabilities available to people without buying separate equipment. Just head into the app et voila! you can turn the transparency mode into a legit means to hear the world around you better. This also helps side-step the stigma associated with wearing dedicated PSAP devices or hearing aids, and I will always laud that. Good on ya, JBL; well done.

How does the JBL Tour One M3 connect?

Over its Bluetooth 5.3 connection, the JBL Tour One M3 can connect to your devices via SBC, AAC, LDAC, and LC3. Additionally, the headphones support Auracast, as mentioned above — which is necessary for the transmitter case to work. If you’re a purist, the JBL Tour One M3 also supports lossless USB-C or analog audio, enabled by the onboard DAC. Truly, these can be used with pretty much anything, and that’s a fair bit rarer than it should be. Though the high-bitrate LDAC is only available with sources that support it, the advantages of using LC3 with the transmitter are low latency and lower power draw.

Though you’d hope that all contemporary wireless headphones should be able to handle wired input, it’s a bit more rare than you might think. It’s a very good thing that the JBL Tour One M3 gives its users both analog and digital wired options, as well as the ability to transmit audio from sources wirelessly.

How long do the JBL Tour One M3’s battery last?

How well do the JBL Tour One M3 cancel noise?

If you’re looking for a top-flight set of noise cancelers, the JBL Tour One M3 is one of the best options on the market. Owing in part to excellent isolation, the JBL Tour One M3 posts one of our highest ANC scores as well.

Actively canceling around 30dB of outside noise under 1kHz and isolating everything above it excellently, the JBL Tour One M3 is every bit a contender for the best ANC headphones on the market as any other model. While JBL isn’t exactly an unknown quantity by any means, it hasn’t really been in the conversation of top-tier ANC headphones for a long time. That should change with the JBL Tour One M3.

How do the JBL Tour One M3 sound?

Though the JBL Tour One M3 has its ups and downs, the sound is easy to get used to. While it’s not going to be everyone’s favorite, you can make some pretty helpful adjustments to improve the performance here.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Can you use the JBL Tour One M3 for phone calls?

As a competitor for the top end of ANC headphones, the JBL Tour One M3 can predictably handle phone calls like any other headset.

JBL Tour One M3 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Should you buy the JBL Tour One M3?

Though it’s a little spendy, the JBL Tour One M3 is a competent competitor at the sub-$400 price point. The addition of the SMART Tx accessory might be a little controversial, but it definitely has its appeal to people with friends, family, or want to future-proof their investment in headphones. With rock-solid ANC and decent-enough sound performance, the JBL Tour One M3 should be on everyone’s radar if you’re looking for something Sony and Bose just don’t offer yet. We’re awarding these headphones not for their default sound — because you can make it better — but for their ability to serve a huge array of needs, including those hard of hearing, and those who want to use their headphones with absolutely anything.

What should you get instead of the JBL Tour One M3?

If you’re hoping for a set of headphones that does all the same things the JBL Tour One M3 does currently, you’re outta luck: it doesn’t exist yet. However, the natural competitors to the JBL headset are going to be the Sony WH-1000XM5 ($387 at Amazon) the Bose QuietComfort Ultra ($429 at Amazon), and the Apple AirPods Max (on the product's website). Each of these headphones has a unique feature to bring over the rest, but none of them have the Auracast ability the JBL Tour One M3 has, nor do they separate themselves too much from the JBL in terms of raw noise canceling ability. We encourage you to try those headphones anyway, because one may fit your skull a lot better than the rest — making it the right choice for you.

While it’s tempting to tell people to look for a cheaper alternative, there really isn’t much on the market that’s comparable without some major tradeoff or two. For example, the JLab JBuds Lux ANC ($79.99 at Amazon) are much more affordable, have wired USB listening, and decent ANC — but it lacks the featureset and future-proofing the JBL Tour One M3 has. Not to mention, the Tour One M3 runs circles around it in performance. Similarly, the Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 Wireless ($289.23 at Amazon) is very similar in many ways to the JBL Tour One M3, but has poorer ANC at roughly half the price.

JBL Tour One M3 review: FAQs