JBL Tour Pro 3 review

JBL is one of those brands that has more SKUs than stars in the sky, but when it trots out a flagship product: it’s worth paying attention to. Is the new JBL Tour Pro 3 worth your money? We took a spin to find out.

Editor’s note: this article was updated on September 9, 2024, to add MDAQS charts and ratings.

What’s it like to use JBL Tour Pro 3?

Well, I’ve gotta hand it to JBL, using the JBL Tour Pro 3 is about as new of an experience I’ve had in a while — at least as far as earbuds are concerned. A lot of my perennial gripes about earbud design like fit, function, and form are directly addressed by the JBL Tour Pro 3. Consequently, there’s a lot to like about these earbuds, even if there’s no removable battery.

Using the JBL Tour Pro 3 is pretty familiar, as the earbuds have a typical form of a bud with short lollipop stem. The nozzles are short, ovoid, and easily fit into your ear canal — though not that deeply. Inside the packaging are four extra sizes of ear tips, along with a set of foam ear tips for those who don’t like silicone tips.

The earbud housings are huge, somewhat heavy, and oddly-shaped. However, they do seem to be able to nestle in your ears by making contact with your concha, ear canal, and tragus/antitragus. Just be aware that you may have to trial-and-error your way through the ear tip sizes until you find one that fits securely without putting too much pressure on your ears.

Unlike more traditional earbuds, the JBL Tour Pro 3 has a lot of extras baked in, and the product uses the Smart Charging Case to complete what has always felt like an incomplete product to me. True wireless earbuds have been largely hostile to traditional physical connection methods, and their popularity directly led to smartphones losing the headphone jack. Though some models have re-introduced a transmitter in the case to return that level of connectivity to earbuds, many of those attempts have been a poor replacement. Not so with the JBL Tour Pro 3. You can use USB, 3.5mm, and wireless connections to listen to your music — something impossible with most wireless earbuds.

But the Smart Charging Case is more than just an audio transmitter; it can also serve as a standalone user interface for your earbuds when you’re not going to dig out your phone. You can access many of the features that would normally be locked in the app right from the case’s screen. For example, changing sound settings, ANC, finding your earbuds when they’re lost, and so on.

Should you use the JBL Headphones app for the JBL Tour Pro 3?

Though the privacy-conscious among you may not want to hear it, in order to get the best parts of the JBL Tour Pro 3 working: you need the JBL Headphones app. Installing the app will grant you access to:

• Timely firmware updates
• Equalizer presets
• 10-band EQ
• Active noise cancelation settings
• An ear tip fit test, Find My case (and earbuds)
• The ability to use your earbuds as a personal sound amplification device
• Customizing the earbud controls
• Spatial audio
• Personi-fi (personal sound adjustments)
• Channel balance
• Volume limiter
• Transparency settings

Believe it or not, that’s not a comprehensive list, as the app does a lot of heavy lifting. The case can do a ton on its own, but you can even customize that with your app as well.

How do the JBL Tour Pro 3 connect?

The JBL Tour Pro 3 uses Bluetooth 5.4, with the ability to connect to source devices over SBC, AAC, LDAC, and LC3. Additionally, you can use Auracast to share audio with your friends using the Smart Charging Case.

If you’re liable to bounce around devices a lot, the JBL Tour Pro 3 supports Multipoint. After connecting your first device, you can put the earbuds in a semi-pairing mode by doing a quick tap, and then tapping again and holding on both earbuds. The voice prompt will tell you when the earbuds are pairing, and you can connect another device.

But my favorite capability of the JBL Tour Pro 3 is the ability to use the charging case as a transmitter when connected to source devices with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Simply use the included USB-C to 3.5mm cable to connect whatever you want to listen to with the Smart Charging Case, and you can listen to even old devices. You should not need an amp to get a usable level with the case.

How long does the JBL Tour Pro 3 battery last?

Under our standardized test conditions, the JBL Tour Pro 3 was able to last 8 hours and 17 minutes with the ANC on. That’s a very respectable result, especially for wireless earbuds with ANC. While this isn’t exactly enough to last from NYC to London, you should be able to listen uninterrupted from coast to coast, or through an entire workday — which is a lot more important than it might sound. Considering that most people limit their listening sessions to about an hour during a commute, or up to four hours at a time, it will be extremely unlikely that you’ll exhaust the buds’ batteries with typical use.

Though a longer battery life has positive consequences for product longevity, so does the wireless charging capability. With any Qi-compatible charging pad, you can wirelessly top-up the Smart Charging Case’s cell without putting any unnecessary strain on the USB-C port — something you’re going to want to last a long, long time if you use the 3.5mm cable.

How well do the JBL Tour Pro 3 cancel noise?

The JBL Tour Pro 3 cancels noise very well, though there doesn’t seem to be a huge difference in performance between the tip types. Because it’s so easy to get a good fit with the ear tips, the isolation even without the foam ear tips is extremely good.

With the ANC enabled and set to full-blast, you can assume about 83-84% of outside noise to be hushed away. If you’d like a little more passthrough, you can adjust this down by using the slider in the app. You can also enable transparency to hold conversations while wearing the earbuds.

How do the JBL Tour Pro 3 sound?

The JBL Tour Pro 3 sounds really decent, though the different EQ modes will appeal to different listeners. The sound of the JBL Tour Pro 3 is definitively geared toward a more consumer-friendly audience.

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

The chart below shows how the sound of the Technics EAH-AZ80 was assessed by the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics.

Our virtual panel of listeners have spoken, and the JBL Tour Pro 3 sound the way most people want true wireless earbuds to sound. With high marks across the board, it should come as no surprise that I feel confident in telling you that you’ll probably really like the sound of the product. Timbre, Distortion, and Immersiveness scores all netted a mean opinion score (MOS) of 4.3 or higher, which is uncommonly good at any price point. Great job JBL!

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 Pro 3 for phone calls?

As the JBL Tour Pro 3 represents JBL’s flagship earbuds, it’s no surprise that there’s a lot of attention paid to the mics for phone calls. These did well in the lab, but you can hear for yourself below.

JBL Tour Pro 3 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Should you buy the JBL Tour Pro 3?

If you’re looking for earbuds that are as future-proof as you can get, the JBL Tour Pro 3 is your best bet by a country mile. Not only do the earbuds perform well, but the case also adds functionality that is truly uncommon in its category — and unlocks some next-gen features. As time goes on, these earbuds will remain current, while the rest of its cohort will be left behind.

Budget-conscious buyers might balk at the $300 price tag, but this is one of those products that’s truly special enough for us to make a note of.

How do JBL Tour Pro 3 compare to the JBL Live Beam 3?

If you’re looking for similar products to the JBL Tour Pro 3, the list begins and ends with the JBL Live Beam 3 ($199.95 at Amazon). Though the older earbuds aren’t as expensive as the JBL Tour Pro 3, they pack in many of the same features as the newer model — with the glaring exception of the audio transmitter.

Truth be told, you may find that you don’t care so much about the transmitter, so the JBL Live Beam 3 may be the better buy for you. Still, we’d encourage you to think about it, as that function is so useful to travelers and music collectors.

What should you get instead of the JBL Tour Pro 3?

It’s tough to recommend other earbuds if what you’re looking for is some combination of cutting edge features and value, but the closest alternative I can think of that isn’t a JBL product is the Sennehsier Momentum True Wireless 4 ($269.95 at Amazon).

While you might be tempted to pick up Apple AirPods Pro 2 ($239 at Amazon) as a competitor for iOS devices, the more expensive JBL Tour Pro 3 does offer more useful functions. In that light, I can only recommend the Apple earbuds to iOS users looking to save a little bit of money.

Frequently asked questions