JBL Tour Pro 3 Earbuds Review: Lower Price and Enticing Improvements

5 hours ago 2

Pros

Good fit, comfortable to wear
Dual-driver design serves up clear, well-defined sound with punchy bass
Best frequency response in lab tests
1.6-inch color touchscreen
Good noise-canceling and voice-calling performance
Wireless charging
Support for LDAC codec (Android), AAC
Spatial sound with head-tracking
Case works as Bluetooth dongle

Cons

They sound very good, but don't rise to a special level
Noise canceling is behind competitors
Smart charging case is a tad heavy

JBL Tour Pro 3 Earbuds Review: Lower Price and Enticing Improvements
JBL Tour Pro 3 design
JBL Tour Pro 3 features
JBL Tour Pro 3 noise cancellation
JBL Tour Pro 3 sound quality
JBL Tour Pro 3 voice-calling performance and battery life
JBL Tour Pro 3 final thoughts

When they were released, back in the fall of 2024, JBL's flagship Tour Pro 3 earbuds cost $330. While they had a touchscreen LCD in their charging case, which doubled as a Bluetooth dongle, I thought they were too expensive for what they ultimately delivered.

But over time, the price has dropped (around $250 or less sometimes), making them a better deal. Plus, they now have the distinction of earning our first CNET Labs award for most accurate frequency response, having tested closest to the Harman Target Curve. Combine that with the added benefit of some firmware updates that have improved their performance, and they're easier to recommend today. They do face steep competition, however, from the likes of Apple's AirPods Pro 3 and Samsung's Galaxy Buds 4 Pro.

Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds of 2026

JBL Tour Pro 3 design

The Tour Pro 3 earbuds have a premium charging case, but I wasn't sure the design of the buds themselves was quite premium enough when I first encountered the Tour Pro 3 at $330. While the buds felt substantial, sporting dual-drivers inside, their plastic chrome accents made them look a little cheap to me -- or not as refined looking as some premium buds. They're IP55 splash-proof and dust-proof.

At their lower price, it's easier to be less nitpicky. They are comfortable to wear and relatively lightweight at 5.6 grams per bud. By comparison, JBL's step-down Beam 3 buds, which have a single 10-millimeter dynamic driver, weigh 5 grams each. They, too, have a touchscreen LCD in their charging case (it's a bit smaller at 1.5 inches compared to the Tour Pro 3's 1.6-inch touchscreen), and I decided to recommend that model because it costs significantly less -- it's $150 today -- for only a slight step down in performance.

Aside from the Tour Pro 3's larger touchscreen and dual-driver design, the one key difference between it and the Beam 3 is its charging case turns into a Bluetooth transceiver, so you can plug it into the headphone port on an inflight entertainment system and have it transmit audio to your buds wirelessly (you can plug the case into any auxiliary or USB-C port and have it transmit audio). Only a few earbuds, including the pricey Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 earbuds, offer this feature.

The touchscreen is responsive and serves as a remote control for the buds, so you skip tracks forward and back and adjust settings, including sound modes and equalizer settings, without touching your phone. It's a nice feature, but incorporating a touchscreen in a charging case does make it heavier and bulkier, which some people may take issue with; the charging case weighs 71.8 grams or about 2.5 ounces compared to 44 grams or 1.6 ounces for the AirPods Pro 3's charging case.

JBL Tour Pro 3 features

Upgraded to Bluetooth 6.0 with a firmware update, the Tour Pro 3 have a robust feature set, including the aforementioned smart charging case along with ear-detection sensors to automatically pause audio when you take a bud out, spatial sound with head-tracking, Bluetooth multipoint, a basic Find My Buds feature, equalizer settings and support for Auracast public broadcasts and Sony's LDAC audio codec for Android devices (AAC for Apple devices).

Like some buds these days, the Pro 3s have a sound personalization feature called Personi-Fi 3.0. It's found in the JBL Headphones companion app for iOS and Android and creates a unique sound profile tailored to your hearing (and hearing tastes). I also appreciate JBL's VoiceAware feature that lets you control how much of your own voice you hear through your earbuds during phone calls.

Also, the buds have a feature -- SmartTalk -- that detects your voice when you start to have a conversation with someone and automatically lowers the volume of your music and switches from noise canceling to ambient aware modes (on the smart case touchscreen, you enable TalkThru for the feature to work). This is similar to the Apple AirPods Pro 3's Conversation Awareness and the Sony WF-1000XM6 speak-to-chat feature.

JBL Tour Pro 3 noise cancellation

The JBL Tour Pro 3's noise canceling is quite effective, especially if you're able to get a tight seal from one of the six pairs of eartips that come in the box, including a set of foam tips. I wouldn't rate the noise cancellation as high as it is on the Sony WF-1000XM6, AirPods Pro 3 and Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra (Gen 2), but it's only a small step behind (I'd grade it a B-plus or maybe even an A-minus).

JBL Tour Pro 3 sound quality

As I said earlier, the Tour Pro 3s are equipped with a dual-driver design. They have a 10.2mm dynamic driver for bass and mids (vocals) combined with a dedicated 5.1-by-2.8mm balanced armature driver for the highs. They sound good, with rich, detailed sound that's well-balanced and has nice depth to it. As advertised, the bass is both meaty and punchy, and has lots of kick to it without sounding boomy.

Our labs recently started testing frequency response for many of the top earbuds out there right now. As noted, the JBL Tour Pro 3 wireless earbuds have earned a CNET Labs award for best frequency response, which means their frequency response lines up most closely to the Harman Target Curve, the "science-backed" target frequency response for the ideal tonal balance for headphones and earphones. This isn't so surprising given that JBL is a subsidiary of Harman, which is owned by Samsung.

All that said, while the Tour Pro 3s are impressive-sounding earbuds, I can't say they truly wowed me (I'd grade them an A-minus on the sound front). For pure sound quality, I would take the Sony WF-1000XM6 or the new Noble Osprey ($200), which also feature a dual-driver design, over the JBL Tour Pro 3. Those earbuds just sound a little more special than the Tour Pro 3 buds, offering a little more pure, natural sound. In the case of the Noble Osprey, their treble performance is a step up from the Tour Pro 3s, with more sparkle and clarity.

JBL Tour Pro 3 voice-calling performance and battery life

I've generally been pleased with JBL's earbuds voice-calling performance over the last few years, and the Tour Pro 3 are quite good in the voice-calling department (they have three microphones in each earbud). Callers said they only heard minimal background noise when I spoke to them from the noisy streets of New York. They said my voice sounded reasonably clear, though slightly muffled.

The voice-calling performance isn't quite up to the level of what you get with Anker's new Liberty Pro 5 series buds or Sony's WF-1000XM6 (the AirPods Pro 3's and Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro's voice-calling performance are also top-tier), but it's very good overall. I'd grade it an A-minus.

The Tour Pro 3s are rated for up to 8 hours of battery life with noise canceling on at moderate volume levels, which is good (it goes up to 11 hours with ANC off). The case adds around 32 hours of battery life with noise canceling on.

JBL Tour Pro 3 final thoughts

When they first came out, I thought the Tour Pro 3 were good earbuds, but they fell short of my expectations for the price ($330). Now that they've been out over 18 months and their price has dipped to closer to $250 (and sometimes closer to $200 during flash sales) and received some firmware updates that improve performance, they're more enticing. That's particularly true if you value the smart charging case features (including the Bluetooth transceiver feature) that help distinguish them from other premium earbuds. I still think certain competing models offer slightly more pleasing sound quality, but their fit and overall performance package (sound quality, noise cancellation and voice-calling) is appealing. Even though they're approaching two years old, they're well worth considering, especially if they dip to $200.

The Live Beam 3 earbuds look similar to the earlier Live Buds Pro 2, which I liked a lot, especially when they go on sale for less than $100. Essentially, they're JBL's AirPods Pro 2 competitor, and their distinguishing feature is the 1.5-inch touchscreen LCD integrated into the charging case that acts as a remote control for the buds and allows you to access their features. Equipped with 10mm drivers, not only do they offer clear, well-defined sound with punchy bass, but their noise-canceling and voice-calling performance is solid. Their battery is also good -- they offer up to 10 hours of battery life with ANC on and 12 hours with it off at moderate volume levels (a 10-minute charge gives you 4 hours of battery life). Available in four color options, they're IP55 splash-proof and dust-resistant.

Note that JBL's flagship Tour Pro 3 earbuds also have an integrated LCD but feature dual drivers, which deliver even better sound than these buds with a little more depth and detail. However, the Live Beam 3s often sell for $50 off their $200 list price, which makes them a better deal overall.

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