u/Tig33

I knew JBL had new buds on the way given the heavy discounts of late but I actually thought it would be the flagship tour series.

I'm a fan of the live series but given the price of these and i'm not sure of the value here

a few things i've found compared to the previous gen are

• improved ANC algorithms
• upgraded drivers/sound tuning
• smarter touchscreen case software (JBL Smart OS 3.0)
• better call quality processing with newer AI voice isolation
• more customization directly from the case UI
• refreshed battery/case experience

But still not really matching the Tour series whilst still going for almost tour prices..

At the current prices soundcore, earfun buds may be better value.. (i do have the beam on order though as i'm very interested how they perform as i was a fan of the previous gen)

Official JBL Link - https://uk.jbl.com/JBLLIVEBEAM4BLK.html

Audranx Link (Reviews,Ratings) - JBL Live Buds 4 -JBL Live Buds 4 Review & Score | Audranx and JBL Live Beam 4 - JBL Live Beam 4 Review & Score | Audranx

Not really an Apple person at all, but I finally gave the AirPods Pro 3 a proper run to see what the fuss was about. I've been testing pretty much every flagship earbud for the last few years (have a running ranking over on audranx.com/best-anc if anyone's into that kind of thing), and honestly? I think Apple still has the best ANC out there. Not even particularly close right now imo.

The thing that got me wasn't the raw low-end stuff — it's how even the ANC feels across the whole frequency range, without that pressure-y or unnatural feeling you get from some of the others. And the transparency mode is just on another level. Half the time you forget you've got anything in your ears.

What I keep noticing is how much other brands lean on aggressive foam tips (yes i know the new airpods have foam but even without foam the anc logic with the airpods is excellent , really deep seals, or just a high white noise hiss to push their ANC numbers up:

• Sony XM6 — solid with foam tips, kinda meh without
• JBL Tour Pro 3 — surprisingly strong, again, foam tips doing heavy lifting
• Bose QC Ultra — probably the most impressive tech given the shallow fit, no foam tips needed. But there's a noticeable white noise floor that personally bugs me
• Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5 — really good for the fit, but the adaptive ANC is a bit hit and miss

Samsung… eh. I don't really hear meaningful year-on-year ANC progress (maybe 10% if that!). Lots of "AI adaptive algorithm" talk, not much I can actually pick up on. Also way too ecosystem-locked for my taste, which is a weird thing to say about an Android brand.

Sony feels stuck. Oppo/OnePlus I genuinely couldn't tell you what they're trying to do anymore.

Hoping the next round shakes things up — JBL Tour Pro 4, next Bose Ultra, maybe a new Technics flagship (though Technics usually go SQ over ANC).

But yeah, right now, ANC across frequencies + transparency, Apple's still ahead for me. Genuinely don't mind being wrong on this though — if anyone's done proper side-by-sides recently and landed somewhere different, I'd love to hear what changed your mind.

Also curious if there's anything I haven't spent enough time with that people here rate highly.

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Streaming links available at :

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New update is out for the JBL Tour Pro 3 - now up to version 5.9.0 and also includes a big update for the case - New interface (much easier to control now!)

The version jump is big so i'm going to do some testing to see if there are any meaningful changes to the buds themselves or whether the big version jump is more to do with the changes to the charging case

Source: https://audranx.com/earbuds/jbl-tour-pro-3