The JBL Tune 770NC are a pair of over-ear wireless headphones with built-in noise cancelation. They’re a top choice for all ages of music lovers looking to enjoy their favorite tracks on the go. I grabbed a pair to test, and determine whether all the hype is warranted. After a week of use, I’m ready to share my findings and explain both the strengths and benefits of these headphones.
Key Takeaways:
- These are lightweight headphones suitable for all ages.
- They sound better than most similarly priced competitors.
- Noise canceling is a little underwhelming in some scenarios.
- Outstanding battery life that lasts for days.
Tune 770NC
The Bottom Line
If you’re on the market for an affordable pair of noise-canceling headphones that focus more on sound quality than ANC performance, the JBL 770NC is an outstanding option. While the noise cancelation isn’t great at reducing low droning sounds, it effectively reduces chatter and higher-pitched environmental noise. Where these headphones separate themselves from the competition is in their sound quality, which is mostly balanced and sounds especially good with a few EQ tweaks.
Design, Build, & Durability
Although primarily made from plastic, the design on the 770NC is well thought out, with reliable swivel joints and thoughtful cable placement to prevent damage. Its small earcups and relatively tight clamping force may not work well on larger head shapes.
The JBL Tune 770NC Are Lightweight and Easy To Carry Around
The design of the Tune 770 NC feels familiar, and that’s because it’s a recipe for success that’s been adopted by quite a few headphone manufacturers at this point. This stylistic choice takes a minimalist approach, with subtle branding and soft colors.
These headphones come in four color variations: white, blue, purple and black. I picked up the white version for this review, which has a sleek, stylish and extremely clean look.
If you’re someone who frequently takes their headphones out to gym, jogging or college – these headphones can fold up tightly into a semi-circle by making use of the hinges at the top of each earcup. This makes them easier to carry and allows them to fit into small handbags and naturally backpacks and sports bags too.
Just watch out for the sharp corners on the edge of the headband when they’re folded up, as this can damage some materials when moved in and out of the bag.
Although Mostly Plastic, They’re Well Engineered, However, They Lack Water-Resistance
Although they are primarily plastic, the quality feels rather good. It doesn’t feel quite as premium as the more expensive Bose QuietComfort, but aligns closely with that of the similarly priced Sony WH-CH720N.
One of the most common points of failure on these types of headphones is the swivel joint around the earcup. For the most part, these swivels are stable and seem well-built, but it’s still a good idea to be careful with the amount of pressure put on these joints.
With wire damage over time being another common point of failure for headphones, I closely inspected the influence of earcup movement on the wires, and the engineering seems solid here, as they’re designed to swivel with minimal movement to the wires that run through the headband and into the earcups.
Unfortunately, there’s no waterproofing on the JBL Tune 770 NC – so if you’re using them outdoors, make sure you don’t get them wet. I found that sweat wasn’t a problem during testing, but there isn’t any sweat resistance specified by JBL.
Relatively Small Earcups And Headband May Not Suit Those With Bigger Than Average Heads
The Tune 770 NC are quite small and clearly designed to support a broad demographic. Their design makes them most comfortable to children, teenagers or those with smaller head sizes, though the headband can be adjusted to fit a relatively large variety of people.
If you have a larger head, or are prone to discomfort from clamping force – I’d first try these on before buying them, as they do hold on quite tightly – which is great for exercising, but can decrease comfort for some people. Using them for extended periods can cause some pain around the ear from the pressure for those with a larger than normal dome or large ears.
As a glasses-wearer, I found the tightness could aggravate the pressure from the frames next to my ear. Similarly, the ear cups are quite small and some may find they add to discomfort.
The headband is mostly plastic, but has a small area of plush that runs along the bottom of it. This is fine for most head shapes, but doesn’t accommodate everyone. Those with particularly large and flat heads, may find direct contact with the plastic sides of the headband. However, these are definitely outlier cases.
Controls & Connectivity
Controls and connectivity are excellent, with easy to use buttons on the earcup and comprehensive playback controls. Bluetooth connectivity is reliable, even over distance, but doesn’t support low latency codecs like aptX-LL or LDAC.
Easy To Use Buttons That Give You Full Control Of More Than Just Your Playback
The controls are excellent, they’re simple and easy to use, with all buttons located on the bottom of the right earcup.
The earcup features a power button, noise canceling tottle, and a series of three buttons which control the playback, calls, voice assistance and volume.
I found that having the play/pause button positioned between the volume buttons made it easy to make any playback adjustments I needed. Holding down the volume buttons will skip tracks, either forward (volume up) or backward (volume down).
This central button is also multi-functional, and can be used to take and end calls, activate voice assistants and use the microphone.
Modern Bluetooth Ensures a Stable Connection, But There’s No Low-Latency Codec Support
You get modern, efficient Bluetooth connectivity from these headphones. They support Bluetooth 5.3, which is one of the latest versions, with a lot of efficiency and reliability. This ensures a stable connection, even at range.
I do wish, however, that they had supported some high definition codecs, as they only support SBC and AAC, meaning there isn’t the low-latency performance from LDAC or aptX-LL codecs that lowers latency for gamers and multimedia viewers. Still, there isn’t much delay and you can watch YouTube without significant sync problems.
Sound Quality
The JBL 770NC carry a fairly neutral sound, with slight elevation in the bass to bring energetic music to life with depth. The vocals can sound a little recessed, but using the JBL Headphones app gives you the ability to tweak the sound and add more vocal presence.
A Mostly Balanced Sound, That’s Both Rich And Clear
Upon first listen, I was pleasantly surprised by how the 770NC sounded out of the box. The thumpy lows added immersive depth, and made dance and hip-hop sound as lively as they should. However, the mids, which are where the vocals lie, felt slightly unbalanced compared to the elevated highs that caused the vocals to sound a little recessed in comparison to the brighter elements in a song.
Thankfully the JBL Headphones app is a game changer, and allowed me to make fine adjustments to the sound, bringing the vocal frequencies up to make them sound clearer. Since the app lets you adjust up to 10 different frequency ranges, it really is an awesome, and easy way to dial in the sound.
Since they sound so good off the bat, there really wasn’t much needed in getting their sound tweaked to my liking and with these quick changes I got the Tune 770 NC to sound clear, full and detailed. Overall, performing very well for their price point.
The 770NC Effectively Reduces Chatter, But Doesn’t Do Great At Reducing Deep Droning Sounds
Because the ear cups are quite small, they fit tightly on the head which promotes passive isolation. When paired with the adaptive noise cancelling feature, they do an effective job at reducing a range of environmental noises.
If you’re in an office building or gym and want to drown out the noise of nearby chatter, they are very effective. However, they have a tendency to allow some deep drones and high-pitched screeches through with less reduction.
I tested these in a room with a 6” extraction fan and found it removed a lot of that noise, helping to improve the sound clarity and concentrate on the music.
While effective, the performance of the ANC does fall slightly behind competitor models, particularly in its ability to remove low droning sounds.
Included Cables & Chargers
Included in the box are two sets of cables, a short USB-C cable for charging and a 1.25m 1/16″ TRS to 1/8″ TRRS cable for audio. The audio cable is sufficiently long for use with handheld consoles, remote controls and supporting cell phones, but is a bit too short for comfortable use with a PC. If you’re planning to use it on your desktop PC, I recommend getting a longer aftermarket cable.
Take Control Of Your Sound With The JBL Headphones App
When setting the headphones up for the first time, they were immediately detected when I turned them on and then I was prompted to download the JBL Headphones app.
When I opened the app, I was surprised by how comprehensive it is. It not only has preset and custom EQ options, but the custom EQ allows for micro adjustments with a 10-band EQ. For those who haven’t dabbled with EQ much, the more bands of frequencies you can adjust the finer you can tune it to sound to your liking.
Most headphones only have 3, 5 or 7 band EQs – but with up to 10 options, you can adjust very specific frequencies.
The app does far more than just EQ though, it can be used to swap between noise canceling modes, audio and video modes, and adjust the VoiceAware feature which adjusts how loud you are to yourself when making calls.
Additionally, there’s left and right sound balance, voice assistant choices (including Alexa and Google), volume limiter and auto power off options.
Outstanding Charging Speed & A Battery That Lasts For Days
When it comes to battery performance, these headphones are outstanding! They last what seems like forever, and can easily last over a week when used daily for gym, studying etc.
I got an impressive 45 hours of playtime with ANC enabled, which is incredible and exceeds the performance found on much more expensive wireless headphones. With ANC disabled, it took around 64 hours, which made it quite a lengthy testing process.
In addition to its outstanding longevity, the battery is also extremely fast charging, taking just 2 hours to fully charge with the batteries dead.
Value For Money
At around $100, the JBL Tune 770NC performs above its price point, competing with more expensive headphones on the market. The Sony WH-CH720N is another option at around the same price, which is a little more forgiving on its comfort levels and offers better noise canceling than the 770NC. However, the sound quality falls short of the JBL, by quite some distance.
Another popular choice for a similar headphone is Soundcore’s Life Q30, but although the Q30’s noise cancelling feature does better with eliminating low drones, music just sounds better with the Tune 770NC.
