- The JBL Tour One M2 features Adaptive Noise Cancelling to block the ambient noise around you.
- It also includes a Smart Ambient mode which helps you stay alert of your surrounding noise.
- Personi-Fi 2.0 lets you customize the audio to match your personal listening profile.
Audio is paramount for content creation – for reels, short films, and, of course, podcasts – and a good pair of headphones makes a lot of difference. Without a good headset, playing competitive games or even casually listening to music or watching a movie is an incomplete experience. As an avid PlayStation 5 gamer and a multimedia editor myself, good audio is crucial as it can really enhance the gameplay and help refine the content that is being produced.
I tried out the new JBL Tour One M2 headphones to test if they can be more than just good premium Bluetooth headphones. It was used under different scenarios like editing multimedia content in our studio, while gaming, and also when commuting and traveling on a flight. The headphone cost about $300 and provide a bang for the buck as it is loaded with a host of features from which I have listed the top five attributes that I found to be helpful for my day-to-day use.
WATCH: JBL Tour One M2 Unboxing
Adaptive Noise Cancellation (ANC): Filter out ambient noise based on your surroundings
The JBL Tour One M2 comes with Adaptive Noise Cancellation (ANC), which is basically active noise cancellation, but has ambient features for different scenarios. We will talk about that in a bit.
As working professionals, we have returned to an office environment, working with teams spread across different cities and nations. So, collaboration becomes important at such times. My colleagues sitting next to me in the office are in virtual meetings or on team calls will other colleagues almost all the time. There are several distractions and disturbances around you in an office space, which is why I found the ANC to be quite helpful. The feature cancels most of the surrounding noises and helps me focus on my video and podcast edits.
Also, while we have a studio room for recording audio and video, there are times when the audio sounds too hollow or there is an echo or reverb, not something that one can easily notice on a smartphone or a regular laptop speaker. This is where the JBL Tour One M2’s noise cancellation comes in handy to hear these things clearly, acting as a good monitoring headphone.
Smart Ambient mode: Helps you stay aware of your surroundings even with headphones on
The Smart Ambient mode lets you stay aware of your surroundings without taking off your headphones. I love listening to music during my daily commute to work. The headphone’s Smart Ambient mode allows me to be aware of my surroundings and listen to announcements when traveling in a metro. This is also useful at the gym where I listen to music while working out, to stay cognizant of what’s going on around me. The Smart Ambient Mode basically allows you to continue listening to music without being shut out from the world and is useful for those who want to maintain situational awareness.
Personi-Fi 2.0: Calibrate headphones per your personal hearing profile.
The JBL Tour One M2 comes with a feature called Personi-Fi 2.0, which helps personalize sound levels according to your hearing profile. Not everyone has the same hearing ability, so it becomes important to customize the audio to make it a comfortable experience. There is an audio test that you can take from the JBL headphone app that helps calibrate the headphones when connected. It plays sounds of different frequencies and you need to tap when the frequency is audible. This will create an audio profile with a sound curve that best suits you.
I did not experience much difference with the headphones when watching movies on OTT apps or listening to music. However, it did make some difference when I was editing. Even when playing competitive games, it is important to hear every footstep clearly and other elements like gunshots and water sounds. With Personi-Fi 2.0 enabled, these sounds were clearer to me and helped enhance the gameplay.
Talk-thru: Media automatically mutes when you speak
Talk-thru is a good feature where you do not have to pluck out your headphones while talking to someone. The moment you start talking, the device automatically mutes the music, and starts ambient mode. Once you are done talking, the device unmutes the music playback after a few seconds. Through the smart talk option, you can set the mute timing between five to twenty seconds.
Though this is a great feature and helps a lot in a work environment, there is one small drawback – the ambient mode kicks in even when you start humming a song. Hopefully, this can be fixed with future updates.
Auto Play and Pause: Media automatically plays when you put on the headphones and pauses when you take them off
Sometimes when you take your headphones off, the music or movie continues to play, which drastically drains the battery. With the JBL Tour One M2, the Auto Play and Pause feature kicks in when you take off your headset and automatically pauses the movie or song, and resumes playback when you wear them back. This neat feature conserves battery life and ensures you resume your music/movie exactly where you left it.
While those were my top five features in the JBL Tour One M2, I would also like to give a special mention to the comfort that the cushioning of the earcups and the headband. Comfort is important to me as I tend to use my headphones for long durations when working. So, I would definitely recommend this pair to those who like to have their headphones on for hours.
There are more features that the JBL Tour One M2 offers which we will highlight in our detailed review soon.
