The new JBL Tour ONE M2 ANC Headphones are JBL’s latest flagship ANC pair of headphones. On paper, it certainly has it all – adaptive ANC, ambient sound, personalised sound, long battery life, and multipoint connection. With its S$399 price, it is priced very close to flagships, and it’s nice that is is slightly more affordable than those from Sony or Bose to name a few.
Unboxing
Inside the box, you will find the following items:
- JBL Tour One M2 Headphones
- Carrying case
- 3.5 mm audio cable
- Flight adaptor
- USB Type-C charging cable
- Warranty / Warning
- QSG / Safety Sheet
Tech specs
| Driver Size | 40mm dynamic |
| Impedance | 32Ω |
| Sensitivity | 117 dB SPL@1 kHz |
| Frequency Response | 10Hz -40kHz |
| Battery Life | Up to 50 hours (ANC off) Up to 30 hours (ANC on) |
| Weight | 278 g |
| Bluetooth Version | 5.3 |
| Audio Codecs | SBC, AAC |
Build quality and features
The JBL Tour ONE M2 is available in two colours, black or champagne. The unit I have is the black variant. Design wise, the Tour ONE M2 has an understated look with its matte ear cups complemented by a shiny trim on the sides highlighting the JBL Tour branding.
Build quality of the the Tour ONE M2 is solid as well. No creaks or flex were heard when adjusting the headphone band. The adjustment points in the headband also felt smooth yet secure. You can fold the ear cups in and rotate it flat so that it is easy to store when you’re travelling. You can check out the video below:
Speaking of storage, JBL also provided a hard shell carry case to store the Tour ONE M2 when you are on the go. There are also pockets to keep the included accessories of the flight adapter and 3.5mm audio cable.
Controls
JBL Tour ONE M2 combines both touch and physical controls. The only button on the left ear cup basically toggles you through the different sound modes of Adaptive Noise Cancellation or Ambient Aware. You can choose if the button cycles through 3 modes (including ‘Off’), or simply swap between ANC and Ambient Aware.
On the right ear cup, you have a physical volume rocker along with a touch panel that is the face of the ear cup. The touch panel offers playback controls and the ability to summon your voice assistant. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can customise about these controls. You can only opt for whether you want to have a touch-based control for media playback.
Ambient Sound mode
Ambient Sound allows external surroundings come into the headphones. JBL’s implementation of it has a natural feel to it, not overly amplifying any particular frequency. Voices also sounded rathe life-like. It’s not at the level of Apple’s AirPods Pro, but it is good enough to use without feeling that it sounds overly processed.
Audio Connect App
Like the JBL TOUR Pro 2 earbuds, the Tour ONE M2 headphones also has a companion app in the form of the JBL Headphones app. There are many features to amplify the user experience with the headphones. For example, JBL crafted its own version of Spatial Sound for with different scenarios. I personally found the ‘Game’ setting to be the best. You can also toggle the ‘Video mode’ to minimize latency, though regular ‘Audio Mode’ works fine. VoiceAware and SilentNow are also quality of life features which you may find useful. If you just want to use the ANC, you can opt for SilentNow which even lets you set a timer.
On top of these, you also have the more commonly used app features with regards to customisation, such as customising the ANC, customising the EQ, and you could even opt for JBL’s Personi-Fi mode to decide an EQ for you based on your hearing profile.
There is truly a lot of features and settings that you can tinker with in the JBL Headphones app to truly make the Tour ONE M2 headphones customised to your own use case.
Fit and comfort
The JBL Tour ONE M2 is the comfiest JBL headphones I’ve worn to date. There are a couple of factors that led to this, but I’d single out the ear cushions as the main driver of the comfort. The cushions are very plush and soft which results in gentle touch at sides of my head. Clamping pressure is also just right.
Another reason for its comfort is also the weight. At 278g, it is much closer to flagships like Sony, and it really does feel less heavy on your head especially coming from a heavy JBL Club One. If I’d nitpick, the head cushion could use a bit more plush, but it’s good enough in its current state.
The soft leatherette ear cups also do offer a pretty good seal as well for passive noise isolation.
Sound quality
Bass on the Tour ONE M2 is thick and powerful but not overbearing. Sub-bass extends deep with rumble, but I wouldn’t go as far to say it’s bass heavy sound as mid-bass remains well controlled and clean. When it comes to midrange, vocals and instrument are presented with detail and has a soothing body to it. Mids remain forward even with strong bass presence on certain songs. Instruments are well layered in the mix.
As for highs, Tour ONE M2 is delivered smoothly with a tint of shine to it. It’s well-balanced and not overly subdued or harsh. Tour ONE M2 has impressive soundstage offering you an expansive sound with a good sense of space. Instruments are well placed with clear discernibility of its presence, listening to Monday by Imagine Dragons was quite a delight.
ANC performance
Noise cancelling on the Tour ONE M2 is effective. By default, the ANC mode is set to adaptive, which senses surrounding noise and adjust the intensity in real-time. If you’d prefer to have the strongest setting no matter your surroundings, you can turn adaptive off and crank the intensity to the max.
The ANC was able to cancel out the engine rumble noise, will drowning out most of the high pitched rail squeals in the underground MRT/train. General chatter and surrounding noise are also effectively reduced. I wouldn’t say it’s as good as the current flagships from other brands retailing at S$500+ range, but I would say it performs deservingly at its current price bracket.
Microphone quality
The Tour ONE M2 has surprisingly good microphones. Voice output was clear with a good amounts of detail and body. I’d say voices sound more forward and lively on the Tour ONE M2 than on the Technics EAH-A800. When noise is introduced, the Tour ONE M2 does a good job at removing a bulk of the noise whilst keeping my voice clear and forward at the same time. The Technics EAH-A800 does cancel out more noise compared to the Tour ONE M2 but I’d still say it is still a reliable pair of headphones which you can use for calls in varying environments.
Pairing, connectivity, and latency
JBL Tour ONE M2 has the latest Bluetooth 5.3, with support for SBC and AAC audio codecs. During my time of testing, I did not encounter any connection issues. There is also no latency when it comes to audio-video sync when watching YouTube videos from the YouTube app on my iPhone 11.
As with most flagship level headphones these days, you also get multipoint pairing on the Tour ONE M2. Multipoint allows you to connect to up to two devices at the same time. You can switch between audio sources seamlessly based on which device is playing audio. It’s also nice to see Tour ONE M2 retaining the 3.5mm AUX-in port so that you can use it plugged in.
Battery life
Tour ONE M2 headphones is expected to last 30 hours if you listen with ANC on, and up to 50 hours if ANC is turned off. 30 hours is more than enough for my personal use, and its more or less in line with the competition, such as the Sony WH-1000XM5 also having 30 hours with ANC on. There is no mention of any fast charging feature, so do note if you need to fully charge it via USB-C, it takes 2 hours.
Conclusion
The JBL Tour ONE M2 certainly does many things right if you’re looking for a new ANC pair of headphones. Comfort, ANC, battery life, and customisable sound – all foundational aspects performed well and worth to make the S$399 price look good, especially when there are more expensive S$500+ headphones in the market. As long as you’re not too fussed about it not support higher res audio codecs, I feel the Tour ONE M2 a competitive and reliable pair of headphones for consideration.