JBL Tune 760NC Review – Ohhhh Boy

Hey, welcome to the JBL Tune 760NC review—noise-canceling over-ear headphones.

For working out, I don’t recommend these over-ear headphones, as your ears may sweat excessively.

The headband flex is moderate—not too tight or firm. The earcup cushioning is firm yet soft and thick, adding to the comfort level. The headband also has ample cushioning for people with little to no hair.

The headband adjusts in notches, and the ear cups rotate easily in any direction. Replacement ear pads are available on JBL’s UK and Philippines websites (I couldn’t find them for any other region), with third-party resellers also offering them.

For travel, they rest comfortably on your neck without touching your chin, though looking down can be annoying unless you rotate the ear cups down.

Controls

The right ear cup has all the controls: a power button that enters Bluetooth pairing mode when held, and another button to switch between ANC and regular mode—no transparency mode, which is a letdown for mid-tier headphones. Transparency mode would have allowed for listening to your surroundings.

Volume down button goes to the previous track when held, middle button plays/pauses content and answers/hangs up calls. Holding it for two seconds activates your smart assistant. Volume up button goes to the next track when held.

The smart assistant functionality is poor with Google and Android Assistant. Google starts listening without a tone, so you have to assume it’s ready. Even at maximum volume, responses are hard to hear, making it disappointing.

Passive play/pause is missing, which means it doesn’t auto-pause when you take them off. Not a major issue at this price, but worth noting.

Noise Cancelling

Active noise canceling is just okay. It handles low-pitch noises like bus or plane engines passably, but vocal cancellation is weak. Without playing anything, conversations are muffled but still audible. Cranking up the volume helps in noisy environments. Listening to news or podcasts works for travel.

For passive noise canceling, the headphones muffle noise due to their over-ear design but still allow conversations. Best to use ANC mode when possible.

No sidetone feature, meaning you can’t hear your own voice during calls.

Battery

JBL claims 35 hours with ANC, my testing at 60% volume I got 30 hours. No ANC mode JBL claims 50 hours without ANC, but I got 57.

Recharging matches JBL notes of about two hours.

The USB-C charging port is on the top of the right ear cup, just under the headband connection.

Microphone Quality

In a quiet environment, the microphone performed admirably for the price. My voice was clear and easy to understand, with just a slight echo. Still, a great experience overall.

In a noisy setting, it did almost as well as in a quiet one—my voice remained clear, and background noise was minimal. When I stopped talking, background chatter was only faint murmurs.

However, in windy conditions, performance dropped. The wind noise was intrusive and annoying, and when combined with my voice, made some words hard to decipher.

Audio Quality

Audio codec-wise, it supports AAC but lacks SBC. The audio quality is disappointing out of the box with a flat profile. It’s not as bad as say $30 headphones, but not up to par with $190 CAD or $130 USD. The equalizer helps a bit, but even with bass increased it remains underwhelming even with adjustments, and vocals sound narrow and lack depth. Vocal increased will reduce the soundstage effect. Increasing the highs makes the pitch too sharp and annoying.

If you’re looking for better options in this price range, consider the Soundcore Life Q35 headphones. They’re about $20 USD cheaper and perform better, especially in the bass department. Soundcore caters to the mid-tier market, with excellent options available (more Soundcore reviews throughout the site).

Audio quality with glasses stays the same, even with equalizer adjustments. Over the ear headphones can leak bass due to glasses frames poking out of the earcups, but this isn’t a major issue here since the bass isn’t strong to begin with.

Software

Software-wise, there’s no native app functionality at this price, which is disappointing. Many users (checking around Reddit forums), including myself, have noted this.

Conclusion

For $190 CAD or $130 USD, it lacks major features and should be priced lower, around $70-80 CAD or $60 USD.

Overall, I’d skip these and look for better options. While that might come off harsh, there are too many major downsides to consider these headphones seriously.