The JBL Tour Pro 2 are JBL’s latest flagship wireless earbuds that come jammed packed with plenty of features including a novel smart charging case that features a touch-screen display. The touch screen display is the first of its kind from JBL, and gives you to ability to control the earbuds settings, manage calls and playback, and even set a wallpaper picture on the screen. The Tour Pro 2 earbuds also come with active noise cancellation and smart ambient modes, which essentially carries over the active noise cancellation capabilities of its predecessor, the JBL Tour Pro+ wireless earbuds. These earbuds are also capable of taking hands-free calls and come with a 6-mic array which picks up your voice accurately and clearly. Finally, these earbuds also feature JBL’s signature sound curve which delivers crisp highs and good low-end bass with less distortion at max volume levels; they come with newly integrated 10mm dynamic drivers that provide refined sound with a lot of depth and clarity.
Sound Performance
We compared the sound performance of the JBL Tour Pro 2 with other higher-end earbuds such as the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless and Samsung Galaxy Buds. Compared with these earbuds, we felt that the JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds deliver a more V-shaped sound signature with an emphasis on the lows and the highs. The midrange on these earbuds is crisp and detailed, and you can pick up some of the midrange details while listening to EDM or rock music genres with clean vocals. The bass on the JBL Tour Pro 2 is nice and punchy with plenty of depth, and does not sound muddy at higher volume levels. We did find the bass on these earbuds quite well-balanced, with a good depth and bass response without sounding too bloated. These earbuds also come with relatively larger 10mm drivers which can deliver louder sound performance with no distortion at higher volume levels.
Compared with its predecessor, the JBL Tour Pro+ wireless earbuds, we felt that the JBL Tour Pro 2 deliver slightly louder sound performance with enhanced bass response. While the bass on the JBL Tour Pro+ feels tight and punchy, the JBL Tour Pro 2 delivers bass with plenty of depth and goes very deep. The highs and midranges are much more articulate and detailed as compared to the JBL Tour Pro+, and the sound feels cleaner with minimal distortion at max volume levels.
Having said that, we felt that the JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds did not feel as spacious or wide as the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless or the Samsung Galaxy Buds. The soundstage on the Tour Pro 2 earbuds feels slightly constrained and compressed – you don’t get the same level of spaciousness as the Momentum 3 wireless or Galaxy Buds. This makes music sound somewhat less realistic that we had hoped for, and music genres such as jazz and classical music did not have the level of separation and detail that we would have wanted to hear from these earbuds.
Where the JBL Tour Pro 2 excels the adaptive noise cancelling technology – the active noise cancellation works really well and blocks out external noises from coming in, providing a really clean and crisp sound performance with punchy bass. While listening to music, we felt that the details can be more cleanly heard with ANC switched on, and the bass seems more punchy with more depth and clarity with noise cancellation switched on. To get more bass out of these earbuds, you can also adjust the EQ settings on the case or through the JBL app.
Specifications
The JBL Tour Pro 2 comes with plenty of new features including its signature smart case with a display screen which you can use to adjust the EQ settings or even set a display wallpaper image. You can control a surprisingly wide variety of earbud features on the smart case such as the earbuds volume settings, manage calls and playback, and control the EQ settings by touching the screen. We also liked the ability to set your favorite wallpaper image on the smart case which gives it a personalized feel.
Apart from the EQ settings, you can also use the smart case to turn on spatial sound for a wider sound performance, adjust screen brightness, activate noise cancelling and ambient aware modes and active VoiceAware modes for you to listen to conversations around you. The spatial sound performance on the Tour Pro 2 earbuds does make your music sound marginally better with some spatial imaging, although we felt that the sound actually feels much better with spatial sound turned off – the spatial sound feature has the tendency to make music sound more “artificial” rather than natural, and we didn’t really enjoy this feature on the JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds.
We also felt that the touch screen panel rather difficult to navigate as you have to keep swiping to get to the feature that you want to adjust, and this may pose some hassle if you need to adjust a certain setting quickly. We found that you can easily adjust these features using the JBL app which is more intuitive to use, with all the settings and features displayed on a single screen on your smartphone. In essence, you could simply adjust all the features on your smartphone without having to use the smart case and display screen, which we personally found to be rather challenging to navigate.
Where the JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds shine is the true adaptive noise cancellation technology which automatically uses 4 noise sensing microphones to adjust the sound to your surroundings in real-time. You can also easily change the active noise cancelling modes to ambient modes if required using the smart case or app. The active noise cancellation on these earbuds work quite well and are able to block out external noises pretty well, such as the engine noise while listening to music on an airplane or background conversational sounds while studying in a library.
Another feature that we really liked about the Tour Pro 2 earbuds is the voice control feature. These earbuds come with 6-microphones which pickup your voice clearly without any background distractions, allowing you to have crystal clear hands-free calls while on the go. You can also take calls in noisy spaces such as shopping malls and still maintain a clear conversation with the other side with very clean vocal pickup.
Design
In terms of design, the JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds fit snugly inside your ears and feel very comfortable to wear. They are not too large or bulky, and stay inside your ears while doing exercises or workouts. These earbuds also come with multiple ear-tip sizes to choose from which is convenient for getting a better seal inside your ears for improved sound isolation. The JBL Tour Pro 2 provides roughly 10 hours of battery life on a single charge which is quite an improvement over the JBL Tour Pro+ (which has a battery lifespan or 4-5 hours per charge). You also get an additional 30 hours of battery life from the smart case which is pretty good. Furthermore, the JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds are IPX5 water-resistant which makes them suitable for outdoor use and workouts.
The JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds are relatively small in size with short stems – which means that they do not protrude out of your ears or cause any discomfort. Having said that, the smart case is rather large and bulky in comparison due to the additional smart display screen and may be quite bulky to keep inside your pocket. Compared with the Samsung Galaxy Buds case which is small and very portable, the Tour Pro 2’s casing is large and bulky and does not fit inside your pocket easily. This makes it harder to take these earbuds outdoors especially if you are not carrying a backpack as you would have practically no space in your pockets to keep the smart case.
The Verdict?
The JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds deliver well-balanced sound performance with good bass and crystal clear highs, and come with a novel smart case with a display screen that is jammed packed with features. We felt that these earbuds have a V-shaped sound signature that emphasizes the bass and highs nicely, and you do get decent midrange sound performance from these earbuds. Having said that, we felt that the JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds are somewhat lacking in soundstage – music sounded compressed and not as spacious as the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless or Samsung Galaxy Buds, and we did not hear as much separation and spaciousness in the details as we would have liked. You do not get the same level of spaciousness and fidelity as you would get in other higher-end wireless earbuds such as the Sennheisers.
We also felt that the JBL Tour Pro 2 smart case was rather bulky. Even though the display screen looked quite nice and can even display your favorite images as a wallpaper, we felt that most of the functions that you can use on the case could be easily controlled with the JBL app – and it was far more convenient to adjust the settings using the app rather than the display screen. The display screen only shows one individual setting at a time and you need to keep swiping to get to the feature that you want to adjust, and this takes up quite a lot of unnecessary time. The JBL charging case is also bigger than it should be, and we felt this made these earbuds less portable than its predecessor version (or compared to the Sennheiser Momentum 3 wireless). While some may appreciate the new display screen feature, we felt that it was not really practical and more of a design statement – most of the features can be found on the JBL app which is easier and more intuitive to use. That said, the display screen makes the case much bulkier and less portable.
Overall, the JBL Tour Pro 2 comes with certain improved features such as active noise cancellation and extremely clear voice pick-up for hands free calls, but ultimately lacks the portability and practicality that we would expect from a pair of wireless earbuds due to the bulky smart case. Their sound performance is well-balanced and crisp, but we felt that it lacks soundstage and spaciousness that you can get with other high-end wireless earbuds. Ultimately, whether or not you should get the JBL Tour Pro 2 comes down to personal preference – the JBL Tour Pro 2 is no doubt packed with numerous features and a novel display screen on the charging case which makes it a unique pair of earbuds to have.