JBL Live 770 NC Over-Ear Noise-Cancelling Headphones

I don’t even know where to begin with these things. I have been using them for about a day. Here are my bullet points for them.

These are my first true wireless over the ear headphones. Previously I had in-ears.

Pros:
– They work perfectly on my Arch linux machine
– Has a bunch of useful features you can mess around with
– You can customize these settings from the app while the device is connected to your PC via multi device connection using bluetooth making them unreliant on PC software making it fully supported on Linux
– ANC is on par with my old edifier in-ears and those had very good ANC
– Material although is plastic feels robust and quality, I imagine these headphones would survive an average drop and since I am american, it’s weight also helps with it feeling quality
– The ear cups swivel
– Comfortable, they were smaller than I expected but I can wear them for hours without issues
– Snug fit to my head, a lot of over ears I have used have felt loose despite my slightly above average head size. These ones fit snuggly and do not feel like they will fall off
– Optional tap gestures
– BUTTONS, this company is smart. They actually know people *prefer buttons over touch crap*. There are 6 buttons
– ANC works with a wired connection if the device is powered on
– THE BATTERY LIFE!
– They sound great!

Cons:
– Default settings has the ANC button swap between ANC and Ambient Aware instead of ANC On/Off. This can be changed in the settings. This prevents the advertised up to 65 hour battery life by default.
– Settings being tied to a phone app (It’s both good and bad as some people just don’t have a reason for a smart phone.)
– Being able to hear ANY movement you do including any shakes or jitters if you are using wired. The cable it comes with doesn’t help as it is cloth so it makes more noise. I tested a regular rubber cable and it had the same issue.
– The cable that comes with the headphones is neither an L shaped jack nor a | shaped jack. Instead it’s more like half a Y shape where one of the top / are removed. I am not sure what the thought process around this cable is but feels like it just makes it hard to use for cases where you specifically need a | or L shapped jack since it is neither and would prevent being useable in either of those cases.
– Uses the Right ear cup for controls and wired connection when wired headphones usually use the Left ear
– The EQ in the app is really hard to notice, you have to really pay attention to hear the difference
– Device cannot be used while USB-C is plugged in. Plugging it in will disconnect it and power it off. It will not even vocalize “Power off!”

All the cons above are minor issues that I can look past.

Beats the breaks off of Beats Studio pro!!

Pairing these headphones to my phone was quick and easy. The Bluetooth capability worked with no issues. I simply put the headphones in Bluetooth pairing mode and went into Bluetooth settings on my phone to pair it. I’d like to say that I’ve had many different name brand headphones in my collection. These JBL headphones exceed the sound quality of all of the other ones. The first thing I noticed in the difference of the sound was the level of bass. The bass bumps loud and strong. The amount of bass that these headphones have compared to my other name brand ones is unmatched. It was a pleasant surprise to feel the bump of the beats. All around the sound quality is fantastic. I’d also like to mention that the noise cancellation is excellent! It’s very hard to hear all of the external surrounding sounds when these headphones are covering my ears. I love wearing these headphones at the gym. The noise cancellation blocks out all the loud talking and weight plates slamming down. The big bass gets me pumped up for my workout. The product folds up in to a compact position and comes with a storage bag for travel. I haven’t had any technical issues with the Bluetooth feature on this product. I’m extremely happy with these headphones and the price is a great deal for the standard.

Let’s get what I don’t like about these headphones out of the way so that I can talk about all the things I do like.

Comfort:
While it is easy to wear these headphones for extended periods, they can use a little more padding across the head strap. I noticed this as soon as I put them on. The strap creates a bit of pressure across the crown of your head which fades with time, but never really goes away. This amplifies the overall fatigue and ache you can feel after wearing any over-ear headphones.

Construction:
To me, the construction and materials used for the outer shell don’t feel or look super premium. As a UI designer, I feel there are more buttons than necessary which are not intuitively placed and have a bit of tactile slack. The plastic is a specific grade – I wish I could recall the name – but when you feel it, you know it. Lighter, thinner, with a distinct feel and sound when you tap it.

I also have issue with the placement of the power LED. It is positioned forward-facing on the right ear, just below three o’clock. When using the headphones in well-lit conditions, this isn’t an issue, but when wearing them in the dark – like in bed or on a late flight – the position of the light is just outside your peripheral vision making it a constant annoyance.

Noise Reduction
The noise reduction on the JBL Live 770NC is good, but not the greatest. I didn’t have that “omg, these just erased the world” impression that I’ve had with other headphones. They do a good job, but even at the highest setting, ambient noise is still noticeable.

So with these all these features I don’t like about the headphones, you might be curious why I would still rate them 5 stars – and that would be a valid question. The answer is easy – there is a lot I DO like:

Sound Quality
You’ll note that in the things I don’t like about the 770NC’s, I never mention sound quality. Truth is, the sound quality on these headphones is phenomenal. Deep, rich lows and crisp highs without ever sounding tinny or bottoming out. The channel separation is distinct and clean making it easy to hear the subtle details in music that often get lost. To this regard, the associated app has a very good hearing test feature that tunes the headphones specifically to your ear.

Software
Where I found the tactile controls lacking, the associated app and software are remarkably good. Pairing and set-up is easy with the app being not only feature rich, but quite intuitive. I had no trouble navigating around the app to customize all the settings to my liking. To my delight, the 770NC’s have many of the features available I’d expect to find only in more expensive brands: fine audio tuning, ambient aware, Siri/Alexa, voice control, hearing and seal testing, etc. JBL really gets it right here.

Battery Life
I’ve been using the 770NC’s for over two weeks now on the out-of-the-box charge. I have yet to plug them in and they are still going strong. In my opinion, this makes them a great choice as travel headphones – ready to take on multiple long flights without needing to recharge. Note that the included USB-C cable is so laughably short that it is pretty-much unusable, but like most people, I’ve collected enough of these cables that it’s not really an issue.

Price
To be honest and fair, most of the features I don’t like are probably more closely associated with the price point of the 770NC’s than intended function. Comparted to Beats, AirPods, Bose, and other high end over-ear headphones which have a more premium feel and enhanced controls, you can’t overlook the price of the 770NC’s which can be as much as 4x-5x less than the mentioned brands with little to no sacrifice of sound quality in my opinion.

For me, what the JBL Live 770NC offers in terms of sound quality and price far outweighs any of the minor feature issues I have with them. They are not as heavily branded or expensively packaged as Beats or Airpods, but their exceptional function cannot be denied. Once they’re on your ears, they allow you to sink into the music just a well as their premium competitors – and for that reason, I feel they deserve every bit of a 5 star rating.

I am wearing my JBL Live 770NCs as I type this. I am very happy. My ears, specifically, are very happy. These headphones are exceptional – great fit, great sound, great quality, great sound customization options, great battery life, great ANC. I’m a fan.

First off, I was stumped by the differences between the Live 770NC and the Tune 770NC, particularly as the marketing materials don’t make for a clear distinction. Fortunately, the price is a good indicator – currently the Lives are selling for about $60 more than the Tunes, and I think the difference is worth every penny. You get a higher quality physical product – a fabric band and softer ear pads that seem to be a little bigger (my ears fit better inside), a more intuitive button layout with touch controls, more wired connection options – and superior sound options, from the “True Adaptive Noise Cancellation” (fancier than the “Adaptive Noise Cancellation” that comes with the Tunes), to an amazing variety of software-based enhancements via the JBL Headphones app. Most importantly to me, these just sound better, even with most of the software features turned off – the Tunes feel punchy but very focused, with a tight soundstage, while these breathe and create a broad, detailed soundstage that is surprising from closed back headphones.

Sound is highly subjective – my son likes the Tunes as much as I like the Lives, even with all of the sound tweaks otherwise set as closely as possible. That said, I love the sound profile of these headphones. Deep clean bass, smooth transitions through the mids, and sparkling highs that don’t fatigue. From Janelle Monae to Kishi Bashi to Muse to Maggie Rogers, I’ve been blown away again and again. Clear, dynamic, full sound where you can hear details just hinted at on far too many headphones.

Once you fire up the JBL Headphones app, it’s like having a whole shelf of headphones – I don’t think I’ve ever heard such dramatic transformations on sound with an app before. I particularly loved the Personi-Fi feature, which basically takes you through a sound test for each ear (the best I’ve heard in an app, with a set of frequencies for each ear, akin to a trip to the ear doctor) so you can have separate global adjustments to your sound specific to each ear. The Spatial Sound doesn’t appear to be an Atmos-type feature, but more of a sound spatializer that provides more echo (your mileage may vary – I find it tends to bury the bass and shift resonances up to the high end). Most impressive is the equalizer, that truly transforms the sound signature of these headphones – I’ve created my own profiles for classical, pop, rock, jazz riffing on their presets.

ANC is great, other than I’ve been startled more than once when one of the kids has come into the room. Pairing was simple, and the connection is rock-solid. Phone calls are clear both ways. Battery life is great, and charging is quick. The included fabric case is a nice touch to protect them. The midnight blue color is cool and matches my phone. They’re great. At this price point, you’re getting headphones that sound like they cost more than twice as much. That’s a pretty good deal in my book.

The JBL Live 770NC impresses in part with truly exceptional battery life that is providing me with uninterrupted listening sessions that outlast many competitors.

Comfort-wise, they also hold their own against other top noise-canceling headphones, ensuring long-term wear without discomfort, again, impressive. However, the sound quality is straight up disappointing, characterized by overpowering bass and a lack of refinement, detracting from the overall listening experience to the point where I want to reach for other headphones. This is truly the most disappointing area for me, as the boomy bloated bass just trounces the sound, and it just isn’t done well. I will update this review if these headphones require a “break-in” as the sound may improve over time with some use.

Additionally, the overly sensitive touch controls, particularly the personal assistant button on the outside of the right earcup, is prone to accidental activation, posing an inconvenience. Despite its remarkable battery life and lasting comfort, JBL’s Live 770 NC falls short in delivering a balanced sound profile and user-friendly touch controls, making it difficult to fully endorse, and a real disappointment for me.

These are great headphones with great sound… When it comes to bass heavy songs. They have a weird “echo” in the background, like I’m sometimes in a bare room with nothing but walls. Even the clickity clack sound from typing this sounds like that. This headset is not ideal for a wide range of genres. It’s best for things like EDM, Dubstep, Rap, etc. Genres that have heavy bass. I don’t like a ton of bass in Metal, but if I don’t have it, some of the music is hard to listen to. Aside from this, they’re great. The battery life is amazing. I spent 3 hours at 80% charge. It was wild.

I love these headphone. I originally bought them because i use to use my AirPod pros all the time, but with trying to exercise or even chase after my dogs, they would fall out of my ears and my ears would always itch. With these, yes my ears “sweat” some, but they stay on. I love that i can adjust them to fit how i like. I love how Long the battery life lasts. One thing i do dislike is that sometimes. I accidentally tap the right ear muff and it pauses my music. I also dislike how sensitive the sensor is for it being on our head sometimes if i turn my head to far or something it will pause the music until it detects my head again

The sound quality is good. Build quality seems good. The over the ear earmuffs style is comfortable and mutes a lot of background noise by itself. The noise cancelling? Eh. I’m new to noise cancelling headphones and I guess I had higher hopes than the reality. It definitely does more than nothing, and with the over the ear design is pretty effective at cutting the ambient noise at the atrocious “open office” environment I work in, but I feel like some frequencies are canceled effectively while others still cut right through. It’s certainly a noticeable improvement over non-canceling designs. Comparing to a similarly priced Sony model, the JBL noise canceling seems at least comparable. Maybe the big names on noise canceling tech that cost twice as much fare better, but this seems to be about what you can expect for mid tier gear, and these JBLs seem to be at least in line with market standards in this bracket.

My noise cancelling headphones that I use for work on my PC had seen better days, so I decided to replace them with the JBL 770NC headphones.

These headphones are more comfortable and stylish than the bulky ones they are replacing. I can wear them most of the day without thinking about it. I love the blue color. It makes them distinct in a sea of black and white headsets.

These headphones have a lot of functionality that makes them a joy to use. The battery life is long enough to last me the entire day and then some. So far, I’ve never had to rush to plug them in at the end of my work day. I like that it charges with USB-C. This makes it easy to charge it at any of my charging stations at home. Unlike my old headphones, this has a 3.5mm jack at the bottom. This allows me to use the headphones without having to turn them on. I do lose the ANC feature without the headphones powered on, but at least I can enjoy audio.

Setting these headphones up with my work PC was very easy. As soon as I powered them on, Windows 11 detected that I wanted to pair my headset. I didn’t have to go through a bunch of hard to find menus. When I paired it also to my home PC, it was more of a traditional workflow. Both PCs are running Windows 11, so I’m guessing that this easy setup only works on the first PC that it is paired with.

The ANC works well, but it isn’t as good as the headset this is replacing. I have a loud HVAC system in my basement where I work. With my old headset, I could noise cancel it completely away. With these, I can merely mitigate it. The ANC isn’t bad, but it isn’t at the same level as a Bose or Sony ANC headset.

The sound quality is good enough. I’m not an audiophile, but I found music to be enjoyable to listen through this headset. While listening to classic rock from the 1970s I can hear details that get muffled out of most headphones. The mic quality, however, isn’t great. When performing sound checks for Zoom calls, I was not impressed with the sound quality. My voice had a hollow quality characteristic of low-end microphones. I decided to use an external mic instead.

I was surprised that the app to update and manage this headset was only available for mobile. Since there is only a two device limit for Bluetooth, interacting with the app would require me to disconnect from my PC and connect with my phone. Other headsets have Windows based apps to do this, so I was surprised that this doesn’t.

Overall, this is a good set to use for office work. There is a lot I like and plenty I thought could be better. They are definitely better than the average headset, but with some of the downsides that come with these headphones it’s tempting to spend a few more dollars on something better.