JLab Jbuds Open: REALLY Open Headphones!

Añadido: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]Now there are open headphones and then there are really open headphones. Hey there, this episode of Some Gadget Guy is brought to you by viewers like you.

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[00:00:16]More info on those awesome nerds later in the video. The folks at JLab sent these my way to test drive, share some thoughts. These are the JBuds Open, really open back headphone, which right at the top of this video, I'm always excited to see wireless headphones fill more roles. There isn't one kind of headphone and if we're going to want wireless to take over all of these different wired situations, we need all those different hardware solutions. An open-back headphone should have a wider soundstage, more natural presence. Your ears aren't isolated, so it should feel more like listening to speakers. The Open have an open design. Now when JLab ships these out, the Open have grills that can cover the driver housing or you can pop them out and listen completely open air like I did. I mostly listened in this configuration. Two different connections that you can use, Bluetooth with support for AAC as the top quality codec or you can connect over USB-C, which also charges the headset. I love it when we can use USB as an audio connection. Some simple controls on the right ear cup for power, play pause and volume. A couple little button combinations you can toggle a movie or cinema surround sound mode. But we don't have a lot of extra stuff is these don't have tech like active noise cancellation. Lightweight plastic build around the cups. It doesn't feel cheap and thankfully, the frame and headband, how the ear cups extend, are decently buffered against the creaks or groans you might hear as you move your head or jaw around. Right in the middle of this ear cup, this little housing here, dual driver in this casing, two dynamic drivers and the setup is rated for 24 hours of playback with a 2 and 1/2 hour charge time. Solid specs with a nifty design hook, but these are headphones.

[00:02:08]So the most important question is how do they sound? This is interesting. There's a little bit of philosophy here. We've trained consumers to look for hyper stuffy ear isolating active noise cancellation for their premium cans. So JLab is already fighting a little uphill battle making a wireless open-back headphone in the consumer space. The experience might be a little unfamiliar to some folks, but there's definitely an audience for a more relaxed listening device that allows for situational awareness. Maybe the perk here isn't that this competes directly against audiophile grade open cans. And maybe it's a little more that if you're a busy parent, you've got solid sound and you can hear if your kids are getting up to some shenanigans.

[00:02:56]You've got good sound with a minimum of sound leakage, but you aren't isolated from your environment. Some of these choices, some of these design elements, this driver housing domes out in a way that it makes contact with my floppy old man ears, which means there's a really close proximity to this driver. Coming in this close, the JLab don't have the same wide open feel I was hoping to hear, but I do have a decent sense of what's happening around me. At a comfortable listening volume, I can hear when someone is talking at me, but I might not always be able to hear what they're actually saying. And the audio quality chat gets a little complicated.

[00:03:32]If you just plug them in or you pair them up without installing the JLab app, the cans default to a nice mids forward kind of tuning. I'm super biased. I like mids forward. This is a bit hyped for that clarity range, but I still like that better than floppy, dull, muddy mega bass. I like when the highs are a little recessed before aggressive pop tracks or sibilance might get shrill.

[00:03:58]That tuning is not for everybody. I can totally appreciate where some people might be fatigued having that mids and clarity space kind of always buzzing in their ears. Then if you install the app, you have EQ tuning options. The JLab signature has a touch more of a V-shape.

[00:04:12]The bass boost can deliver a little more rumble, but I don't think these will hit that bass junkie approval. The lows have a little bump to them. They're nicely articulated, but there's really not much sub bass. That last decade that you feel more than you can hear, the JLab can't really get down there. But there is a little room to tweak into a sound you like. Playing with the EQ is fun, even if the range is a little limited. And just as a word of safety, there's a volume limiter option in the app and if you're not used to open solutions, I'd recommend setting that limit. With open earbuds and cans, the main tool you have is volume. If you take these into an area with noise around you, the instinct will be to turn them up to drown out noise. Obviously, these ain't it for loud commuting, travel, airplanes, definitely a big no-no. But we don't want something like this to train bad habits. You don't want to train a tendency towards higher and higher volume levels. So I was happy to see in the app that there is a setting to set that hard limit. So frustrating to me how not all of our phones and tablets and computers have that kind of setting in their audio options. It's not just for kids, adults should be setting those limits, too. Especially because the battery life claims on this are legit.

[00:05:28]These things are specially long-lived, so you should be trying to give your ears breaks and not bombarding your ears with the loudest sounds that you can hit. So we've got to wrap this video up.

[00:05:38]This is a fun take on a niche vibe. I do not expect this to be a mainstream solution, but there's a group of folks out there who are really going to vibe with this idea. Look at the shift we've seen with bone conduction open ear earbuds. Some fun experiments that come and go like wearable neck speakers.

[00:05:58]There's definitely a market for air and openness and situational awareness. I could totally see these being the stepping stone to someone moving over to cabled old-school open-back cans and maybe pair that with a Bluetooth DAC. I do not believe that any audio solution can ever truly be one-size-fits-all and something like this is absolutely looking to tackle a specific group. So if you think you might be in that group, I will of course leave some links for more information on the JLab JBuds Open, real legit airy open-back cans or maybe some of JLab's other solutions. JLab's been making some solid gear, you should definitely check out what they have to offer. I just love getting to dig into new audio tech. Audio was always my first love, my first passion and headphones. I'm such a headphone junkie, this stuff is really cool to play with.

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