These Noise-Cancelling JBL Headphones Turned Me Into an Audio Snob

I’d never owned a really good pair of headphones; it’s just not something I’ve really cared about. But the JBL Tour One M3s I recently acquired changed my mind forever. (Our resident audio expert Daniel Oropeza went in depth about these headphones in his review, which you should read.)

Music is better when it sounds better

I’ve always taken a punk-rock approach to sound gear—cheap and loud has been good enough for me—but using these headphones non-stop for the past couple of weeks proves I’ve been very wrong. Music is better when played through decent equipment. There’s so much more there, even in songs I’ve listened to a million times: I can finally make out what’s actually being said in the “party chatter” that provides atmosphere in Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” and who knew there was so much going on in The Dead Boys “Sonic Reducer?” And the spatial audio? Forget it: Hearing different instruments from different parts of 3D space is amazing. These headphones have me thinking seriously about stereo separation, constantly messing with the EQ, and turning my nose up to every format that isn’t lossless. I’m listening to damn jazz. What’s even happening?

Silence is better when it’s truly silent

Okay, I know active noise-cancelling has been around for 20 years, but I never cared about it—most of the music I like is mostly noise, so why would I want to cancel it?—but it’s for cancelling all that other noise that surrounds us. These are perfect for an airplane or car trip but also for just wearing around. I had no idea how much ambient sound I’m swimming in all day at my home office—the fridge running, the cars on the road, the wind—all gone in an instant. Nothing to hear but silence and tinnitus (from too much punk rock).

What the audio transmitter does

When I first opened the box and saw the smart transmitter/controller thing that comes with these phones, I was like, “What’s this dumb thing?” But it turns out it’s not dumb. It’s a Smart Tx Audio Transmitter. You can plug it into almost anything audio and it will wirelessly stream 24-bit audio. Plug the AUX-to-USB-C cable into the beat-up jack at the gym, or an airplane’s headphone jack ,and you can listen with full noise-canceling and high-quality audio. (Now that I’m an audiophile, this is important to me.) It’s also a touch screen controller so you can mess around with the EQ to hear Art Pepper’s dulcet saxophone tone without taking your phone out, and trust me, you haven’t heard Art Pepper if it’s not lossless and tuned with JBL’s “personal sound amplification.” I mean, you might as well be listening to The Dead Boys or something.

It comes with a traveling case

In my old life, I would have left the Smart Tx Audio Transmitter on a bus, but these phones come with a little carrying case where all my little cords have places to live, and I put my audio transmitter right where it goes, because I never want to be burdened with inferior audio again.

I could go on about these headphones, but I’ve realized that air is an imperfect medium for sound vibrations, so I’m going to sit and stare at the sheet music of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and listen to pure theory.