JBL Live 780NC Review: Solid Wireless Headphones You Can Live Without

I don’t envy any company trying to steal some shine in the wireless headphones space.

There are endless pairs across the price spectrum, and a lot of them have similar features, sound profiles, and looks. Even if one pair does sound better than another, it’s difficult to convey that in marketing. Descriptions of drivers only get you so far, and hearing is believing in the wireless headphone world.

The fact is, when it comes to over-ear audio, the bar is lofty—like Olympic high-jump levels of altitude—and unfortunately, I’m not sure recent competitors like JBL’s $250 Live 780NC have the hops to make the cut.

Good sound, but are they $250 good?

The JBL Live 780NC are definitely another pair of wireless headphones, and not a bad pair either, especially in the sound department. While these aren’t the best-sounding pair of wireless cans in the world, I wasn’t disappointed by any means.

I tested the JBL Live 780NC across a range of genres, including quite a few rock songs, like Dirt Buyer’s “Heavy.” The sound was pretty solid; guitars were crunchy and big, and vocals were clear. I wasn’t super impressed with the low end, which sounded a little artificial to me, and drums were a bit distant, though that could be a product of the mix. Listening to Steely Dan’s “Any Major Dude Will Tell You,” I was more pleased with the separation between frequencies and mix. The soundstage felt bigger and clearer, though I can’t say I was blown away.

I preferred listening to the JBL Live 780NC more in non-rock genres. Daft Punk’s “Da Funk,” which I usually listen to for testing low end, felt more complete and well-suited for this pair. There was solid separation between frequencies and sufficient bass. The bass didn’t sound as out of place in this case, but that’s probably a product of the genre switch—this song is supposed to sound synthesized. Either way, I feel like the tuning was right for electronic genres more than rock.

I’m going to give the same PSA that I always give in wireless headphones and wireless earbuds reviews, and that’s the fact that you should be taking advantage of personalized EQ if you have the chance, and in this case, you do have the chance. JBL’s companion app has a feature called “Personi-Fi,” which lets you take a hearing test that plays tones across a range of frequencies, and then you indicate when you’re not able to hear them anymore. The whole process takes a couple of minutes and makes a significant difference in audio quality. With Personi-Fi activated, I was able to hear a lot more in the mid- and low-range frequencies, which is expected since I’m in my mid-30s and I’m sure my hearing isn’t what it used to be. Not everyone will notice a difference with personalized EQ, but it’s worth taking a couple of minutes to give it a whirl.

It’s also worth mentioning that the JBL Live 780NC are pretty good for taking calls. I had a conversation for a few minutes in my office, and the audio quality rating came back as an 8/10 from the person I talked with. They do a pretty good job of cancelling out environmental noise, too. I coughed loudly into the wireless headphones, and apparently, it barely registered on the other end. I would feel confident taking calls with these wireless headphones in a crowded space.

Ultimately, even with the boost from personalized EQ, I found the JBL Live 780NC sound to be alright, but not groundbreaking, which is a little bit of a letdown since at $250, there are a bunch of better options in the price range. For $50 more, you could get the Nothing Headphone 1, which sound a good deal better. You could go even cheaper with options like the Soundcore Space 2, which have equally as satisfying sound and better-than-expected active noise cancellation (ANC) at more than $100 less.

Solid ANC, but that’s it

At $250, another thing you might expect is good noise cancellation, and the JBL Live 780NC kind of get there. In my experience, the wireless headphones are solid in the ANC department and do an admirable job in high-noise environments like the subway. When wearing them on the train, I was still able to make out some noise from my surroundings—people talking and train rumblings—though not a ton. In quieter settings like an office, there’s more than enough ANC power to block everyone out, and if there’s too much for your liking, you can adjust ANC levels in the JBL Headphones app.

The short of it is that these aren’t upper-echelon in the ANC department like Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) or Apple’s AirPods Max 2, but they’re not slouching either.

As long as we’re talking about different tiers of ANC, it’s worth mentioning that there’s also adaptive ANC, which adjusts noise cancellation to the loudness of your environment using on-device microphones. It seemed to work fairly well—I could hear it kick into high gear when the train got especially loud. There’s also a transparency feature that uses the microphones to amplify sounds in your surroundings. It’s not the best transparency I’ve used—that distinction still goes to AirPods Max—but it’s okay in a pinch.

There’s also a “TalkThru” mode, which is designed to lower the volume and then amplify sound so you can have a conversation with your headphones on, but I’m not the biggest fan. Instead of features like Google’s “conversation detection,” which recognizes when you’re talking and automatically lowers the volume, from my experience, “TalkThru” just turns the volume all the way down, and in order to get music playback to return, you have to switch to another mode. It’s not really an ideal setup, but it’s there if you ever want it.

JBL also includes a 3D sound mode for “spatializing” stereo content, but I wasn’t very impressed. On songs like Daft Punk’s “Rollin’ & Scratchin’,” it downright ruins the mix, amplifying high frequencies and dampening mids. I can’t really recommend using it for music, based on what I listened to. On the bright side, there is a section for ambient sounds, where you can play white/pink noise. It’s not the most robust set of ambient sounds (Soundcore’s app still has more options), but as someone who uses white noise for sleep and focus on occasion, I’m not mad about having this option.

Again, for $250, it would have been nice to see a more refined trifecta of sound modes here, but at least the ANC is solid, which is what the majority of people care about most.

Watch your fingers

Another important aspect of wireless headphones is how they look, and the JBL Live 780NC look okay. They’re not going to blow anyone away, but they do look a little more premium than more budget pairs like the Soundcore Space 2 that I recently tested, and a lot more banal than the budget-focused CMF Headphone Pro. They are still plastic throughout, which makes them feel firmly midrange. They also aren’t anywhere near as flashy or interesting as the Nothing Headphone 1, which use aluminum as accents and, as I mentioned, cost just $50 more.

They are comfortable, though. I wore the JBL Live 780NC for about two hours straight and they didn’t really fatigue my head or my ears. The ear cups are cushy, and so is the headband. If there’s one major complaint I have hardware-wise, it’s the touch controls.

To play/pause and track skip, you tap the entire outer ear cup. It’s not a new method of controlling wireless headphones, but in the JBL Live 780NC’s case, the area that registers taps is rather large. I found myself accidentally triggering it when I went to adjust the wireless headphones or take them off, which wasn’t ideal. I’m not usually a huge fan of touch-sensitive controls, and this pair made me feel justified in that bias.

Luckily, there are physical controls, too, which work fine. There’s a volume rocker on the left side and a switch for power, and Bluetooth pairing is on the right next to a dedicated button to switch between noise modes.

In the battery life department, the JBL Live 780NC are good, offering 50 hours with ANC activated and 80 hours without. It’s hard to tell how exact those estimates are since the JBL app only does battery readouts in increments of 10%. I listened to them for an hour at 60% volume with ANC activated, and the battery fell from 100% to 90%. Obviously, based on that rate, you’d only be getting 10 hours of battery life with ANC on, but it could be that that battery was just shy of 95% and that the app defaults down to 90%. It’s also possible that the app reads 100% battery when it’s actually closer to 95%. I listened for another hour with the same conditions, and the battery remained at 90%, so I’m inclined to trust JBL’s estimates.

Even if you can achieve 50 hours with ANC on, it’s worth noting that cheaper wireless headphones also get that battery life. The Soundcore Space 2, for example, also have 50 hours when ANC is on and cost a mere $130—they still sound pretty good, too.

Is this an L from JBL?

Again, the wireless headphone world is crowded, and with a ton of options at your disposal, it’s worth taking a beat to figure out what exactly you want and what kind of value you’ll be getting. While the JBL Live 780NC have pretty much everything you’d expect from a modern pair of wireless headphones, I’m not sure that it’s doing everything well enough to justify its $250 price tag. For less money, I think most people would be more satisfied with the Soundcore Space 2. Or if you have a few more bucks, shell out for Nothing’s Headphone 1, which sound and look better in my opinion.

JBL might be a titan in the audio space (lord knows I love amp/speakers like the Bandbox Solo), but even titans can miss sometimes. Name-brand or not, I think you can find better value elsewhere.