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It might appear to be JBL unleashes a unending stream of merchandise yearly, and that is partly true.
Just this yr, the American model – which can also be celebrating its eightieth anniversary this yr – has launched the Xtreme 5 and the Go 5 Bluetooth audio system, together with a brand new Live 4 wi-fi earbuds vary, and the over-ear 780NC and on-ear 680NC noise-cancelling headphones – all in quite a lot of snazzy new colors.
There’s additionally a brand-new JBL Sound Curve tuning announced for the flagship Tour One M3 headphones, which refines the sound quality to be more balanced and forgiving – and less bass-focused – to adapt to listeners wearing the headphones for longer and prevent them from getting fatigued.
And that’s before we even get to the hugely popular Party Box speakers – not a core What Hi-Fi? category, but a big deal for JBL, which dominates 90 per cent of that particular market.
Even then, the brand is cautious about simply making products for the sake of it. The product cycle isn’t necessary like clockwork, and it relies on the latest technology available, too – and JBL also has to decide what not to include. For example, the interval between the JBL Charge 5 and Charge 6 was a good four years (albeit both available in April of those years), and new technologies such as Auracast sharing made way for the whole line-up to be refreshed.
Conversely, the new JBL Sound Curve – an adaptation of parent company Harman’s target frequency curve – is currently only reserved for the Tour One M3 to signify their premium status, and hasn’t been trickled down to the mid-priced Live range headphones/earbuds to ensure a clean delineation between the ranges.
The regular product cycle also allows JBL to keep its pulse on the ground and adapt to their target audience, as well as keep up with the demands of customers, who “expect us [JBL] to drive the competition and come up with new things”.
Fresh new colours of green and orange standout against a sea of greige, black and even blue of its rivals, with some noting that the particular shade of orange chosen by JBL for the Live 780NC/680NC headphones matches the latest iPhone 17’s orange finish.
That’s not by accident. The product team (which also includes marketing and commercial working in a “triangle”) tries to “forsee trends long enough in advance”, says Jurjen. “Design trends, technology trends – all the colours that you see in the Live series, they don’t have this colour just because we like them. This is part of a longer trend that we’re trying to watch in terms of colours.”
Despite the proliferation of JBL products, the brand doesn’t like making products just for the sake of it.
“No – we don’t want to make products because we can. We want to make products because we want to address a certain need from end consumers.”
For the Live range, what JBL really wanted to focus on is “lifestyle”, and the target demographic is aimed towards “Gen Z and up” – he drills down further to say 15 to around 30s is the target age range.
“It’s most likely the price that people want to spend on a [pair of] headphones that will decide whether they go for a Live series or a Tour series.”
Not everyone can splash out for the €349 for the Tour flagships, he says, and the gap between the budget Tune range and the Tour is quite a big one. This is where the middle-ground Live comes in: “This is the ultimate compromise of great quality, great noise cancelling, super comfortable and looks really nice,” declares Jurjen.
The styling is an important part of the Live headphones and earbuds.
“Of course, a lot of people will buy the black finish,” he says, “but we also want to give people the opportunity to buy in white, in blue, in green, in orange, in purple…” As we speak, Jurjen points to the younger influencers around us at the launch who are relishing wearing the colourful headphones and taking photos, as evidence of the brand’s target demographic crowd that is “young, energetic, social” and likes sharing music.
“It literally fits the JBL brand – it’s the core of the JBL target audience.”
Even JBL’s Headphones app opens to a montage of faces that run the gamut of identities. It’s welcoming, diverse and youthful, but without ever trying too hard. You’d never guess the brand was pushing 80.
Passing the new Live 780NC over-ear headphones – which I decided to nab in its bright orange finish – to my colleagues in the What Hi-Fi? office, the general consensus seems to be that the colourful shade and styling stands out from the sea of plain, rather functional designs we see from other brands, even premium models from Sony and Bose.
Whether JBL’s new mid-range model can reach the heights of five-star sound quality their more illustrious rivals achieve remains to be seen, of course. But it’s an area what JBL is absolutely gunning for.
“In headphones, we would love to dominate.”
Jurjen puts the headphones market into context. “Headphones is way bigger than all of the other things that we do put together. This is a 4 billion market in Europe. If we add portable audio, party box, gaming, wireless speakers, soundbars – if we add that all together, it’s still less than headphones.”
“In headphones, we’re at 10-11 per cent market share. Of course we would like to grow that.”
The headphones market is exceptionally tricky as there are over 300 brands vying for a piece of the pie. It’s a big market dominated by one key player (Apple, particularly in wireless earbuds, with Sony and Bose in over-ears) that a lot of people spend a lot of money on.
“So we know, even this target audience we’re aiming for, we know they have money to spend – because we see that they spend money on some of the higher range models.”
“But the aim is to create credibility,” he says. “Sony is a great example of that – you get five star reviews a couple of years in a row, nobody thought that Bose would ever lose that position. Sony now has that position. We believe that we equally have a good quality product.”
I ask Jurjen if there’s any particular trend that surprised him for this current cycle of products, that consumers were clamouring for?
“No. Not really; it’s all about audio quality. It’s all about design. It’s all about wearing comfort.” Ultimately, he says, the Live headphones and earbuds are a “very good alternative to what’s out there in the market”.
We certainly hope that’s the case, as we still find there is a general dearth of really great recommendations in this £100-£200 mid-price range. We’re currently testing the Live 780NC wireless headphones (£170), so stay tuned for a full review in due course.
MORE:
Two years on, I’m still waiting for this gaping hole in the wireless headphone market to be plugged
Read our JBL Tour One M3 review
The JBL Live 4 earbuds have a better case, new high fidelity drivers and enhanced noise cancellation
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