Pros
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Comfortable
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Features galore with intuitive controls
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Sweet sound
Cons
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Spatial audio oddities
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No weather resistance
About the JBL Tour One M2 Over-ear Headphones
Along with the headphones themselves, JBL tucks a 3.5mm audio cable, flight adaptor, USB Type-C charging cable, and quick start guide into a sleek, handy carrying case. It would have been nice to have a different color choice than black, but that’s a small issue since most competitors in this range also come in black.
JBL Tour One M2 specs
- Price: $299.95
- Battery life: Up to 30 hours with ANC (up to 50 without)
- Drivers: 40 mm
- Colors: Black
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3
- Audio codecs: AAC, SBC
- Weight: 278 grams
What we like
With active noise cancellation, smart assistance and a fairly lightweight build, the JBL Tour One M2s is an impressive set of headphones.
They’re lightweight and comfortable
The first note I made about the Tour One M2 was how light they felt when removing them from their included carrying case. The note that followed was how pleasantly comfortable the headphones’ ear cups felt resting on my ears. There are headphones out there built with higher quality materials, but for my preference, the Tour One M2 felt great and didn’t irritate my ears after long periods of listening.
While the Tour One M2 is light, the Sony WH-1000XM5s are nearly 30 grams lighter and considered some of the most comfortable headphones we’ve tested to date. The slightly older Sony WH-1000XM4 is a little lighter than JBL’s new headphones, at 272 grams.
They’re easy to control
Physically, the Tour One M2 has all the controls you could ever think to ask for. The left ear cup has an “action button” that is dedicated to changing ambient sound controls as needed. The right earcup has an entire touch panel that allows you to play and pause, skip tracks, or play a previous track depending on how many times you tap it. A tap and hold can call up Amazon Alexa (or a smart assistant of your choosing), and the right cup has a dedicated button for adjusting volume.
JBL’s accompanying app lets you customize ANC settings, try JBL’s personalized sound feature, adjust an equalizer, enable spatial audio, and explore other features of varying degrees of coolness. There’s a small case to be made that JBL got slightly carried away in the controls category, but it beats the heck out of headphones that don’t have the controls you need or the settings available to customize them to your liking.
They’re chock full of features
Active noise cancellation is the headlining act here, and the Tour One M2 is just as exceptional at blocking out unwanted noise as the original Tour One. We could dissect how JBL’s True Adaptive Noise Canceling technology utilizes four microphones to adapt to your environment in real-time, but I’d rather tell you that it effectively blocked out the low sounds of a simulated plane engine and also took to the real world especially well. Throughout a series of neighborhood walks, the Tour One M2 knocked down annoying noise pollution normally caused by windy afternoons while simultaneously dampening the rumble of car engines as they accelerated past.
ANC might be the hearty scoops of ice cream and the cherry on top all at once, but the Tour One M2 still has room for plenty of sprinkles. Smart Talk is a toggle-able feature that detects voices of any kind and automatically pauses playback to allow space for a conversation. There’s a VoiceAware feature that lets you control how much of your voice you hear when you make a call (also called sidetone). Elsewhere, a Smart Audio and Video feature lets you tailor the headphone’s sound to the entertainment medium of your choice. There’s even a SilentNow option that will turn off Bluetooth and crank up the ANC to give you a quiet space to focus for as long as you need.
I do mean “as long as you need.” The Tour One M2 will get you about 30 hours of playback with ANC on, but that number jumps to 50 if you don’t need to actively block out sound. Those numbers trump Sony specs (30 hours), giving the Tour One M2 a small, but significant head-to-head win against the XM5s.
They come stocked with rock-solid sound
The first-generation Tour Ones burst onto the scene with what we described as a sound signature that struck an impressive balance between detailed sequences and deep, impactful notes. The Tour One M2, I’m happy to report, continues that quality. They’re the kind of headphones that entice you to keep swiping through your favorite playlist, just to see how they reproduce some of your favorite tracks. To that end, Jack Johnson’s “Upside Down” was crisp with a capital “C”, Macklemore’s “Glorious” was booming and boisterous with its bass notes, and Morgan Wallen’s “Cover Me Up” was the vocal-heavy ballad that it’s meant to be.
At its core, the most impressive aspect of the Tour One M2’s sound to me was how I could easily identify the different instruments in a given track, as opposed to hearing a singular, molded-together sound that you might find in cheaper headphones. It’s a testament to the Tour One’s proficiency across the frequency range, as well as its ability to keep those frequencies working together instead of fighting each other for attention.
Suffice it to say, I was (and still am) thoroughly impressed by the level of sound quality of the Tour One M2. That said, they don’t knock off the leaders of the audio pack like the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 4 or the Sony WH-1000XM5. The detail and precision of those headphones are part of what makes them so sought after. In one corner, the Sonys deliver sensationally punchy, but not overwhelming bass that acts as a foundational pillar for its soundstage. In another, the Sennheisers are masters of midrange and imaging, producing a stereo sound that effortlessly finds its way into audiophiles’ hearts.
For all its efforts, the Tour One M2 comparatively misses the mark, though somewhat narrowly. Their bass, while impressive overall, doesn’t have the low-frequency prowess that Sony has to nail nearly every deep note that gets sent its way. And while I am certainly a fan of the Tour One M2’s well-balanced midrange, it’s hard to compete with the flat, unflinchingly consistent midrange frequencies of those excellent Sennheiser cans.
One additional note: JBL’s headphones only support AAC and SBC audio codecs, while Sennheiser and Sony boast options like DSEE Extreme, LDAC, and aptX, respectively.
What we don’t like
The difference with the Spatial Sound option was obvious and the lack of full-bodied sound was disappointing.
Spatial and personalized audio take a turn for the funky
My word of advice (or caution, depending on perspective) is to not stray far off the beaten path when it comes to the Tour One M2’s audio settings. For instance, with JBL’s Personi-Fi feature and the Spatial Sound option, things take a turn.
I’m a spatial audio naysayer, so take this with as many grains of salt as necessary, but toggling on spatial audio with the Tour One M2 specifically seemed to deprive my music of the balanced sound that I had become so enamored with in the first place. The headphones were too hung up on trying to throw sound around my head to bother with maintaining the exceptional bass and stellar midrange that I had come to admire in the headphones. .
The “Personi-Fi” feature, meanwhile, produced quite a mixed bag. Enabling this feature will enroll you in an audio test that tries to determine which frequencies resonate within your specific ears, and then create an audio profile that matches your listening strengths and weaknesses. The first track I auditioned after the test - Led Zeppelin’s “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” made me temporarily a Personi-Fi believer with a noticeable boost in treble to make up for what it thinks my ears lack naturally. Other favorites were less consistent, so I swapped back to JBL’s stock sound.
They aren’t even a little weatherproof
JBL is not alone in this missed opportunity. Sony, Sennheiser, and others are in the same boat. And to be clear, I’m not asking these high-end headphones to be the bulletproof workout over-ears of our dreams. That’s simply not the purpose they serve. What I would like, though, is some kind of minimal assurance that if I get caught in a rain shower while out on a walk with these, they won’t pull a Wicked Witch of the West on me. OK, odds are they won’t melt when they meet a little precipitation, but it sure would help if they had some kind of protection that we could use as a piece of mind.
Should you buy the JBL Tour One M2 Over-ear Headphones?
Yes, but it’s a numbers game
With nods to the value and quality, the JBL Tour One M2 headphones are the next best thing to Sony's WH-1000XM5.
Sony is still Mario, setting the bar in most areas when it comes to mainstream over-ear headphones. If the headphones are within a reasonable distance of each other price-wise, you will still be better off opting for the Sonys.
When the timing is right, however, Luigi does deserve a lot of love. JBL followed up its original flagship headphones with a product that continues to elevate the brand, with great sound, tremendous comfort, and a specs sheet overflowing with features, though a few aren’t great.
With that in mind, there’s a tangible scenario where clicking on Luigi is the move. When the Tour One M2 is on sale, putting a little more distance between the WH-1000XM5’s $400 price tag, they transition from an underdog contender to the headphones of choice. The quality is there. With proper patience, the value can be too.
With a variety of smart features to choose from, excellent sound quality and an affordable price tag attached, the JBL Tour One M2s are worth it.
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Meet the tester
Nick Woodard is a tech journalist specializing in all things related to home theater and A/V. His background includes a solid foundation as a sports writer for multiple daily newspapers, and he enjoys hiking and mountain biking in his spare time.
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