There are plenty of sonic-friendly features, including a volume limiter to keep your hearing safe, Smart Talk to pause sound when you speak, and personalized listening with a built-in hearing test. Spatial Audio is also accounted for, including available head-tracking for an anchored 3D effect. I found JBL’s interpretation particularly echoey, especially for stereo sources, but I’m not a big fan of these services anyway.
JBL’s app makes it easy to explore more bounty, and there are plenty of ways to customize, like a Low Volume Dynamic EQ switch to pep up the bass when listening low or a Sound Level optimizer for evening out voices on calls. You can further optimize calling with EQ presets for both sides of the call, but leaving it on the Natural setting should be enough to impress even picky listeners. On one test call, while walking in and out of bathroom fans, my musician buddy said it was the best I’ve ever sounded on a call. Not bad, JBL.
Killer Cancellation, Slick Sound
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
JBL obviously paid special attention to the M3’s microphones, which bodes well for their noise-canceling skills, but even without noise canceling engaged, the cozy earcups provide impressive passive noise isolation. Turn ANC off, and local sounds like keystrokes are totally eliminated. Turn it on, and you get an almost disorienting level of sonic suppression.
While fixing lunch in the kitchen, I noticed virtually nothing was getting through. Setting the mayo jar and sandwich toppings on the counter was dead silent. The refrigerator hum, gone. Even shutting the garage door emitted hardly a sound with a podcast playing, to the point that I had to check and make sure it closed.
Sounds like passing cars or chirping birds slip through, but the M3 did a stellar job eliminating most annoyances, including studio tests with videos like vocal chatter and airplane drones. Pitting them against a rogues gallery of the best noise cancelers, only Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra provided a notable advantage, with the M3 coming within a hair of our second favorite noise cancelers, Sony’s WH-1000XM5, in multiple tests.
