JBL Live 780NC – Affordable and impressive

High resolution with that extra wealth of detail in the music and effective noise reduction used to require you to invest several thousand on the headphones. In recent years, we have seen a trend that this technology is moving lower and lower in the price ranges, and these headphones are an example of that.

The price of the JBL Live 780NC is at the time of writing just under 2000 kroner, and then you get a lot for your money. The headphones themselves come in many different colors and it’s clear that JBL wants to see this model as a fashion accessory and not just a pair of headphones. Where competitors like Nothing and Marshall take the turns with attitude and eye-catching design, the JBL is more bland, except for the many color options.

Can be folded

On the outside, there is a lot of plastic with imitation leather details where all the details are the same color, in the case of my test specimen green. The headband is soft with a slightly rubberized feel and a solid resistance when you bend it out to put the headphones over your ears. You can fold the headphones when putting them in the bag, but it was a bit slow at first so it was only at the end of the test period that I discovered it. It comes with a thin, soft little cloth bag that you can put the headphones in when not in use. When I test the headphones on board an airplane during a trip, I can state that the noise reduction together with the physical isolation works well, not quite in the class of the best, but it is clear that good noise reduction is no longer a matter of price.

Well-functioning control and app

The entire construction is made of plastic and you change the size of the bridge by pulling the earphones, which then follow in distinct steps marked with small notches. The fit is stable and the headphones stay secure even when I’m moving, like when I’m running or just chewing or moving my head a little jerkily. On the left earpiece there are physical buttons for volume control and on the right earpiece there is the on/off button and a button to activate the noise reduction or switch to drive-through. Here, the side of the headphone itself also acts as a touch control so I can click with my finger there to pause, change songs, answer calls or temporarily mute the microphone. All of this can be adjusted and tailored with the help of the app, which also manages software upgrades for the headphones and, for example, equalizers.

During the trial period, there will be a software update that should contain bug fixes and improvements that I install and I generally find the app to be clear and easy to use. It’s painless to connect and everything it offers works as it should.

Marked base can be customized

Basically, the headphones have a sound with a rather pronounced bass, but this can be adjusted to your personal taste using the equalizer in the app. The JBL Live 780NC supports high-definition audio in LDAC format, which means that Android phones that support it can get better sound, while you with an iPhone are as usual limited to AAC because that’s what Apple supports. Therefore, I notice a clear difference depending on which phone I use, with the IPhone I still get good sound, but the clear details so that each instrument takes place disappears a little. At the same time, I notice an even bigger difference when I compare with significantly more expensive headphones. Because the support for high-resolution sound does not do everything and compared to the more expensive headphones from Sennheiser, Bowers & Wilkins and Sony, I get much clearer sound, while in the JBL headphones it feels thinner and more fragile.

About the same applies to the call sound in the JBL headphones. It’s absolutely great and the headphones effectively let my voice come through clearly even when I have distracting noises or music playing in the background. Sometimes it can stutter a little, but it’s rare and it’s at the same time exactly what differentiates the experience from slightly more expensive headphones. So there is still a difference, but JBL gives a lot for the money and the difference up to headphones that cost twice as much is not excessively large.