JBL Review

The JBL Tour One M3 Aviator is a heavyweight champion of discomfort with middle-of-the-pack sound. You're paying for a bag of features wrapped around a disappointing core experience.

The JBL Tour One M3 Aviator is a classic case of a product that promises the world but delivers a pretty average continent. The one thing you need to know? These are heavy, uncomfortable headphones that are trying to win you over with a kitchen sink of features, but they fall short on the fundamentals. For a pair of over-ear cans that cost as much as a flagship phone, you'd expect best-in-class sound and noise cancellation. Instead, you get a middle-of-the-pack audio experience wrapped in a bulky, 993-gram frame. The built-in DAC and Smart Tx transmitter are neat ideas, but they can't make up for the core issues.

The most surprising thing here is just how mediocre the performance is across the board. For a headphone with 'Pro Sound' in its marketing, the sound quality lands in the 36th percentile in our database. That's not 'legendary,' that's just okay. The noise cancellation is equally underwhelming, also sitting in the 36th percentile. The real shocker is the comfort score, which is a dismal 4th percentile. At nearly a kilogram, these things feel like a vice on your head after an hour. The battery life is another weak spot, ranking in the bottom 15% of all headphones we track. For a travel-focused headphone, that 18-hour claim feels optimistic when real-world performance lags so far behind.

At $350 to $450, the Tour One M3 is a terrible value. You're paying flagship money for a performance package that's solidly mid-tier, wrapped in an uncomfortable design. There are simply too many better options at this price that don't make you choose between features and basic wearability.

This is where the Tour One M3 gets embarrassed. The Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, while in-ear, offer vastly superior noise cancellation and sound quality in a tiny package for less money. If you must have over-ear, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are in the same price bracket but are lighter, more comfortable, and have best-in-class ANC. Even the Technics EAH-AZ80 earbuds punch way above their weight in audio fidelity. The JBLs have a unique transmitter trick, but that's a niche benefit that doesn't justify their core shortcomings against these giants.

If you're looking for comfortable, great-sounding over-ear headphones for daily use or travel, this isn't it. Go get the Bose QuietComfort Ultras instead. Also, skip these if you value battery life; there are many options that last twice as long on a charge.

We can't recommend the JBL Tour One M3 Aviator. It's a feature-packed headphone that fails at the basics. The poor comfort and mediocre core performance are deal-breakers at this price. Unless your life revolves around airplane entertainment systems and you absolutely need that Smart Tx dongle, your money is much better spent elsewhere. Skip these and get a pair of headphones that are actually pleasant to wear and listen to.