If you’re looking for a pair of future-facing wireless noise-cancelling headphones, they don’t get more advanced than the JBL Tour One M3. They boast features you won’t find in most rivals, including spatial audio, Auracast audio sharing, high-resolution playback, personalised sound, and customisable call quality.
Plus, if you pay a little extra, you can get the Tour One M3 with the additional “Smart Tx” transmitter, a tiny screen that controls the features without you needing to go into the companion app on your smartphone.
Do all the perks add up to something special? And are these worth the steep £380 asking price? I’ve been using them as my over-ear headphones for several weeks to find out.
JBL Tour One M3: At a glance
Pros
- Comfortable to wear
- Personalised sound
- Great carry case
- Clever and futuristic audio transmitter
- Lots of battery life
Cons
- You may not use the transmitter
- The style isn’t that exciting
- They’re very expensive
Key specifications
| Noise cancellation | Yes |
|---|---|
| Battery life | Up to 40 hours with ANC on |
| Charging | USB-C |
| Weight | 278g |
What I like about the JBL Tour One M3 headphones
Right away, it’s clear this is an accomplished pair of cans. When it comes to core features, they deliver on all the most important aspects.
The noise-cancelling from the 8-microphone system is top tier. It’s up there with Bose, Apple and Sony when it comes to silencing a wide range of external annoyances. The comfort is excellent – the ear cups and headband are soft and supportive, so they’re ideal for long listening sessions. The battery life is competitive, too: 40 hours with noise cancelling on, and a huge 70 hours with it off. They also come with a great hard shell carrying case, which has space for all the cables you’ll use and the transmitter (more on that shortly).
While the sound quality is decent without any tweaking, these are headphones made for those who like to fine-tune their settings. They improve greatly with some personalisation. Head into the JBL Headphones app, and you can try out your preferred equaliser presets and take a hearing test (JBL calls this “Personi-fi 3.0”).
After this, the headphones sound fantastic and adapt to your unique hearing profile. In the rest of the app, there are also the spatial audio controls, a volume limiter and detailed call experience controls. Together, these add up to some of the most customisable headphones I’ve ever tried. You can control loads of these functions through the tiny “Smart Tx” display, too.
It’s a bit of a futuristic addition – a little screen just for your headphones. Is it good? I enjoyed using it as a cross-platform way for accessing headphone controls, particularly for devices where I couldn’t install the app (like my laptop). It’s fun and aimed at those who like to tinker with their devices, but it may not be for everyone!
How useful is the Smart Tx transmitter?
This accessory is essentially the same screen that you find on the JBL Tour Pro 3 earbuds, and it adds a lot of versatility to the headphones. They’re easy to control with the display: you swipe between screens and control playback, change equaliser and sound settings, spatial audio and noise control modes.
If you already think it sounds like a gimmick, then it’s probably not for you, but we like that JBL is selling the headphones without it, too (this option costs £329.99 rather than £379.99).
It's not just a one-trick pony, either. Connect the Smart Tx to an analogue device (such as a CD player or record player) with the included cables, and you can also use it as a high-quality audio transmitter. It will beam audio from the source straight to your headphones, so you could also use them as a way to wirelessly listen to in-flight entertainment systems.
You can also use it to monitor your accurate battery percentage and tune in to “Auracast” audio broadcasts. You can even use it to share audio with other devices – you could pair multiple Auracast devices with it, allowing everyone to listen at the same time.
What I don’t like about the JBL Tour One M3 headphones
As feature-packed as they are, the Tour One M3 still aren’t perfect. If you’re not prepared to tweak things or to take the hearing test within the app, the sound quality straight out of the box won’t wow you. It’s solid, but there are better options for those looking for something simple.
They’re comfortable and lightweight, but they may not be ideal if style is high on your list of priorities. They’re fairly plasticky, and even if they don’t feel cheap, you may have noticed that competitors in this price tier have luxury designs. If you want your headphones to turn heads, these may not be the ones.
As much as the Smart Tx feels like a handy benefit, I’d hesitate to recommend it if you’re not a frequent flyer or often listen to analogue sources. JBL seems aware that people might not need it, because it's selling an option without it. For those who don’t need it, it just adds to the cost without adding a lot of extra value.
The JBL Tour One M3 also have loads of competition at this price. They’re not quite as expensive as Apple’s AirPods Max or the Dyson OnTrac, but you can find flagship Bose and Sony models for just as good audio and noise-cancelling capabilities. I recommend considering the Bose QuietComfort and QuietComfort Ultra, along with the Sony WH-1000XM5.
Verdict: JBL Tour One M3 headphones
If you’re travelling a lot, whether on planes or trains, listening for a long time (or spending hours in meetings!), these advanced JBL headphones are excellent for their noise control and comfort. Light and well-padded, the noise-cancellation silences all but the loudest noises.
They sound solid straight out of the box, but are designed for tinkerers. Once you start tweaking things in the app – and especially after you take the hearing test – they sound fantastic. The Smart Tx is a clever remote control and transmitter, too, making them more versatile for shared listening and using with analogue sources.
I'm not sure everyone will make use of it, and have tried designs that feel more premium. But if you know you like the sound of the high-end features, along with highly competitive noise-cancelling, top-tier battery life and tonnes of app features, you can't go wrong with this well-rounded pair.
Simon Cocks is Good Housekeeping UK’s Technology Editor, overseeing tech shopping content and strategy for the title. He previously also worked across other titles including Esquire UK, Digital Spy, Men’s Health UK and Women’s Health UK.
Simon specialises in testing the latest smart gadgets, home entertainment gear, headphones, speakers, portable chargers, radios, e-book readers and smartphones. He's reviewed top tech products from brands including Google, Apple, Amazon, JBL and Bose.
A magazine journalism graduate from Kingston University in 2014, Simon also worked on the Discovery and Silkroad inflight magazines. He then gained experience writing about entertainment at SFX and Total Film. He also contributed reviews and interviews to TwitchFilm (later ScreenAnarchy), CultBox and Frame Rated.
He joined Good Housekeeping UK as the Editorial Assistant for Special Projects and was part of Good Housekeeping’s Consumer Affairs Team between 2014 and 2019. In this role, he conducted price comparison research, wrote detailed household and money-saving advice guides and edited thousands of in-depth reviews for the Good Housekeeping Institute.
He has focused on technology and gadgets since 2020, where he started by testing out power banks and instant cameras. He writes reviews, roundups, news articles and deals updates, and also covers top tech deals during sales like Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
When not testing out the latest gizmos, you’ll find Simon either catching up with the newest releases at his local cinema or out shooting with his beloved compact camera.
You can follow Simon on Instagram, on Bluesky, on LinkedIn and on Threads.
