Picking a set of in-ear headphones is a minefield of choice and with online shopping a huge and still booming part of our retail outlets, the ability to get a sense of what is the right set for you is ever difficult. But JBL has taken a simplistic approach to it’s range of in-ear headphones, adopting a three price level and three fit style grid of headphones – in ear wireless ones, to choose from.
Put simply, this new range starts at the entry level “Wave” series at $89.95, great value JBL sound. Then in the mid-range is the “Tune” series priced at $149.95, featuring Active Noise Cancelling and four mics for quality.
Topping out at the “LIVE” series which is priced competitively at $199.95, and has adaptive noise cancellation and a six microphone array for voice, call and noise cancelling quality.
Each series then has three styles. A Bud, Stick with Tip or open Stick.
There’s no price different style to style, just across the series. As evident in this product and price grid:
It is perhaps best demonstrated by looking at just one series of headphones.
Here’s a great example of the choice, across the “Tune” range of headphones – the mid-tier $149.95 range from JBL:
The beam feature that protruding tip with a silicone cover that you kinda slip into your ear canal. The Flex are more like the original Airpods, designed to sit in your ear but not inside the ear – if that makes sense. And the Buds are a fully in-ear with no protruding stick, held into your ear with the protruding silicone tip.
There are some benfits to different options, for example the Flex option in the Tune Series doesn’t have quite the battery life, but has a larger driver and potentially a slightly better audio profile, but for many the fit is the most important thing.
Among these nine products are many new, and some existing in the JBL range, but regardless, the simplification of choice is a powerful position for JBL.
Walk into any retail store and you’ll see how wide and complex the choices are. For a brand as strong as JBL to put forward an option for every ear, and every budget makes it hard to go past.
We’ll take a full look at the range soon, on EFTM.
