It was just a few weeks ago I tested out the Jabra 8 Elite Active earbuds and I came away impressed with their continuing comfort and their improved sound quality. The Jabra Elite 10 earbuds are their top of the range and to be honest if they are going to be better than the Elite 8 Active they would have to be good.
Spoiler alert: they are. But are they worth the extra premium you pay for them? Read on to hear my thoughts on the Jabra Elite 10 earbuds.
Design and fit
The Jabra Elite 10 offer the signature Jabra design shape and I love it. They sit comfortably in the outer ear with a small protrusion into the ear canal without having to be lodged tightly in there.
The Elite 10 are slightly larger than the Elite 8 Active but the shape is basically the same and the result is the same comfortable, secure fit. Jabra call the new design “ComfortFit” and it is “semi-open” so that they can deliver a more natural sound thanks to the oval-shaped silicon tip allowing more sound in with less pressure on the ear canal itself.
This is something that is a bit difficult to test out but if this “semi-open” design is what results in the premium sound quality of the Elite 10 earbuds, I’m a fan.
Inside each earbud are 10mm drivers which helps to deliver that premium sound we hear from the Elite 10 earbuds. They give a depth and range of sound that is not often seen in true wireless earbuds.
Features
The Elite 10 earbuds offer Jabra’s newest active noise cancellation which they call Advanced ANC. This Advanced ANC is apparently better than Jabra’s standard ANC but considering that they only use this ANC in their much lower level earbuds that doesn’t say much. The big comparison is with the Adaptive Hybrid ANC in the Elite 8 Active which is 1.6 times as good as the standard ANC. This was impressive so for the Elite 10 to be better than this is impressive.
When using the earbuds though I couldn’t really hear much difference, in my mind, from that in the Elite 8 Active earbuds and that in the Elite 10. The Advanced ANC though is amazing and was easily able to block out my wife yelling at me from the next room — she had to call me on the phone instead.
It is interesting how Jabra get this to work — the earbuds “noise leakage and play infrasonic sound waves to determine the individual ear canal shape. The ANC filter is then applied dynamically, automatically switching to the most effective ANC level.” Fancy.
Other features include Dolby Atmos with Spatial Sound and Dolby Head Tracking. I’m not a fan of the Dolby Head Tracking — sure it adjusts the direction of the sound based on where the head is pointing but I really can’t see how that improves my listening experience. Use it if you want and like that — I don’t so I didn’t.
The Jabra Elite 10 offer multipoint connectivity with Bluetooth 5.3 with the ability to use either earbud in monomode. Once again there is SwiftPair for PC and FastPair for Android.
It is amazing the battery life that we see in headphones and earbuds these days. The Elite 10 offer 6hrs in each earbud with another 27 hours in the charging case (which supports Qi charging).
Don’t expect full water and dustproof with these premium earbuds but they do have an IP57 rating which means that they are protected from limited dust ingress and only protected from immersion between 15cm and 1m in depth instead of the protection from total dust ingress and long term immersion up to a specified pressure offered in the rugged Elite 8 Active earbuds. There is no rating at all on the case though.
Control
A lot of true wireless earbuds these days have the capacitive touch buttons where I often accidentally tap the control button when adjusting them or putting them in and taking them out.
The Jabra buttons are physical touch and press buttons which do not press with a light tap but slightly more pressure is required to press the button down. I actually like it. Once you know this is what you need to do they are very easy to control using the buttons and using the buttons does not affect the fit at all.
A quick mention on how customisable the buttons are. Through the Jabra app you can adjust the single, double and triple tap to whatever you want them to do. I was happy to customise the presses to what I was used to the buttons doing on other earbuds.
Sound quality
I’ve tested a lot of true wireless earbuds in my time and have witnessed first-hand the improvement of not just their fit and comfort but also their sound quality. Last year I performed a true wireless shootout to see which brand (that I had access to) had the best sound quality.
Even in the 12 months since then there has been an improvement in quality. These Jabra Elite 10 give just about every single one of those earbuds in that shootout a run for their money. Their sound profile is better than that of even the Google Pixel Buds Pro, so there is no doubt they offer a premium sound. While they don’t quite match the sound quality of the AirPods Pro (although they are incredibly close) nor the audiophile Astell&Kern UW100 earbuds, they are exceptionally sounding true wireless earbuds.
Running the Elite 10 through my usual headphone testing playlist and was impressed. The Elite 10 are bigger than the Elite 8 Active which may account for the bigger sound experienced. Although the Elite 8 Active produced a great sound the Elite 10 were next level.
The bass is punchier, crisper and louder. The mids and highs are also well represented with a crisp accurate sound. HipHop music allowed for bass that wasn’t muffled but instead well defined and loud.
Other music such as Christina Aguilera, Guns n Roses, Jimi Hendirx and more offered crisp sounds as they ran through the entire scale of frequencies.
There really isn’t much missing from the Jabra Elite 10 earbuds with really good sound. There will be other buds that offer great sound but out of all the non-audiophile brand earbuds currently in my possession, they are the best (I currently do not have the AirPods Pro and it is unfair to compare them to any of the audiophile-oriented Astell&Kern earbuds – stay tuned for the review on their latest earbuds next week).
Software
The Jabra+ app is great for controlling the EQ for your music. I keep a fairly simple EQ for mine. The app also allows you to adjust the level of ANC to either full ANC, HearThrough or entirely off – ANC will always be on when in a phone call though, so you don’t need to worry about that.
HearThrough mode works well, enabling you to hear people around you speaking to you.
Also in the app is the EQ along with the ability to change the button controls for each earbud. The software for the earbuds is updated through the app which seems to work well but can take a while at times.
One thing I liked about the software was the permanent notification in the notification shade. It gives you not just a quick view of the settings or ANC and Spatial Sound but the ability to change them – without having to open the app. The percentage charge left in each earbud and the case is also shown in the notification.
Should you buy them?
The Jabra Elite 10 true wireless earbuds sit comfortably in the ear while at the same time being and feeling secure. Long periods of wear are possible with these unlike so many true wireless earbuds.
They offer premium sound that is unmatched by nearly every other mainstream brand on the market that I’ve tested. There really isn’t much negative I can say about them.
The Jabra Elite 10 are not cheap though but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. At this price you could also be looking at some of the audiophile brands such as Astell&Kern which are just a small step in price from here but at sub-$400 you can’t go wrong with the Jabra Elite 10.
The Elite 10 are available in Cream, Cocoa, Titanium Black and Gloss Black for RRP $379. Grab them from JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks, The Good Guys, Amazon and Jabra.com.au. For more information head on over to https://www.jabra.com.au/bluetooth-headsets/jabra-elite-10.
