JBL’s Tour One MK3 Smart TX are their new flagship over-ear with a feature made for travellers

We’ve just received a special delivery from JBL which will be used in great detail during the 30+ hours of plane travel I have coming up in the next two weeks, let alone the 60+ hours I’ll be on planes before June. The all-new Tour One MK3 headphones are an over-ear masterclass from an Audio leader.

Priced at $549 these are the premium level JBL’s – and they will go on sale July 1 at major retailers like JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, The Good Guys, Bing Lee and JBL.com.au

Like all JBL headphones when paired with the JBL Headphone app there’s some really outstanding features to refine the sound, from noise cancelling adjustments to your EQ adjustments.

These JBL Tour ONE M3 prioritise the LDAC Audio Codec for the best Audio experience supporting High-Resolution Audio, but can also support Spatial sound and head tracking.

Most notably, the Tour One M3 has a little “TX” there on it’s product name, and this is an innovative first-of-it’s-kind feature. Basically, it’s a Bluetooth Audio transmitter. When connected via USB-C to 3.5mm cable, like the Tour Pro 3 True Wireless headphones, has from it’s charging case, the ability to transmit sound.

The most obvious use-case for this is on a plane. Plug the 3.5mm connector into the plane seat, the USB-C end of that cable into this pocket transmitter. Then, turn on your JBL Tour ONE M3 headphones, they pair with your little transmitter and boom, you’re listening to the in-flight entertainment system.

Critically, the Tour ONE M3 can connect to two devices simultaneously, so your phone can play music then switch to in-flight, it just works.

We’ll have a full review in a few weeks, until then the one thing that stands out to me is how light these are. On the head they are soft, and you can barely feel you’re wearing them and they are light around the ears so I expect they will be great for a long flight.

Stay tuned!