JBL Tour One review: Noise cancellation with natural sounds

These days it might be a bit awkward for a product to have ‘Tour’ in its name, but interestingly the JBL Tour One came for review just a few days before I set out on my second trip in the past two years. Yes, as the name suggests, the JBL Tour One is clearly a headphone meant for those on the move who love their music and solitude.
The JBL Tour One has a classic design for noise-cancelling headphones with soft earcups that completely wrap around your ears, a headband that is adjustable and arms that can be folded to stow away the set in its case. The headphones have a button on the left to adjust the noise cancelling to Ambient Aware and normal modes. These buttons can all be customised using the My JBL app. There is a voice assant too and you can use the native one on your device or Alexa. I stuck to using Siri and it worked well.
The earcups are comfortable and don’t warm up when you wear them for long hours, even in the sultry Kerala weather. The entire unit is not very heavy and you don’t feel tired after a long session with the headphones.
The earcups on the JBL Tour One are comfortable and don’t warm when worn for long hours. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/Indian Express)

I wore the JBL Tour One on a flight to Kerala and the active noise cancellation was very effective on the early morning flight. I was asleep within a few minutes. There is a great feature for people like me who wear noise-cancelling headphones on long flights. The smart alarm on the app lets you select a duration to play music before switching off the audio so that you can sleep, and it will wake you up after the nap. Great for those who frequently board long haul flights.
But there was no such luck for me on the Indigo flight as 40 minutes into my nap, the crew had turned up with breakfast. Interestingly, I could start a conversation just soft tapping on the earcups and not really taking off the headphones thanks to the Talk Through mode. Very impressive given this is JBL’s first noise-cancelling model.
The JBL Tour One has one of the best mic systems in a headphone of this range, letting your voice be heard loud and clear during Zoom calls. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/Indian Express)
Given that these were JBL headphones, my expectations were very high when it came to the audio capabilities. And I was not disappointed. The JBL Tour One has a very natural, neutral audio profile that reproduces the music as it was recorded with no unnecessary bass or tweaks. Lening to Garrett Kato’s ‘Drugstore Houses’ you enjoy his soft vocals as the background music is just there to accentuate the vocal and not drown it out.
With more complex compositions such as Joshua Radin’s ‘Better Life’ I could not help but notice the balance these headphones offer, putting the guitar and his vocals on the same plain. This is rich and layered, giving all the channels the right amount of breathing space to come to their own.
Then when you switch to ‘Paathira Kalam’ from Kurup, the headphones show that it can step up when needed and that too with ease. It has the right amount of bass, mixing the highs and lows to take your lening experience to a whole new level.

The smart alarm on the My JBL app lets you select a duration to play music, before turning off the audio, alongside some preset equalisers. (Screenshot – Nandagopal Rajan/Indian Express)
The app offers some preset equalisers and the ability to save your own preferences. However, it is very basic so as not to complicate life for users. The battery life lasts a full week when charged up and can recharge to over 50 per cent in about 15 minutes. However, the JBL Tour One stays connected to the phone even when you fold them and the first day I lost some juice on both the phone and headphones without releasing this. You can set a timeout option on the app and I chose 15 minutes to save battery as much as possible.
And don’t think the JBL Tour One is not versatile enough to handle work from home. In fact, it has one of the best mic systems in a headphone of this range. This means you will be heard loud and clear on your Zoom calls. And you will end up hearing more than you should.
At Rs 24,999, the JBL Tour One is clearly priced for the very discerning audio users. There are many options in this price range, and the JBL Tour One gives all of them some serious competition with its natural sound profile, versatile features and dependable noise cancellation. JBL is making itself heard in the noise cancellation space.