JBL’s new elite headphones feature a touchscreen audio transmitter, so you can easily connect anywhere… and easily share audio with someone else
- Adaptive noise cancellation and spatial audio with head tracking
- Includes wireless transmitter to stream from virtually any source
- $399, on sale April 2025
JBL makes some of the most interesting headphones out there, and the newly announced JBL Tour One M3 has a very interesting component. JBL calls it the SMART Tx, and it’s a small wireless transmitter that makes it easy to stream to your headphones from almost any audio source, and share that audio with others, too.
The headphones’ specs are pretty tasty too, with adaptive ANC, high-resolution Bluetooth streaming and lossless audio. Battery life is a promised 70 hours, and a five-minute quick charge will give you five hours of playback.
JBL Tour One M3: main features and prices
The Tour One M3 headphones are built around newly developed 40mm mica dome drivers, and the sound they create can be personalized via the JBL headphones app using the custom JBL Personi-Fi 3.0 hearing profiles. These profiles include 12-band EQ and separate optimization for the left and right stereo channels. The headphones also have JBL Spatial Sound with head tracking.
The Tour One M3 comes with version 2.0 of JBL’s adaptive noise cancellation, which uses eight microphones to listen to the world around you and also offers customizable Ambient Aware and TalkThru modes to control what audio you want to let in. There is adaptive beam shaping via four microphones, so you sound clear during calls.
Bluetooth is 5.3 and there’s support for both Auracast broadcast and reception, and there’s a built-in DAC to deliver lossless audio over USB-C.
Auracast is one of two tricks that the SMART Tx transmitter offers. Firstly, the box allows you to connect your headphones to virtually any audio source – USB-C or analog – and then stream the audio to your headphones in high-quality audio that also promises to be latency-free. But you can also share audio via Auracast with compatible devices, so you can connect the transmitter to your laptop and broadcast to as many people as you want. It’s an interesting idea and could potentially be a lot less hassle than constantly pairing devices or searching for cables to connect to.
The JBL Tour One M3 headphones with JBL SMART Tx will go on sale on April 13, 2025, in your choice of Black, Mocha or Blue. The US price will be $399.95, which is approximately £322 / AU$640.