JBL Live Pro 2 Review: Mid-Level Earbuds That Punch Well Above Their Weight
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You’re likely most familiar with JBL through its impressive line-up of portable Bluetooth speakers. Yet, like every brand in 2022, they also make some of the best wireless earbuds. One of their latest releases is the JBL Live Pro 2, which initially debuted at CES 2022. Now, they’ve officially hit the market, and the brand was kind enough to send over a pair for testing. Find out our thoughts in our JBL Live Pro 2 review below.
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Buy: JBL Live Pro 2 Earbuds $149.95
Setup: Easy, Breezy
The setup for the Live Pro 2 is lightning fast; I opened the packaging for the unit and then put the earbuds into the charging case, closed the lid, and then reopened it to pair. From there, I was able to go to my Bluetooth settings on my iPhone and get the device to pair right away. While we didn’t test this on an Andriod device, the process is likely just as simple and easy.
JBL says you can download their mobile app if you want additional customizable settings, but we didn’t tinker around with it too much because the earbuds sounded pretty great out of the gate.
Design: Familiar, But Unique
The overall look and feel of the Live Pro 2 should feel pretty familiar to those who are used to any sort of Bluetooth earbud at this point. The buds themselves are blubbed in shape and feature a slight and thin extension at the bottom that makes it easy to put them in and take them out of your ears.
The rechargeable carrying case is very square in its design and has a nice weight to it that I actually liked, as it made it easier to find in my pockets and makes it feel like it’ll be supportive if you happened to actually drop it. The other subtle feature of the case we like is the battery meter; it has a tick-mark-like design that lets you know, at a glance, where the battery life is when you open the lid.
Features and Performance
Despite its tiny construction, the Live Pro 2 is chock-full of compelling features. Battery life clocks in around an impressive 10 hours (that life held steady during our testing) with 30 additional hours of standby life in the case; the six microphones help your calls sound crystal clear; Bluetooth 5.2 allows for multipoint connectivity to pair the earbuds to multiple devices; and active noise cancelation ties everything together in a nice, neat bow.
JBL is packing a considerable amount of value into a more mid-level set of earbuds, which naturally led us to wonder if they lived up to that price tag. Sure enough, they certainly did. The most impressive part is that ANC; while not as crazy powerful as Sony’s ANC earbuds or the AirPods Pro, they’re just slightly under the both of those. While testing the Live Pro 2 (both in and out of my home) they did a great job of cutting down on a noisy washer and excess train noise. The nice thing about the earbuds is how quickly you can toggle between (button presses on the left earbud begin the cycle) ANC, ambient noise and a ‘talk-through’ mode (which allows you to have a conversation without ever having to fully remove the earbuds). I’m really impressed with the performance of the ANC, especially for this particular price; that feature alone is well worth the Live Pro 2.
Sound-wise, the earbuds also impress. I found the overall tone to be a little more balanced but still offering plenty of richness. Outkast’s “Bombs of Baghdad” sounded appropriately thunderous, as did many of the compositions from Michael Giacchino’s score for The Batman and Lightyear. The earbuds worked well during workouts, too, as the IXP5 certification means they’re water-resistant against sweat and light rain should you get caught out somewhere.
I did have some minor issues with the Live Pro 2, but none major enough to not recommend them. For the first time ever, I had a slight issue with a set of earbuds slipping out of my ears during a run. Luckily, swapping the ear tips seemed to cut down on that slightly. They didn’t move around too much during weight lifting, which was good. The other issue I had was with the volume dropping on them inexplicably. This only happened to me twice (and within about an hour period) and then seemingly went away. Pausing and unpausing fixed the issue, but worth mentioning nonetheless.
The Verdict
The JBL Live Pro 2 met and exceeded our expectations, providing a truly fantastic product for a price that can’t be beaten. If you’re looking to get a premium-sounding and functioning set of earbuds at a reasonable price, these are for you.
Should You Buy the JBL Live Pro 2 Earbuds?
We definitely recommend these, no matter how you want to use them. They’ll work great as a set of workout or even travel earbuds. We found a lot to love with these and have a feeling you will too.
Pros:
Fantastic value
Strong ANC
Multipoint connection
Cons:
Some technical issues
Might need to swap ear tips around
JBL Live Pro 2 Earbuds
Buy: JBL Live Pro 2 Earbuds $149.95
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