Pros & Cons
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- Powerful bass response matched with crisp highs.
- Waterproof.
- In-ear fit is among the most secure we've tested.
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- Highly sculpted sound signature.
- Touch-sensitive buttons require some getting used to.
JBL Endurance Sprint Specs
| Active Noise Cancellation | |
| Boom Mic | |
| Phone Controls | |
| Removable Cable | |
| Type | In-Canal |
| Wire-Free | |
| Wireless |
We test our fair share of Bluetooth earphones that are purportedly "waterproof," but many are merely splash-resistant. That's why it's a bit of a surprise to see that JBL's Endurance Sprint earphones, with their low price of $49.95, are one of the rare models that can be submerged in water without issue. They also offer a powerful low frequency response that will appeal to bass lovers, an exceptionally secure fit, solid battery life, and touch-sensitive controls that seem out of place in this low price range. You're getting just as much (if not more) than some $100 models we test, earning the Endurance Sprint our Editors' Choice.
Design
Available in black, blue, green, red, or teal, the earphones have chunky earpieces that hook over your ear for a stable, surprisingly lightweight fit. The earpieces themselves feature removable padded silicone covers that rest against the ear (there are no replacements included, so removal is not really advised, merely possible). The eartips fit over this covering, and you get three pairs in small, medium, and large. Putting the earphones in can be a chore at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy and the fit is among the most secure we've tested.
There's no inline remote control on the cable. Instead, there's a touch-sensitive panel on the right earpiece—tap once for play/pause, twice for track forward, three times for track backward, and single taps answer and end incoming calls. Volume is controlled with upward and downward swipes. For powering up and down, and pairing, you just press and hold the panel.
It's pretty easy to accidentally press play and pause while putting the earphones in, so we suggest powering them up after putting them in your ears. It can also be a little too easy to accidentally pause or play music when you mean to adjust volume, but you get the hang of it after using the control pad for a while. It's rare to see a touch-senstive control panel like this on such an affordable in-ear pair.
Another surprising aspect of the design is the exposed micro USB port on the right earpiece. The surprise isn't that there's a charging port, it's that it isn't covered, yet the earphones still carry an IPX7 waterproof rating, which means they can be submerged up to one meter.
The orange charging cable is of a decent length. Other than the eartips and the cable, there are no included accessories. A carrying pouch would have been nice, but the price is low enough that there's little room for complaint. Magnets at the end of each earhook snap the earpieces together and make for tidy storage, even without a pouch.
The mic offers weak intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 6s, we could understand every word, but there were fuzzy audio artifacts to contend with, and the mic sounds far away from the mouth. Bluetooth in-ears rarely have good mics, so this is par for the course. It should work for basic communication.
JBL rates the Endurance Sprint's battery life at roughly 8 hours, better than some models that cost twice as much, but your results will vary with your volume levels. The earphones do power down automatically after a short period of inactivity, which helps.
Performance
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the earphones deliver powerful deep bass. At top listening levels, the bass doesn't distort, and at more moderate levels, the lows are still quite intense. Those motivated by deep bass will enjoy the sound signature, which is matched by some heavily boosted and sculpted high frequency response.
Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the overall sound. The drums on this track can sound like polite tapping on earphones that lack much bass depth; here they sound thunderous. Callahan's baritone vocals are delivered with a rich low-mid presence and a crisp high-mid edge. This same high-mid presence also benefits the acoustic guitar strums and the higher register percussive hits. The highest frequencies even sound boosted a bit, adding some extra tape hiss to the equation. This is pretty far from an accurate mix, but it is full, vibrant, and more or less balanced.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop receives an extra helping of bass thump, and a little less high-mid presence than we prefer—its presence isn't dull, but it lacks its typical punch. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with serious bass depth—this level of bass response is impressive at this price. The vocals on this track are delivered with solid clarity, though there's definitely a little added sibilance.
Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, get some extra bass response, but surprisingly, it doesn't push the lower register instrumentation too far forward in the mix. This is likely because the main boosting happens in mostly the sub-bass and deep low frequency realms that this track's lower instrumentation doesn't quite reach down to. The higher register brass, strings, and vocals are crisp and bright, and the mix feels nicely balanced.
Conclusions
If you're looking for secure-fitting, bass-forward wireless in-ears that can get wet (and even be submerged), you typically need to spend about $100 or so. So at $50, JBL's Endurance Sprint earphones are a great deal. Throw in an solid battery life and a touch-sensitive control panel, and they earn our Editors' Choice award. If you have more room in your budget and want tactile controls, we're fans of the JBL Reflect Mini 2, the Jaybird X3, and the JLab Epic Sport Wireless. But in this low price range, you needn't look further than the Endurance Sport.
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