Open-back, over-ear headphones have been around for many years. But they've traditionally lived in audiophile territory—for people looking for the immersive, expansive soundstage the design delivers, and not for everyday users who want to stay aware of their surroundings. Open earbuds, on the other hand, are gaining popularity to compete with Apple's non-Pro AirPods 4 ($129). JLab wants to combine the two concepts with the JBuds Open ($99.99), a new pair of open-back wireless headphones that keep you aware of your environment, but in an over-ear form factor. They're not perfect, but I found they do offer better comfort and fuller audio than most open earbuds, and at an attractive price.

Design: Utilitarian, With a Twist

The JLab JBuds Open look a little unusual, but not overly so, at least depending on how you use them. With the grilles installed, the JBuds Open could, from a distance, pass for standard over-ear headphones thanks to their all-black construction. But if you prefer, you can remove the mesh grille around each earcup, giving them a unique design that won’t pass for normal headphones at all. They still don’t look ugly, though—just different.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

They're relatively comfortable, although not as much as I'd like. The memory foam earcups offer reasonable padding; a little more would have been welcome. I did get used to the somewhat tight clamp around my head over time. I found my ears touching the plastic driver covers inside the cups, which won't be ideal if your ears are on the larger side. Thankfully, the headphones are lightweight at just 8.6 ounces, which helps compensate for the tighter fit. They don't have an IP rating.

All the controls live on the right earcup, including a volume rocker, a power/multifunction button, and a USB-C port. By default, the multifunction buttons play and pause audio with a single press, activate your digital assistant with a double press, and toggle between music and movie modes with a triple press. The volume buttons do what you'd expect, and holding them skips tracks forward or back.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

Inside, the JBuds Open feature dual coaxial drivers, pairing 35mm and 12mm units. You get a 20Hz to 20kHz frequency range and support for SBC and AAC codecs, but no wireless hi-res audio options. They connect over Bluetooth 6.0, with multipoint support for two simultaneous connections. They also support both Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair. There's no on-board active noise cancelling; if you want ANC in an open-ear design, which is an unusual combination, check out Apple's AirPods 4 With Active Noise Cancellation, although they're considerably more expensive at $179.

Although there's no wired analog listening option, you can connect to devices and listen via the included USB-C cable. It doesn't mean you'll suddenly get higher-quality audio, but it does let you listen without draining the battery.

For battery life, the JBuds Open are rated to last for 24 hours of playback, which is perfectly fine. A full charge takes 2.5 hours, but the quick-charge feature helps in a pinch, delivering 2.5 hours of playtime from 10 minutes plugged in.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The box includes the headphones, the USB-C cable, and a protective sleeve. The protective sleeve is kind of like a cross between the AirPods Max thin cover and a full-on hard case. The top of it is open, but the front and back fully cover the earcups and band.

App Experience: Robust EQ Options

The JBuds Open Headphones work with the JLab app, which has improved noticeably over the past year or two. It's well-designed and functional, even if it's not the prettiest headphone app out there. From the main screen, you'll see your current battery life, and you can switch between different modes or enable Spatial Audio. There are also options to jump into other settings menus, such as for customizing the controls.

(Credit: JLab)

The EQ built into the app provides three presets (simply called EQ1, EQ2, and EQ3), plus an impressive custom EQ with 10 bands from 31Hz to 16kHz. That's better than many other headphone apps with only five bands, for example.

Again, the app may not have the most attractive UI, but it gets the job done, and most will find it easy to navigate.

Sound Quality: Decidedly Average

The drivers in the JBuds Open are large enough to avoid the bass-deficiency issues that plague most open earbuds. Even so, neither the low end nor the highs extend quite as far as I'd like. This was particularly pronounced on our bass test track, "Silent Shout" by The Knife, which sounded generally muted. The track was missing some of the high-frequency sparkle in much of the percussion and lead instruments, though the mid-heavy synths sounded fine. Bass was acceptable, and more than you'd hear with open earbuds. But the sub-bass that defines this track was notably absent, making it sound a little weak. The Anker Soundcore Space One ($99.99) provide ANC and better bass response for the same price, although they don't have a transparent mode, so they're not directly comparable.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

"Loyalty" by Kendrick Lamar showed similar problems. The highs weren't as recessed, but they still lacked detail. Everything came across as a bit mid-heavy, and the sub-bass line was almost completely missing except for its highest notes, which sounded out of place as a result. The track did highlight one of the headphones' strengths: a wide soundstage. Backing vocals spread out nicely, giving instruments and lead vocals room to breathe.

"Drover" by Bill Callahan sits more in the midrange, but the limited extension at both ends made the track sound less natural than it should. Some cymbal hits came across as slightly shrill thanks to the high-mid emphasis. Thankfully, Callahan's vocals had reasonable richness, and the acoustic guitar came through well.

Busier classical tracks, like the opening scene to The Gospel According to the Other Mary by John Adams, benefited most from that wide soundstage—everything had space to spread out, and individual orchestral sections were nicely defined. Bass strings sounded full enough, but higher stringed instruments lacked some of their characteristic woody tone, and brass wasn't particularly crisp. Of our four test tracks, this one came closest to how it should sound, though it still wasn't quite there.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

That was true of the microphone as well. When recording through the Voice Memos app on an iPhone, the quality was serviceable but nothing special. My voice came through boomy and lacked clarity, though I was still able to hear my words perfectly fine.