JBL Synchros E50BT over-ear and E40BT on-ear wireless headphones review

Good headphones are a pleasure, and to not be tethered to a cord is even better. As such, JBL’s new series of headphones are good to very good. They’re easy to wear, offer great sound, have acceptable (rechargeable) battery length (rated at 18 hours), and provide standard controls on your music (pause, start, volume). You can even take calls with them if you’re paired to your phone. What’s missing are certain nuances on how to use them in the instruction manual.

Design and physical attributes

Both the JBL Synchros E40BT and the Synchros E50BT sport an industrial straightforward appearance, mostly of plastic and metal internal structure. with padded ear-covers made of “protein leather.” I had not heard of this beast before so I looked it up. It’s a marketing term for leatherette, and some of the JBL ad content also does refer to it as leatherette (think of “pre-owned” cars). Nonetheless, they are comfortable, even after hours of wear.

The 50BTs weigh in at 10 oz (285g) while the 40BTs weigh in at 6-3/4 oz (190g). My head is not terribly large, and perhaps that’s why these do not have to squeeze my head too much. As it was, it was not possible to look up at the ceiling with either headphone without one hand on the headphones to prevent them from falling off.

One other issue with over-ear headphones is that on warm days they may not be the most comfortable. Also, if you have large ears, again they may not be the most comfortable. Either way, your mileage may vary, but these are things to consider.

There are telescoping extensions from each ear piece that extend through the headband allowing the ear cups to reach ears on larger heads. Each ear-piece has double-axis rotation so they not only tip/flex inward toward the head but also rotate/pivot toward the chin. This makes it very easy to maneuver them to fit just about any head.

The over-ear design does block a reasonable amount of external sound from coming in, but these are not noise-canceling headphones. Nonetheless, I would have no problem taking these aboard an airplane for some noise relief. If I pause the music, I can reasonably have a quick conversation. For a real conversation, I would take the headphones off.

JBL Synchros E50BT

While there is some charge to the lithium-ion batteries when the box is opened, it takes several hours to fully charge the batteries. There are two cords provided with these headphones, one with a USB end to plug into your computer, router, or wall/USB power source, while the other end plugs into a special jack on the headphones. The 2nd cable can be used between any 1/8″ sound source and this same jack on the headphones. Thus, if your headphones are out of power, you can still listen to your music the old fashion way: attached. While I did not listen to music for a full 18 continuous hours, the time rating is probably correct. While listening to both for many hours over multiple days, I never killed the batteries.

The sound

I found the sound to be crisp; besides good, full bass and treble, the mid-tones were not shortchanged. Those who like their bass notes pushing their eyeballs out on each beat will appreciate the 50mm version, I did find a difference between the E40BT and the E50BT, but that’s as expected, you can’t cheat physics. Not only will one get bigger bass from a bigger speaker, but the over-ear will capture the sound around your ear. The on-ear will not only let peripheral sounds in, but the sound you’re listening to out. That notwithstanding, you can fine-tune the equalizer in iTunes to push the bass if you need/want that. Focusing in on Norah Jones’ bassist was very easy and very nice on both, but there was much more “wow” listening with the E50BT.

If you are at all interested in hearing the words of your music or podcasts, you’ll be well served with either of these headphones. If anything, any time you have a good sound system, you’ll realize that one of the drawbacks to podcasts is that the sound on some of them is often compressed to such a degree that the sound quality is bordering on garbage. [Fortunately, most podcasts are not listened to for the quality of the sound but rather the quality of message.]

On the other hand, I have some old operas that do not sound wonderful through my stereo, but when listening to the same opera on good quality headphones (such as these), I realize I need to find a better quality recording. Such is the life of upgrading your sound system.

Using the headphones

There is an interesting design conundrum; when pressing the “on” button, the button will blink a color indicating the charge. However, since your finger is over the power button, it’s almost impossible to see the battery status while pressing the button. However, if you have an iPhone, when you pair your headphone to your iPhone, a small battery shows up next to your Bluetooth icon that shows the remaining charge on your headphones. This is not JBL’s doing, but rather Apple’s clever extra.

Let me add that, by touch, it’s much easier to feel the button on the 50BT than the 40BT. On the 50BT, the on button is located at the base of a corner and thereby easy to locate. On the 40BT, the button is recessed into the round shape of the ear-piece making it much more of a challenge to locate by touch.

When starting the headphones with a simple quick tap, there is a sound effect of three notes that crescendo up when starting, followed by a delayed forth note after pairing is done with your device. When turning off, there is a four note crescendo down. You do not need to do anything special with the headphones to pair them with your device.

I have to say that the biggest issue/problem I had with these headphones was the pairing with either my iPhone or my Mac. But, my two devices turned out to be the source of my problem; once you’ve paired with one device, subsequent pairing is a piece of cake. The problem comes when you want to pair with a different device while the other is near by. The headphones want to pair with whatever they paired with last.

Thus, if you’ve been pairing with your iPhone and now you want to pair with your computer, and your iPhone is near you, you need to do something like go into Airplane mode or turn off your Bluetooth until you’ve repaired with your computer. Likewise, turn off your computer’s Bluetooth until you’ve paired with your iPhone. [By the way, neither the instructions on the website nor in the box tell you this; this is an TechnologyTell exclusive.]

Once you’ve paired, as long as there is not much steel or concrete between you and what you’ve paired with, you can walk a considerable distance before the link starts to drop off. I had my iPhone on my BBQ cart, walked into the house into the kitchen to get a plate and did not lose a beat of the music. This was a distance of about 45 feet from headphones to iPhone. Also note that this is why you do need to turn off your Bluetooth, as leaving your iPhone in another room is probably not good enough if you want to connect to your computer.

Let me add that if you want to go back to either the speakers (or external speakers) on your Mac, you need to go to your Sound tab in your System Preferences and manually reset that option there. This, unfortunately, is a dynamic of the Mac, not the headphones.

Controlling the music can be performed on the left-ear-piece. There are four control spots, one at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock. The 12 and 6 pm spots (aka “top” and “bottom”), control volume. Interestingly, when pushing the volume up or down while you are paired with the iPhone, the volume on the iPhone was changing, nothing really surprising there. But when I was paired on my Mac, it appeared that I was changing the volume separately from the Macs volume.

The 9 o’clock position (aka the “front” button) is the multi-multi-multi function button. This can be tapped to pause and then tapped again to restart the music. If you double-tap you go to the next song. If you triple-tap you go to the previous song. If you double-tap but hold, you skip the next song, and if you triple-tap but hold, you skip the previous song (e.g., go to the song before the previous song). [Note: since this is Bluetooth control, when you tap, there is a lag time before the action actually happens.]

Wait, there’s more:

If you’re connected to your phone, pressing this once answers the call. If you press and hold, you reject the incoming call. If you’re on the phone and a 2nd call comes in, press this and you hang up on your current call and take the 2nd call, but if you press and hold, you’ll switch to the 2nd call leaving your first call on hold.

[Note: there is a built-in microphone with “Pure Konnexx™ echo-cancellation technology.” While I can’t comment on how good or bad this specific technology is since there’s no way to turn off the Pure Konnexx™ capabilities to compare the difference, I can say that my wife preferred my standard Bluetooth for my iPhone as it sounded better than the headphones.]

ShareMe Technology

The last button, at the 3 o’clock position (aka the “rear” button) lets you share your music with the JPL’s “ShareMe” technology. So, if you want (or need) to keep the volume down by wearing headphones but still want to share your music, this is just what you need. The instruction manual does an adequate job showing how to link two headphones. The one additional instruction I can add is that when coupling the headphones, there is a two note beep when initiating the connection. At the end of the final connection, you need to wait a few seconds for an extra beep. You need to wait for this final beep before restarting the music or the connection will fail. Again, this is an TechnologyTell exclusive.

One benefit of the ShareMe technology was that it made it much easier to compare the sound between the two headphones as I was able to pair the headphones and then switch back and forth while listening to the same music.

Once paired with ShareMe, each user can increase/decrease the volume controls without affecting the volume of the other listener. What the 2nd listener cannot do is use the pause/start button (at 9 o’clock) or any other capabilities that this button has. If you are connected via an iPhone for this coupling and a phone call comes in, the primary user will be able to use the phone features as always but the secondary user will be shut out from both music and the call. Once the call is completed, the music will continue through both headphones as before. It’s a pity, as this would have been an interesting conference call feature. But alas, not here.

Unfortunately you cannot pair these headphones with just any Bluetooth headphones, but you can pair them with any in the JBL BT series.

In short

Simply for sound quality, the E50BT offer a considerable listening experience. Some may find the pressure of the ear covering to be a bit much over an extended period of time. However, the padded ear covering provides the best capturing of the sound you can hope to have next to your ear.

JBL E50BT Rating:

Buy the JBL Synchros E50BT Wireless Over-Ear Headphones

The E40BT sound is very good, but the sound does not have the depth and warmth of the 50BT. However, the decreased weight and gentle pressure against the ear (as opposed to the closure of over-ear headphones may make these the preferred choice.

JBL E40BT Rating:

Buy the JBL Synchros E40BT Wireless On-Ear Headphones

Provides: Stereo audio reproduction with in-line music control / microphone for iPhones
Developer: JBL
Minimum Requirements: Audio device with 1/8 audio jack, iOS device for in-line controls
Price: E50BT – $149.95; E40BT – $99.95
Availability: Now