JBL EVEREST ELITE 750NC

The JBL Everest Elite 750NCs are my third over-the-ear pair of headphones. Previously I bought the SENNHEISER HD 518s because I wanted quality headphones for listening to CD-quality (lossless) music. I think the Sennheisers have a slight edge in audio quality (I tested them with my FiiO X3 high-resolution player and Diana Krall’s “Blue Skies” off her Turn Up the Quiet CD …this track has vocals without music, pianos, stand-up bass, an accoustic guitar plucking a string at a time … the track has everything for your ears. 

*** Note:  I listened to the same track with the SONY MDR-XB950B1 and we don’t ever need to talk about those again when it comes to serious music listening. 

Audio quality in these Everest Elites is brilliant. I’m talking wired-connected listening (we’ll get to the Bluetooth audio listening experience in a minute). If you have access to the CD-quality version of the Diana Krall tune I mentioned above, you’ll notice you can hear Diana swallow to dry her mouth. You can hear the piano keys clicking when the pianist is smacking them for dramatic effect. You can hear the guitar strings as if you’re sitting in the studio with everyone. Truly, with my 45-year-old ears, and knowing the damage I’ve done to them and the deterioration of a humans ear drums over time, if audio quality can be better, I don’t think I have the ears that would notice – even though I noticed a massive jump in quality over the Sony headphones noted above but I cannot detect any difference between these JBLs and the Sennheisers.

Another reason I got these was for making work phone calls. I recently bragged about the SONY MDR-XB950B1s and how I had fallen in love with them for talking on the phone and how much better they were than Apple’s standard-issued earbuds (which I have never liked how they feel in my ear), better than my SENNHEISER MM 70Is, and better than my Bedphones (which were never intended for making phone calls). I bragged about thos Sony’s and a friend who worked for JBL said, “Don, you really should try the JBLs,” and so I am and let’s just say this …I will never make phone calls with the Sony headphones again.

Poor Sony headphones. I won’t use you for listening to music or making phone calls. I really should probably sell you online.

I made phone calls using the JBL Bluetooth connection with my iPhone 8, and the person I was talking to didn’t complain at all. We didn’t interrupt each other. Then I asked him to wait and disabled the Bluetooth, hooked up the wire, and the call quality went from really-good to really-great. See, the magic of the JBLs (for phone calls) is the inline mic. The person I was talking to said, “wow.” 

For anyone wondering, I hate holding my phone to my ear and talking, hence my obsession with headphones and earbuds for making calls. 

Wired phone calling was clear and felt like the old days of talking on a hardwired phones, which is my ultimate goal. Bottom line …these JBLs have a very high quality inline mic. If you don’t like talking on the phone with over-the-ear headphones, maybe try slipping the right ear off while talking. My opinion is, you’ll get used to it.

But if you like Bluetooth listening, these JBLs handle music very, very well and if you’re not obsessed with CD-quality sound, and you’re simply streaming your iTunes music, iHeart, Spotify, or Pandora, you’ll like the sound. These headphones don’t add unnecessary bass to trick you into thinking “full sound.” Great range. Long 8-hour battery life. In fact, I charged them on Sunday and it’s Wednesday and I haven’t needed to charge them again.

Yes, JBL has an app for your phone and these have noise-cancelling ability, but I’ve never thought that was all that useful …adding white noise just so I don’t have to hear ANYTHING around me. But, I did go to a very busy deli, activated the noise-cancelling, and it worked. I couldn’t hear anything …not the conversations, not the cook shouting orders, not the beeping cash register …nothing. So that’s pretty cool.

Like I said, if you tell me Sennheisers or Bose are better, I’ll believe you, but I’m pretty sure my ears don’t know the difference after a certain point of quality. These are great.

Oh, ear temperature and weight. The over-the-ear Sennheisers make my ears hottest in the shortest amount of time. Sony was #2. I wore these for three hours and didn’t really notice my ears were overheating. These are middle of the road in weight, too. Not bad.

I highly recommend these if you’re about to drop $250+ on headphones.