almost perfect, with a couple of caveats
[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] These wireless earbuds are pretty amazing… but there are a couple of things that I wish were different.
First, the great:
I have small ears, so I have a hard time finding earbuds that stay in, especially when running. Up until now, the only earbuds that have worked for me are Yurbuds (also made by JBL), but only with the older style of replacement covers. This is the first time that I have found a set of earbuds that fit well, stay in through anything, and are an astoundingly soft, comfortable silicone that I could probably wear all day without any problems.
Second, these block other sounds, even though they’re not intended as noise-cancelling earbuds. Unlike Yurbuds, which are intended to allow you to hear ambient noise, the JBL Reflect Mini2 forms a tight seal in your ear, which means that they do an excellent job of blocking other sounds around you. Even if my husband is standing right in front of me talking (and he has a powerful radio voice that’s hard to miss), I can’t hear him at all when these are in my ears, and this is even if I don’t have music or anything else playing at the moment. I can barely hear my dog barking if he’s nearby, but that’s a loud German Shepherd mix type of bark that I wouldn’t expect to be cancelled by anything. If you’re looking for a set of earbuds that will block other noise around you—whether in an office, at the gym, or on a construction site—these are an excellent choice if you won’t want to go with something with true noise cancelling technology.
Third, the sounds quality seems to be outstanding once you put the correct size of tips on the headset to form a comfortable, tight seal in your ears. If you have the wrong size tips, though, you’re not going to hear as much. I’m not an audiophile who hears as much detail as some with a trained ear, but I was a musician at one time, so take this for what it’s worth. I hear a lot more detail with these earbuds that I do with any other set that I have tried, and they seem to have outstanding range. Try listening to a classical concerto or some of the jazz greats, and I think you’ll be blown away too.
Fourth, the sound quality while taking phone calls is excellent—about the same as talking on your phone without a headset or using a good quality wired headset. Most wireless Bluetooth headsets that are intended for working out are worthless for taking phone calls, especially when moving around, and that’s not at all true for this headset.
Finally, these earbuds are lightweight and easy to adjust. Even though the tips look a little large in photos and in the box, they are made from such lightweight materials that they feel like they are a fraction of their size. There’s no heavy battery on the wire to flop around when you’re moving, so there’s no need to clip the earbuds to your shirt, as has been the case with other similar wireless earbuds that I have tried. There is a teeny tiny clip on the wire that allows you to clip the wire together to get a tighter fit around the back of your head, which is helpful for reducing movement and bounce, which helps make the earbuds more comfortable and a little less noisy during movement.
That leads me to the two things that I wish were different. The first is that I can hear every step, every bounce of the wire, and every time my hair brushes against the wire. This is true for any set of earbuds that forms a tight seal and has a connecting wire, so if you’re comparing these to any similar set of earbuds, you’re going to have this issue regardless. I don’t love hearing a thump with every step that I take, so these probably won’t be my default running earbuds, but a lot of people won’t notice or care about that. However, I don’t notice the noise as much when I’m on a bike, cooking, running errands, or even walking our dog (he’s pretty slow, so more gentle steps), and these will easily be my default when doing those types of activities.
The second thing I wish I could change is that these earbuds can only be connected to one device at a time. If I have them connected to my phone and want to connect to my ipad, I have to disconnect the earbuds and then tell my phone to forget them, and turn the earbuds off and then back on, before I can connect to my ipad. Without going through these steps, my ipad won’t even see the earbuds. I then have to go through the same process again to switch back to my phone. I realize this might not seem like a big deal to most… but after using another set that could be simultaneously connected to two devices at once that were made by the same company, I’ve been a little spoiled and was expected the same from these.
