JBL Live Beam 3 Review

In the increasingly competitive market of true wireless earbuds, the JBL Live Beam 3 stands out as a versatile option. With its sleek design, user-friendly features, and impressive sound quality, these earbuds promise to enhance your listening experience whether you’re at home, commuting, or exercising. Packed with a plethora of functionalities, from active noise cancellation to customizable sound profiles through the companion app, the Live Beam 3 aims to cater to diverse audio preferences while providing the convenience of a wire-free lifestyle. Let’s dive deeper into what the JBL Live Beam 3 has to offer in terms of design, functionality, and overall performance.

What You Get

• 1 x JBL Live Beam 3 earbuds
• 1 x 3 sizes of ear tips
• 1 x Type-C USB charging cable
• 1 x Charging case
• 1 x Warranty / Warning (W / !)
• 1 x product QSG/ Safety Sheet (S / i)

Look & Feel

If you prefer your true wireless earbuds with a stem, like JBL’s Tour Pro 3 model or AirPods, then the Live Beam 3 is a good fit. It’s a thin stem with a good-sized earphone housing, with a design typical to most of JBL’s current product lines. Having more color variations would increase its value, but the Live Beam 3 doesn’t look too plain.

The comfort level is what you’d expect from a pair of earbuds like the Live Beam 3, as they sit in your ear firmly. It’s a bit of a looser fit, but its grip feels secure enough that the earpieces don’t move around too much.

Design & Functionality

The Live Beam 3 has a 10mm dynamic driver that produces a nominally loud signal for true wireless earbuds. If you’re worried about your earbuds not being loud enough, JBL offers generous headroom, with personal sound amplification as a supplemental option through the earbud’s companion app. In that app, you can activate many different features, from EQ, to spatial audio, to ANC. Speaking of ANC, the Live Beam 3 has average noise-canceling for the price. It has an issue suppressing high-end obstruction, like high-powered vents, but it’s strong enough to get the job done.

All of these features can be activated in three places, directly from the app, the earphone’s touch sensors, and the touch screen on the charging case. The Live Beam 3 also has a wear sensor that will play/pause your music, and it’s very responsive. Using the case along with the touch sensors makes the Live Beam 3 very user-friendly, giving you multiple options to control your music playback.

Bluetooth

With Bluetooth version 5.3, the Live Beam 3 supports fast pairing and a strong wireless connection. Throughout my listening time for this review, I never experienced any dropouts or resynchronization. It offers standard CODECs but comes with a multipoint connection, allowing you to use two devices with the Live Beam 3.

Battery Life

The Live Beam 3 has a great battery life, with one charge granting you a maximum of 12 hours of playtime. Using ANC, Personi-Fi and spatial audio will drain the battery faster, but it’s still significantly longer than most Bluetooth earbuds in this price range. Using the charging case will give you an additional 36 hours of use before needing to put it back on the charger.

Soundstage

With spatial audio and Personi-Fi, the Live Beam 3 has several different soundstage roles. If you’ve read my review of the Tour Pro 3, you’ll know that I am not a fan of JBL’s spatial audio platform. It gives the sound an artificial echo effect that confuses the imaging more than adding spaciousness. The most immersive quality shown by the soundstage is when the earphones are in their natural stereo mode. Here, the Live Beam 3 shows a solid width for true wireless earbuds, with identifiable channel separation that gives you a general idea of sound placement. Everything is presented with a very closed headspace and linear depth, but the imaging is inoffensive.

Low End

With EQ and personalized audio profiles, the bass can take on different forms, but a few things are consistent. JBL headphones and earbuds tend to have the same style of tone that is both smooth and punchy. It’s a specific texture that is common with JBL products so the bass should sound familiar either way. You can use presets or adjust the lows yourself, but I preferred to keep the earbuds in studio mode, which offered the most balanced and realistic portrayals of bass frequencies. Bass grooves are tighter but still energetic, offering separation and shape to each performance.

Mids

Like the bass EQ, studio mode is the best option for hearing the most from the midrange frequencies. Of course, with most JBL headphones and earbuds, the fundamental frequencies will have a notch, but the sound doesn’t suffer too much. Overall the presentation is fairly standard for true wireless earbuds in this price range. The vocal response is the clearest in the mix, and you can add more warmth with EQ and other presets but detail retrieval is minimal, resulting in bloated frequency ranges.

Highs

With just a small boost to the highs the Live Beam 3 gains some fun properties. You get good sizzle and crispness from the highs without going anywhere near brightness, making the timbre very comfortable for most listeners. What makes the highs nicer than a lot of true wireless earbuds in this price range is its wispiness. The highs have an airy quality that brings out the height and lets some elements come through with a colorful sparkle.

Summary

The JBL Live Beam 3 earbuds deliver a well-rounded audio experience that combines comfort, functionality, and impressive sound quality, making them a strong contender in the true wireless category. With a robust battery life, user-friendly controls, and various audio-enhancing features, they cater to both casual listeners and those seeking a more personalized sound experience. While they may have some shortcomings in high-end noise cancellation and soundstage performance, their overall versatility and JBL’s signature bass make the Live Beam 3 an appealing choice for anyone looking to elevate their music experience. For those seeking a reliable and stylish audio companion, the Live Beam 3 is undoubtedly worth considering.

The JBL Live Beam 3 is available at Audio46.