JBL Live Pro 2 Review: True Wireless Earphones

The Live Pro 2 are JBL's flagship true wireless earbuds, and they arrive loaded with features: multipoint Bluetooth, active noise cancellation, a low-latency mode and hands-free voice-assistant activation among them. This review is based on the published test of the Live Pro 2, not on a hands-on trial of our own.

Released in June 2022, the Live Pro 2 took over from the Live Pro+ at the very top of JBL's earbud range. They benefit from all the American brand's know-how in noise reduction and carry an extensive feature list. Although the two generations are quite close, the Live Pro 2 stand apart from their predecessors through a slightly revised tip shape designed to sit better in the hollow of the ear, the addition of multipoint Bluetooth, and a promised 10 hours of listening per charge — 3 hours more than the Live Pro+ managed.

The Live Pro 2 keep a design extremely close to the Live Pro+, with a stem angled towards the mouth. That stem now carries a mirrored surface — a questionable choice, as it picks up fingerprints readily — and the rest of the shell is made from plastic of debatable quality, with visible assembly marks. The overall impression of sturdiness is still acceptable, and the earbuds are IPX5 certified, making them resistant to splashes of water.

The small charging case slips easily into a trouser pocket, though its hinge design complicates one-handed handling. It is made entirely from plastic of slightly better quality than the earbuds themselves, with a much better standard of finish. Three lights on the front indicate remaining battery, a USB-C charging port sits on the back, and the case also supports wireless charging by induction.

The Live Pro 2 deliver excellent comfort, largely thanks to their semi in-ear design: rather than pushing inside the ear canal, they simply seal its entrance. They are extremely light too, at 4.8 g per earbud, and are easily forgotten in the ear. Three pairs of silicone tips in different sizes are supplied to make the fit as universal as possible. Most of the time the earbuds stay put, but heavy perspiration can defeat that hold — during intense exercise, the Live Pro 2 have a tendency to slide out of the ears.

Day to day, the Live Pro 2 are pleasant to use. Each earbud carries a perfectly responsive touch surface at the top of its stem, handling everything from playback control to volume and track skipping. As with Sony's approach, however, you must choose between three control profiles in the JBL Headphones app, sacrificing either volume control, playback management or switching between listening modes. In every case, a long press summons the phone's voice assistant, and Alexa and Google Assistant can also be woken by voice alone. Many commands are accompanied by tones or voice prompts, though these do not lower the playing volume and can be completely inaudible at generous listening levels.

Pairing is as simple as it gets, helped by Fast Pair compatibility. The earbuds communicate over Bluetooth 5.2 with the SBC and AAC codecs, support multipoint pairing to two devices at once, and switch to mono when one earbud is returned to the case. Auto-pause when an earbud is removed works, but takes around 2 seconds to trigger, which can be awkward. The JBL Headphones app gathers a good number of features, including fine control of the noise cancellation and an equaliser — but connecting the earbuds to the app proved troublesome on numerous occasions, particularly on iOS.

The Live Pro 2 kept their promise, staying awake for 10 hours — even a little more — at 60% of maximum volume with noise cancellation off. With ANC engaged, the figure eases down to 8 hours. A substantial score, and easily enough to use the earbuds all day long without recharging.

Six microphones handle voice capture and ambient noise reduction on calls, and a sidetone feature feeds your own voice back into the earbuds — very useful for countering their isolating effect. In a quiet environment the Live Pro 2 capture the voice intelligibly, though the limited bandwidth of the microphones alters it noticeably and makes it sound distant. In a noisy setting, such as beside a busy junction, matters get worse: the microphones struggle to lift the voice out of the surrounding din, and comprehension becomes harder.

Uncompensated, the published test measured 322 ms of latency over Bluetooth — a substantial figure that puts sound visibly out of step with video. It is partly corrected automatically by good Bluetooth integration in most apps and sites, Netflix, YouTube and Prime Video included, though a slight offset remains, and gaming is simply impractical in these conditions. Fortunately, a dedicated Video mode cuts latency to around 132 ms — far more comfortable for viewing and almost good enough for gaming — at the cost of connection stability, with brief audio dropouts roughly every 10 minutes in crowded environments such as a busy metro.

A flagship position does not guarantee flagship sound, and the Live Pro 2 serve up a thoroughly unbalanced signature with thunderous bass and wearing upper mids. The lows occupy far too much space and spill into the lower mids: kick drums crash through and bass lines are omnipresent, while merely adequate precision makes it hard to pick apart the instruments at the bottom end, especially on bass-rich tracks. To counterbalance all that bass, JBL chose to boost the upper mids sharply rather than tame the lows, producing an aggressive tonality that quickly becomes fatiguing around the 4 kHz presence region to which the human ear is most sensitive. The treble fades behind all this emphasis: the extreme highs are timid, the depth of the soundstage suffers, and subtle effects and upper harmonics — cymbals and brass in particular — are difficult to appreciate. Caught between those excesses, the mids themselves are nicely rendered, letting instrument and vocal timbres come through faithfully, and the app's equaliser can calm the bass and upper mids somewhat — just don't expect miracles.

The ANC delivers honourable performance, especially at low frequencies: engine rumble, ventilation noise and train rolling sounds are properly reduced. It is less effective through the mids and highs and against non-static noise — surrounding conversations, keyboard clatter and higher-pitched sounds are attenuated but remain a little too present for true isolation. The earbuds cannot deal effectively with wind noise either, and show some sensitivity to pressure effects such as a door slamming. The ambient-sound mode is adequate without more: lows and mids come through well, but treble is too muffled for comfortable conversation with the earbuds in. A TalkThru mode goes further, lowering playback volume as well — handy for catching announcements on public transport.

Despite their flagship positioning, the Live Pro 2 struggle to convince completely. Excellent comfort, a fine feature list and substantial battery life cannot make up for sound reproduction that is merely adequate, and stronger choices at this level are not hard to find.