It’s hard to find a good pair of headphones for working out. Over-ears can easily fall off with head movements and can feel heavy after a while, while in-ear-monitors can be uncomfortable and be dislodged easily with exercise. The JBL Endurance Pace offers an all-around fit for exercising at a reasonable price.
What’s Special About the Endurance Pace?
Rather than going around the head or sitting directly in the ear, the Endurance wraps around your neck and places two attached monitors on the outside of your ears instead of being plugged inside of them. Other companies do offer this around-the-neck design at similar price points with similar features. However, JBL does have some unique qualities to put to the table. For one, it does not utilize bone-conduction technology to produce its sound. The Endurance only uses speakers for its sound capabilities. I vastly prefer this method as I have never liked the feeling of bone-conduction. Additionally, the sound quality, particularly in the bass, is nothing to scoff at especially at this price point, which I will get into later in the review.
Build and Comfort
The build quality of the Endurance is actually quite impressive. While it is small and minimal in design, it doesn’t feel fragile at all and has great features such as being completely water and dust proof. You could run with these in the rain or step on them by accident and they’d probably be fine anyway. It isn’t easy to break by any means.
The Endurance has a sound stage that is very unique to this type of headphone. They offer the width of an open back in their sound transparency—I can even hear my keyboard clicks right now as I listen to them while writing this review. However, they also give the same up-close intimate experience of an IEM. Combining this with the comfort, it almost gives the uncanny experience of hearing the music directly in your head. It’s a nice experience while working out, and it also ensures that you can hear what’s going around you while you’re working out, which can be especially helpful if you’re a city dweller.
They aren’t quite as portable as a traditional wireless pair of IEMs from the likes of Apple or Sony. You can’t just stuff them in your pocket no matter where every day. You can leave them hanging around your ears or put them in a backpack, but it’s not as much of an essential daily item.
The comfort is also much nicer than I imagined. They take some getting used to, and there’s a learning curve the first couple of times you put them on your head, but you barely notice that you’re wearing them after a while. They’re great for jogging and won’t fall out even with rapid head movements; the only issue I had was when turning my head over ninety degrees they would fall out occasionally.
Sound Overview
Now, let’s be real: you are not buying the Endurance for pristine, audiophile sound quality. You’re buying them more for functionality. Regardless, I will give a broad overview of my thoughts and their sound, which I was generally very impressed by.
Sound Stage
The Endurance has a sound stage that is very unique to this type of headphone. They offer the width of an open back in their sound transparency—I can even hear my keyboard clicks right now as I listen to them while writing this review. However, they also give the same up-close intimate experience of an IEM. Combining this with the comfort, it almost gives the uncanny experience of hearing the music directly in your head. It’s a nice experience while working out, and it also ensures that you can hear what’s going around you while you’re working out, which can be especially helpful if you’re a city dweller.
There is no noise canceling feature whatsoever for listening. There are two mics, however, which helps cancel out ambient noises competing with your voice during phone calls. This feature makes it very easy to communicate while on-the-go in most circumstances.
Sound Quality
I was quite impressed with the Endurance’s sound quality. Overall, they are very clear and have some nice open-back-like spacing. Not much is lost across the frequency spectrum. The bass is particularly strong here, packing a nice punch for this price point. Are they the same quality as a $1000 pair of IEMs? Of course not, but for the $100 price tag the sound is actually pretty uncompromised.
Final Thoughts
The JBL Endurance Pace offers surprisingly good sound in a great package for a reasonable price. While its wearing-style might not be for everyone, there is a definite audience for the product that will enjoy its sound, comfort, and value.
You can buy the JBL Endurance Pace at Audio 46.
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