JLab Go Air Sport True Wireless Earbuds

The JLab Go Air Sport True Wireless Earbuds fit securely, most of the time, and have a decent level of sweat, water and dust resistance, all ideal for general UK riding conditions. The sound quality is pretty good, too, for the money.

I spend a lot of my day with some kind of headphones or earphones connected, whether I'm at my desk, on the school run or tinkering with stuff around the house, and I certainly don't scrimp on the price, with most sets coming in at hundreds of pounds as I want my music and movies to sound as good as they possibly can.

Hence, I was a little sceptical about how the sound would be out of a set of buds costing just £29.99. It ain't bad, though.

> Buy now: JLab Go Air Sport True Wireless Earbuds for £27.99 from ebay

Straight out of the case they sound a bit tinny, but using the touch sensors found on the outer body of each bud you scroll through three equalizer settings: JLab Signature, Balanced and Bass Boost, the latter certainly giving a bit more oomph to tunes for those hard efforts or interval sessions without any noticeable distortion.

For this sort of money, I wasn't expecting any form of noise cancellation, which is good because there isn't any, but the buds do keep a decent amount of the outside noise out. If you are riding on the road, you can still hear your music, voices on the radio or podcasts without issues, but you are also not completely isolated from what is going on around you.

The buds can be worn independently, so you can just have one in while you are riding if you prefer.

Via the touch sensors you can also control volume and track selection, play, pause and so on. They're quite easy to use when walking or standing still but can be a bit of a faff when on the move as vibration from the road means you can quite often activate the wrong command.

You can answer phone calls on them too, and the microphone isn't bad as long as you stop riding, otherwise things are a bit wind disrupted.

When it comes to the fit, I found the JLabs very comfortable – barely noticeable, in fact. They come with three sizes of bud covers to dial in the fit to your ears.

As you can see from the pics, the Go Air Sports are designed to loop over your ears, and they do so securely, especially on turbo sessions or riding on the road; on some gravel trails they did vibrate out at times – and pushing them back in could activate the touch sensors – but the times it happened were few and far between.

The buds themselves are IP55 rated for both dust and water which is ideal for exercising, especially in terms of sweating on the turbo. Those ratings only count for the earbuds, though, not the case, so if you are carrying that in your pocket or rucksack, watch out for rain.

Battery life is impressive. You get eight hours for each bud per charge, and the charged case will provide another 24 hours. All you need to do is place the buds into the case to top them up, and the case comes with its own USB cable.

Comparing them with recently tested headphones, the JLabs are priced competitively.

For instance, the Tronsmart Onyx Ace Pro True Wireless Earphones that Ed tested are £53.87.

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He was happy with the overall sound quality and ease of use, but with neither silicone ear sections nor the loop of the JLabs, they aren't that secure once you start sweating.

The set I generally use on the bike are Sony's WI C100 In-Ear Wireless Headphones, which cost around £35. They give a slightly better sound than the JLabs, for my liking, but while they stay put in the ears they aren't quite as comfortable, what with having the cable joining them hanging around your neck.

Conclusion

Overall, in terms of sound performance these are pretty good, offering deep enough base without any distortion, and clear vocals. The fit is ideal for cycling as for the majority of time they are secure and barely noticeable. The touch controls aren't the easiest to use on the move, but that isn't a problem restricted to the JLabs.

Verdict

Decent quality budget headphones with good sound and resistance to the elements