JBL Quantum 800 review
Our Verdict
The JBL Quantum 800 provides fantastic sound and a comfy fit, simply frustrating interface issues drag downwardly the experience.
For
- Fantabulous audio quality
- Wired and wireless connections
- Comfortable fit
Against
- Expensive
- Frustrating interface
- So-and so battery life and mic
Tom'southward Guide Verdict
The JBL Quantum 800 provides fantastic sound and a comfortable fit, but frustrating interface issues drag down the experience.
Pros
- +
Excellent sound quality
- +
Wired and wireless connections
- +
Comfy fit
Cons
- -
Expensive
- -
Frustrating interface
- -
And so-so battery life and mic
The JBL Breakthrough 800 ($200) is a skilful wireless gaming headset that could have been great. While JBL is a relative newcomer in the gaming audio infinite, it's been doing everyday audio products since 1946, and its pedigree pretty much speaks for itself. Like the more expensive JBL Breakthrough One, the JBL Quantum 800 is comfy to article of clothing and sounds incredibly good for both music and games. The problem is that it's sometimes very frustrating to employ.
JBL Breakthrough 800: Specs
Compatibility: Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox Ane
Drivers: 50 mm
Frequency Response: 20 Hz - 20 kHz
Wireless: Yes
I enjoyed about ninety% of my fourth dimension spent with the Breakthrough 800, thank you to its nuanced sound and plush earcups. The other 10% of the fourth dimension, the headset proved difficult, whether information technology was forcing me to heed to obnoxious startup sounds or flat-out refusing to play audio through the proper input. At to the lowest degree once, I yanked the Breakthrough 800 off my caput, chucked it aside and but plugged in another headset, blasphemous the whole fashion.
The Quantum 800 is pretty expensive, and nevertheless it does offer a lot of features for the price. It's not one of the best gaming headsets on the market place, but information technology'due south worth because, peculiarly if audio quality is paramount. Read on in our full JBL Quantum 800 review to learn more.
JBL Quantum 800: Design
For a very expensive headset, the JBL Quantum 800 actually looks kind of cheap. Its expandable plastic headband looks a little flimsy, and its earcups have plastic mirrors, which pick upward fingerprints like nobody's business concern. The boom mic on the left earcup isn't removable; I feel that a mic in a headset this expensive should be removable or retractable, but at to the lowest degree information technology'southward in that location when you need it.
The left earcup is where most of the activeness happens, with a noise canceling button, a chat/game mixer dial, a volume dial and a mic mute push button. I've gotten on my high equus caballus before about putting the chat and volume dials right next to each other, just I think the point yet stands. When the 2 dials are so shut together and experience exactly the same, a headset is practically begging the user to conform the wrong i. There'due south also a USB-C power port, and a iii.five mm audio port. In addition to a USB dongle, the headset comes with a USB cable for charging and a three.5 mm audio cable for console play.
The correct earcup houses only the on/off switch, which doubles every bit the Bluetooth activator. This switch was one of my first and most consequent points of frustration with the device, as the differences between the "on," "off," and "pairing" modes are subtle, at best. Often, I'd want to wake upward the headset afterward a prolonged sleep style, and wound up unpairing information technology from its USB dongle instead. (Re-pairing information technology requires you to press a push on the dongle itself, so skilful luck if it's in dorsum of your PC.)
While the Quantum 800 is navigable plenty, I was hoping for something that looked and felt a trivial more elegant. There are cheaper wireless headsets that await and experience much better — the SteelSeries Arctis vii ($150) and the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero ($150), for starters.
JBL Quantum 800: Comfort
With costly foam earcups and a padded, airy headband, the JBL Quantum 800 is very comfortable, even over long stretches of time. The earcups brand a surprisingly tight seal around the ears, just in my experience, this didn't cause whatever discomfort or pain over time. Information technology did, still, block out a lot of extraneous sound, which I appreciated. The earcups also fold flat, for like shooting fish in a barrel transportation.
Getting a good fit is fairly straightforward, thanks to numbered notches in the extendable headband. I wish the headband had been metallic rather than plastic, as headband plastic tends to get pretty brittle and breakable afterward a few years. It seems like a cheap design decision in an otherwise expensive headset.
I plant the Quantum 800 comfy and relatively easy to get a expert fit, but if you prefer headsets on the looser side, information technology might not be for you lot.
JBL Quantum 800: Gaming performance
JBL is one of the go-to names in sound tech, and from the moment I put the JBL Breakthrough 800 on my caput, it was articulate why. I ran the headset through a diverseness of games on a variety of consoles, including Doom Eternal, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Age of Empires Ii: Definitive Edition. The headset works wirelessly on PC and PS4, and via 3.v mm audio cable for Xbox I and Switch.
(I was extremely disappointed to larn that the Quantum 800 does not connect wirelessly to a docked Switch, only the Switch dock is extremely hit-or-miss with wireless headsets. This isn't actually JBL'due south fault.)
I was especially pleased with the device'due south wireless performance on the PC and PS4. The Breakthrough 800 did a fantastic job balancing voice piece of work, sound effects and music, whether it was listening to Lara Croft's groans of exertion while scaling a stony edifice, or the rapid discharge of bullets tearing a demon'southward guts apart. I especially enjoyed playing Historic period of Empires II, though, every bit the Quantum 800 let me focus on the gorgeous soundtrack and zone out to the chill medieval tunes.
The audio operation is nearly as good in its 3.five mm sound mode — and its Bluetooth mode, which is a huge boon for modernistic, jack-less smartphones. The fact that the Breakthrough 800 works with nigh whatever system is a feather in its cap.
JBL Breakthrough 800: Features
Here's where the JBL Breakthrough 800 doesn't work quite also as information technology could. I've already discussed the mercurial power button, but turning the arrangement on and off is a breeze compared to getting a figurer to actually recognize it. Unlike nearly other USB headsets, the Breakthrough 800 uses five different drivers to manage its sound. If you call back that sounds complicated, you're absolutely correct. Windows won't recognize the right drivers at first, meaning y'all have to become into your sound settings and manually switch from the "headset" driver to a "speaker" driver. This also ways that the headset'due south volume doesn't correspond directly with the book in Windows, which is a pain if you like using keyboard media controls.
Having all these competing drivers also makes it profoundly hard to make each programme recognize the proper input. Sometimes, I'd exist listening to music in VLC, break information technology to bring up a YouTube link, and have the YouTube music play through my speakers instead. I oft had to restart my entire machine before Google Run across recognized the Quantum 800's microphone.
In the single most frustrating incident of my time with the headset, vox chat on Discord recognized the mic just fine, but wouldn't recognize the audio output for love or money. As I tried to restart the headset, I pressed the ability button too far, and information technology started trying to pair again instead. I tore the USB dongle out of my computer, tossed it aside, and plugged in a tried-and-truthful Corsair headset instead. This is pretty much the worst-case scenario for a gaming headset.
There are also all the obnoxious, loud sound effects to hash out. When you lot showtime upwardly or shut downwardly the Quantum 800 (or when it shuts down after an idle catamenia), it makes a series of jarring beeps and buzzes. Y'all tin can't lower the volume, and you tin't disable them. Sometimes, I'd be sitting quietly, feeling calm and nerveless, and then get scared out of my wits as the abrasive notifications started buzzing in my ears. Information technology's non really the kind of thing you can railroad train yourself to get used to.
The battery life, software, and mic are all only OK. JBL estimates that you tin get xiv hours if you turn all the lights off; I got about 10 with the lights on, then that's believable. The Breakthrough Engine software lets you toggle surround sound, select equalization profiles and arrange mic options. Simply you tin can't gear up up profiles for individual games and apps, which would have saved a lot of unnecessary little effectually. My coworkers damned the microphone with faint praise every bit "standard gaming headset quality."
JBL Quantum 800: Music performance
When it comes to music quality, the JBL Quantum 800 succeeds where a lot of gaming headsets autumn short. Like JBL'due south audiophile headsets, the Quantum 800 provides rich, detailed soundscapes that deliver a healthy amount of bass, robust trebles and crystal-articulate voices.
I listened to music from Flogging Molly, Old Crow Medicine Evidence, The Rolling Stones and G.F. Handel in both wired and wireless configurations, and I found the Quantum 800 most up to the level of a comparably priced pair of music headphones. It's a shame that you can't remove the microphone, otherwise the Bluetooth functionality would arrive an easy sell for trips and commutes. (When nosotros tin have trips and commutes again, anyhow.)
JBL Breakthrough 800: Verdict
I expect for two important criteria in a gaming headset: Is information technology comfortable to habiliment? And does information technology provide good sound? If the reply is "aye" to both, the rest is oftentimes of secondary importance.
Every bit discussed in my JBL Quantum 800 review, I plant the device positively infuriating at times. For such an expensive gadget, it feels surprisingly unpolished. Sometimes just getting a PC to recognize the proper sound channel is more trouble than information technology's worth.
But at the aforementioned time, the Quantum 800 is rich in features, and sounds great for both games and music. It connects via USB, Bluetooth and 3.5 mm cable; it lets you customize EQ profiles; it works with just almost every game system on the market. That all adds up to a pretty compelling argument in its favor.
The Arctis 7 or the Atlas Aristocracy Aero are still my go-to recommendations for wireless gaming headsets, but if yous don't mind shelling out a little extra money for fantabulous music, the Quantum 800 is worth considering. Just be enlightened that you lot'll have to occasionally work for your fun.
- More than: Want another culling? Read our Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE review
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/jbl-quantum-800
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