One audio company that looks to continue to excel in the world of wireless headphones is JBL. Last year they had their lineup of bluetooth enabled headphones with the Synchros brand and this year they reemerge with various models under the name Everest. They are designed to bring you the best sound in via bluetooth and their Everest Elite 700 model is laced with what they call NextGen technology. Now is Nextgen just some gimmick or is it the next wave of bringing you that feel good music with no wires?
Style
At first glance the Everest Elite 700 look huge and heavy but surprisingly taking them out the huge box and holding them in my hand they are pretty light. The pair I was given to cover from JBL is a matte black while they do also come in an all white color as well. I like how they aren’t gaudy looking and look simple but at the same time don’t tether on boring either. The headband inside is a soft rubber while on top is a hard plastic to go the rest of the exterior of the device. The JBL insignia is branded on each earcup while also on top of the headband as well. Ear cup padding on the Everest headphones are pretty plush and pretty much provide coverage over your entire ears(or at least mines). I have worn them for long periods of times and didn’t feel much discomfort wearing them. On the earcups is where you access all the controls of the headbands. On the right side you have the usual power button and a “smart” button which can you can program for either turning noise cancelling on/off or changing the ambient aware feature. I’ll get more into those later. In the same area is a microUSB port for charging and a aux cable jack for wired listening. On the left side is your volume controls and the play/pause button. Of course pressing the play button various times will give you rewind/forward options as well.
They are also collapsible and can fit in its included carrying case which is of a denim like mesh. You can put in the included audio aux cable and charge cable for storage in there too.
Sound / Features
I been rocking out with these for the past month and the sound these output are pretty great. The noise cancelling tech incorporated with the Everest Elite 700 is awesome. Once you turn them up and they sync up to your device you can them “vacuum” to your ears and seem to block out everything else around you. They provide a nice amount of bass but if you feel you need a bit more you can use the JBL Headphones app(Android/iOS) to make changes to the headphones. Also to get a good use out of these headphones you might want to download the app. With the app you can access the Noise Cancelling, Ambient Aware and EQ Settings. You can enable the TruNote Calibrating to assist with a better listening experience as well.
Ambient Aware is a nice feature if you want to be able to hear what’s going on around you. It can be put on a low setting all the way up to high. Also when using the JBL app you can decide if you want to do it via one ear or both. It’s not a bad feature and reminds me of the Open Mic feature on Plantronics Backbeat Pro / Sense headphones which would lower the volume tremendously which I actually preferred but everyone’s taste varies.
Experience
Using wireless headphones can be good for the freedom they provide but at times I’d get distortion with pairs I have used even with the synced device in my pocket. I can’t say that for the Everest Elite 700 headphones thankfully. Only time I reached that issue is if I leave the phone on my desk and ventured 50 or feet away from it. But yes using this with a HTC One A9 most of the time and then a Droid Turbo 2 sound quality has been on point.
One problem I do have with these headphones is bluetooth syncing though. It seems you can only have them sync to one device at a time. After that you have to reset the headphones to get them synced to any other devices. For one that uses multiple phones and other devices it’s probably the most disappointing thing about these music cans. Hopefully JBL can get it resolved asap. Battery life has been great on these as I must have only charged them 1-2x with the batteries holding its advertised 15 hours and it Auto Shut off feature helps that process be achieved. Getting used to the button layout can take some time as well as they are small and all pretty much feel the same.
Verdict
I’ll keep it real with you. These headphones sound incredible especially for wireless(and wired) and mixed with a comfortable fit its hard to dislike these headphones. They of course need to work on their bluetooth syncing with multiple devices and hopefully that can be fixed via an update otherwise that would really be the only disappointing thing with the Everest Elite 700s by JBL. For $299.99 it could its competition in that price range a run for its money.
