JLab GO Air: Are these budget-friendly wireless earbuds worth $30?

A cheap pair of headphones or earbuds are easy to find, but most suffer the downfall of sounding terrible or lasting only a few weeks before they begin to fall apart. Because of this, I was thrilled but skeptical when JLab Audio reached out to tell me about their new GO Air True Wireless Earbuds. A few listening sessions later, my doubts are erased.

I received the earbuds in a sleek, sturdy package, and setup took only a few minutes to figure out. As somewhat of a luddite who fumbles with super tech-y pieces, I've shied away from wireless earbuds in the past because too many moveable components is a headache to me. That was no problem with this pair.

The small charging case in which they come has powerful magnets that hold the buds in place with surprising strength. I was concerned with them falling out in my bag, but they stayed in place perfectly and needed minimal charging before they were ready to test out during a long cardio workout.

Off I went to enjoy an hour of intense cardio and heavy lifting. I lean mostly toward over-ear headphones because I enjoy a full range of dynamics in my music (being a musician for two decades inevitably turns you a bit snobby), and I've been burned too often by the tinny clang of many earbuds.

After a little fiddling around to insert the buds comfortably into my ear canal, I was surprised by the impressive amount of noise cancellation they held as compared to models I've used before that cost roughly the same. I could barely heard my husband yelling, "Have a good workout!" before I even clicked on a playlist.

I played several tried and true tracks while cycling through my weight routine so I'd be familiar with the instrumentation and thus able to pick out any missing or "off" sounding parts. With the exception of some really low bits that would obviously reverberate better with a larger over-ear speaker, the songs sounded great, full and lacking the muddiness of other models. Bonus: That excellent noise cancellation completely cut out the terrible music my gym blasts too loudly.

Once I was done with weights, I wanted to zone out to to a YouTube video on a cross trainer and pulled up an episode of UNHhhh, my favorite web show built around goofy sound bites and snappy edits to drag queens Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova's discussions on random topics. I've always paid close attention to the sounds snuck in by editors because of their hilarity, but these earbuds made them jump out even more. At one point I was startled by a loud noise and turned to look behind me only to realize the sound was coming from inside my own ear; truly a smooth move on my part.

Thoroughly impressed and home from the gym, I forgot to turn the earbuds off and haphazardly left them on my desk until the middle of the next day. I fired them up to see if I'd run down the battery, but they were still halfway charged! I appreciate a brand that knows some of us are absent-minded when it comes to maintaining any electronic device's full battery life.

Overall, I am thoroughly impressed with the construction, sound quality, and performance caliber of the JLab GO Air True Wireless Earbuds. Of course they won't be replacing my expensive audiophile headphones for more serious listening, but at $30? Buy a couple of pairs for yourself and gift them to anyone in your life who enjoys a decent sound quality product with the easy-to-carry convenience of an earbud.

JLab Audio GO Air True Wireless Earbuds

–20 hours of playtime
–Easy-to-use touch controls 
–Dual connect lets them be used independently 
–Smaller design makes for a comfortable fit in smaller ears to create a perfect seal and lock out obtrusive noises 
–Six color options
–At $30, one of the best values on the market
 

JLab Audio

$30.00

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