14.11.2019

The market for wireless headphones is quite crowded with all sorts of brands and no-name stuff aiming to make your wallet lighter. And whilst the temptation to think that if there is a recognisable name attached the product will be good is the way forward having a set of utterly garbage sounding B&O headphones has opened my eyes to that reality.However, by and large the name brand stuff is generally better, and Jabra certainly meets that expectation.Firstly, my go to headphones for the last three years of gym use have been my Bose Soundsport ones which, have been superb. Great sound, comfortable and the Bluetooth connection has allowed me freedom to use a large crowded gym with no dropouts or interference whilst being over 25m from my phone at times.They still work perfectly but are showing wear and tear which, is to be expected after a lot of use.So, these Jabra headphone earbuds are being compared to some of the best sounding gear out there.And they hold up well. Really.The setup is super simple. Just connect via the usual Bluetooth connection on your phone in whichever way you normally do so. I have a Samsung middle of the range phone and these headphones were on line in seconds.You can of course download the Jabra app but really? Do you need another way to access your music? I don’t and stuck with my Amazon Music app where my account is. I have subscribed to the Hi-Res service and whilst I’m sure that were I a bat I could find fault, as a reasonably normal human being, the sound quality is superb – which it should be given the higher than CD bitrate.So, using a decent mobile and hi-res streaming service I’d say that I’m as good as a target audience as can be.Once connected you simply play your music and enjoy which is easy on these items.The sound is clear, musical and well balanced with a quality that one would hope for in a well-known brand. The base is good and better still does not drown out all else. I know that some people want epic base above all else but not me. I want all the sound to be as the artist wanted it with a good balance of the low and high. My musical preference is rock and metal which that suits but maybe if you are into dance or similar you would only want the low-end boom. I’ve also tried this with classical and once again the Jabra headphones work a treat with a clear musical tone.Comparing these to my Bose headphones I’d say they were very much on a par for quality of sound. Maybe the Bose ones add a touch more base but they are also far larger and stick out of the side of your head like an extra would have working on a Star Trek spaceship bridge comms panel. The Bose units go a tad louder but have an automatic sound level stop which you must override in order to do so. Not the end of the world but slightly irritating. These Jabra ones don’t have that, and you can push them to the maximum without the sound nanny stopping you.That being said, the sound level isn’t stupidly high and whilst almost certainly above ‘safe guidelines’ when maxed out isn’t overly bombastic. Loud enough to distract you in a gym but not so much you feel like you’ve been to a Motorhead concert. What can also be said is that even at maximum the sound is still un-distorted and perfectly clear.Build quality is very good and on a par with my Bose ones which, are double the price.Fitting is similar to Bose earpieces with small extended ear ‘wings’ that help locate the bud. These do work meaning that the part of the headphone that sticks into your ear canal is comfortable and does not require jamming into your lug to remain in place. Even when working out I’ve found these comfortable and secure at the same time.The earbuds are connected via a cord and in the middle a flexible memory metal section that hangs around the back of your neck. The Bose units just have the cord and what tends to happen is that the cord ends up on one side of your neck or the other whereas the Jabra unit sits mid-point and doesn’t shift. I like that.These are close to Action Man flesh tone and being a child of the 1970’s reminds me of the NHS hearing aid colour that quite a few older WW2 era folks had. Black or some other jazzy colour would be preferable to be honest.You can of course use these on your phone to make calls, so you get to look like the madman or woman walking down the street talking to yourself. Whilst convenient I honestly prefer to use the phone minus headphones and mic if only because it makes me make the call as short as possible.There is an inbuilt Alexa app accessed by a small button. Which I’ll never use because as much as I like Alexa at home there’s no way, I’m going to be walking down the street shouting. ‘Alexa’ every time I want to change a tune. Particularly given that it’s hardly an onerous task picking a mobile up when its about 6” from my hand. I guess eventually when the entire world is used to looking like nut jobs talking to themselves I’ll speak to my headphones, but that’s a long way off yet.If I have one niggle it is that I have noticed using these with Audible and pausing, sometimes there is a bit of hesitancy and a period of unintelligible voice output. Not all the time but every once in a while. I'll drop a star for that in the interests of being completely fair. Also the packaging is a premium effort and of course designed to give the impression of high end quality - which it does. However, I'm beginning to feel it's time we tried to cut back on this sort of thing in the interests of being a bit more conscious of waste.Overall, given the price I’d have to say that these are a winner. Sound quality as good as my Bose units and in a lighter more discrete package.

28.4.2019

These headphones arrive in nice looking well made packaging that gives an air of quality and that is carried through to the product itself. They are black plastic with a silky sheen to them, well-fitting buttons marked with functions, and uncovered mini charging port and two function LEDs (battery and status). The charging port doesn’t have a flap to cover it however the earphones are rated to IP67 and so should withstand being submersed in water up to about 3ft deep for half an hour - so that’s sweat-proof, rain-proof and shower-proof I’d say (not that you’d want to wear these in the shower). My earphones arrived almost fully charged because I only had to plug them in for about 3 minutesbefore the flashing yellow battery LED changed to a softly pulsing green.The earpieces are labelled L & R on the part that sits in the ear so pressing the On/Off button on the right earpiece and popping them into my ears I’m greeted by a soft female voice saying “To connect go to the bluetooth menu on your device and choose Jabra product from the list”. Sure enough, on my iPhone’s Bluetooth menu I see ‘Jabra Elite Active 45e’ on the list and select it, after which I hear the voice say “Connected”. Next I go to the Spotify app, select a playlist and hit go - couldn’t be simpler than that. There are two buttons on the underside of the right earpiece for adjusting the volume, and pressing the button on the left earpiece invokes Siri on my iPhone, or it can be used to mute the microphone. The on/off button on the right earpiece is also used to pause/play music or answer an incoming call all of which worked well without any false results.The earbuds themselves are comfortable to wear, sitting lightly on each ear and with enough cable between the two sides to not irritate the back of your head. Now the big question is sound quality and I’ll say up front that in my case the sound quality is affected by how well the cone part of the earbuds fit into my ears. The buds themselves have a shaped plastic ‘cone’ which goes into your ear and directs the sound. Unfortunately my earbuds only came with one size of rubber cone already fitted and the result was that they didn’t match the shape of my particular ears too well. I could tell that the sound quality was well balanced with good midrange, however for me there was far too much emphasis on higher frequencies with a corresponding lack of bass. Overall this was not unpleasant but it made the sound feel quite ‘light’ and lacking in depth. So, I downloaded the Jabra Sound+ iOS app, launched it and paired it with my earbuds. Playing around with different presets did help but I ended up using a custom equaliser setting where the bass was raised by about 25%, mid-range was left at 0% and treble was dropped as far as it would go. This went some way to improve the overall sound but still left it feeling a little thin. Pushing the cones further into my ears to get a better seal did the most to help giving a nicely balanced sound with depth to match the highs. Sadly as soon as you take your hands away the earbuds settle back to where they were and you get the light sound back. Perhaps if there were different sized rubber cones available as you often get with other headphones that would solve the problem. The ‘arms’ or earhooks that go over the tops of your ears are adjustable for comfort and stability but don’t help with the cone seal.Comparing these earbuds to some Dacom IPX7 Running headphones I’ve been using and which are much cheaper, I’d say the Jabra’s win but only when I’m holding them into my ears, and that the Dacom’s gave a better default sound without the fiddling about. It’s a shame because these Jabra ‘phones have a better build quality and feel a bit more robust, so if I could sort the ear seal issue then they’d easily win for me. That said, if they fit your ears then you’ll be rewarded with a nice comfortable and good sounding set of earphones.I would recommend these if they fit your particular ears as you’ll have a comfortable and good sounding set of earphones, meanwhile I’m going to keep trying with mine to see if I can get the fit just right.

2.5.2019

We use Jabra audio equipment in the office I work in, for things like conferencing speakers, having chosen them because the audio quality is very high, and the price is not excessive. So it was no real surprise to me that these headphones sound absolutely great. They give a rich, balanced sound which is excellently weighted, making the bass and treble accessible, and the work well across a variety of different music styles. The built-in microphone is also high quality as well, according to the people I’ve test called using this- apparently it sounds just like I’m talking normally into my phone, unless it’s windy in which case the wind noise is a little problematic.To wear though,I’m not wholly comfortable with these. The over-ear bars are heavy and feel very unusual when worn, taking quite a while to get used to- but they are effective in making you confident they’re not going to fall off, which I suppose is a virtue. The cable between the two earpieces is quite short, and even though it’s smooth, I do sometimes find some friction on the back of my neck when turning my head with it, meaning a gentle tugging at my ear- not actually a problem, but mildly irritating.These headphones are *not* noise-cancelling, which the product description is honest about and certainly makes a virtue of. They let in pretty much all environmental sound, and this will suit some users more than others. When walking on the pavement along a busy road, it’s a disadvantage- if you’re trying to listen to subtle dynamic orchestral music, it can get irritatingly drowned out. However if you are cycling along the same road and you want to make sure you can hear there’s a car behind you, it becomes an advantage. Normally I’m in the former category, most of the time.This is the first set of headphones I’ve owned with a special Alexa button, and I was excited by the principle of it- being able to just tap a button in your ear and ask a range of questions about your schedule, or random things you were thinking about, seems great in principle, as we’re frequent Alexa users at home so having that ‘on the go’ seemed like it opened up a myriad of possibilities. In practice though it’s a little disappointing, because my Alexa app doesn’t respond very well to the sound of me talking normally when wearing these- seemingly the microphone isn’t sensitive enough, so Alexa just gives up and decides I haven’t said anything. In order to be understood, I have to properly shout my instruction- and that’s not great for out-and-about use. It integrates with the Alexa app on your phone (provided you’ve installed and configured it) but you just can’t talk to it at normal volumes, like you normally can with an Echo Dot at home.These headphones charge via a micro-USB cable, which is provided. That’s still standard for headphones I know, but at the same time, a lot of tech kit seems to be moving over to USB-C as the new universal standard, so I wonder whether in just a couple of years’ time these headphones will seem old-fashioned if they have an old type socket. Also, unusually (again), the micro-USB socket isn’t covered or protected in any way. Even much cheaper in-ear headphones have little plastic covers over the socket, in my experience, so for there not to be one surprises me. Although the socket is on the underside of the device as it’s worn, to me this still seems like a potential danger point for water ingress- a bit of rain splashing in the wrong direction and getting into the socket, and suddenly you have an electrical problem. Perhaps that’s less likely than I’m thinking, but even so, not having a rubber or plastic cover on the socket seems like an odd corner to have cut.This is clearly a premium set of headphones, made to a high standard, sounding great, and shipped in a very plush product box complete with lift-open flaps (but unusually, no carrying pouch or case). They’re very close to 5 stars for me, but let down by a couple of details, as mentioned above.

11.5.2019

These headphones are nicely presented in a Jabra yellow and grey themed box. Opening the box reveals a a card offering a “welcome to superior sound” and a small box stating that “superior sound starts with a superior fit”. I expected the box to contain different sized earbuds but all I found was a multi-language booklet that contained 4 pages of instructions in English and a USB-A to Micro-USB cable.I followed the instructions carefully, unbending the ear hooks and inserted the earbuds near to my ears. They didn’t fit into my ears but seemed to hover nearby.The Unique Selling Point of these headphones is that they allow you to stay aware of your surroundings rather than isolating you from the outside world.This is really useful when running as it allows you to hear cars approaching and other hazards. It also prevents you from missing passenger announcements when commuting. At first, I was a little cynical about this as I like to enjoy a wide dynamic round of sound when listening to music. Noise isolation is also very useful when listening in a noisy environment such as a gym or an underground train. However, for many other situations when working in a quiet environment such as my office at home, it is useful to be able to listen to some music but still be able to hear the front door bell ring if the postman arrives! I speak from experience of having missed several deliveries from Amazon in the past.The earphones have a clear sound with a good soundstage that makes it easily to follow individual instruments. Whilst middle and treble response is good, deep bass notes are often absent. I tested these earphones for many days over a wide range of music. I found that I enjoyed listening to my favourite music through these earphones as the clear sound made up for the lack of deep bass response. The earphones remained in place whilst using them for a variety of physical activities: the flexible ear hooks did a good job of keeping them in place.I then tried to adjust the earphones to see if it was possible to obtain a better bass response by improving the fit. I found that if I pushed the earphones into my ears, the bass was much improved but this didn’t last for long as the earphones soon popped out of my ears. I also found that the sound output was not high and if pushed to maximum volume, there was a considerable amount of distortion. Subjectively, the sound level at maximum volume from these headphones corresponded to the sound level at around 60% volume when listening via the similarly priced Jaybird Tarah earphones.Interestingly, despite a lack of noise isolation, there is little sound leakage from these earphones. I was able to sit next to my wife on the sofa and enjoy my music without disturbing her. My wife has smaller ears than me and found that she obtained a far better fit from these earphones than I did.These are quite bulky and heavier than most of my other earphones. However, the earphones are well balanced, with an equal volume and weight around each ear and it is quite easy to forget that you are wearing them. Another advantage of the earphones sitting just outside the ears rather than inside the ear canal is that they do not become covered with earwax!It is really convenient that they can be charged by plugging in any micro-USB lead directly into the earphones without the need for a proprietary adapter. The battery life is excellent, exceeding the specified 9 hours. However, at this price, I would have expected these earphones to come with a case or pouch to keep them clean between not in use.In summary, these are earphones for those who wish to enjoy music whilst remaining in touch with their surroundings. It did take me a few days to get used to them and make my mind up about them. This is where Amazon’s no-quibble return policy is ideal for risk-free extended home testing.

14.6.2019

Taking the normal earphone approach and turning it on its head, the Jabra Elite Active are "open" earphones that claim to provide a full sound whilst still allowing you to hear the world around you. This is likely to be a benefit during sports use at which the they're targeted, where you might want to hear things like traffic or other people. But do they provide a full sound? Yes, as it happens.After angling these into your ear - I found the best way to do this was to turn the back out, slot them in, then move the back to my head - and bending the top bracket around, the Jabra really do stay in place. Running with these is no problem at all; there's not even a jostling sound as you move.A cable between the two is made of a smooth material, unlike some brands which have oddly decided to go with fabric that scrapes on skin or clothes.Pairing was super quick and easy, and has worked flawlessly every time since. Friendly voice notifications (which are apparently customisable via their app) give you updates on what's going on, and a multi-colour LED (a rarity on earphones) lets you see at a glance some of the actions you've performed; green for power on and red for power off is more useful than you'd think.The bass is impressive for "open" earphones, and I'd imagine is as good as you're likely to get. One downside is that in a noisy gym, I wasn't able to get the set quite as loud as I wanted, and nor could I seem close the air gap further to bring them in. But they were still just fine, and the music still proved a great distraction.Using them for calls works well, and your usual button functionality is available. There are apparently two microphones, which you'd guess is for noise cancelling. However, when using them outside there was still noticeable but manageable wind noise present from my side. The microphones must only be on one side too, as only tapping on one of the ear buds resulted in sound being sent down the line.It still seems that my search for common sense controls continues, with even the Jabra set becoming a bit confusing with push buttons on both sides. The up-down volume control is simple enough thank goodness, but one side does one set of things, and vice versa. Perhaps over time they'll make more sense and it's a matter of getting used to them.As a final note, even after all of my testing, running, and fiddling over multiple sessions, the battery is still two-thirds full. You get the usual feedback to your mobile device which can show you the battery level on-screen, and once you've emptied it then charging is via a standard Micro USB connector. There isn't a cover for this port, which makes me a little concerned about sweat ingress, though the IP67 rating means that overall the set will be fine.This is a competent headset that provides surprisingly rich sound for an open design. They stay in place when you put them there, are comfortable during exercise, and last a long time. They're very slightly let down by the minor points above, but are still an exceptional and solid choice.

20.9.2019

Reading through the other review for these earbuds, I'm very surprised such mixed reviews. I've quite a collection of bluetooth headphones, to my wife's displeasure, and these are among the best I've tried. It's somewhat to my surprise too, as I also own the similar Jabra Elite Sport model, and was quite disappointed with those.They fit into your ears using these odd hook shapes, that nestle into the folds of your ear. These are much better than over the ear types, and are very secure. It's worth playing with the different sizes supplied to find the best fit as it really makes a differnce to the comfort and the sound quality. Interpretations of sound quality on earbuds is personal at best,but I found these excellent, partly to the snug way they stay in your ears. Earbuds usually work their way loose for me, gradually ruining the sound, but these stay firmly attached. Sonic quality is very, very good, with a nice even 'transparent' sound. If you're a bass fiend then you're going to be disappointed, but if you prefer a neutral tone to your music with no colouring then these are excellent indeed. The stereo separation in particular is incredibly good - the intro to Donna Summer's 'I feel Love' for example really lets you hear where those fading-in synths are coming from, and the transparent tone separates the layers of sound out. There is no mushy noisenhere - you really do get the feeling you're hearing what the guy in the sound booth at the mixing studio was hearing.Controls are good, and intuitive. Some bluetooth headphones have you pressing buttons as hard as possible, or force you to learn weird morse-code button presses to get what you want, but this pair does the obvious - one push - louder, long push, next song, and vice versa. Easy. Phone calls are not something I use headphones for, feeling far to self-concious to appear to be talking to myself, but a trial call gave clear audio and the other party good hear me perfectly despite a fair bit of background noise. Charging is via a usual micro USB connection, and you can still use them when it's charging. Battery life is pretty good, and an audio voice tells you how much battery is left when you turn them on,Other nice features are the magnetic earbuds, which click together and at the same time disconnect the headphones and turn them off. Unclip them, and they turn back on and immediately reconnect which is a really useful feature. The necklace design takes some of the load off your ears, increasing comfort, and makes temporarily taking the earbuds out much easier, as you can just drop them around your neckThere is an app to go with these, because of course there is, which allows you to tweak the EQ and has a few gimmicky features like remembering where you were when you last turned them off to help you find them again. The EQ is pretty subtle and doesn't do an awful lot, but it' s nice to have the option.Great headphones. They look good, sound pretty amazing, and I'm using these as my main headphones. Recomended.

17.10.2019

My Jabra Elite 45e Wireless Earbuds arrived in a stylish box with a fully charged, ready to use for up to 8 hours. They are simple to use, and ready to be paired with my Bluetooth device. No apps required, so less fuss or memory space on my iPad. They come with three sizes of bud eargels and separate soft outer earwings in small, medium and large, (plus a short charging usb cable). They are easy to swap over. To pair the earbuds to your device simply hold the multi function button on the volume control for three seconds, your device with the Bluetooth on should easily find it. The memory wire neckband is soft and light and remembers the shape of your neck for comfort.The controls are on the right side with a mute and voice button further up and a multifunction button further down to control volume and on and off. The buds have magnetics on them that attach when they’re not in your ears, this automatically turns them off to save on the battery, until you put them in again.The Jabra Elite 45e has a built in voice control that works with Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant, I found Alexa very easy to ask for my music, news, weather and travel information. I did ask her to tune into BBC radio 2 but I got other radio stations instead so not quite there. It did send me travel information to my device though.My music sounded great through the earbuds, though i could still hear other noises around me but I tend not to listen to music too loud. I walked all around my house to see how far it could go without dropping the Bluetooth connection, i found it dropped out about thirty feet away (9 metres) though did come back though dropped a few times after that, though stayed constant when I walked upstairs about 25 feet away. I tried to test it on my mobile phone to make a call with them, but I just couldn’t pair them with my phone’s Bluetooth even though it could see the Jabra earbuds, I kept getting a message saying I needed a pass key?? So couldn’t test them for calls. I removed them from my original paired iPad but it was easy to re-pair them to that.So the sound clarity is really good but there are issues with Bluetooth connectivity and pairing to a second device (my android smart phone), I tried to pair them on my hubby’s Amazon Fire (latest one) but had problems there too. I am familiar with pairing Bluetooth devices including headsets/earbuds but these stretched my patience. The instructions are very simple (4 small pages) but no help pages for this kind of situation.They come with a 2 year guarantee and look a quality build, i wish they also came with a carrying case, but alas they don’t.Overall I think they are well made and straightforward to set up, but the instructions could be more comprehensive when issues do arise (Like pairing to a second device and Bluetooth dropouts). So they lose a star from me. Please see my photos too, I’m wearing the small size earbud eargels and wings. I hope my review will be of help to you.

20.5.2018

Out of the box the Jabra Elite 45e ooze quality. The packaging and out the box is experience is considered and I found setup a breeze with immediate connection to my iPhone 8 without any trouble at all (hold down the button for a few seconds and my phone found these straightaway). Instructions are provided in a variety of languages in booklets contained inside.Placing in the ear during the pairing is advised as audio cues were surprisingly given during this process!The sound quality I would say is good but comparable with similar headphones at this price point. Well balanced buy from my experience so far I would say these don't quite support the full range.I also downloaded the app,

14.10.2019

Jabra Elite Active 45e-------------------------There are spare headphone buds - they're sealed in the included little box with the paperwork. There's a selection and it's best getting whichever one fits best, as a lot of any noise cancellation comes from the fit of these.I know a lot of people disagree, but I think their best feature is the ambient noise levels. The headphones are loud enough so that you can hear them clearly without having to have full volume, yet you can still hear outside just enough to be safe - cars, bikes, people, all the things that might hit you, but wind noise and ambient hum is quite nicely cut out.The sound quality is as you'd expect from Jabra, it's really good.

24.5.2019

Jabra Elite Active 45e-------------------------There are spare headphone buds - they're sealed in the included little box with the paperwork. There's a selection and it's best getting whichever one fits best, as a lot of any noise cancellation comes from the fit of these.I know a lot of people disagree, but I think their best feature is the ambient noise levels. The headphones are loud enough so that you can hear them clearly without having to have full volume, yet you can still hear outside just enough to be safe - cars, bikes, people, all the things that might hit you, but wind noise and ambient hum is quite nicely cut out.The sound quality is as you'd expect from Jabra, it's really good.

9.6.2019

The Jabra Elite Active 45e Sports Earphones consists of a pair of in-ear earphones for audio listening, can also be used while taking part in leisure activities and also for hands free mobile phone calling.These are distinct and attractively designed in navy blue consisting of earphones connected to an over ear hook and ear wings. Very comfortable to wear ... one of our son's has been using these headphones for college and he confirms that you can almost forget that you are wearing them.Once fully charged these earphones should give you nine hours of use. They also have a 10 metre (33ft range). I found these incredibly easy to pair with either my Kindle Fire or my iPhone 8,

15.5.2019

These earbuds are ideal so long as you are using them as intended, that's to say when active. They're the first earbuds I've used which genuinely stay in place, even when rapidly moving your head, looking down etc. Also they don't attempt to block sound by using close fitting silicon tips or active noise cancellation, so you can hear traffic, people speaking etc. Consequently, these would be hopeless on a train or plane when you'd still hear kiddies bawling etc.Audio quality on music is acceptable, as good as you can expect with Bluetooth without Apt-X protocol. I listened to 256Kbps MP3 I'd ripped from CD and only when you pushed up the volume did it get harsher and 'shouty'.

5.7.2018

I've been using the Jabra Elite 45e for a couple of weeks now and I'm sold. In many ways they are a fairly standard - hold the pause button down for 5s to turn on or off; longer when turning on to go into pairing mode. The volume controls, if held down for 1s act as next/previous track. And you get about 8 hours of audio from a single charge. A USB-A to USB-3 charging lead is provided along with a brief instruction manual.I've been using bluetooth headsets for several years and this one has some killer features that sets it apart from many others. So what are they?Physically, the cable joining the two earpieces is shaped to sit comfortably on the neck, making it less likely that they will fall off.

9.9.2018

** Intro **I used these in a few different ways, for music on phone, watching videos and playing games on my PC, watching TV and also listening to music and podcasts at the gym. I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed using them.** Design **Nicely packaged, which means I loved the unboxing experience.They feel very light and comfortable, perhaps the most comfortable headphones I’ve worn. They go in the ear very easily, but stay put with no risk of them falling out.Having said that, there isn’t much sound isolation.There are magnets in the controller part of the cable to headphones together. It also turns them on and off when you pull them apart or connect them again. They connect to my phone very quickly on separation.

12.7.2019

My experience with headphones over the years has been extremely varied, commencing with the standard issue headphones that came with cassette (tape) players, before moving onto the in ear headphones that were supplied with the early generation Apple iPods, then the large over ear headphones that became popular a number of years ago (all of the above are wired) and finally the Bluetooth variant of the same. Now, I have the opportunity to try out these Bluetooth in ear headphones.My requirements of headphones are very simple - they have to be comfortable and they have to provide good sound quality.As far as comfort goes, I really can't fault these headphones.

Jabra Elite Active 45e - Reviews

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