Design-wise, the JBL Reflect Aero aren’t much different from other sports headphones. In fact, they look very similar to Bang & Olufsen’s Beoplay E8 sports earphones, except that they are a bit chunkier and definitely not suitable for smaller ears, while the JBL Reflect Aero have the nice honeycomb pattern on the side that faces your ears. The JBL Reflect Aero come with app support, and they come with the JBL Headphones app. You don’t have to download the app to use the headphones, of course, but it’s worth having. Not only does it expand the functionality of the headphones, but it also allows you to personalize the sound with the 10-band EQ that lets you adjust the frequencies significantly. There’s a lot to like about the performance of the JBL Reflect Aero, as it does most things well. The Ambient Aware feature, for example, is great. You can also pair two devices at once, so you can easily switch between your phone and your laptop, for example, if you get a call on your phone while watching a movie on your laptop. There’s also very responsive in-ear detection, which is very good at recognizing when you take an earbud off or put it back on. The microphone is great for making phone calls – so you can be sure that the person you’re talking to will hear you clearly. As for sound quality, voices come across clear and uncolored. Highs generally sound very clear and detailed, if a bit bright. The rest is just okay, decent at best. The active noise cancellation is nothing special, as it doesn’t really block higher frequencies – anything in the mids or highs. It only works well when you play music at higher volumes. While you can connect two devices at the same time, you can only listen to one input at a time. Also, you have to stop or pause one source, wait a few seconds, and then play the other source, which can be inconvenient when you’re in a hurry. Also, the microphone’s frequency range is limited, so low tones don’t come out as well and background noise isn’t suppressed.
