JLab Gravity - Review 2022

JLab has a new twist on neckband-mode Bluetooth earphones. The JLab Gravity is really a two-piece product—one pair of wired earphones, and a Bluetooth neckband that they connect to. The whole system costs a upkeep-friendly $39.99, so our audio allegiance expectations weren't super-loftier going into this review. JLab advertises that the neckband will work with any wired earphones, so yous well-nigh get the feeling the company assumes yous'll use a fancier pair than the one information technology ships with. Merely we're here to test the production as a whole, and the included earphones offer a pretty inaccurate, tinny, sibilant audio experience, though they do pack some decent bass response.

Design

Available in a rubber, matte black, the Gravity is a flexible neckband—sometimes besides called a collar band—with an oval-shaped compartment at the back. This compartment houses a small spool for the cable slack of the earphones to wrap around, and there are two cinches on either side to ensure the cable follows securely along the neckband's contour. The Gravity has an IPX4 rating, significant it tin can withstand splashes, but don't submerge it.

Information technology doesn't affair which way you put the neckband on—the controls tin can be on either side. (The earphones are labeled L and R, but aught on the band itself needs to be.) On one stop of the neckband, at that place's a 3-button command panel with defended volume up and downward buttons (that work in conjunction with your mobile device's chief book levels) and a cardinal multifunction button for playback, call management, and track navigation, depending on how many times you tap information technology. Behind this control panel, in that location's a 3.5mm earphone jack for the included earphones (or any others) to connect to.

JLab Gravity inline The fit of the included earphones is quite secure. JLab includes three sets of eartips and two sets of stabilizing fins. You lot also get a USB charging cable.

The neckband'south mic offers then-so intelligibility—using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 6s, we understood every word nosotros recorded, but it had the quality of a mediocre jail cell telephone connection. This is more or less to be expected of cheap Bluetooth earphones and neckbands, however.

JLab estimates the Gravity's battery life to be roughly 10 hours, but your results will vary with your book levels, and also, likely, whether you lot choose to utilize the included earphones or ones that pull more bombardment ability.

Functioning

The first thing to notation is the loftier frequency hiss that the neckband adds to the sound. The hiss is subtle, and you'll merely actually find it at quiet moments, but it isn't ideal. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like the Knife's "Silent Shout," the earphones provide a decent sense of bass depth—nada mind-blowing, but the drivers don't distort, even at high volumes. At moderate volume levels, the bass response has a nice fullness to it, counterbalanced out by enough of sculpted high-mid and high frequency presence. It bears repeating that, manifestly, if you swap out earphones, much of this sound assay can be thrown out the window—though the hiss will still be there.

Nib Callahan'southward "Drover," a runway with far less deep bass response in the mix, gives united states of america a meliorate sense of the Gravity's sound signature. The drums on this runway get an extra helping of bass depth from the earphones, but goose egg that makes them sound overtly thunderous or unnatural. Callahan's baritone vocals go plenty of rich depression-mid presence, merely as well a lot of high-mid and high frequency presence. Things tin sound a little tinny at times—the highs are far besides boosted and sculpted, resulting in besides much brightness and sibilance. Information technology's not an unbearable audio signature, simply it's pretty inaccurate.

Jay-Z and Kanye Westward'south "No Church building in the Wild" proves this boosting is a little out of control—the vinyl crackle that is typically relegated to the groundwork is 1 of the louder elements of the mix, as if the entire audio signature is enveloped in hiss and crackle. The Gravity'due south bass response saves things hither, providing enough low frequency power to balance this out a bit. But the vocals sound far too sibilant—every "s" stands out notably.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, go some boosting of the lows, bringing the lower register instrumentation to the forefront of the mix. The higher annals brass, strings, and vocals retain their brightness and prominent presence in the mix. Overall, classical tracks audio quite bright, only with some added bass depth to them.

Conclusions

For $40, there are few quality Bluetooth in-ears options out there. The fact that the JLab Gravity is a hybrid option can be taken as a pro or a con, depending on whether you lot already have some dainty wired earphones. Only with the included earphones, the audio experience is not great. In the Bluetooth neckband earphone realm, we're fans of the Jaybird X3, the Skullcandy Method Wireless, the JBL Reflect Mini BT, and the Skullcandy Jib Wireless, all of which are bachelor at unlike cost points. If you lot have some sweetness wired earphones and want to buy a $40 Bluetooth collar adapter, nosotros won't judge—but if y'all're looking for a solid sound experience, you can do ameliorate than the Gravity.