We can never really predict what will happen to us in life. For example, if you’d told me a week ago that this morning I’d be sitting in a cafe testing out some new, state-of-the-art earbuds by listening to “Hotel California,” I’d have thought, Absolutely not—there is no way I’ll be listening to The Eagles on exceptional earbuds, or on vinyl, or on the radio, or anywhere else on purpose. But, you know, the road to hell The Eagles is paved with good intentions… or something. Anyway, let’s back it up a bit so I can explain how I got here.
To start, my App*e AirP*d Pros died. Well, they didn’t totally die, but the right earbud started sounding really staticky and tinny whenever I’d talk or there was any ambient noise at all, so I began looking for some replacements. I wanted earbuds that were very high-quality—because I’m a picky guy who wants music to sound hella good—which ruled out some of the more pedestrian options recommended to me. I scoured the internet for models that also supported lossless audio, had good noise cancellation, and featured a decent battery life.
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Remembering that I’d covered JLab for audio tech articles in the past, I started looking into its top-of-the-line pair of earbuds, the JLab Epic Lab Edition, which featured hybrid dual drivers, hi-res LDAC, smart active noise canceling, and other things that I’ll explain below. With the specs looking great on paper, I decided to check them out and take them for a proper test run. Still, at no point in this process did I think, I am going to listen to The Eagles on these. It’s amazing what companies can convince us to do!
What makes the JLab Epic Lab Edition stand out?
You know a brand is good when you have to look up a bunch of technical stuff to even understand how good its features are. On that note, the Epic Lab Edition earbuds sport a rare hybrid dual driver design (the driver is the magical thing that converts the audio signal into actual sound). There’s one driver specifically for deep bass and lower frequencies, and an entirely different one for higher frequencies here. The latter is a balanced armature driver by audio company Knowles. I learned from researching Knowles (founded in 1946!) that balanced armature drivers use tiny magnets to center the audio signal in order to bypass any unwanted resonances, leading to way higher fidelity, detail, and overall sound quality than regular ol’ drivers.
What’s more, the batteries on these bad boys allow for more than 56 hours of playtime, so you’re not gonna lose power in your ‘buds on an overseas flight or while your partner is asleep and you’re watching Killers of the Flower Moon on your laptop under the covers. The Epic Lab Edition also features hi-res LDAC, aka lossless digital audio codec, which allows you to maintain higher bitrates over Bluetooth. (In layman’s terms, that means they make your tunes sound as good as possible.)
When it comes to noise cancellation, she Epic Lab Edition features smart active noise canceling with three noise control modes; through the app, you can decide whether you want to use regular noise canceling or “Be Aware” mode, a transparency option which lets in some noise, so you can, like, hear if you’re about to get hit by a truck or mugged, or if someone else starts playing The Eagles and you need to turn off your Jonas Brothers or whatever.
Sounds great, but I must know why you are listening to The Eagles already. Does everything sound good on these, or just The Eagles?
For the tech that went into the JLab Epic Lab Edition, audio scientists at Knowles analyzed more than 200 popular, Billboard-charting tracks from the past few decades to figure out what people like to listen to and what kinds of sounds its earbud tech should focus on. In a blog post that goes pretty deep on how they got there, the people at Knowles suggest four songs for test listening that supposedly show off what they’ve done. The songs are: “Hotel California” by The Eagles, “Cousin Dupree” by Steely Dan, “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, and “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush. Instead of wasting (digital) ink on why I’d rather listen to a Steely Dan song from Aja, Gaucho, Can’t Buy a Thrill, or Pretzel Logic before one from Two Against Nature, or why I’d sooner put on Jackson Browne, Bob Seger, The Doobie Brothers, or NeilYoung than The Eagles, I’ll just tell you how these earbuds sound.
These earbuds sound so good that I, someone who ranks somewhere between “indifferent” and “averse” on The Eagles, am somewhat enjoying listening to “Hotel California” right now. The drums are super crisp, and I can *feel* the different layers in the mixing—the rich, full bass is distinguished from soaring guitar melodies and the easygoing vocals. It’s all swirling together to create a great version of that particular brand of classic rock that sounds like how taking half a Xanax feels to me. Relaying my feelings on The Eagles to my editor, she replied, “‘One of These Nights’ is a certified banger.” I must humbly admit that track also sounds dang good on these earbuds.
At this point, I’ve played a bunch of different styles of music on these, and am convinced that they’re very superior earbuds. Sitting in a fairly loud cafe, the pair’s noise-canceling tech plus Robert Fripp and Brian Eno’s Evening Star are synergizing to create an surprisingly peaceful moment full of swirling, expansive, ultra-clear synthesizers and guitars; earlier, the ‘buds handled the aggressive distortion and layering of Dinosaur Jr. really well—I felt like I was standing in the pit at a live show as J Mascis annihilated me with fuzzy walls of sound and searing Jazzmaster solos. Listening to Sonny Rollins now, I can hear deep into the breathy, reedy buzz of his saxophone. It kind of feels like I’m sitting in the room with his powerful quartet as they record Saxophone Colossus. I crave a Negroni and a cigarette even though it’s 11:30 a.m. Good stuff.
TL;DR: After some test runs, I can confirm that JLab’s Epic Lab Editions are, indeed, epic. They use next-level dual driver technology to ensure you’re getting the richest, clearest sound possible, and they really do deliver. Music from jazz and experimental to indie rock and, yes, The Eagles sounds incredible. The battery life is excellent, the noise cancellation is powerful, and connectivity is easy as cake. Now, let’s argue about which Steely Dan album is best. I honestly think their studio work was best on [closes laptop].
Buy JLab’s Epic Lab Edition from JLab here.
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JLab
Epic Lab Edition
$199.99 at JLab
