JBL Live 500BT Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (Factory Reconditioned)

This is a more than decent sounding set of (almost) over the ear headphones that do NOT feature active noise cancellation. They isolate from outside sound, and they do a better than passable job of it. More than adequate for most users. Materials quality seems high and they are cleanly manufactured with no cheap-looking parts or rough edges. Volume levels are plenty for my taste. You can have enough bass and volume to make your eyes vibrate and your ears ring. I can't relate to the people who state these have no volume in their reviews. Perhaps it's a difference in the source we're listening from. 90% of the time I'm listening to Spotify on my Galaxy S9, so not top quality audio, but still with these JBL's the notes ring out well in the mid-range and high registers. Bass responses can be clean, but if you get too much bass guitar mixed in with a lot of bass drum and the notes are coming fast, these 'phones get muddy on the low end. I give them a 3 for sound, which is great, IMO, for the $80 price tag. The EQ fails to impress, but it's better than nothing. The presets in the app are worthless for my music, primarily modern and classic rock, blues and metal. Tinkering with the EQ helps, but I set several presets myself with widely varied patterns and could still switch between them with no discernible change in sound. How does that work? But still, for the money, they're getting it done. The big deal breaker for me is that the housing of the cans themselves creak and pop every time I turn my head. I examined both sides and could find nothing apparent that would explain why they were popping. No warped parts, no breaks or cracks or missing pieces. They're just noisy due to their construction, as near as I can tell. An additional gripe is that once in my 6 hours of testing, they cut themselves off. I was walking and wearing them and they just stopped, even played the power-off tone. Opened the app and it said battery was 100% (after 2 hours of listening, so I have my doubts on that as well). I turned them on again and resumed listening for another hour without incident. Which brings me to my last gripe. They aren't as comfortable as I would like. They're decent, but they do NOT go over my ears. They sit on my ears, and push in on my earlobes, and after about 20 minutes, adjustments must be made. In the end, most electronics have quirks. The quirks I attribute to these JBLs can be lived with if decent sound and saving cash are your top priorities. My Sony WH-1000xm3s are the best out there currently. But they're at best, $200 more than these. You just can't have all the Sonys offer for 1/4th the cost. However, if these are in your budget, you could do a lot worse.