JBL Endurance Peak II Waterproof Sport Earbuds

I usually don’t write a lot of reviews, but this one has really hit a nerve with me. I know these aren’t the most expensive pair of headphones, but the name of JBL being on them should mean some decent quality at least. I bought these headphones on Jan. 5th, 2022, and by March of 2023 they were completely broken. I bought these specifically for working out because I while I have Apple AirPods and AirPod Pros, neither of those are that great for running, sprinting, jumping rope, etc. If I was just lifting weights, AirPods were no problem, but for cardio I needed something a bit more stable to the ear. I opted for these as they had pretty good reviews, they weren’t hundreds of dollars, and they had a built in over the ear hook. When I first got them, I went running that day with them and I was in love! No more slipping, no more sliding, no more falling out with the AirPods. Wore them to the gym that night, and I really loved them. A few months down the road of using them almost everyday, I kept having an issue with the right headphone not charging. I found that when I pressed it down, it would make good contact. I tried cleaning the contacts, scraping them, but nothing worked except pressing with a small amount of pressure. I opted for placing two layers of electrical tape on the lid to add more pressure to the buds while in the case and that seemed to solve the charging issue, see the my photos. Not a huge deal, but not something I think should be my responsibility either. Still was super happy with them. About 6 months into using them almost daily at the gym, I felt that they needed to be cleaned. I decided to take a Q-tip and dab it in some rubbing alcohol and proceed to clean the earwax off the sound screen. Holy shit was that a terrible idea. Both sound screens came off with the smallest of touches. I was able to get one back on and keep it there, but the other one would not stay. See the image uploaded. This completely changed the sound of the headphone and started making popping noises in my ear. At this point I’m pretty frustrated and concerned at the quality of the headphones and wondering how the hell I was supposed to clean them. All headphones get dirty, and I’m crazy religious about cleaning my ears daily if not multiple times a day because I like feeling as though I have clean ears. At this point I’m still using them, but pretty annoyed at the sound quality now. They had seemed to lose quite a bit of volume afterwards as well. Fast forward to February of 2023, about a month after my warranty expires, and the ear hook develops a crack on the right headphone. The ear hook is a magnetic piece that tells the headphone to turn on or off. I guess after a year of using them quite a bit, the ear hook had enough. Within a couple of weeks and trying to baby it, it broke completely apart. You can see that in my photos. At this point I’m super pissed and frustrated that I didn’t get at least a couple of years out of them. I went from loving these so much, to now I have a very hard time trusting anything that says JBL on it. I will tell you that there were some great things about the headphones. They last a long time, and the case charge lasts a long time too. Using them for multiple hours each day, I would only have to charge the case about once a week or once every week and a half. Any other headphones I have had do not last like that. The sound quality was pretty good at the beginning, loved the tapping (although it is easy to hit that on accident) instead of actual buttons, and they were really comfortable and stable. I also thought that the phone calls made on it were pretty good too as nobody ever complained. But unfortunately the cons weigh out the pros here. They had too many problems throughout the year, they don’t have noise canceling, and they clearly don’t last. I replaced these with some Beats Studio pros, and some Jaybird Vista 2 headphones. Keeping my fingers crossed these will last longer than a year. Do better JBL!