JBL, a Harman company (and Harman is itself a subsidiary Samsung Electronics), has long been associated with sound. Their products include speakers, headphones, home audio and gaming-specific headsets. The JBL Quantum 50 headset is a small in-ear headset specifically designed for mobile gaming, which can also be used with any other device that has a 3.5 mm jack available with excellent results.
At first I wasn't very sure of writing about this in-ear headset. The main reason is that I have a really hard time finding any in-ear headset that fit in my ears and actually stays in place.
With the JBL Quantum 50 headset, I was pleasantly surprised. These in-ear headsets feature "Twistlock technology" and, whoa, this works. Basically, in addition to the silicone earbud tips you have "enhancers" that come attached to each earbud. These enhancers are also made of soft silicone and fit comfortably inside your ear. Just insert each earbud and twist the earphone steam towards your jaw. That's it. Thanks to these enhancers the headsets will lock in place, ready for action. You will need to tug the cable really hard if you want these to fall out of your ears.
For someone like me who made a point of always carry around large over-ear headphones, the JBL Quantum 50 is a revelation.
The main cable to the 3.5 mm plug is wrapped with a braided cord, so you don't risk it tangling like other ones made with rubber cables only. At about chest height there's a control unit - it consists of a slider to control volume, a switch to turn the microphone on and off as well as a multi-function button to control. The microphone is separated from the other controls, in a small tube on the cable, near your mouth. At 21.5 g total weight, it's very comfortable and you won't even notice it is there after a while.
The small 8.6 mm driver provides frequency response in the 20 Hz - 20 kHz range - the microphone frequency response is in the 100 Hz to 10 kHz range, with a sensitivity of -41 dBv @ 1 kHz/Pa.
Thanks to its standard 3.5 mm jack you can use the JBL Quantum 50 headset with a multitude of platforms, including personal computers (both Windows and Mac), gaming consoles (including Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch) and naturally smartphones and tablets (unless you have one of the new ones with no 3.5 mm jack).
This means the JBL Quantum 50 headset is not only great for gaming (including team chats) but it works really well with other voice-chat clients - I personally used it with Zoom and Skype and it worked great with those applications too.
The JBL Quantum 50 headset is available in New Zealand now.
