JBL Soundgear Clips Review: Everyday Sound, Now in Style!

JBL has long made earbuds and earphones for every use case. Be it for casual listening, exercise, sports, or wireless convenience, you are sure to find something from JBL that fits your needs. Lately, the trend of clip-on true wireless earbuds has caught the interest of many everyday listeners. JBL caters to this market with the release of the Soundgear Clips, a true wireless open-ear earphone that is made for every environment. What does this $150 Bluetooth earphone get you? Our review will explore all the details and more of the Soundgear Clips and determine if they are for you. 

The design of the Soundgear Clips is very similar to some other clip-on earphones you may have seen. While most of the competition rocks solid black colors, the Soundgear Clips make a statement with a transparent brown color. It is different than other earphones, allowing you to see the circuitry inside. The charging case is also a unique design, following suit with the transparent copper brown to allow you to see inside. You get a little window to look at the Soundgear Clips when they are not in use. 

The Soundgear Clips are lightweight and easy to wear. The speaker on each earphone is easy to spot, so you know how to wear it correctly, with the flatter side being behind the ear and the bulb inside. It is stable to wear, clasping on just enough to be secure but not tight enough to cause pain or discomfort. I do not wear clip-on earphones very often, so it took a moment for me to get used to the feeling of how the Soundgear Clips fit on the ear. After a slight bit of adjustment, I found it was easy for them to sit comfortably. The Soundgear Clips are geared towards athletes and folks who want earphones for their more active moments, as the grip in the fit is meant to stay on during all types of activity. 

The Soundgear Clips may not have active noise cancellation, but they do come with a lot of other features that make them an attractive choice. Their open-ear design allows you to be more aware of your surroundings, a perfect pairing for athletes and casual exercise enthusiasts who like to stay vigilant. I found it was great to wear at a desk, staying aware of coworkers, but also able to enjoy some relaxed listening at a low volume. The Soundgear Clips do get quite loud, so even if there is no passive isolation, you can make the music the most present sound quite easily. 

With the JBL app, you are given a host of customization options to really fine-tune your listening. You have EQ filters with genre-specific sorting, so you can tune your listening just as you like it. They make a noticeable difference that will make your listening more engaging and personalized. As of late, JBL has added a new feature to some of its earphones: an ambient noise timer. This timer allows you to customize a white noise / ambient environment and then have it set to a timer for whatever you may need. Be it sleeping, walking, or just a period of time to lock in at work, you can set this timer so you have a calming presence around you. 

SOUNDSTAGE & IMAGING

The JBL Soundgear Clips offer an impressive amount of detail and color for their type of earphones. Often, open-ear earphones lack bass or miss out on clarity because they are so wide and focus more on spatial presentation. JBL creates a good amount of detail on top of being a very spacious and wide set of earphones. The space you get from the Soundgear Clips is not only horizontal, but also vertical, so you do not feel compressed or caged in. The soundstage stays light and breathable to allow you to listen for long stretches of time without fatigue. I think the imaging could stand to be a bit more accurate, but in a set of earphones like this, I wasn't too concerned with pinpoint accuracy. 

The overall sound signature of the Soundgear Clips is balanced but still powerful with detail. These earphones can get surprisingly loud, and while there isn't any noise cancellation or even passive isolation, you can definitely see how the music would be the forefront of your attention. The flow from treble to bass is smooth and easy, making it the perfect accompaniment to exercise or just everyday chores as motivation or calming background noise. The Soundgear Clips cater to a large audience of listeners, but specifically those who want something to keep up with them in everyday activity. 

BASS FREQUENCIES

The bass in the JBL Soundgear Clips comes out with impressive power. With open-ear earphones, you can sometimes lose a lot of the bass frequencies in the same way you lose them in open-back headphones. Instead, the Soundgear Clips offer a strong bass presence that drives tracks forward and creates a nice foundation for everything else to build up from. In mellower genres like smooth jazz or R&B, the bass is calm and acts as a grounding presence for those other elements. It is bouncy and driving in upbeat electronic or pop tracks, so it matches the energy for the listener's preference. 

MIDRANGE FREQUENCIES

The midrange of the Soundgear Clips doesn't present anything too special, and that's what makes it really great. Instruments sound honest and natural in the Soundgear Clips, and that's especially noticeable in the midrange. You get frontal and present vocals, giving you plenty of melodic detail and emotion to focus on. I really liked how cohesive all the elements were, and while there wasn't much separation, they still had space to expand outwards horizontally and backwards to take advantage of all the space in the soundstage. You can definitely appreciate larger instrument ensembles just as much as a folksy guitar and voice.  

TREBLE FREQUENCIES

In the Soundgear Clips, the treble brings out all the detail in every frequency range, but more importantly, it highlights the space. The treble is sharp and detail-oriented, making sure you can easily distinguish elements in the tracks. I really appreciated how the Soundgear Clips highlighted treble for the space and openness, but not once did the treble frequencies feel sharp or fatiguing. It was a great balance between making sure the sound was spacious and finding minute details. I found that at louder volumes, the treble became more present, and you were given more details throughout the signature. Overall, the treble was great for adding detail and brightness to the Soundgear Clips, and kept them from having a rather heavy signature. 

The JBL Soundgear Clips have a few competitors in the clip-on earphone market. One that immediately comes to mind is the Bose Ultra Open Clip-On Earphones, or the Shokz Clip-Ons. Both of these are comparable in terms of being in the same market and catering to the same audiences. JBL offers the most affordable price point, making the Soundgear Clips a more attractive option for people looking for a budget pick. If sound quality is a big concern and a major deciding factor, you may also see the Beyerdynamic AMIRON Zero as an option. Beyerdynamic is in a similar price range as the Soundgear Clips and also has the clip-on style that people look for. Beyerdynamic has excellent sound quality, being known for its studio headphones, and the JBL Soundgear Clips offer great competition with a slightly different signature and design aesthetic. It'll come down to a personal preference if you prefer one or the other, but as most JBL products are, the Soundgear Clips offer incredible value for the price point. 

The JBL Soundgear Clips are a great accessory for every type of listener. For the athletes who want something to keep up with their intense workouts, these are set to make every training session more fun. Casual listeners who just want background music can appreciate the detail of the sound signature, and even people who like calm, meditative white noise can utilize the features in the accompanying app. The JBL Spoundgear Clips are a great everyday accessory, and they would serve as a solid upgrade for people looking for something new and different. 

You can get the JBL Soundgear Clips at Audio46.