Pros
✅ Long Battery Life
✅ Powerful Bass
✅ Portable
✅ multipoint Bluetooth
Cons
❌ No ANC
❌ Poor build quality
❌ No App Support
Overview
The JBL Tune 510BT is a great option for those who love deep bass but don’t want to spend too much. With its simple design, powerful bass, and affordable price, this headphone earned the “Best Cheap” title in our list of the best headphones for bass.
Although it lacks advanced features like Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), an app, and other high-end functionalities, it remains one of the best-selling headphones in its category.
If you enjoy listening to bass-heavy music and are looking for an economical choice, this headphone could be your best budget-friendly option.
For our test, we chose the navy blue variant and evaluated it at Technowant Studio for five days. In this post, you can read the full results of our tests.
Why is Techowant Trustworthy? At Technowant, we scientifically test headphones in our dedicated headphone testing studio to ensure accurate and reliable evaluations. For more details, you can read about our headphones Testing Method.
JBL Tune 510BT Review: Design
The design of the JBL Tune 510BT is simple and unremarkable. It is slightly smaller than many other headphones, making it exceptionally lightweight at just 160 grams. Additionally, the ear cups fold inward, minimizing the space it occupies, which makes it highly portable.
This headphone is available in four colors white, black, rose, and navy blue (though the company refers to it as blue) offering options for different tastes.
However, the build quality is not premium. The headphone is made of relatively low-quality plastic, making it highly susceptible to damage from drops, pressure, or impact. JBL also does not include a protective case in the box, so extra caution is needed when carrying it around.
On the positive side, the ear cups offer decent adjustability, and they are covered with synthetic leather. However, the materials used are not high-quality, leading to discomfort after 45 minutes to an hour of use, as the ears become warm and sweaty.
The ear cup diameter is only 8 cm, meaning it may not fully cover everyone’s ears, potentially causing discomfort. Glasses wearers may also find it uncomfortable, as the ear cups press against the ears, pushing the glasses’ arms into the head.
In terms of stability, this headphone does not perform well even slight movements can cause it to slip off the head. This makes it unsuitable for workouts or running.
Controls
The JBL Tune 510BT features four physical buttons, all located on the right ear cup. Additionally, the headphone provides voice assistant, enhancing the user experience. Below is a breakdown of the buttons and their functions:
+ Button:
- Single press: Increase volume
- Double press: Skip to the next track
– Button:
- Single press: Decrease volume
- Double press: Go back to the previous track
Middle Button:
- Single press: Play/Pause music or Answer/End calls
- Double press: Activate the voice assistant
- Press and hold: Reject calls or mute the music
Power Button:
- Press and hold: Turn on/off / Bluetooth pairing mode
- Press and hold together with the + button: Activate Multi-Point Connectivity
JBL Tune 510BT Review: Sound Quality
To evaluate the sound quality of the JBL Tune 510BT, we measured its frequency response in our studio using the Bruel & Kjaer 5128 head simulator, as per our standard procedure.
JBL has established itself as a leader in producing bass-heavy headphones, and the Tune 510BT is no exception. This headphone incorporates JBL’s exclusive Pure Bass technology, which is specifically designed to enhance low frequencies and deliver powerful, deep bass.
Frequency Response Chart
If you examine the frequency response chart of this headphone, you’ll notice that the sub-bass frequencies (ranging from 20 to 50 Hz) have been boosted by approximately 9 dB. Additionally, the bass frequencies (ranging from 50 to 150 Hz) have a gain of 4 to 8 dB, resulting in a punchy and powerful bass presence in music.
In the midrange (150 Hz to 1000 Hz), JBL has aimed to keep most frequencies close to 0 dB. The maximum fluctuation within this range is between -1 dB and +0.5 dB, which helps in enhancing the body and fullness of instruments like the guitar.
In the high-frequency range, JBL has adjusted the tuning to balance the overall sound and counteract the impact of excessive bass on other elements. The 2,000 to 8,000 Hz range has been boosted, with the most significant peak occurring between 4,000 and 6,000 Hz. This tuning enhances the clarity of vocals, acoustic guitars, violins, sound effects (SFX), and other high-frequency details in the audio.
Listening Test
To test the listening experience, we played several tracks from different genres using this headphone.
The first track was Taste by Sabrina Carpenter, a pop song with an acoustic kick drum and a smooth bass line played on a bass guitar. The kick drum sounded punchy, and the accompanying bass was enjoyable to listen to. However, the dominance of the bass made certain elements of the track, such as the piano and rhythm guitar, difficult to hear. Despite JBL’s attempt to boost high frequencies, the vocals still felt somewhat overshadowed by the bass and kick drum.
The second track was A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey, which belongs to the acoustic genre, my personal favorite. This song lacks a strong kick drum and deep bass, relying more on the guitar and vocals to create its atmosphere. Since the JBL Tune 510BT keeps midrange frequencies close to 0 dB, the acoustic guitar and vocals remained fairly unaffected. However, the hi-hats and claps sounded excessively prominent. Overall, I still enjoyed listening to this track with these headphones.
For the third track, we chose an EDM song: Don’t You Worry Child by Swedish House Mafia. This track features a powerful kick drum, a deep bass line, and reverb-heavy synthesizers, which create an immersive concert-like feel. When the song reached 1:06, where the kick, bass, and other elements drop together, the kick and bass took center stage, similar to the first track. However, this also slightly reduced the clarity of the synthesizers. That said, bass lovers would undoubtedly find this experience highly enjoyable.
Overall, with a price of around $50, this headphone performs exceptionally well for bass lovers. At this price point, expecting sound quality on par with high-end headphones like the SONY ULT WEAR would be unrealistic.
To gather opinions from different segments of society that use headphones the most, we provided the headphones to representatives from nine different groups and asked them to rate it from 1 to 10.
You can see the results in the image below.
JBL Tune 510BT Review: Isolation
As mentioned earlier, this headphone does not have active noise cancelation and, due to its on-ear design, it does not provide strong isolation either. If you look at the graph above, you’ll see that all sounds remain clearly audible up to 400 Hz, with no significant reduction or elimination. However, from 400 Hz to 20 kHz, there is moderate isolation. It’s also important to note that if you have larger ears, the isolation might be even weaker for you.
Sound Leakage
In our sound leakage test, the headphone performed averagely. This means that if you increase the volume and someone is 3 meters away, they might not hear the kick drum as much, but they will clearly hear the snare and claps from your music.
JBL Tune 510BT Review: Battery Life
The battery life of the JBL Tune 510BT is outstanding for its price. With a full charge, you can enjoy up to 40 hours of music playback. However, since this headphone does not have an auto-off feature, you must manually turn it off after each use. Otherwise, its effective battery life may drop to around 35 hours or less.
Additionally, this headphone supports fast charging, allowing you to get up to 2 hours of playback with just 5 minutes of charging.
JBL Tune 510BT Review: Microphone
If you are in a quiet environment, such as a studio or a small room, the microphone performance is actually quite good. However, in noisy environments like a street, workplace, or a crowded party, the microphone’s noise canceling performs moderately, leading to reduced voice clarity. In such cases, the listener may need to pay closer attention to understand the speaker.
Below, we have provided two sample recordings from the JBL Tune 510BT microphone, the first recorded in a studio, and the second recorded with street noise playing in the background.
In Studio:
In Street:
Final Verdict
The JBL Tune 510BT is an affordable on-ear headphone, priced around $50, featuring exceptional battery life and strong bass with good overall sound quality. Compared to its competitors, it stands out as a budget-friendly option for those who enjoy bass-heavy music but don’t want to spend too much on a headphone.
If you’re one of these bass lovers, don’t hesitate to buy this headphone.
However, if you’re looking for features like a companion app, active noise canceling, a durable design resistant to pressure and impact, or a more balanced sound without excessive bass, this headphone may not be the best choice for you.
FAQs
Yes, you can consider alternatives like The Sony WH-CH520 and JBL Tune 500, as replacements for this headphone.
No, the JBL Tune 510BT does not support wired connections as it lacks a 3.5mm audio jack. The only port available on the headphone is the charging port.
The JBL Tune 510BT box contains only the headphone, a charging cable, a user manual, and a warranty card.
You can connect two devices at the same time to this headphone.
