JLab Go Air Sport

Sportspeople like comfort, but they sometimes also want to be strikingly stylish. Accordingly, the JLab Go Air Sport, with its long curved earpieces, catch the eye with turquoise and neon yellow colours, but if you don’t want to attract too much attention, you can opt for the plainer graphite. Other colours appear to be planned, according to the product images on the manufacturer’s website. The design is defined by the flexible rubber earpiece and the matt plastic body of the earphones, on which a shiny logo stands out. A sensor button is hidden underneath the logo. In addition, both in-ears are equipped with a status LED, MEMS microphone and two golden pins for docking in their charging case. The silicone ear tips provided by the manufacturer in sizes S, M and L ensure a perfect fit in the ear canal.

Wearer comfort and functions

The slim design and delicate earpiece result in a low weight of 6.2 grams per side. This is especially useful during sports, for which these headphones are also predestined thanks to their IP55 certification (earphones only), providing protection against sweat, dust and splash water. You can hardly feel them, and they fit perfectly in your ears with the included ear tips. They are also hidden deep in the ear so that there is no annoying air circulation.

Functionally, they operate the standard programme via their sensor buttons: start, pause and skip streamed music. Thanks to the built-in microphone, it is also possible to make phone calls, accept, end and reject calls at the touch of a button and communicate with compatible voice assistants. As a special bonus, the EQ has three modes, “JLab Signature”, “Balanced” and “Bass Boost”, to adjust the sound from the bass and treble. In addition, the Go Air Sport support Dual Connect for listening with just one in-ear.

Technical features

The six-millimetre dynamic drivers play with a frequency response of 20 to 20,000 Hertz and have 103 +/-3 decibel output and 16 ohms impedance. However, you have to reduce your sonic demands as they only use the SBC Bluetooth codec. They use Bluetooth version 5.1 and this guarantees a range of up to 10 metres. If the in-ears run out of power after eight hours of playtime, the case stores another 24 hours as a reserve. In standby mode, the in-ears last for over 60 hours. It takes a little more than two hours to fully charge the in-ears, and about two hours to charge the case. The charging status is confirmed by the red or blue flashing LED on the case.

Bluetooth and operation

Pairing is child’s play, as both earpieces automatically go into pairing mode when they are removed from the case so that they then only need to be confirmed on the list of Bluetooth-enabled devices on your smartphone.

The functions are appropriate for the price range and can be operated intuitively after studying the operating instructions. The functions triggered by tapping the sensors several times required a fast pressing speed, and the rather sensitive sensors reacted accordingly.

Making calls

I can confirm that the voice quality of incoming calls was very easy to understand. In contrast, the MEMS microphone suffered from a somewhat noisy sound that fluctuated slightly, as if someone were turning a tone control. Nevertheless, it remained intelligible, which is what counts in the end. However, voices suffered from a phaser-like effect, but this did not seriously diminish the clarity of speech.

Sound with three EQ settings

JLab leaves it up to the customer to decide how the Go Air Sport should sound. In the pre-set EQ mode “JLab Signature”, which I preferred, the bass and treble were slightly boosted without compromising the homogeneity and transparency that benefits the sound. Songs with a hefty bass arrangement like Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” proved how deep the membranes can go. The beat loop heard in the intro was booming but still very clean, even at full level. The low-frequency spectrum creates a rich tapestry on which the mids and highs of lead sounds and vocals are embedded in a controlled manner without standing out too much. This sound came in very handy for my favourite musical genres of nu-disco and funk. For example, Daft Punk’s album “Random Access Memories” inspired me not only with the groovy bass that runs through all songs but also with the spatial representation, which allowed the individual instruments to be clearly distanced from each other. Kool & The Gangs’ “Summer Madness” also thrilled with its smooth bass in the intro and with the synth sound of the Arturia ARP 2600, which was modulated from octave to octave and demanded the highest pitches from the drivers for the finale. If you prefer a more linear sound, select “Balanced EQ Mode”. Compared to “JLab Signature”, bass and treble were neutralised so that the drivers presented a sober yet transparent and pleasing sound. The “Bass Boost” lived up to its name by giving the lower frequencies more kick. Here, too, the sound engineers demonstrate a good instinct for balance. The bass doesn’t thump excessively, so it doesn’t mask the well-measured treble.

In my listening tests, the drivers provided a reasonable output, which was sufficient thanks to the very good shielding of the earpieces and their very good fit. At full volume, however, I found them a little restrained, allowing some volume reserves for quieter tracks.