Today we’re going to look at the new Jabra Elite 8 Active and Elite 10. These are the new flagships replacing the Elite 7 Active and 7 Pro, and it’s a whole different ballgame from earlier Jabra earbuds.

To start off, both have multipoint from Day 1, and they both come with Dolby Spatial audio, with the Elite 10 supporting Dolby Atmos.

Spatial audio not restricted to a particular device or app. As soon as you turn on Spatial audio in the Jabra Sound+ app, you will get a more enveloping sound field regardless of whether you’re playing music, games or watching your favorite tech YouTuber (although the Elite 10’s Dolby Atmos is restricted to specific content and apps).

On the Elite 10 you will get head tracking, and as with Spatial audio, it doesn’t matter if it’s on iOS or Android, PC or Mac, even your TV! Head tracking works independently from the device you use because the processing is on board the earbuds, and it’s only relying on the sensors inside to orientate the sound.

This is different from Apple’s head tracking because it doesn’t pin the source of the audio in one place without re-centering. Say you’re watching a YouTube video, and you turn your head, facing away from the screen, the Jabras will only maintain the audio positioning for about 5 seconds before it re-centers the sound.

But the benefit of this form of head tracking is that it can be with any device instead of being restricted to specific ecosystems or devices like Apple to Apple, Samsung to Samsung, and Sony to Sony.

These are the new features Jabra’s offering here, but what about their sound, noise canceling and call quality, benchmarked against the previous flagships? Are there any improvements, and what are the pros and cons? We’re going to find out in this review.

Call Quality

There is a lot improvement over the previous flagships. They definitely sound a lot less choppy in noisy conditions. And compared to most of the current Jabra lineup, these cut a lot more background and noise in challenging scenarios while retaining the legibility of my voice. Listen to the samples here.

(Tested in both quiet and noisy conditions, using really loud cafe noise, and wind noise coming from a fan.)

Active Noise Canceling

In terms of active noise canceling they both are much, much better. The ANC is a lot more obvious on the 8 Active, and the Elite 10’s ANC is even better than that, a huge leap forward despite having a semi-open fit. On most of the other Jabras since 2020’s Elite 85T, ANC was very weak, almost non-existent, but not this time. The Elite 8 Active and Elite 10 are very competitive with flagship buds from other brands. Listen to the samples here.

Transparency Mode

In terms of transparency, they’re both equally as clean on max Hearthrough, although there is still a bit of occlusion. One thing that can be better is the loudness of voices. It seems that they’re trying to be careful with that but I feel that mid-range sounds can be amplified more, so that it’s easier to hear what people are saying while on hearthrough mode.

Sound Quality

In terms of sound quality, the Elite 8 Active and 10 are both tuned in a very similar fashion by default. Easy in the bass compared to previous models like the 7 Pro and 7 Active, while maintaining the same level of prominence in the mids. But, these sound way more crisp and clean than any of the previous Jabras, which does appeal to a different kind of crowd that appreciates fidelity rather than thick, thumpy bass. In these sound samples I compared them to the 7 Pro and 7 Active.

The Elite 10 does sound a bit different from the 8 Active. Its crispness level in the upper mids is higher, so the 8 Active sounds a little darker in the vocals, and it also has a bit more extension in the sub bass frequencies. What I don’t quite like about the way they both sound is the extra brightness in the treble. There’s more brilliance in the sound stage and certain instruments like hi-hats and cymbals, but it sounds a bit too hot for my liking. And when I try to correct that in the Sound+ app’s graphic EQ, they only have settings that go as high as 7.2 khz, not the 14khz region where the issue is.

However they’re quite responsive to EQ. I was able to tweak it to sound closer to the way I want without going too crazy in the mids. It would have been easier if they had MySound auto-calibration but I was told that these are only going to get that by Q1 2024 via software update.

Another thing that’s coming via software update is LC3 codec support which doesn’t have a projected date. But we do know that when it comes to the Elite 10 and 8 Active, it will have new benefits which I covered in the video below explaining what LC3 is.

Okay so now we’re going to talk about why you should get the Elite 10 over the 8 Active even though its more expensive, and then we’ll play devil's advocate and talk about why the 8 Active is better value.

Buy the Elite 10 because…

The Elite 10 is the crispest sounding Jabra earbuds with the largest drivers, with the most powerful noise canceling of the range.

It supports Dolby Atmos, so for content mastered in Dolby Atmos on Apple TV, Google TV or Netflix, you will hear individual surround channels. This is closer to what the movie directors intended, and more immersive than the regular Dolby Spatial Sound upmastering.

It has head tracking which can be useful if you want a more ‘cinema’ like experience. You may feel justified paying a little extra for it over the 8 Active, but before you do so, there are some ways the 8 Active is better.

Why buy Elite 8 Active instead?

First, battery life. The Elite 10 has up to 6 hours and 27 with case, the 8 Active has 8 hours and up to 32 with case, so you don’t have to charge the 8 Actives as often.

2nd, the durability. 8 Active’s IP rating is higher, and it’s rated for both the earbuds and the case, which is itself rated IP54. The Elite 10 the buds are rated IP57 but not the case, but that goes without saying. After all, the 8 Active is built for active living, even outdoors.

The 8 Active also uses eartips with a generic bracket, so you could technically fit third party tips to them, while the Elite 10’s nozzles are shaped in a way that doesn’t quite allow that.

In short, there are some reasons to pick the Elite 10s, and some reasons for the 8 Actives. Whichever the case, I feel that this is the beginning of Jabra’s redemption arc, because for the longest time, Jabra’s active noise canceling used to be non-existent, as in, there was no difference between ANC on and Off, but now it’s awesome.

And from day 1 it’s released with multipoint pairing and Spatial audio instead of being something that had to be added later on through an update. It still hasn’t got 100% of its promised features, but those are less critical compared to getting the basics right, which is what they’ve done here - very few missteps, and a lot of improvement over the previous versions. Check in the links below for the latest prices on Amazon and Lazada.

Jabra Elite 10
Amazon - https://amzn.to/3EHIp9J

Jabra Elite 8 Active
Amazon - https://amzn.to/46m41V0

Get your FREE Audiobook here, no strings attached - https://amzn.to/3Kdmtoi (Audible Premium Plus)

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