VERY Underrated 🤔 JBL Live Buds 3 Review (2025)
Why is Live Buds 3 less popular than Beam 3?
Why is the Live Buds 3 much less popular than the Live Beam 3 despite being almost identical in terms of features? They both have the same screen on the case that gives you full access to the buds’ controls and settings without needing to use your phone. They are Hi-Res wireless certified supporting LDAC codec streaming, and they both have the latest JBL sound customisation features like PersoniFi and Spatial audio. In fact, the Buds 3’s earplug style is going to provide more constant noise cancelling and makes them much more suitable for sports, because they’re not as likely to shift out of position.
So why’s it less popular than the Beam? Could it be because of performance, or some other reason? I do have a theory which I’ll discuss in a bit, but before that, let’s see how the Live Buds 3 performs relative to the Beam 3 in terms of sound, noise cancelling and mic pickup.
Microphone Quality
In terms of mic pickup, they both sound great in quiet conditions, but in noisy conditions, it’s when their differences start to show. The Buds 3 is much more effective at blocking the sound of wind, whereas the Beam 3 is better at background noise reduction.
It’s worth noting that both of them also have a VoiceAware mode which passes through your voice during phone calls so that you won’t feel the need to speak louder, or even shout. What the Live Buds 3 doesn’t have here that the Beam 3 does is Private Call mode, the ability to use one earbud as a dedicated mic so you can whisper into it.
👉 Have a listen to the mic pickup samples.
(Mic pickup tested in both quiet and noisy conditions using really loud cafe noise and wind noise from this fan.)
Active Noise Cancelling
Live Buds 3
In terms of active noise cancelling, the Live Buds 3 being earplug style is going to muffle mid-range noises better which means it’s going to deal with human chatter better. This is why, even if the decibel meter is showing that it’s only cancelling a smidge more noise, it sounds much more quiet than the Beam 3. There’s also less of a ‘waterfall’ effect than Beam, probably because it doesn’t have to apply as much noise masking.
👉 Have a listen to the ANC samples.
Transparency Mode
Ambient Aware
Moreover, it’s transparency mode, or Ambient Aware, is one area which isn’t as great as the Beam 3. Even on max settings, Buds 3 has a little more occlusion in the vocal range, and a little less amplifying of ambient sounds. It’s still good enough for verbal exchanges and general awareness, but at times you’ll be a little more tempted to remove one earbud than if you were to use the Beam 3.
Sound Quality Comparison
In terms of sound quality, assuming that they’re on default settings, the Buds 3 sounds brighter and more vibrant than the Beam, much closer to my own preference in sound. They also deliver more extension in the bass, and have a more compact, intimate soundstage. This frequency sweep shows that the Live Buds 3 is much more pronounced in the upper mids and highs, which is exactly what I’m hearing.
👉 Have a listen to the sound samples (Default Settings).
Additionally, if you use my special Aaron X EQ setting, it is actually possible to make the Beam sound about as bright and vibrant as the Buds. However, I do prefer the Buds because they require little to no tweaking. Even after calibrating them through PersoniFi, I actually prefer how they sounded before PersoniFi. Although PersoniFi could identify the blind spots in my hearing abilities, it compensated a bit too much in the mids which made vocals sound a bit sibilant. No problem, I just went into the manual EQ to tweak it to perfection.
What Live Buds 3 lacks
The Live Buds 3 does lack 3 key features from the Beam. First is Private Call mode, which we discussed earlier. Next is Smart Talk, a feature that automatically switch the buds to transparency mode when it detects you speaking, making conversations easier.
Lastly, there’s Adaptive EQ, which is more about compensating for the Beam’s weaker noise isolation, by adjusting certain parts of the sound louder when it needs to. This does make the Beam 3 a little more interesting than the Buds in terms of features, but I don’t think this is why it’s so much more popular than the Buds.
My theory is that the Beam’s stem type plays an important role. It’s more likely to appear as an AirPods alternative in search and in reviews. Thus, its popularity is partly driven by that organic traffic, rather than it’s inferior in terms of performance since the Live Buds 3’s noise cancelling is better, its sound quality requires less tuning, and it’s almost as full featured as the Beam 3.
But what do you think? Is the Beam 3’s popularity more than just the fact that it’s stem type? Let me know in the comments. Links as below if you want to check their latest prices on Amazon.
Check latest price:
JBL Live Buds 3 - https://amzn.to/3Pf7UEV
JBL Live Beam 3 - https://amzn.to/3Z9Uika
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