JLab Go Air Pop+ Review

These earbuds offer a mind-boggling value. With solid sound quality, a functional app, responsive controls, and even a transparency mode, they are excellent for budget-minded shoppers.

Sound Quality

The JLab Go Air Pop+ earbuds offer a pleasant listening experience that is only remarkable because of the smaller investment. For the price, they sound marvelous. The rich mids shine with impressive texture, but the treble lacks sparkle and detail, and the bass can be inconsistent. As one expert listener says, “It's a pleasant audio experience that neither offends nor impresses.”

These earbuds present a narrow soundstage that can feel crowded and stuffy, yet it's roomy enough to let you hear each instrument and vocal clearly and to place them in space around you. There is some height, sounding more like a very narrow concert hall than a low-ceiling basement, which is appreciated. We don't hear as much detail in the mix as we'd like.

The frequency mix is enjoyable but inconsistent. The emphasis across the bass, mid, and treble ranges feels nicely balanced, but the bass line occasionally booms and overpowers the mix. At its worst, it sounds boomy and distorted, and sometimes competes with vocals.

In Kameron Marlowe's “Tequila Talkin'”, the bass is so loud that it sounds like a duet between the bassline and the lyrics. In “Everything is Everything” by Lauryn Hill, these earbuds push the bassline front and center, somewhat competing with vocals. We couldn't find a rhyme or reason to explain why it happens with only some songs.

The bass is more subtle, sounding neutral or even slightly washed out. Instead of sounding consistently powerful, it swings between hitting too hard and pulling back too far. They never feel sloppy and are expressive enough to maintain a strong presence, even if they're less detailed. Overall, they're good, but never great.

The mids are a standout, offering a rich spread of texture that captures vocal and instrumental nuance. The vocals occasionally sound a bit recessed or veiled, and clarity feels just out of reach. Still, there's a strong sense of space and an accurate, human timbre.

The treble range is nicely developed and present, but lacks detail and vibrancy. Occasional, mild vocal distortion across genres also hurts the score. We appreciate that even complex instruments hold their place without sharpening too much. While the high notes never felt piercing, some ears might feel fatigued after longer listening.

The gain offers a decent volume range. While the lows tend to bloat at higher levels, the highs aren't peaky or piercing. There's not much of an attack or dynamic finesse at any level, so intense crescendos and decrescendos don't deliver the intended impact. The earbuds translate energetic shifts well enough to keep the emotional arc intact.

To support our impressions, we turned to our simulator, Darwin, a Brüel & Kjaer Type 5128 and SoundCheck software. We measured the Lab Go Air Pop+ earbuds' frequency response and compared the results to our custom-built GearLab House Curve. Much of the bass range is elevated above our preferred curve, and a portion of the treble range also spikes above, echoing the feedback from our expert panel.

Comfort and Fit

These earbuds earned slightly above-average comfort scores. Their classic design is more inoffensive than comfortable. They don't create hotspots, but they're not so lightweight that you forget you're wearing them.

The silicone ear tips effectively seal your ear canal, which helps block sound. On the downside, that seal creates a slight suction, which can lead to a strange feeling of internal pressure. It's not painful, but it can cause discomfort after several hours. We wore them for a solid four hours before our ears tired.

They also breathe pretty well, but hold onto sweat during workouts, which is gross, but not uncommon. Despite these minor issues, they're comfortable enough for everyday use, and their vibrant color and travel-friendly case make them a favorite.

Stability

While these earbuds don't sit very deep in your ear, the silicone tips provide enough grip to keep them in place, even during our aggressive head-banging. They can loosen if you're moving around a lot, but a quick twist fixes the problem. An IPX4 rating means they can handle light splashes and sweat without issue.

Noise Cancellation

Earbuds can decrease distracting ambient sounds in two ways: physically blocking the sound with the earbuds and the seal they create (passive cancellation), and with active noise cancellation (ANC).

These earbuds don't include ANC, but the snug seal creates passive cancellation, which works pretty well to lower the level of background sounds.

With the JLabs, we can hear people talking, but not well enough to understand them, and keyboard sounds fade to a faint clicking. They work well enough that we appreciate JLab's inclusion of a Be Aware Mode (transparency mode), which records the sounds around you and plays them over the speakers to bypass the muffling seal. It is a wildly sophisticated feature for affordable buds.

The sound that comes through feels a bit artificial, but the music maintains its quality. We like the increased awareness and ability to maintain a conversation over the music.

The test team used Darwin and SoundCheck Software to confirm our experiences. The earbuds block high-frequency sounds much better than low, rumbling notes. That's to be expected, since noise cancellation is much better at combating the long-wavelength low notes. The noise isolation created by the earbuds themselves is effective, blocking nearly 40 decibels (dB) in the treble ranges and around 20 to 35 dB in the mid-tones.

Ease of Use

With an impressively useful app, a transparency mode, and a safe hearing feature, the JLabs are pretty sophisticated for the price. Over a dozen testers felt they were a pleasure to use, with effective touch controls.

App Features

The Go Air Pro+ offers a surprisingly robust suite of customization features. Through a no-frills companion app available on Apple and Android devices, you get access to adjustable EQ settings and a handful of presets.

The app includes a “Safe Hearing” feature that lets you cap max volume at 85 or 95 dB, which is great for long-term ear health or younger listeners.

The touch controls are also impressive, with responsive tap-based commands for playback, calls, and volume on the buds. Add in the built-in charging cable and bright finish, and you can color us impressed.

These earbuds have only one irritating limitation — once they're paired with one device, there's no way to initiate pairing mode again from the buds or case. You must manually unpair them from the connected device before switching.

Battery Life

The battery life isn't super impressive, lasting only 7.8 hours of continuous use at max volume. While JLab claims 9 hrs, 8 is usually enough to get by.

The case gives you four charges, as long as it's charged itself. A quick 10 minutes on the charger buys you an extra hour. While there's no wireless charging, the built-in USB charging cable is convenient.

Call Quality

The JLabs are a little better than average for isolating voices from background noises during calls. They work well enough for occasional calls, even in loud environments. Using Darwin and playing recordings of male and female voices and capturing the playback through the earbuds, you can hear the results for yourself.

The baseline voice recording in a quiet room is fairly clear, but quieter. The quality of both voices was generally smooth and easily understood, but there's a softness around the edges. Syllables aren't especially crisp, and there's a bit of word bleeding. The overall tone is pleasant.

In an office, the JLabs struggled to separate voices from ambient sounds. Both voices are clearly audible in the foreground, but the gentle hum of office noise competes for attention. The result is a somewhat cluttered experience.

During the subway test, the background noise is fully present, but doesn't overwhelm. The earbuds maintain enough clarity to hear the speaker's words. The female voice suffers from mild distortion. It's not a dealbreaker, but loud environments diminish the clarity.

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These earbuds are a crazy good deal for anyone who isn't a stickler for top-tier audio quality. If you're looking for something affordable, flexible, and feature-packed, the Go Air Pro+ earbuds are a smart choice. They're ideal for casual listeners, students, or folks prone to losing their stuff. Parents looking for a budget-friendly option for kids will appreciate the volume-limiting feature, and everyday users will love the easy-to-use app. While they don't include ANC, the transparency mode and decent passive isolation offer enough awareness and sound control to suit most.

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