A JBL Reflect Mini BT (Sports) Headphone Review

Most of the reviews I do are on venues, fly fishing tackle and photography gear. That said, I do do a fair bit of running and recently found a product which I love, so I thought I’d do a quick, more informal review of the JBL Reflect Mini BT (sports) headphones. I say informal because I don’t care much about decibels, base levels, treble reproduction, and so on. What I do care about is that I can listen to music while I’m running, and that is sounds okay.

For some reason I battle to wear a large majority of today’s in-ear headphones. I’m guessing I have small ear canals as my problem is that most in-ear earphones tend to pop out at random intervals, even while I’m sitting still. As a general rule, if they have soft, flexible rubber designed to fit snugly in my ear, they don’t work. Amazingly the best set I’ve found (by far) are the default iPhone earphones which I’ve been running with up until now. The only problem with these is that the wire irritates me when I run, which I generally get around by tucking it under my shirt and into my running belt.

My wife, knowing the bouncing wire irritates me, bought me a set of Body Glove wireless headphones. Although they had the problematic, soft rubber mouldings they did stay in my ear thanks to their round ear wraps (or their locked-in fit technology as they call it). However the problem I had with these earphones was that the Bluetooth connection was poor. As soon as I put my phone in my running belt I’d intermittently lose connection, resulting in the music turning on and off as I ran.

Whether or not this was a defect with just that pair I’ll never know, as the shop were unwilling to let me test another pair before taking them (apparently my ears are dirty as well). As such I ended up returning the Body Gloves and went back to my iPhone headset.

Then, at Christmas, my wife tried her luck again by buying me the JBL Reflect Mini By Headphones. They were amazing.

Thanks to the JBL’s ear tips they fit snugly in my ears, with no risk of falling out, solving my greatest problem with running earphones. I found that the JBL ear tips worked far better than the Body Gloves wrap arounds. The fact that they came with small and medium sized ear buds also helped me greatly. Although both sizes fitted my ears, the small were definitely more comfortable.

Other wins for the JBL Reflect Mini BTs include the weight, which is extremely light meaning you don’t notice them while running, as well as the reflective cable which is great at night. They’re also sweat-proof (and rain proof) which is a must for running earbuds.

The JBLs do have a built in microphone which is great, as it allows you to make and receive calls on a run. This is far from a must for me but has been handy from time to time. The only downside is that the microphone appears to be a bit soft, although it is perfectly clear. This feature has been particularly useful as a hands free option while driving.

The controls on the headphones are perfectly logical with volume up and down buttons (which are also used to skip tracks), and a power button which is also used to answer and make calls.

And as a final, and hugely important note; the sound quality on the JBL Reflect Mini BTs is fantastic. Crystal clear and loud enough for my little ears.

All in all a great product which I find hard to fault.