Today I will be going to provide you the review of JBL’s newly launched Quantum 200 and 300 Gaming headphones. That is because these two are identical headphones, and the only difference between them is that Quantum300 comes with a USB adapter, and in this blog, I will talk about whether that is worth spending extra money on or not. Read the whole Blog.
Box And It's Content:
It's a very attractive box, you get a manual and warranty card, something in Chinese, then you get a USB adapter with Quantum 300, and you'll get a splitter instead of this with Quantum 200 Headphones.
Build:
when you finally get to the headphone. The build of Quantum 300 is kind of okay, it is completely plastic, and while it is decent quality plastic, JBL has used Glossy finish on it for some reason. This is a fingerprint magnet and scratches easily, and I don’t know why they love glossy plastics so much as they also use it in their professional studio monitors and people really hate that. But other than that, the design is good and works well. The earpad hinges are adequately strong, but I’d still try to avoid dropping these headphones.
Features:
They also offer a 90-degree swivel which is very useful if you want to put these around your neck while not using them. At the back of the left earcup, you have a wheel for adjusting the volume, and the braided cable that comes with it isn’t very thick, but it still feels very strong. The microphone is nondetachable, and it gets muted if you flip it up, and you can adjust its position, but it’s not as easy as other microphones and it takes some effort to do it. It also comes with a foam windshield that can be removed. The headband size is adjustable with click stops, but it doesn’t snap up and down with a consistent level of force.
Comfort:
Coming to comfort, these headphones feature large and very deep memory foam earpads and they feel very nice when you’re wearing them. The headband also has sufficient cushioning, so there are no pressure points on your head and you can wear them for long periods. The earpads form a VERY nice seal around your ear, which provides great isolation, but a drawback to them is that if you wear them for long periods, they can get kind of hot and sweaty, so you may have to let some air in every hour, so it’s nice that you can put them around your neck like this.
Mic Sound:
I was kind of surprised at how the mic on the cheaper Quantum 100 sounds better, this mic works well, but the voice sounds kind of harsh on these, while this wasn’t the case on the cheaper model. It will still work well, but I think the mic could’ve been better on these.
Sound Quality:
Now finally coming to the sound quality, they sound good, but they have a more conventional gaming headphone sound, which means that they have a more V-shaped sound signature that emphasizes bass and treble frequencies. So while the cheaper Quantum 100 model had a more neutral but bright sounding sound, these are more V-shaped and have more bass. Even though the bass is boosted, it doesn’t feel overwhelming, and it also has a nice speed to it considering how emphasized it is, so if you are a bass-head you’ll really like these, and even for people who have a more mature taste in sound, the bass doesn’t feel muddy and it is pretty enjoyable. The mids on these are also good, but the upper treble on these is very noticeably emphasized. It can be good for gaming as you’ll be able to hear distant gunshots and footsteps well, but I personally found the gunshots to be too piercing for my taste, and for example on Corsair HS50, the gunshots were not as piercing, which is what I preferred, but you may like the gunshots to be more prominent.
For music, the treble emphasis can make instruments like drums sound harsh and if you listen to electronic tracks, then you may find the treble to be overwhelming. This doesn’t happen in the majority of sound, but some tracks just really make you notice the treble spike on these. The soundstage on these is pretty good, as the earpads go deep, so that is great, and it will not only help you in locating the direction of action while gaming but it will also make movies and music very enjoyable. So overall, the sound is pretty good, especially the bass and soundstage, but there is a treble spike that I don’t like. You get a combined headphone and mic jack with which you can plug into phones and tablets directly.
Quantum 200vs300:
The only difference between quantum 200, and 300 is that Quantum 200 comes with a simple splitter for the combined headphone and microphone jack, but the Quantum 300 comes with a USB adapter that allows surrounding sound functionality and some other things. You get JBL QuantumEngine software with this, and I am not sure if JBL has had similar software in the past but it is designed well and allows you to easily adjust the sound and microphone levels of your headset. It has an equalizer that you can use to control sound easily, which is nice.
Buying Guide:
If you were looking to buy this for its surround sound feature, I can tell you that it is terrible and it is totally going to mess up your audio as it makes everything sound distant and tinny, and you really can’t get 7.1 channel sound with 2 physical drivers so all these features are kind of useless. when you plug it into the adapter, and it kind of doesn’t sound as good as how it sounds if you plug it in directly to your phone or PC, there’s some noise cancellation going on which could help in a noisy environment, but it makes it sound kind of muffled, and I do think that there’s an option to disable it so it is not that great. So now the question is whether you should spend 1000 Rs more and get this USB adapter or not. Now this DAC/AMP is worth 1000 Rs, that is for sure as it’s quality is pretty good, but the additional features like surround sound don’t really work well, and that’s the case with most if not all surround sound technologies in headphones. A lot of sound engineering goes into designing the sound in games and in general audio, so if you add a layer of heavy processing to it, it’s only going to make it worse, and for Equalizer, you can use the Free EqualizerAPO software which is MUCH more powerful than what JBL Headphone offers even if it may not be as easy to use, so unless your PC has a terrible headphone or microphone jack, or there’s interference sound in it, I don’t think that there is an advantage to getting this by spending an extra 1000 Rs. So overall, the JBL Quantum 200 and Quantum 300 are pretty good, the build is fine, the comfort is great, and they also sound good for gaming. Compared to the cheaper Quantum 100 I think they are worth spending extra 1,500 Rs., as there is a nice improvement in sound quality, the earpads are better, and you do get a splitter included with it, but the drawbacks felt with it are the treble spike, and the microphone which sounds a little harsh compared to the cheaper model, so I don’t know why that is the case. But overall, I don’t think it is a dealbreaker, and coming to whether you should go for the Quantum 200, or 300, I think saving1000 Rs. by going with the cheaper model is what most people should do, but if your motherboard sound chip sucks, you could get the Quantum 300 model. So I’ll have links to buy both of these. let me know what you think about these headphones in the comments section below, thanks for reading.
1. Quantum 300
2. Quantum 200
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