We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use. At $69, the JLab JBuds Air Executive true wireless earphones are among the more affordable pairs on the market, right alongside JLab's own JBuds Air Sport. They have the same basic drivers and EQ settings, which means that both pairs deliver merely average audio quality in line with their relatively affordable price. We prefer the Air Sport model thanks to its gym-friendly build, but your best bet is increasing your budget a bit for a pair that delivers significantly better sound. Design The JBuds Air Executive differentiate themselves from the JBuds Air Sport in numerous ways. For starters, they lack ear hooks, and the charging case is notably smaller. The black earpieces instead feature a form similar to that of the Apple AirPods—a stem descends from the main enclosure. The case is covered in black vegan leather, and features an annoyingly hardwired and short USB charging cable. With an IP55 rating, the earphones are safe from dust and can handle water spray from any direction. In other words, they're fine in the rain and can be wiped down with a wet cloth, but it's best not to run them under a tap with powerful pressure. The earphones can't be submerged, and the case isn't waterproof at all. Each earpiece employs an 8mm dynamic driver, and has a multifunction button on its outer panel. The left and right ears divide the various controls—both can be pressed and held for three seconds to power up or down. The buttons are sensitive to touch, which can sometimes be a problem, as the panel doesn't always register every tap. The left side is responsible for volume down and track backward, while the right is for volume up and track forward. Tapping the right controls play/pause and call management, while a double-tap on the left summons your phone's voice assistant. A triple-tap on the left earpiece switches between three EQ modes. Not only is it an annoying way to implement a limited feature (in-app EQ would be far easier to operate and adjust), but the buttons are often unresponsive and you're left triple-tapping several times to switch modes. Sometimes, only one of the taps registers, and you end up performing a totally different task. Memorizing what each series of taps does, much less performing them correctly, is a challenge. JLab estimates battery life to be roughly six hours per full charge, plus an extra 24 hours in the battery case. Those numbers are quite good—slightly lower than the JBuds Air Sport, but definitely better than most of the options out there. Your results are going to vary with your volume levels, however, and these estimates seem a touch optimistic to us. Performance The earphones default to Signature sound mode, and you can switch to Balanced or Bass Boost. Balanced mode sounds borderline awful, with a hollowed out, thin, nasally sound signature. Bass Boost, meanwhile, is over the top—it simply adds more bass depth to an already bass-heavy sound signature. Thus, the test results below are from our experience with Signature mode. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the JBuds Air Executive deliver some real thunder. At top, unwise listening levels, they don't distort, and at moderate listening levels, the sound signature is still quite bass-forward and sculpted. See How We Test Headphones Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the JBuds Air Executive's general sound signature. The drums on this track sound overly bass-boosted, and Callahan's baritone vocals also receive more low-mid richness than needed. The higher register elements of the mix—acoustic guitar strums and high-end percussion hits—are bright and sculpted, but this doesn't necessarily create a sense of balance with the boosted lows. Instead, it simply sounds like a very sculpted and altered sound signature. Not awful, but certainly not accurate. On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop receives some high-end presence, but not as much as we typically hear, which means the attack is somewhat dulled and the boosted lows give the drum loop more thump. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with power that will appeal to big bass lovers, while the vinyl crackle and hiss that is usually relegated to background status sounds sculpted and pushed forward in the mix. The vocals on this track receive some added sibilance and brightness. Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound overly bass-boosted, while the crispness of the higher register brass, strings, and vocals sounds exaggerated, as well. The mic offers solid intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 8, we could hear every word we recorded cleanly and clearly, though there was some minimal Bluetooth fuzz around the edges. For true wireless mics, the quality is above average. Conclusions The JLab JBuds Air Executive earphones don't cost that much (at least in the true wireless realm), but the overall user experience leaves something to be desired. That, combined with merely decent, heavily sculpted audio, leaves us unimpressed. Ultimately, there are better-sounding true wireless options out there if you're willing to spend more money. Consider the $99 Altec Lansing True Evo, the $129 Samsung Galaxy Buds, and the $129 Tivoli Fonico, all of which provide significantly better, more balanced audio. Bottom Line: The true wireless JLab JBuds Air Executive earphones cost just $69 but offer merely average audio quality.

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