JBL Quantum 300 Gaming Headset Review
By: Alex Rowe
Tags: Tech, Gadgets, Audio, Gaming, Technology

Whether you’re looking for consumer or professional audio gear, JBL has a long legacy in the industry…but they haven’t done much in the gaming space until now. A few months ago, they went overboard and launched an astounding seven gaming headsets on the exact same day alongside one pair of desktop speakers. The “Quantum” range has a style for literally every budget between $40 and $300, covering the gamut of features from 3D surround sound to Bluetooth to 2.4 Ghz wireless to RGB lighting.

As you go cheaper, you lose features. The mid-range Quantum 300 offers just enough of what makes the series special that I decided it would be a good place to buy in, and although it can’t claim superiority over others on the market, it’s still an interesting headset with plenty of sound performance and comfort. And a disastrous implementation of microphone input.

Oh dear.

Photo taken by the author.

OVERVIEW

The JBL Quantum 300 (official site) sells for $79 normally, and sometimes goes on sale. I bought mine for about $60 on Amazon. It’s a closed-back gaming headset that’s available only in black. It has a permanently attached cable and microphone. The cable is 1.2 meters long. In the box, you’ll receive a USB sound card dongle with its own 1.5 meter cable. Unlike some other USB sound dongles, the end that plugs into your computer is bulky and the other side is a simple headphone jack instead of a big control box, which is a nice design touch.

If you’re looking at the cheaper Quantum 200 and wondering what separates the 300, it’s the USB sound card. The two headsets are otherwise identical. So, if you don’t think you’ll need the sound card you might as well save the money. The dongle offers a great hardware surround implementation, but fumbles its mic implementation so badly that you might want to skip it if you’ve already got a competent setup. More on that below.

The grills protecting the drivers sit very deep inside the ear cups, and have the JBL logo etched into them. It’s the headset’s lone premium design touch. Photo taken by the author.

SOUND QUALITY

JBL’s marketing for this headset range repeats over and over that their “QuantumSOUND” signature is “based on research” but then doesn’t proceed to tell you what that research actually is. Considering that JBL is part of the same family of companies as Harman, I’m guessing that this research is the Harman Target Curve. This curve is a carefully-crafted headphone sound target designed to reproduce audio with exceptional accuracy, and tuned to the listening preferences of the average human ear thanks to the magic of years of science.

I really like headphones tuned to this curve. The AKG K371 and Razer Opus are both excellent examples of what it can do for audio. While the sound of the JBL Quantum 300 shares some similarities with the Harman target, it’s ultimately tuned firmly in the direction of “consumer audio.”

That’s not to say that it sounds bad, but rather that it shares more in common with popular gaming headsets than it does with high-end audiophile gear. The bass is thick and a little boomy, with just enough punch to satisfy bassheads. The midrange is impressively flat and accurate, and although the lower mids are a little thick from the bass emphasis they still sounds nice. Treble response is a bit uneven, with a dip in the lower treble range and some harshness up top. This gives the treble a more relaxed, less detailed sound than many studio headphones, and makes some vocals in music sound a little thinner and more recessed than normal. But on the plus side it also means they’re not fatiguing over long sessions or at louder volumes.

Soundstage and imaging are also good for a closed back pair, and they get even better if you turn on the QuantumSURROUND feature which I talk more about in the next section. But even if you’re a hardcore stereo fan, this presents a decently wide and accurate sound field.

In direct comparisons, it sounds very much like a Hyper X Cloud Alpha, but with just a bit more boom in the bass and a little more bite in the upper treble. It’s a sound that I immediately liked, and it’s awesome that an Alpha-like sound is available in a cheaper product. If you’re looking for a fun sound tuning that’s great for games and movies, this fits the bill perfectly. The Quantum 300 has a pleasant sound with plenty of bass punch that you can listen to all day without fatigue. If you’re into accuracy above all things, you might want to look at a different pair.

The dongle smartly leaves its bulky end at your PC, bringing a small headphone jack closer to where you sit. Photo taken by the author.

VIRTUAL SURROUND, DONGLE, AND MICROPHONE

If you’re a fan of virtual surround, and you don’t mind when it adds some extra movie-theater-like EQ, then you’ll have a good time with the dongle’s QuantumSURROUND mode. Like the other shouted-at-you technologies contained in this headset, it’s based off of years of acoustic research, with the goal of crafting a spatial audio system that can compete with Atmos, THX Spatial, and Windows Sonic.

Like Razer’s THX software, you can apply QuatumSURROUND to stereo or 5.1/7.1 surround signals. Unlike that other software, you don’t have to set JBL’s manually to work in every individual app. Instead, you get a blanket on/off switch. The first thing you’ll notice is that there’s a dramatic change in sound signature with the surround mode active. It takes on an aggressive, v-shaped, cinema-style bite with powerful punchy bass and a sharp upper mid-range. Gone is the laid back listening character of the standard stereo presentation, replaced with powerful in-your-face audio.

Fortunately, the actual surround channel virtualization is exceptional, with accurate placement throughout the sound field and a very smooth channel transition that makes the audio feel more like a 3D sphere and less like it’s coming from discrete speaker locations. The system doesn’t support vertical data from games like Sonic and Atmos do…but it didn’t matter that much to me since the standard surround implementation is great.

Whether playing games or even just listening to stereo audio, I love the way this system sounds. It’s one of my favorite surround implementations on PC, and although it’s not quite at the level of the top tier Waves NX system on the much more expensive Cloud Orbit, it works well enough that I don’t mind all the marketing hyperbole JBL tossed onto their web site. If you step up to the higher-priced models, they also throw in DTS Headphone: X so you can compare the two systems. I don’t know why they did this, as their proprietary system more than holds its own, and saving money on DTS licensing would have lowered the cost of the more expensive headset models.

You can use JBL’s QuantumENGINE (shouted yet again) software to customize the surround system a bit, adjusting it for your height and head size. I didn’t find this made a huge difference to the audio, but more customization is always better. The software also includes a full graphical EQ if you’d like to try and smooth out the signature changes caused by the surround system, or adjust the standard sound to be a bit more accurate.

Unfortunately, while the surround mode is great and made my gaming experience better…that’s where my fun with the dongle ends. It has numerous issues that need to be solved with a software update as soon as possible, and many of them center around the microphone. The attached microphone on the Quantum 300 is great, but you’ll never know that if you use it through the dongle.