For a work at home mom, noise canceling headphones like the JLab Flex are a must own. A few months ago, I tested noise canceling ear buds using the “two active eight year olds on a playdate” test. As good a test as that is, it doesn’t compare to the “whole family home on a snow day” test.
You laugh, but imagine the following scenario. It’s a random Monday. You have phone meetings scheduled, you’re behind on work, and everyone is trapped in your smallish house. The kid desperately wants you to be in the same room as him because then the dog will stay with him. Your spouse is trapped in the same house working as well. The child has television volume turned up to 11. All you really want is to sit, work, and be able to tune out everything around you.
This is exactly what the JLab Flex does. With my tunes on, I can tune out.
For those of you, like me, who have teeny child sized heads, headphones can often be uncomfortable because they flop around. The JLab Flex headphones do a great job of fitting all types of heads. The padding makes the top comfortable. The real winner are the ear pieces. On top of having a head (and thusly ears) the size of a large 10 year old child, I’m also all pierced. This means that headphones often push on my piercings which is uncomfortable. The cushioning on the JLab Flex headphones is ear shaped and the right size to fit most ears. Not only is the padding comfortable, but it does a great job with the noise canceling aspect of the headphones.
That is where the JLab Flex really shines, though. I’ve had noise canceling headphones before. They didn’t cancel the noise, just muted it. The JLab Flex really does manage to cancel a large chunk of the noise around you. When I say my son dials the television volume up to “11?” I’m actually lying. He prefers the setting somewhere like “20” on the TV. He watches the worst television imaginable at the loudest volume he thinks we’ll let him get away with. When it’s snowing and we’re all trapped inside, I pick and choose my battles. Volume is not the fight to have. So if my kid is watching an endless stream of Good Luck Charlie episodes? I’m going to find a way to tune them out.
When wearing the headphones, you can definitely tell the difference between the noise cancellation mode and non-noise cancellation. I ran a test run with the noise canceling turned off which made the headphones no different from other headphones. Sound got in, interrupting the listening experience. Then I turned the noise cancelation back on, and I found that all of those episodes of television miraculously disappeared. I was able to just go into the writing zone and not have to ask my kid to turn the volume down.
With a price point of $150, the JLab Flex has solid audio quality in a great travel sized package. If you need some headphones to get you through the next snow day productively? These are definitely ones I’d recommend.
