The JBL Tour One M3 just got a better sound curve for free

We’re on the ground in Los Angeles for JBL’s 80th anniversary Playback Tour, and one of the bigger announcements out of the event is a newly refined tuning curve for the JBL Tour One M3 headphones, available today as a free firmware update. JBL also unveiled a new green colorway with copper accents for both the Tour One M3 and Tour Pro 3 earbuds, alongside a redesigned app UI and an updated touchscreen interface on the Tour Pro 3’s charging case.

JBL’s headphones have always been solid performers, but the brand has faced stiff competition from Sony, Bose, and others at the top of the market. The new curve feels like an attempt to close the gap through applied audio science rather than new hardware.

The Harman Target Curve remains the starting point, but makes refinements based on what Harman says are changing listener expectations. The pitch is that today’s ears are more discerning — people notice imbalance faster, fatigue sooner, and demand more clarity and control from premium products. JBL’s answer is a sound that works across genres, retains vocal clarity, and doesn’t lean too hard on bass to impress.

In practice, that means a 3–5 dB boost in the 4–8 kHz range for added clarity, alongside a roughly 2 dB refinement in the low-mid range for cleaner, more natural sound. Harman ran double-blind listening tests with both trained “Golden Ears” listeners and untrained panels to validate the changes, with results independently verified by Force Technology’s SenseLab. The company showed preference gains across every measured category, with the biggest improvements in bass, clarity, and spatial performance. We’ll retest the Tour One M3 with the updated curve and update our review with new measurements to see how it holds up.

A matching hard-shell case with 80th anniversary branding completes the look.

For those who want to push further, EQ customization in the JBL app remains one of the most useful tools. In the long term, Harman also mentioned it’s building an AI listening panel to make tuning more efficient — drawing on decades of collected data — though human evaluators will always have the final say.

As Carsten Olesen, President of Consumer Audio at Harman, put it:

The way people listen has fundamentally shifted with better hardware, higher-quality content, and smarter streaming making today’s ears more discerning than ever. The new curve makes its debut on our flagship JBL Tour One M3, designed to deliver the clearest, most natural listening experience we’ve ever created.

Beyond the sound update, JBL is also refreshing the interface on the Smart TX transmitter and the Tour Pro 3’s touchscreen case, with a new menu system featuring horizontal and vertical scrolling, larger icons, refreshed typography, and a cleaner color scheme — all aimed at making advanced features easier to reach with fewer taps.

The firmware rollout is staggered: the Tour One M3 sound curve update (v4.8.0) is available now, the Smart TX UI update (v7.7.0) is also live, and the Tour Pro 3 case UI update lands April 30.

Rounding out the announcement is a new green colorway with copper accents for both the JBL Tour One M3 () and JBL Tour Pro 3 (). It arrives in mid-May at select retailers, but won’t be available in North America.