JBL announced a series of headphones ahead of CES 2021, including the new Tour line of noise-canceling headphones to rival the AirPods Max and AirPods Pro

The JBL Tour One is an over-the-ear model that claims up to 50 hours of battery life, while the JBL Tour Pro Plus is a true wireless earphone Both feature "adaptive" active noise cancellation (ANC), which automatically adjusts to the wearer's surroundings, a handy tool to have when they go on sale on May 30, when they will be pitted against some of the best headphones on the market [Announced along with the JBL Bar 50 MultiBeam soundbar with Dolby Atmos support, the Tour One costs $300 and the Tour Pro Plus is $200 This puts them in a good position below the $549 AirPods Max and $250 AirPods Pro, even if both JBL headphones are still priced at premium quality

So what do you get for this price: the Tour One offers an ambient mode that augments adaptive ANC, large 40mm dynamic drivers, and high-res audio certification, allowing lossless music like Tidal and Amazon Music HD streaming services to their fullest potential And while the 50-hour battery life only applies to simple Bluetooth playback, JBL promises a respectable 25 hours with ANC enabled

The JBL Tour Pro Plus earphones, on the other hand, offer six hours of playback with ANC and one hour of playback on a 10-minute charge They also feature customizable touch controls and IPX4 waterproofing, so they are essentially sweat-proof Tour Pro Plus does not support Tour One's high-res audio, but it shares the same ambient mode and "talk through" mode for better listening to ambient sounds

JBL also introduced a new wireless earphone to its existing Live series of headphones: the Live Pro Plus, which offers the same adaptive ANC and IPX4 rating as the Tour Buds Plus, but at a slightly lower price of $180 Live Free ANC Plus also offers active noise cancellation, but in a more basic form and does not adapt to the surrounding environment This one costs $150 and will be available on March 14, the same date as the Live Pro Plus

Rounding out JBL's major announcements was the Charge 5, the latest in the Charge series of popular Bluetooth speakers and power banks It will be available in April for $180, the same price currently charged for the JBL Charge 4, and promises the same 20-hour battery life However, the Charge 5's weatherproofing has been improved, reaching an IP67 rating, making it dustproof as well as waterproof

The Tour One and Tour Pro Plus were the stars of JBL's launch, so it will be interesting to see how well they can compete with Apple's more expensive noise-canceling headphones at the end of May The AirPods Pro, in particular, will also face competition from Samsung's Galaxy Buds Pro