Review of headphones for long sports training Jaybird Vista

In this Jaybird Vista review, we take a closer look at why these are considered one of the best sounding true wireless earbuds under $20. Is the claim valid? Let’s find out.

With their robust, military-grade construction, these earbuds focus on appealing to people with sports use in mind. With the addition of IPX7 and ear fins for a secure fit, Vista’s are practically unstoppable when it comes to enduring intense workouts.

They are a bit pricey, especially considering the lack of noise-canceling or ambient sound mode, which is helpful when you’re jogging near a busy road. Their battery life is also not ground-breaking, lasting around 6 hours per charge, with an additional 10 hours from the case.

However, these can also be enjoyed by regular users, who are seeking a more diverse and fun sound to brighten up their day. Right out of the box, these are not impressive, but as soon as you start playing with EQ, their musical abilities begin to shine. You can make them sound just the way you like.

Comfort & Fit

Star Rating 4.5 Almost Perfect

Amazing fit that stays comfortable during an intense workout or a short hiking trip thanks to ergonomically-designed housing and silicone ear gels.

3 different proprietary ear tips are actually an ear tip/ear fin combo. Whereas the ear fins change in length, the ear tips always stay the same size. Thankfully that isn’t an issue since they made a design choice that fits universally.

Although for the price, you could expect to get more accessories. Even though the ear tips fit all ears, having smaller tips could prevent the occasional vacuum feeling when you’re inserting the earbuds.

Regardless, overall comfort is excellent despite their bulky size. We had no significant problems with wearing fatigue, even after an hour or two of use.

We also can’t complain about the secure fit either. These are meant for runners and gym-goers nevertheless. When we went outside for a run, they stayed firmly in our ears, never making us feel that a seal got loose or that they’re about to fall out.

The only thing that made the usage slightly worse is the physical buttons. It’s strange to see wireless earbuds without touch controls at this price, yet Vista’s are one of them. Fortunately, when you press the buttons, you’re pushing against the flat surface of the inner ear and not into the ear canal.

Noise Isolation

Star Rating 4.0 Great

Despite their fairly shallow seal, they isolate very well, especially when you start playing music. The lack of noticeable wind noise makes these great for runners.

There is no fancy active noise-cancelling built into these wireless earbuds. You don’t even get any ambient mode either. So you’re stuck with regular passive noise isolation.

Because all ear tips are of the same size, the deep seal can vary from user to user. Our test found isolation to be decent enough to block most of the outside noise when you’re playing music at moderate volumes.

But if you’re relying on good isolation without playing music, you should probably look elsewhere.

Is There Wind Noise?

Even though earbuds protrude and are slightly on the bulky side, there is no noticeable wind noise generated when walking or running.

Bluetooth

Star Rating 4.0 Great

The connection is stable until you’re about to pass the second wall.

Pairing your brand new Jaybird Vista with your device of choice is a breeze. When you open the box, you press the small button inside the charging case. That starts the pairing process, where your earbuds quickly show inside the device’s Bluetooth menu.

Once you successfully greet them with your device, they instantly reconnect each time you pick them up from the case. Earbuds can pair separately, so you can also use only one earbud at a time.

Bluetooth 5.0 connection appears to be stable as always. However, it does start to cut off a bit sooner than in other models, even cheaper ones like SoundLiberty 77 or Soundcore Liberty Neo. With those we can get past the second wall, then the connection completely cuts. Vista’s start to distort slightly sooner.

What Bluetooth Codecs Do They Support?

There are no other high-quality Bluetooth audio codecs, only SBC, which is a bit disappointing. However, Jaybird equipped Vista with a JBS1 chipset, which takes care of connection stability and prevents lag when watching videos.

But because of the impressive sound quality of these wireless earbuds, we ask ourselves if Vista’s could have sounded even better with the inclusion of a better audio codec? Guess we will never know.

Is There a Delay Watching Videos?

Happy to report there is no audio delay when watching videos on Android devices. That is awesome, considering the lack of almost all Bluetooth codecs. JBS1 chipset seems to be doing a good job.

The same applies to iOS, with no noticeable lag, making them an excellent pick for multimedia use.

Multipoint?

Sadly no.

If you want to use these with multiple devices, you have to forget them in one device to connect them to another. First, you have to put both earbuds inside the case and hold the button in the middle until the LED light starts blinking.

Battery

Star Rating 3.5 Almost Great

The battery is overall a mixed bag. The battery life of the earbuds themselves is quite good, giving you a total of six hours of playtime. During our Jaybird Vista review, we left them playing at 50% volume and got 6 hours and 6 minutes. That is more than enough to last you through a workout or even a marathon.

The charging case is a different story since it only stores up to 10 hours of juice. Sure, that is not that bad either, but comparing this case with the offerings of 20, 30, even 60 hours of additional playtime from the competition, you start to look at it differently. For example, Jabra Elite Active 75t has a 7-hour battery per single charge, with another 20 hours from the case.

You do get one redeemable feature, though, which is extremely helpful to have. The quick charge gets you an hour’s worth of battery in just 5 minutes.

When your wireless earbuds connect to your device, the battery percentage is always showing inside the notification bar. You’re also greeted with a female voice every time you pair them that tells you the remaining battery.

Jaybird Vista comes with USB-C charging cable and port on the case. That is great if you don’t have that kind of cable laying around. Otherwise, it’s probably going to stay inside the box.

Sadly there’s no wireless charging option, like on the Samsung Galaxy Buds+, which would make the charging process more practical.

Durability

Star Rating 5.0 Perfect

Jaybird made these true wireless earbuds supposedly the toughest out there, rocking the IPX7 water-resistance and military-grade standard MIL-STD-810G. And without any doubt, these do feel very solid in hand.

As soon as you start opening the packaging, you know you’re getting a premium product. Besides the nicely made box, the earbuds themselves appear very tough.

The housing is made of hard plastic, but that is mostly covered in soft rubbery ear fin/silicone tip. On the outside of the earbud, there is a different kind of rubber. It’s more delicate to the touch, and beneath which is a hidden physical button.

The case has the same soft rubber as the outer layer of the earbuds. It feels premium to the touch, although it does leave a lot of smudges. The surface can also scratch quite quickly, so it might lose its beauty after a couple of months.

Also worth mentioning is the lid, which doesn’t open all the way up. It’s not annoying or something, just a small warning not to push it too far. The sound of the lid closing though is quite satisfying.

You can easily put the case inside your pocket since it’s small and lightweight. There is a short string attached to the charging case if you want to clip it on your backpack so that you’ll never lose it.

Apart from having a military standard against the shocks and drops, they can also survive 30 minutes of going underwater. These are a no-brainer if you look for something to withstand being always soaked in sweat.

Jaybird offers a warranty of 1 to 2 years, depending on where you live. You do have 30 days money-back guarantee.

Features

Star Rating 3.5 Almost Great

For a pair of fairly expensive true wireless earbuds, you get a decent amount of useful features. However, you have to use the mobile app, if you want to squeeze the most out of them.

Vistas don’t have touch controls. Instead, you have to use physical buttons. Fortunately, they aren’t that bad. You can push anywhere on the earbud’s outer side, and the button will activate with a reassuring click. There is a slight delay when using the controls, but nothing significant.

There is a wide selection of different control options, but you have to choose which action you prefer the most. You can select desirable actions inside the Jaybird app.

Jaybird MySound App

You can download the app for free for both Android and iOS.

It’s very intuitive to use, with big buttons to navigate through the menus. When you pair your earbuds for the first time, the firmware update starts automatically.

The home page is usually EQ presets you can choose from, although we highly advise to create your own or get one from a massive preset selection from the community.

Have you accidentally dropped one earbud, and you can’t find it? With the “Find my earbud” option Vista’s create a loud beeping sound to lead you to them.

You can also customize your controls, pick your double-tap as activating Google Assistant, or playing your favorite playlist from Spotify (you need Spotify Premium to enable that).

If you want to save your settings in the cloud, you can create an online account. This way, you can transfer settings from your phone to your other devices.

There is only one thing we hope Jaybird can fix, and those are the annoying notifications every time you open the app. Sometimes it only beeps once, but in most cases, the app beeps at least 3-4 times without showing any notification.

The only information shown is the battery life of each earbud, but that’s in the notification bar regardless of the app being closed or open. It’s a huge annoyance when you’re skipping from music app to Jaybird app to fine-tune the EQ, only to always listen to those beeps.

Sound

Star Rating 4.5 Almost Perfect

Jaybirds took us on an interesting journey. At first, we were very disappointed with their out of the box sound. They sounded bloated and harsh, especially in the upper midrange. But once we found the power of Jaybird app’s equalizer, everything changed.

As mentioned, first impressions were bad. Even with the feature inside the app that lets you play a few sounds to determine the best EQ didn’t help. So we took the matter into our own hands and started playing with EQ. The result is a fantastic sound quality that makes them worthy of the $180 price tag.

It’s quite amazing how good these respond to EQ. Some headphones can start to sound really bad when you try to change their audio performance. However, Vista can be everything: super bassy, bright, dark, neutral. There is no limit on how you want these to sound.

Therefore, the best way to describe these is to mention what can’t be changed when EQ is applied. The bass stays punchy even if you boost it way up high. It has good control and agility, which is particularly great for metal. It extends nicely into the sub-bass, giving you a nice rumble when needed.

Right from the box, the midrange is quite forward and harsh, making vocals more present, but also thin sounding. Lowering the midrange with equalizer reveals there’s a lot of details hidden beneath all that harshness. Electric guitars and vocals start to sound much fuller and natural.

Treble can also benefit from a little bit of tweaking. At first, there is no definition. Everything feels mixed together. Applying a slight boost, while also reducing the 8-10kHz frequencies, makes the cymbals much more natural sounding, with no sibilance in vocals whatsoever. Sadly, the small amount of grain is always present.

Soundstage and imaging are excellent for a pair of wireless earbuds, giving you an accurate instrument placement in a decently sized room.

We find it strange that Jaybird didn’t go for something more accurate right out of the box, but maybe playing with EQ is a part of the experience. When browsing through a vast selection of presets created by the community, you can see people have different sound preferences, making our neutral EQ look dull in comparison.