JBL Junior 320BT reviewed: great for kids

Kids headphones are almost always bright and colourful, but do they have to sound good, too? JBL thinks they do, and with the Junior 320BT, has a pair with parenting in mind.

Kids aren’t adults and adults aren’t kids, but they can use the same technology, even if that doesn’t mean they should.

For instance, a tablet can be used by either, and you might have the same luck with a phone, both with parent supervision, but not everything is quite that easy. A VR headset might not be fantastic for developing eyes or heads that can’t hold as much up, even though an adult should handle them no problem, and the same is true with headphones.

When it comes to headphones, a child can wear over-ear and on-ear headphones made for adults, and an adult could (if they wanted to) wear headphones made for kids. But there’s also a difference between them: kids headphones are controlled, whereas adults headphones are not.

Kids headphones are a little different because they’re designed for growing ears, which means the sound is set up to be specific in a certain way.

Lower volume and compact in design, they’re often a better approach than simply handing your kids a literal hand-me-down.

And in JBL’s latest pair, the Junior 320BT, there’s another solid reason why: an app to give you an idea of how long they’re listening.

Design and features

This isn’t our first pair of kids headphones, and it probably won’t be our last, but it is the second pair of this sort we’ve seen from JBL.

A few years on from JBL’s 310BT, the 320 returns with a similar look, albeit one that is seeing some more curves applied.

The new model is definitely similar, but also not the same, as curved edges replace the flatter shape, and JBL adds an app of sorts.

Inside, JBL uses a 32mm driver, with the hardware only connecting through Bluetooth — no 3.5mm headset jack or cable here. They will charge over USB-C, that standard found everywhere, and. there’s up to 50 hours of battery life for audio playback, though a microphone can also be found, so you can talk on these headphones, as well.

The box is fairly basic, though: you’ll find the JBL Junior 320BT headphones, a USB-C cable, a small manual, and a sheet of stickers to let your kids truly make these headphones their own.

In-use

Everyone and anyone can use headphones, and age is certainly no barrier. However, kids use headphones a little differently, because parents will want to protect their ears from the scourge of loud noises and volume controls.

To do this, kids headphones tend to come with a built-in decibel limiter, maxing out at 85dB, something the JBL Junior 320BT arrives with, as well. An app allows you to tweak this further, if you want to exert more control on your children’s hearing.

You’ll also find a volume rocker for going up and down the volume, and a power button that only works for powering the headphones on, powering them down, and then a simple press for pausing and playing audio.

Sadly, there aren’t any skip controls here, and even the pause and play controls sometimes feel slower than they should.

The JBL Jr 320BT may be a pair of headphones you just slip onto your child’s head and move on, resting assured they not only can’t turn the volume up significantly, but also can’t control what’s on screen easily.

At least they fold up for portability, even if there’s no case in the box.

Performance

As with any pair of headphones, the most important aspect is the sound, and so as usual, we’re testing the Junior 320BT with the Pickr Sound Test, an assortment of tracks your kids probably won’t listen to, but you might (and you can test on your own headphones).

As usual, that starts with electronic, where the sound from Tycho and Daft Punk is reasonably balanced — the highs and mids are there, but the lows are a little weaker in the balance, coming off as restrained. The sound is relatively spacious though, and punchy, which we can see kids liking, and maybe even a few adults looking for some inexpensive headphones (albeit with a smaller size).

We needed to turn the volume up a little to deal with the sound, hardly a surprise given these are decibel limited headphones so the audio will be a little lower compared to others.

Once that was dealt with, however, we could get stuck more into sound, and in most types of music, that delivery was consistent. The vibrant pop of Carly Rae Jepsen was punchy in the highs, but didn’t hit hard in the lows, while Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” was nice and comfortable with slightly shallow bass.

Several tracks in, the vibe we’re getting is that JBL has pulled back from the balance just a little, restraining the bass so as to keep kids from having too hefty a bass. We can see some of that logic, but it just makes the sound feel restrained to the adult ear.

Fortunately, these are made for kids, and they won’t care. They’ll get a sound that plays nicely with the pop-rock-dance party that kids music often is, and even handles a few jazz tracks nicely, as well. TV shows and movies will be fine, and we doubt children will complain.

Parents won’t, either, because the sound is decent and the volume limited, settling their minds without them needing to wear the headphones to do make sure.

Battery

Bass isn’t the only thing that’s missing, either. You won’t find any noise cancellation here, but you will find an excellent battery life, maxing out at 50 hours from the relatively small profile.

That’s an increase of 20 hours from the 30 hours its predecessor managed, which means these headphones will keep going as you jump through airports and various flights, and can be recharged easily using the USB-C standard used on pretty much everything.

Value

JBL has also managed to keep the price solid, which at $69.95 in Australia comes across as a decent deal for parents keen to keep their kids entertained for hours on end.

While they lack active noise cancellation (which JBL does make a pair of youth headphones for), the fact that the Jr 320BT can be found around the $70 mark with such a long life and obvious portability still makes them a solid choice overall.

There are clearly better headphones out there, but few come with decibel limits and acceptable balance, not to mention battery life as excellent as this.

What needs work?

It’s been a few years since we checked out the JBL Jr series, and we remember being impressed, surprisingly so.

Kids headphones aren’t known for balance, usually favouring highs, and the Jr 310BT were a huge surprise. We gave them best kids tech awards for two years in a row.

This year’s model continues some of that excellent highly portable design, but changes the sound, making for a slightly less impressive pair of headphones.

We have to wonder if the JBL Junior 310BT were perhaps too good, and maybe JBL tapered back its audio slightly to account for that in this generation. It’s similar, but not the same, with the bass lacking by comparison.

What we love

While the audio feels like it has gone backwards slightly, JBL’s attention to detail on the app at least goes the opposite direction, and makes it a solid inclusion.

App integration was something missing from the original pair back in 2021. This year, the support of an app goes a little deeper than simply changing the EQ, but rather monitoring usage.

It’s a shame JBL hasn’t gone a little deeper to share those insights with another phone. You need to actually view these insights on the phone in question, so for parents with a device for their children, it means you can only view the stats on that device. If that could be shared with parents and controlled remotely, JBL would be making better use of the idea.

JBL Jr 320BT vs the competition

There are loads of wireless and cordless headphone options, but kids headphones are in a different class altogether. They’re designed for smaller heads, smaller ears, and tend to arrive with decibel limiters built in, maxing out the volume so kids don’t kill their hearing.

For the volume limitation alone, that means the JBL Jr range doesn’t have a lot of competition outside of its own various options.

Belkin has a couple of pairs, one of which has Disney’s Stitch on the side, but all of the variations of Soundform Mini are variations on a theme: compact headphones with shallow sound.

Kids won’t care, and for the sub-$50 price, you may not, either. Belkin’s child-focused Soundform Mini isn’t made to be accurate, but rather cheap and cheerful, two themes it definitely matches.

The house-brands of electronics stores also make options in this category, as does Laser, but JBL is the only major audio brand playing in this space, with less known Earfun also offering an option or two here, as well.

That gives JBL a bit of an edge: if you’re looking for a pair of kid-focused headphones made from a brand that focuses entirely on audio, JBL is your jam.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

The JBL Junior 320BT is an interesting pair, if only because it’s not quite as excellent as its predecessor.

The Jr310BT was open and shut: fantastic headphone sound for a fantastic price. The Jr320BT has changed that slightly, delivering fine sound for a fine price, but with a couple of extra features.

If I had to pick the pair that I like more, it’s the predecessor. But if you can’t find that and/or need to have a way to monitor your kids’ listening, the JBL Jr 320BT is still better than most other kids headphones we’ve tested.

They’re great for kids, even if JBL has made slightly better before.