In 2016, I came across a nice deal for an on-ear headphone – The Motorola Tracks Air. It was selling on Flipkart for ₹2500. That was steal deal, considering the original price is ₹8990. I used it for on and off for quite some time but the on-ear type meant it started hurting my ears when using them for more than 30 minutes. So gradually the usage waned off and I stopped using it. Usually I do not buy new stuff unless the previous one I have is completely dead, this is especially true in case of electronics. Because of the online shopping deals it’s very easy to accumulate unnecessary junk. Just like that due to impulsive purchases without much thought I have a few electronic junk lying around which is in pristine condition not used even a single time.

In order to get rid of the Tracks Air headphones which I had, I tried putting an ad for it on OLX India site which is a famous marketplace for pre-owned stuff. I have successfully sold quite a lot of things on the platform and even bought a few. But for some reason people didn’t seem to be interested in this headphone at any price, so I gave it to someone I knew and didn’t have any headphone for free. At least something lying in my junk is useful to someone.

Now the hunt starts for the new headphone, I was very firm on three parameters:

1. Over ear
2. Bluetooth
3. Manufactured by a leading brand

I saw quite a few models but they were all very expensive and never came under discount sale on any of the online shopping platforms whenever I checked. Recently when browsing OLX India I found a pre-owned JBL E65BNTC. The owner was selling it for a good deal at ₹4100. The unit is under warranty and he even gave me the original invoice from Amazon. It is just 6 months old. Something sounded fishy but I still decided to meet the person and check it out. Meanwhile I read reviews about the headphone online, and found it to be decent enough for my use.

Apparently the owner had some financial problem so he was selling the headphone & even his smart phone. I wish no such thing happens to anybody and that he recovers from whatever problem he faced due to which he was selling it.

Coming back to the reviews, some reviews said the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) spoils the sound quality but my experiences state the opposite – the sound quality drastically improves when ANC is enabled. Perhaps this is because I live in a much noisy environment? May be. The reviewers who said this probably checked it where there was no background noise. Another review I read said it is not really a over-ear one but partially on-ear so it is not comfortable for long hours. I didn’t find any such issue with that, in fact I wore for 1.5 hours straight and felt no fatigue.

The sound quality is excellent with nice bass notes – as long as you have a equalizer / setup which produces good quality sound. If I connect it to my Linux desktop and just listen to songs it sounds very bland, the moment I connect it to my Note 9 the sounds become rich and fantastic. I do not have any equalizer on my Ubuntu desktop.

Overall, I am very happy that I got a very nice product at nearly 50% the price, the original price is about ₹8000 or so. If you are buying a new one I will recommend this – but music quality is a personal taste, it also depends on what you are used to previously. So take my words with a pinch of salt and if possible try before you buy.