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We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
Updated: 2026-10-07 · 7 min read · Independent comparison
• Amazon Renewed JBL Tune 670NC — biggest strength: Adaptive Noise Cancelling plus Smart Ambient (Ambient Aware and TalkThru), Bluetooth 5.3, and up to 70 hours of battery life in a foldable 174 g on-ear design.
• Amazon Renewed JBL Tune 670NC — biggest trade-off: It's on-ear, not in-ear or bone conduction, so it's not waterproof and it's not something you'd wear in a pool. It's also a renewed unit with a 90-day limited warranty rather than a new-in-box product.
• MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction — biggest strength: IP68 waterproofing, a 32 GB built-in MP3 memory for underwater listening, Bluetooth 5.4, and a 29 g open-ear bone conduction design that leaves your ears uncovered.
• MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction — biggest trade-off: Bluetooth simply doesn't work underwater, so swimming requires switching to MP3 mode. There's also no noise cancelling at all.
• Who each pick is for: The JBL is for the desk worker who wants the best on-ear headphones for work, focus and calls. The MARLALL is for the swimmer, runner or outdoor athlete who wants sound without covering their ears.
The JBL Tune 670NC is an on-ear wireless headphone with a very specific personality: it wants to shut the world out, then let it back in on command. Adaptive Noise Cancelling handles the first part. When you do want to hear what's happening around you, Ambient Aware and TalkThru — both controlled through the JBL Headphones app — bring the room back without you taking the headphones off. That's the single most useful feature for anyone working in a shared office, a coffee shop or a home with other people in it. You can go from deep focus to a quick conversation and back again without fiddling with the cups.
The rest of the spec sheet backs up the workday use case. Up to 70 hours of battery life on a 2-hour charge means you can plausibly go a full week of workdays without reaching for a cable. Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio keeps the wireless connection current, and the app lets you pick Audio mode for sound quality or Video Mode to keep audio and video in sync during calls, videos and games. There's JBL Pure Bass tuning on a 32 mm dynamic driver covering 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, plus EQ presets and a custom EQ curve if the stock tuning isn't your taste. Controls are physical buttons on the ear cup plus voice control, and VoiceAware lets you hear your own voice on calls. The whole thing folds and weighs 174 g, so it travels well in a bag.
Who should buy it? Anyone who wants one pair of headphones to cover work, commuting and casual listening, and who values ambient aware modes and battery life over portability-to-the-gym. Who should skip it? Swimmers, first and foremost — this is not a waterproof product and it has no jack, so it's wireless-only. Also skip it if you'd rather buy new: this is a renewed unit carrying a 90-day limited warranty, and it ships with a cable and user manual as the built-in media. If long-term warranty coverage matters more to you than the renewed route, that's a real consideration.
The MARLALL S800 is a different animal entirely. It's a bone conduction open-ear headphone that transmits sound through vibrations via the cheekbones rather than pushing a driver into your ear canal. That design choice is why it can stay comfortable for long stretches — nothing is jammed into your ears, and your ears stay open, which is a genuine safety argument for swimming, snorkeling, biking and hiking. It weighs 22.68 g according to the item details and around 29 g per the product description, with adjustable straps to keep it locked in place. It's lime green, so it's not trying to be invisible.
The headline feature is the IP68 waterproof rating. That's immersion-level protection, and the nano-coated sealed design is meant to survive pool water and saltwater, sweat, rain and dust. But here's the catch you need to understand before buying: Bluetooth does not travel through water. MARLALL is upfront about this — underwater listening only works in MP3 mode, and that's exactly why the headphones carry 32 GB of built-in storage, enough for roughly 8,000 songs. You load playlists over the magnetic charging cable, which also lets a computer access the internal storage. Above the surface, Bluetooth 5.4 handles streaming, audiobooks and hands-free calls with a 10-meter (33-foot) range across iOS and Android.
Side-by-Side: Which Should You Choose?
• Best for noise cancelling and focus at a desk → Amazon Renewed JBL Tune 670NC. Adaptive Noise Cancelling with Smart Ambient is the core of this product.
• Best for swimming → MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction. IP68 waterproofing plus MP3 mode is the only way either of these works underwater.
• Best battery life → Amazon Renewed JBL Tune 670NC. Up to 70 hours, with a 2-hour charge time.
• Best for long battery life bone conduction headphones for work → MARLALL only if your "work" happens outdoors or in water. Otherwise the JBL's 70 hours wins outright.
• Best for calls → Amazon Renewed JBL Tune 670NC. VoiceAware, button controls and voice control make it the more natural headset; the MARLALL requires a dry mic for reliable calls.
• Best for situational awareness and safety → MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction. Open-ear bone conduction keeps your ears uncovered.
• Best for storage without a phone → MARLALL Swimming Headphones-Bone Conduction. 32 GB of internal MP3 memory, roughly 8,000 songs.
• Best for travel and folding → Amazon Renewed JBL Tune 670NC. The foldable 174 g on-ear design packs down; the MARLALL is lighter but strap-based.
For work, I'd buy the Amazon Renewed JBL Tune 670NC. Adaptive Noise Cancelling with Ambient Aware and TalkThru is exactly the feature set that makes a workday headphone useful, and up to 70 hours of battery life means you stop thinking about charging. In my opinion it's the better single-pair purchase for desk work, calls and commuting. If you swim, though, the JBL can't help you at all — the MARLALL's IP68 rating and 32 GB MP3 mode are the only path to music in the water. Buy the JBL for your desk; buy the MARLALL for the pool. If you need to know what either costs today, check the current price on Amazon before deciding.
FAQ
That's a Bose-specific process and this page is about JBL and MARLALL, so I can't walk you through Bose controls here. On the JBL Tune 670NC the equivalent is Smart Ambient — Ambient Aware and TalkThru — and you toggle it in the JBL Headphones app rather than with a Bose control scheme.
Again, that's a JLab-specific control path. On the JBL Tune 670NC you'd simply switch Ambient Aware or TalkThru back off in the JBL Headphones app and return to Adaptive Noise Cancelling. The MARLALL has no aware mode at all — its open-ear bone conduction design leaves your ears uncovered permanently.
Only the MARLALL does, and only in MP3 mode — Bluetooth signals can't transmit through water, so you switch to the 32 GB internal memory while swimming. The JBL Tune 670NC is a wireless on-ear headphone with no waterproof rating, so it should stay well away from the pool.
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