JBL Live 400BT vs Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8 (2018)

The JBL Live 400BT is a great Closed-Back Headphone for its $69 asking price.

The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), however, is merely passable at its $258 price point. If you're considering buying a Closed-Back Headphone in the $370 range, you might want to check out some of its competitors.

The JBL Live 400BT has impressed reviewers from two sources that are among the most highly trusted on the internet, namely Rtings and SoundGuys. It did great in their objective hands-on roundups - it earned the "Best On-Ear Wireless Headphones Under $100" and "Ranked 2 out of 5" awards from Rtings and SoundGuys, respectively. That's high praise from such reputable sources.

As for the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), it wasn't able to earn a top spot in any roundups from trusted sources that conduct their own hands-on testing. Nevertheless, it managed to impress reviewers at Techradar, PCmag, and Wirecutter (NYTimes) enough to make it onto their respective shortlists.

We couldn't find any sources that tested both of these Closed-Back Headphones, so we only analyzed how they performed in reviews from different sites.

We first examined which sources rated each of these best and found that the JBL Live 400BT got its highest, 7, rating from Rtings, while the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) earned its best, 9.4, score from Lifewire.

Lastly, in order to better compare them to the rest of their competition, we averaged out their review scores. The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) managed to get 8.5 out of 10 - considerably better than the 7.4 review average of Closed-Back Headphones in general - whereas the JBL Live 400BT earned 7.0 points.

It should be said that doing a direct JBL Live 400BT vs. Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) comparison might not be entirely fair due to the difference in their prices - some sources don't put much weight on value for money and thus tend to give better review scores to more expensive products.