- Published: 3/10/2023
Honestly, I’m a big Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson fan, and I wanted Project Rock Over-Ear Training Headphones to be the #1 choice for working out, so it was tough to stay neutral. Overall, they’re a great set of headphones, but there were a few things I didn’t like about them.
Project Rock Over-Ear Training Headphones: Review Topics
Project Rock Over-Ear Training Headphones
JBL’s signature sound quality and Under Armour’s signature durability combined to make an impressive set of over-ear headphones for working out.
Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen?!
First of all, it may be confusing that so many brands came together to make this headphone series a reality, and these are the flagship set in that series. The Project Rock headphone series is a product of JBL (by Harman Kardon) headphone technology, with a mix of Under Armour and The Rock’s branding style and durability.
Audio Quality
To put it simply, these are the JBL Live 660NC’s on steroids. That means the audio quality, battery life, and comfort are some of the best in their class. They also work with JBL’s powerful headphone app for the ultimate audio and touch control customizations.
My favorite part of the JBL Headphone app is the EQ. It comes loaded with presets, so you can quickly change the sound profile to match the genre. The best part is that you can customize the 10-band equalizer and save the presets with custom names.
The combination of custom touch controls and custom EQ creates one of the best-sounding over-ear headphones, period. Let alone over-ear headphones for working out.
Durability
They upgraded the JBL Live 660’s build quality to an IPX4 water resistance, which is essential for anyone who sweats more than average. Plus, they replaced the 660NC’s fixed protein leather earpads with detachable, washable, and breathable hybrid mesh earpads.
This allows your ear area to breathe and not collect so much moisture from sweat. On the other hand, the mesh material doesn’t create as good of a seal as traditional leather, so the ANC and passive noise cancelling suffers a little but are still pretty good at getting rid of background noise.
Touch Controls & Shell
To go along with the rough and rugged style, they increased the size of the control buttons and added a ribbed surface for better touch control.
They still feature similar controls that are available on most over-ear headphones by JBL, so you get great phone-free music controls. Plus, The Rock’s Brahma Bull logos are now used as touch points, which is a nice design touch.
Comfort & Fit
One thing I didn’t like is that the redesign and water-resistance upgrade added some extra weight to push them up to 294g. Luckily the clamp strength is a little tighter than the Live 660’s, so they have good stability during light to medium-intensity workouts. If you want some tighter-fitting over-ear headphones for working out, you might want to go with the Beats Studio3’s.
On the other hand, if you have a big noggin like me (or I’m guessing like The Rock), you shouldn’t have too much of an issue with their fit stability, even on some higher-intensity workouts. At the same time, I found the overall fit to be pretty comfortable for longer listening sessions, too.
Conclusion
In the end, the overall audio quality and durability easily make these a top choice of over-ear headphones for working out. Considering they have comparable audio quality to the JBL Live 660’s, these can easily be your headphones for EVERY occasion.
Key Specs
- Water/Dust Rating – IPX4
- Battery Life – 40 Hours (50 Hours with no ANC)
- Driver Size – 40mm
- Weight – 294g
- ANC/Transparency Mode – Yes
- Bluetooth – 5.0
Best Over-Ear Headphones For Working Out
The Project Rocks are great workout headphones for a few different reasons, and their superior durability is one. At the same time, everyone’s workout regimen is different and there are some other great options that might work better for you. Check out our review of the best over-ear headphones for working out and see how they stack up against the competition.