A nearly flawless finale for the brand’s earbuds

Reviewing the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 is very much a bittersweet experience, seeing as they are to be some of the last wireless earbuds Jabra ever produces. If they turn out to be not so great, no worries, but if they’re excellent, then we will never know how future iterations might have surpassed them. On paper, the Elite 8 Active Gen 2 are marketed as high-end earbuds with modern features; plus, they are waterproof and feature military-grade durability. After testing, I can firmly say that it’s a shame that these are the last — but what a high note to go out on.

Price, availability, and specs

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 are available from Amazon and other retailers, including Jabra’s own online store for $230.

What’s good about the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2?

Everything they claim to be

The Elite 8 Active Gen 2 earbuds have a rugged design that makes them stand out so prominently. An IP68 rating for the buds is impressive in and of itself, as the 6 means total protection from the ingress of solids such as sand and dust, while the 8 means they’re completely waterproof, rather than the much more common “water resistance” that most devices are rated for.

The Elite 8 Active Gen 2 can be submerged as deep as a meter underwater for up to 30 minutes and remain unscathed. The charging case is only IP54 rated, which means it’s resistant to dust and splashes, but you don’t want to go dunking it. Still, that’s better than many other earbud charging cases that have no water resistance rating whatsoever.

If waterproofing were the only positive, that would be good but not really shocking. What sends these earbuds over the top in the ruggedness department is that they’re also tested for resistance to extreme temperatures, as well as being dropped, crushed, and just generally mishandled for a MIL-STD-810h certification.

During my week with the Elite 8 Active Gen 2, the earbuds and their charging case survived use in the rain and on a sandy beach, plus the rough and tumble, inevitably filthy working conditions associated with farm chores, yard work, and digging a 150-foot conduit trench. Despite all this, they still look and work like new.

Of course, durable headphones are nothing without good sound quality, so I’m happy to report that the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 deliver excellent audio. They feature a balanced sound profile, with decent customizable EQ in the app. I typically scoop the mids and boost the treble/bass, and I was happy to discover that the Energize preset did just that. I listened to a bunch of songs from Nothing More’s new Album Carnal, with the earbuds doing an excellent job of rendering heavy rock songs such as If it Doesn’t Hurt and Freefall.

The Elite 8 Active Gen 2 do well across a broad music spectrum; they played 2Cello’s cover of Thunderstruck, which I’ve long used as a standard to compare different audio devices, remarkably well. And they’re great at rendering pop tunes, such as Bleeker’s Cool, and classical music.

I utilized the LE-Audio enabled charging case and its included USB-C to AUX adapter to connect the Elite 8 Active Gen 2 to an old Sony Walkman to listen to Tchaikovsky on a cassette tape. This ability to listen to any AUX device output on wireless earbuds has a lot of potential applications, such as on airlines, your TV, or gym equipment. It makes the Elite 8 Active Gen 2 compatible with older tech. But call quality is good, if nothing particularly special.

These are relatively large earbuds, and while I tend to prefer less bulky designs, the Elite 8 Active Gen 2 are very comfortable, with several choices of alternate ear tip sizes included in the box. I was able to wear them for hours at a time without discomfort. The buds are controlled by large, tactile on-bud buttons, which I prefer to capacitive touch controls. They don’t require much pressure to activate, but I also never pressed them accidentally.

The Jabra Sound+ app includes some great extra functionality, including the aforementioned equalizer. Active noise cancellation is excellent in these buds, as is HearThrough. I found the HearThrough mode to be particularly impressive for its natural rendition of outside sound with a relative minimum of noise. I often do chores on the farm with only one bud inserted, listening to audiobooks. And with HearThrough enabled, I almost forgot I was wearing an earbud at times. In fact, I ended up using HearThrough mode by default, which is not something I’ve ever done before with headphones.

Dolby Spacial Sound is nice to have. Though it doesn’t make a huge impact, I appreciate the extra depth it adds to the earbuds’ soundstage, and I used it for most of my time testing the earbuds. Soundscapes, such as waterfalls, caverns, white noise, perfect storm, and others, are also nice to have in the app. Listening to a waterfall while writing this review was soothing and helped me focus on the task.

The charging case features a somewhat unusual design in which the top of the lid is flat and the USB-C port is on the opposite curved side, making it natural to place the case upside down on flat surfaces. The case’s slim design allows it to fit nicely in my pocket, and despite this, it features a sizable battery and wireless charging capability. You get up to 56 hours of playback time with the Elite 8 Active Gen 2 (including the case), and the buds can provide up to 14 hours of playback without having to be topped up in the case.

What’s bad about the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2?

The truth is that there’s really nothing wrong with these earbuds. They lack some extra features you might find in competing headphones, such as Dolby Head Tracking, and it’s possible some people may not care for the control scheme.

While I love the large physical button, you do have to put pressure on it for activation, which also means you’re pressing on the inside of your ear. I didn’t find this irritating, and it’s much better than the similar button found on the Beats Solo Buds, but it’s something that might potentially bother you.

Otherwise, the only other downside to the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 is that there will never be a Gen 3, though there’s not much that could be improved. I could see swapping to a capacitive squeeze control system like the Nothing Ear (a), maybe throwing in some new features such as the aforementioned Dolby Head Tracking, and perhaps moving to the bigger drivers of the Elite 10. However, at the end of the day, the Elite 8 Active Gen 2 are as close to perfect as can realistically be expected.

Should you buy them?

If you’re looking for durable and fully waterproof wireless earbuds that also deliver excellent audio quality, the Jabra Elite 8 Gen 2 offers exactly that, along with some really nice features. I found I had no real complaints, and struggled to include anything cons. The bottom line is that I heartily recommend the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2. They’re a spectacular finale for a legendary line of earbuds.