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LG Tone Active+ Around-The-Neck Headphones -- Reviewed
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May 30, 2025
Can electronics powerhouse LG reinvent the around-the-neck headphones category and turn out a unit that sounds great, works great, and allows you to head out on a run even in the rain? Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ has a close look at the LG Tone Active+ units and finds that with some caveats, they're pretty nice units for the right customer. If you haven't tried this category of audio gear before, the around-the-neck or on-the-neck units feature bluetooth, pull-to-extend earbuds, longer battery life and - in this case - tiny speakers built into the base itself. Learn more: http://amzn.to/2xFalY9
View Video Transcript
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is your next pair of earbuds gonna be an
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around the neck design let's find out
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[Music]
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Dave Taylor here and this time I'm
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looking at the LG tone active plus
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that's these guys and these are what
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they call around the neck earbuds it's
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kind of an interesting design because it
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takes all the Bluetooth circuitry and
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everything and puts them into a unit
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that sits around your neck so that you
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don't have the weight dragging on your
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ears and you don't have to clip anything
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to your clothes
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so using enough you put it around your
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neck and then you pull out the earbuds
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and just put them in your ears and
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you're ready to roll now turns out that
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these have lots of controls on the sides
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which some people might find a little
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bit weird you just give it a pull and I
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go right back in but it has lots of
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really cool features LG has really
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looked at this space and really said
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what can we do that's interesting and
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different so these have a built-in
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Fitness monitor they have dual
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microphones for phone calls and that is
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a bit of a mixed blessing we'll come
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back to that and they are IP for water
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resistance so there's no dust resistance
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measurement at all it's just a level
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four which means if you get caught in
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the rain you still want to get these
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covered up pretty quickly they're not
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going to last and these are definitely
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not for swimming do not try these for
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swimming it will not end well
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they're running bluetooth 4.2 and they
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have a PT x and a PT x HD which is great
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if you have an Android phone that
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includes aptX iPhones are not part of
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that Club unfortunately iPhones use AAC
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and this is not an AAC friendly device
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so you get just regular audio quality as
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opposed to the sort of greater sound of
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the apt X what's interesting is it also
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has these little external stereo
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speakers that you can switch on not a
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big fan of that but it does make for an
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interesting alternative because then you
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can do this and you can have some music
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playing while you're gardening or
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something without having to have
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anything in your ears at all
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now the reason
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like that is because it's just sort of
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like the next alright three or four
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generations into a boombox and if I'm
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listening to music unless it's on my
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stereo I don't really want everyone else
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to have to hear it so you might find
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your views are different and you might
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find that interesting or enjoyable
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BluePoint bluetooth 4.2 think I already
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mentioned that and takes less than two
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hours to charge runs 13 hours talk 12
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hours music 17 days of standby so
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certainly all the electrical
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characteristics terrific it comes in
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black and gray blue and black which is
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this one and silver and let me just give
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you a quick close-up because there's a
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lot of controls on one side you can turn
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on and off HD
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I wouldn't recommend turning it on
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unless you have an apt X HD compatible
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source for the Bluetooth audio and then
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it has volume up and down it has pause
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and play and then on the other side you
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have the ability to engage the bluetooth
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pairing and you can see there's just a
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lot of things going on it charges via
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microUSB and not much else to tell you
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about them I'm not a huge fan actually I
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don't like the design overall I don't
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like the around the neck design that
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much just not my thing so much and they
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definitely have the same issue that a
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lot of these devices do which is that
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they're just very treble heavy so
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there's not a lot of soundstage it's not
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like you're in the middle of the concert
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it's just a very high sound not much
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bass not much lows going on now it does
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come with a couple of different size
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earbuds so you can monkey around a
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little bit and try to get a better fit
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but that's not going to take you from
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here to here and have it sound fantastic
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so I guess it's also expectations if
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you're going for a run and you want to
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have some ear buds these are an
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excellent choice especially with the
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fitness monitoring and maybe at that
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point you're not really expecting it to
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sound fantastic just enough to distract
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you and these definitely are distracting
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no that's probably not what I want to
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say they're definitely quite competent
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in that regard
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before I tell you the price let me ask
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real quick if you can click on the
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subscribe button I would love to be able
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to have a longer term relationship with
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you just like I have a long term
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relationship with these LG tone active
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plus also known as the HBS a100 in case
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you're not sure which is which okay cool
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so price these will run you the LG tone
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active plus with fitness monitor dual
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microphones and everything will run you
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a hundred and twenty $9.99 at amazon.com
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and before I'm done let me just say one
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more thing I mentioned it earlier is if
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you're using this for a phone call and
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you have your stuff like this and the
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microphones are built into the base unit
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you can imagine if it's cold weather and
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you have more layers on you can end up
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covering up the microphones and so one
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of the complaints people have about this
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particular unit is that when you're
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using it for phone calls you can end up
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sounding muffled because people suddenly
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can't hear you now arguably that's a
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problem with any microphone that's not
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like right by your mouth but it's worth
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noting here that this is a design as is
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all the around the neck designs that is
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sort of susceptible to you having
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something like this and then not being
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able to hear quite so well so that's it
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the LG tone active plus this is Dave
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Taylor and I will catch you in my next
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video
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[Music]
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