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In the past, we've looked at whether you get what you pay for when it comes to sweatshirts and shorts. Today, we're talkin' headphones.
Everybody and their mother wears these headphones at my gym and I just cannot get on board. I own these around the ear headphones which are awesome for taking conference calls and for flying, but I get sweaty at the gym, and I feel like I would ruin any over the ear headphones after just one workout...which is kind of gross if you think about what that means in terms of how much I sweat, but hey, I'm there to werk!
Anyway, the cord of my old Bose ie2 headphones which I've had for three years were unraveling and it was affecting the sound. I kept ignoring it, but within a week, the wires were making my music turn off and on at random during my workout. And then a week later the right ear piece wouldn't work. I'm the kind of person who physically cannot workout if there isn't any music, so this was beginning to be a serious problem for me.
Everyone seems to love dre beats, so while I wasn't going to do the giant around the ear headphones, I decided I'd give the in-ear dre beats a try. In the worst case scenario, I'd just return them since Best Buy has a good return policy (14 days with receipt). They were $149.
Pros:
- Sound quality was really good
- The earpiece hook that you see pictured above? That thing really makes the piece stick in your ear
Cons:
- The round earbud itself wasn't comfortable in my ears (however, it's important to note I have really small ears)
- The material of the cord seemed to catch on my athleticwear and it'd get hooked on my shirt or leggings in the middle of a workout which I found really, really annoying.
Verdict:
These are good headphones if you're not using them for working out and if your ears are normal size, but otherwise they hurt my ears after a few minutes and the cord kept getting stuck. I returned them.
Bose has excellent customer service, so I then went to the Bose store with my old headphones. I showed them the unraveling cord and they said that I could exchange them for a similar pair and pay a small fee. I tried the newer version of what I had and the SoundTrue in-ear sport headphones from Bose. They actually discouraged me from getting the SoundTrue (pictured above) because they said that they have a noise canceling component which isn't safe if you're, say, using them to run on the side of the road or something, but since I train at a gym, I didn't need to worry about passing cars and prefer the higher sound quality. I got these (they retail for $149.99 but my fee, since I was exchanging my old pair, was $79).
Pros
- sound quality is excellent
- the tapered shape of the earbud fits much more comfortably than the round buds with the dre headphones
- the headphones stay in with that hook pointed out above
- the cord is made from a different material than the dre headphones and doesn't catch on anything
- bonus: the cord comes with a little clip so you can secure the wire to an article of clothing if you want, so it's not bouncing around.
Cons
- none that I've noticed after four days of use
Verdict
These are perfect for me, and I'm psyched that while they retail for the same as the dres, they ultimately ended up costing me less since I could trade in my old bose headphones.
I'd love to know - what headphones do you use? Do you use them at the gym? Do you like them? Would you recommend them?