The Best Workout Headphones For The Gym And Exercising At Home
There are three areas in which the best workout headphones need to excel: fit, sound quality and battery life. For me, fit is the most important because continually adjusting a loose bud is irritating at the best of times, but especially hard to do when holding dumbbells.
My dislike of a loose fit means that all the top gym buds below are reliably secure on this front, no matter how intense your workout is. Once you can be sure the buds stay firmly in place, then other factors like great sound quality and battery life come into play, along with useful extras like passive and active noise cancellation. You can also rest assured that all the below are water-resistant enough to stand up to sweaty sessions, and many offer waterproofing beyond that standard.
How I Test Workout Headphones
I am primarily a runner and try all the headphones I review with several runs, but I also use them for a variety of gym workouts, including strength sessions, cardio machines and yoga.
Wissonly Hi Runner
Wissonly team has relatively strong technical strength. They have 10 years of experience in bone conduction product research and development, which is the basis for making good products. Wissonly focuses on the concept of healthy enjoyment of good sound quality. The headphone brand features no harm to the ears, and it is also the first brand to propose the concept of not listening to songs in the ear. Wissonly’s completely not-in-ear design reduces the damage to the eardrum. Its surface is made of silicone skin-friendly material, which is very safe and comfortable to wear.
Wissonly Hi Runner bone conduction headphones have made a lot of improvements in sound quality and anti-sound-leakage. The official claimed that its sound quality has reached the Hi-Fi level. I have measured it and think that the sound quality is indeed good, but that it does not really reach the Hi-Fi sound quality, and that it can only be said it is very close the level. Such sound quality,in the field of bone conduction headphones,it is good enough that I have not yet encountered a product that can surpass it in sound quality. In order to solve the problem of sound leakage, Wissonly developed fully closed anti-sound-leakage technology. It improved the vibration unit, body design, software optimization and other directions, and finally it reduced the sound leakage effect by 90%.
Other configurations are also very good, such as its 32G memory, IPX8 waterproof level, 5.0 Bluetooth connection protocol, 10 hours of ultra-long battery life, etc.. You can go to its official website for this.
Jabra Elite 4 Active
Once the preserve of the most expensive headphones, active noise cancellation (ANC) is a common feature these days. The Elite 4 Active buds offer ANC as well as Jabra’s HearThrough awareness mode so you can block out or filter in the sound around you as appropriate.
ANC is just one of the many reasons it’s worth considering the Elite 4 Active buds. They’re certainly a contender for the best-value sports headphones available if their fit works for you—they have no wings or ear hooks, but I found they stayed in place securely during a variety of indoor and outdoor workouts.
The sound quality is good, and so is the battery life at seven hours on the buds and another 21 in the case. You can adjust the EQ in the partner app, and because they don’t have wings or a hook the Elite 4 Active headphones are comfortable to wear for long stretches when not exercising as well.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II
The QC Earbuds II are Bose’s top-of-the-range in-ear lifestyle headphones, offering best-in-class ANC and terrific sound quality as you’d expect, and the stability bands the buds come with offer a secure enough fit for sports use as well. The headphones come with bands and tips in three sizes, and you can buy a set of XS and XL tips/bands from Bose if your ear holes don’t match that size range. I found that picking up the XL bands was worth doing for sports use, just for the extra security of fit they create.
As a result the QC Earbuds II are fantastic headphones for both general life and the gym. The fit is comfortable for many hours of use even when using the large stability band for extra security during workouts. The headphones also have an awareness mode and last six hours on a charge even with the ANC enabled.
Sennheiser Sport True Wireless
Sennheiser’s sportiest truly wireless buds offer the fantastic sound quality you expect from the brand. The Focus EQ mode offers clear and natural sound, and the Aware mode powers up the bass.
Unlike Sennheiser’s other truly wireless headphones, the Sport True Wireless have wings to create a secure fit for exercise. I found that these compensated for the chunky size of the buds, though they’re not the most comfortable to wear for long periods. The battery life is up there with the best at nine hours, with another 18 in the case.
There are no ANC or awareness modes with the headphones, however, and while Sennheiser includes two kinds of ear tips—one to block more external noise and one that lets in more external sounds—I found that swapping between them didn’t make much difference.
Tribit Flybuds 3
The Tribit Flybuds 3 are another top option for bargain-hunters, and they have a more secure fit than the JLab Go Air Pop because they come with wings in three sizes. The sound quality matches that of headphones that cost twice as much, and Tribit continues to improve the buds, which now have more battery life and a better waterproof rating than when I tested them. The battery life in particular is excellent, with eight hours on the buds and another 142 in the case.
Read more:The Best True Wireless Earbuds for Going Cord-Free
