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Gear Review: Headphones

Posted on February 22, 2009 | Filed Under Fitness, Rants and Raves, Run

The quest for the perfect headphones. No matter how many pairs I’ve gone through this “perfect” pair has continued to allude me. I like to take my Ipod along with me when I run. Audio books, music, word — I love it all.

Trying to find a pair of headphones that has good sound, is affordable, lasts longer than a couple months, and stays put on long runs has been no easy feat. I recently found myself (once again) in need of a new pair; so instead of going straight to a store to buy yet another pair that would disappoint me I did what any smart consumer would do — I googled “best headphones for running”. I got comfy and began to sift through the thousands of headphone reviews. Long story short: apparently, if you want a pair that works well, you need to be prepared to spend between $100 and 300 dollars … Yeah. Right. Obviously that doesn’t fit in with my budget, so I did my own research.

Here are some of my top hits and misses:

There were the Phillips inner ear buds that had great sound but got all sweaty and started falling out after a couple miles.

Bottom line: They lasted me through my half marathon training and for that I’m grateful. For casual listening they were great, however, as far as for running — I’ve had better.

Then there were the JVC Gummy ear buds:

They were cheap, and they stayed in okay. I’ve bought these twice now simply because I found them on sale, and it’s hard to turn down a decent sounding pair of headphones that only cost 6 bucks. These lasted me about 8 months of running in heat.

Bottom line: pretty good deal if you get them cheap.

My latest acquisition were these: Sony MDR-G57

Sony MDR-G57G S2 - Sports Reflective Headphones

They seemed like they would work good in theory, but as soon as I got them home and tried them on I realized they were so tight they were cutting off my circulation, and putting lots of pressure on my ears.

Bottom line: If you have a freakishly small head these might work for you. Everyone else: don’t bother.

After taking that pair back I ended up with this pair: Sony MDR-J11G

So far I’m digging them. They stay on well, they aren’t uncomfortable at all, they are sweat resistant (always a plus), and the clips are low enough so I can still wear sunglasses and a hat if I want (a problem I’ve had with other headphones). These bad-boys only set me back about $15.

Bottom line: I would recommend these.

Here are a few honorable/dishonorable mentions:

Altec Lansing Muzk: Boo on you! These over priced ear buds lasted me about 3 months of casual listening before they stopped working.

Skull Candy Ink’d: Awesome sound! Connie is loving these. I got them for around 10 bucks at Marshall’s.

Panasonic Shockwave: These had great sound and are water resistant. The only problem I found is they were a bit big for my ears and they fell out when I was running. I know others that really like them though, so they might be worth a shot, as they are cheap and pretty durable from what I hear.

Ipod ear buds: Need I say more?

Phillips Neckband headphones: These were the most uncomfortable and weird headphones I ever bought; I returned them two days later.

JVC Sport Clip Headphones: I got these on sale for like $6, and they lasted me almost a year. They had pretty decent sound. My one small beef with them would be that they were hard to wear with sunglasses. (I had to put the sunglasses over the clips which ended up hurting my ears.)

Well that about does it. Happy head phone hunting. If you find a pair that is truly awesome, please let me know!

TTFN.

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