Like it or not, exercise is a vital part of life.
Indeed, while I’m no Joe Wicks, I know that you can eat all the nutrient-packed, detoxifying superfoods you like, dodge the bacon butties and graze on more vegetation each meal than a hungry, hungry hippo, but without chucking some exercise into the mix, you’re only depriving yourself of one of the greatest pleasures in life.
Sport For All?
Now I know not everyone is comfortable with all the competitiveness of team sports, and that’s fine. I’m also equally aware that solitary athletic pursuits can be boring. But the fact of the matter is that despite the idea of the ‘loneliness of the long-distance runner’, exercise doesn’t have to be dull at all.
Firstly, you could join a running club and chat as you jog with people obsessed with beating their own duration/speed/distance metrics, or you could avoid all that horror by arming yourself with personal entertainment, tailored to your own preferences, which cuts you off from the outside world altogether and lets you get on with finding your fit as you bounce to your own beat and train to your own tunes.
I’m talking headphones, obviously, but unlike others, I’ve indulged in over 2023: over-ear, bone conduction, waterproof, wired in-ear, and wired-on-head, this time I'm laser-like focussed on the Best Headphones for Sport.
Testing Times
What qualifies? I’ve judged each review model based on cranial fit, stability, comfort, water resistance and, of course, audio quality, in order to sail the current vast sea of sporting headphones on sale, mix my metaphors, and separate the wheat from the chaff. To that end, having worked my way through a heaping helping of headphones designed for the healthy, I’ve whittled them down to six that are simply the best…
Best headphones for sport at a glance:
- Best for audio excellence and environment awareness: OneOdio OpenRock Pro - £121, Amazon
- Best for good vibrations: Shokz OpenRun Pro - £160, Amazon
- Best for working up a sonorous sweat: Skullcandy Push Active True Wireless - £70, Amazon
- Best for outdoor adventurers: Sennheiser SPORT True Wireless - £120, Sennheiser
- Best for strength and stamina in the swim of things: JBL Endurance Peak 3 - £90, JBL
- Best for sporting sounds on a budget: EarFun TW200 Air - £40, Amazon
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OneOdio OpenRock Pro
Best for: Audio excellence and environment awareness
Over-ears can cause fatigue, in-ears can cause discomfort, and bone conduction can cause music to become lost within the white noise of the world around you, so if only there were a fourth option when it comes to ear-based exercise entertainment, something that doesn’t cover the ears, doesn’t push into the ears and doesn’t bypass the ears altogether; something like some kind of open earbud. Would you look at that...
Say hello to the OpenRock Pro from the pro-audio experts at OneOdio. Nifty air-conduction earbuds that nestle over your lug holes without blocking them, what we have here is the height of comfort blended, like a fine sonorous Scotch, with high-quality audio and the ability to always hear what’s happening around you, three elements that culminate in headphones that sound like they were designed specifically for sport, because, well, they were.
Featuring a unique, patented, ear hook, fitting the OpenRock Pro for the first time is undeniably odd, but once you’ve got the positioning right, you’ll forget they’re on. Using Bluetooth 5.2 for a strong, stable connection to your phone, you get audio decoding for aptX, AAC and SBC, and 16.2mm dynamic drivers to deliver your choice of audio codec in stunning 360° sound with enhanced bass thanks to OneAudio’s TubeBass tech increasing the resonance of the low end to give a much deeper boom to your bass.
Need to make or take a call while out pounding pavements? Not a problem even with the hideous hubbub of other people around you, due to the inclusion of a created-for-headphone CVC8.0 dual noise-cancelling microphone ensuring you come across as crystal clear on every call.
IPX5 protected to keep them safe from prolific sweaters and showers alike, the OpenRock Pro comes with a capacious battery, good for up to 19 hours of music and calls (46-hours with charging case), while a five-minute quick charge will see you good for 60-minutes of playback, so whether it’s a spontaneous sprint or many back-to-back marathons, the OpenRock Pro has your back.
If I had to find fault with OneAudio’s OpenRock Pro, it would merely be that the charging case is, albeit necessarily, enormous, or, at least, the size of a tubby tangerine; something that will make stashing it in your Lycra shorts both uncomfortable and guaranteed to attract double-takes from people you pass, but other than that, as perfect a pair of sporting headphones you’ll be hard-pushed to find.
Buy now £121.00, Amazon
Shokz OpenRun Pro
Best for: good vibrations
As alluded to in the intro, I recently conducted a full review round-up of the latest bone conduction ‘bonephones’ on the market, during which I encountered these fine examples of the formats’ audio excellence, the OpenRun Pro from Shokz.
For those not in the know (Hey, Johnny Come Lately, go read the article!) bone conduction cans rest on the sides of your head and use your temporal bone to send vibrations directly to your inner ear where your inner wiring converts it to audio, thus cutting the outer ear out altogether. What this means is that your actual ear is blocked in no way whatsoever, leaving you utterly open and aware of the world around you, making them ideal for runners or cyclists who need to keep an ear out for on-coming cars.
Now, there are quite a few bonephone options available, but for my money (roughly amounting to just over a tenner at time of writing), when it comes to personal outdoor sporting pursuits, you’ll find no finer than the OpenRun Pro.
Hooking-up to your smart-thing using a strong Bluetooth 5.1 connection, there’s no internal storage, so all audio flows from your phone, for up to 10-hours on a full charge, while the lightweight, head-hugging design keeps the headphones firmly in place, regardless of how frenetic your workout is.
With a Shokz app available in Android and Apple flavours, the EQ can be adjusted to suit specific use, be it music or voice, and physical control comes courtesy of two nicely sized button nestling under the right arm, helping avoid all the awkward button fumbling and accidental operation that you’d otherwise have to endure.
Bass enhancement boosts sound quality and audio, on the whole is clear and decently detailed. But it pays to remember that bone conduction is a very different technology to what you might be used to, so I’d suggest you try before you buy so that you’re savvy to the kind of sound experience you can expect.
IP55 rated, dust, sweat and sudden downpours are not a problem, so if your sporting predilection sees you on the run or roll out where the savagery of nature or, indeed, the menace of motorists is a constant threat, arm yourself the bone conduction cunning of the OpenRun Pro.
Buy now £160.00, Shokz
Skullcandy Push Active True Wireless
Best for: working up a sonorous sweat
Skullcandy, without a shadow of a doubt, makes some of the slickest, and sexiest headphones, and for those who consider the gym their church, the Push Active True Wireless Earbuds are nothing less than headphone heaven.
Small, light and extraordinarily well-priced, a secure fit is guaranteed due to the combined in-ear and over-ear bar design, as is a stable connection to your blower over Bluetooth 5.2, audio excellence thanks to Personal Sound by Mimi tuning to your unique hearing, plus utter ease of operation via voice control with built-in Alexa.
With an IP55 rating, the Push Active can fend off the most freely flowing perspiration, even when you fully release your exercise inner chimp, and a total of 44 hours of battery life (used with a charge case, of course) will see the motivational music keep coming as you doggedly turn flab into fab.
What’s more, the Skull IQ app takes things to the next level, letting you share your sounds with a gym mate, switch between ‘awareness’ modes, remotely trigger the camera on your phone for those essential ‘before’ and ‘after’ social media shots, and even allow you to access a five-band EQ to fine-tune those tunes just the way you like them.
A surefire sporting winner from the hallowed halls of the Skullcandy King, whether you’re a gentle yoga gym-bunny or loony lifting gym rat, the Push Active True Wireless Earbuds are your perfect workout partner.
Buy now £69.99, Skullcandy
Sennheiser SPORT True Wireless
Best for: Outdoor adventurers
There are two important things to consider here; firstly, the name Sennheiser, which has been synonymous with top-end personal audio for longer than even elephants can remember and, secondly, the fact that this almost ineffable Almighty of Audio has chosen to name these particular earbuds SPORT True Wireless, thus leaving you in no confusion at all as to what they are. So, there you have it, earbuds painstakingly created solely for sport, by one of audio’s foremost originators – what more do you need to know?
Coming complete with three sizes of ear adapters and four different ear fins, you can find the perfect fit for you, so regardless of how violently vigorous your sporting life is, you can always be assured the Sennheisers will sit securely in your shell-likes. Secondly, IP54 rated, you can take your workout with you to the beach, safe in the knowledge that the SPORT can handle any spray and sand thrown at it. Thirdly, there’s the Sennheiser Smart Control companion app, available in both Android and Apple colours, from where you can take the signature Sennheiser sound that the earbuds lovingly ooze and tweak it via EQ presets to fine-tune that already awesome audio to suit your particular audio palate.
With the charging case, the SPORT earbuds offer some 27 hours of playback (nine hours with earbuds alone), which should prove ample for all but the most ardent, mains-dodging outdoors adventurer.
Oddly, perhaps, given that most earbuds include it as standard these days, there is no ANC, rather the SPORT earbuds rely on passive noise cancellation, which does a relatively good job, but if you’re looking for earbuds that let you be left utterly distraction-free while you plough through an intense workout, these are probably not the ear-going option for you. On the flip side of that, if what you seek is second-to-none sound, exceptional fit and the ability to remain, in part, aware of your ambient sound surroundings, then it’s Sennheiser SPORT True Wireless for the win.
Buy now £120.00, Sennheiser
JBL Endurance Peak 3
Best for: strength and stamina in the swim of things
As in all things, in sports, there are those who can simply go further, faster, longer and harder than all others around them. In humans, this ability was identified as being down to the ‘ACE gene’ (located on chromosome 17 of the human genome, DNA fans), something which influences the fibre that makes up muscles, increasing strength and endurance. Similarly, in tech, it all comes down to superior build and battery, which is why the Endurance Peak 3 from JBL is the owner of the ACE gene of personal audio.
As convoluted as that may have been, the fact of the matter remains that JBL has imbued its Endurance Peak 3 earbuds with an IP68 rating, meaning they can resist fresh- or saltwater ingress at depths of up to 1.5 metres for 30 minutes and, should they get all grubby in that time, you can simply rinse them off under a tap afterwards. Not only that, but they also offer a total battery life (with a charging case) of around 50 hours, so tough as an overcooked Bear Grylls and as tenacious in their task as a crazed dog chasing a car.
Grippy too, the Endurance’s special ‘Powerhook’ design with ‘TwistLock’ ensures that, once on, they’re not coming off until you release them yourself, with no chance of losing them to a freak tsunami.
Sound-wise, 10mm drivers backed by JBL’s ‘Pure Bass Sound’ make for meaty, well-balanced and utterly defined audio, while the four-mic array keeps calls clear regardless of the conditions around you.
Linking to your phone over Bluetooth 5.2, the connection is strong and stable at all times, so you’ll never miss a beat of, say, the theme to Baywatch, as you run down the beach in sexy slow motion and dive into the surf like a man/woman on a mission.
A Red Dot Design Winner (international mark of good design) for a reason, the JBL Endurance Peak 3 ACEs in all areas.
Buy now £90.00, JBL
EarFun TW200 Air
Best for: sporting sounds on a budget
Not every athlete is made of money, so sometimes a cheaper alternative in sporting audio is the order of the day. This is where the engagingly cheap yet cheerful EarFun Air comes in.
Priced at just £40, these IPX7 (can survive submergence in 3ft of water for 30-minutes) rated earbuds deliver nicely balanced, clear audio, whether listening to music or utilising the four-mic system for calls, while the custom 10-band EQ available on the accompanying app allows you to adjust said audio to your ears’ content.
Giving six hours of playtime from a full charge, the charging case boosts that to 35 hours, letting you run, cycle, splash around or, indeed, indulge whatever your athletic enthusiasm is, utterly unabated for as long as your legs/heart can hold out for.
Okay, the fit is not the most secure, and you may want to avoid testing out that water depth rating for fear of having them float off to add to the plastic in the Pacific problem, but for land-based health betterment, they might just be the best 40 quid you spend this year on your sport.
Buy now £40.00, Amazon
