I agonized over this purchase for six months. I looked at reviews, I watched videos, I read tech specs, and did shot after shot of tequila crying into the night begging God to help me! Okay the first three are true. They arrived in one day in a really nice package. I have worn them on several bike rides and gym visits. I sweat like a whore in church and they stand up to the punishment. They have never fallen out. Even when I'm in full Rob Zombie metal thrash mode. I try to make them fall out and they will not.
The app is nice and works perfectly. Also, I use Runkeeper and now I get heart rate data in that app. The sound is amazing just like all Bose products.
I have Bose noise canceling headphones, a mini wireless speaker, and a Bose system in my car.
I have tried various inexpensive wireless earbuds / headphones over the last few years, and have never found a pair that beat out my good old-fashioned wired earbuds. Well, I recently had the opportunity to try out both Bose and Jaybird wireless buds. Both are similar in price, have gorgeous packaging, and have similar features. Here are the results.
SOUND
- Bose: 10 of 10. Absolutely astounding sound quality. Simply the best I have ever heard at any price, wired or wireless, period.
- Jaybird: 8 of 10. Solid sounds, fine for podcasts or casual music listening. Bass response is nowhere close to Bose, but with some equalizer settings on your device you can come closer. Competitive with most other nice earbuds I have tried.
FIT
- Bose: 7 of 10. Surprisingly good fit considering how HUGE the buds are. Seriously, these things are big. They apparently house the battery and electronics that power these (since they are wireless). But for their size, they fit fine with the included inner-ear pieces (several sizes included).
- Jaybird: 9 of 10. Excellent fit. Tiny compared to the Bose product. These also include many options for earbud size and inner ear inserts that hold them in place, but they remain comfortable after several hours of constant use while running.
FEATURES
- Bose: 9 of 10. These have the charging port directly in one of the earbuds, which works well. You can download the Bose app, and amazingly you can even read your pulse from the buds! This is a fun and useful feature for various types of training.
- Jaybird: 7 of 10. Has a separate little "mini" dock needed for charging. You can download an app for the device to adjust the sound and perform a few other "minor" functions, but I wound up deleting the app and just connecting normally via Bluetooth.
So do I have a favorite? For daily exercise use I am gravitating to the Jaybird mostly because I prefer the fit and just do not care for the giant bud size on the Bose. But for travelling or listening when I'm not active, the Bose wins out with superior sound.
In summary, the Bose is a great product - recommended!
This is my 2nd pair of these headphones - and they are my favorites. I also own an old pair of around-ear bose soundlinks, the soundsport free, and the apple airpods. All have their pros and cons, as I will explain below. The only experience I have with noise-cancellers is with the sony wh-1000xm2 that my wife got as a surprise gift (she loves them).
These are my favorite headphones for running or working out, and also watching movies on an airplane. The sound and fit is nearly identical to the soundsport free. They sound like bose headphones - pretty good, you can probably get better sound but there will be compromises in other areas. The soundsport free's have a few strange compromises to eliminate the wire - phone calls only play through the right side, and they have trouble pairing to my laptop (a razer running windows 10)- they would only pair in headset mode and not music mode. I would blame razer or microsoft, but I've never had this problem with any other headphone. These Soundsport have no nonsense with oddities like that, and the reception is a bit better as the antenna is in the wire, not enough to make a difference in practice. But there is, of course, a wire. I consider this a good thing when I run (and I run almost every day) as I tuck it into my headband to keep them from moving. I also have a lot of hair so it can be hard to fit the free's back in on the fly, need to clear all the hair out of your ear first, same with any in-ear. You can also dangle one phone from the wire around your neck without worrying about it. The buttons are much easier to press. The only downside is, they charge using a micro-usb and not the usb-C that my laptop, phone, and nintendo switch use. In fairness, the frees, sony's, and bose's soundlinks use micro-usb, too, so you'll be stuck needing to worry about an extra charging cord no matter what.
By comparison, I wanted to also mention how these compare to the airpods and free's. Both of those eliminate the wire, but with the addition of a charging case that has an extra battery. The apple case is quite discreet, whereas the bose free case is hilariously huge. If you keep your phone in an otterbox or it is a panasonic toughpad, you probably won't mind the bose case. It makes quite a bump in your jeans pocket. The airpods have some funky pairing mechanisms that make them difficult to use if you have other apple equipment - For work, my employer has given me an iphone 7 and an older macbook pro from 2015. Switching the airpods between these devices will occasionally require the device be signed out and back into icloud - which is a huge headache. After the 2nd time of hitting the massive icloud reset button in the sky, they have been relegated to phone use only with my xperia. This is where the airpods excel - phone calls play through both ears, you can use both, or either one, or even share one with a colleague for a conference call. The mike is great at noise cancelling, and I work in very noisy environments. Both pods have a mike and the work some voodoo when you wear both of them to cancel out almost all noise. They do a lot of really nice stuff.
My personal phone is a sony xperia xz1, and the airpods pair to and work with the sony without any hiccup, never failing to pair. They also pair to my windows laptop fine, but will only connect to one device at a time (They forget the other device and must be re-paired, which is quite painless but still an annoyance compared to the Bose). They also sound really really bad, and don't have any controls other than a play/pause by either 'double flicking' either pod while it's in your ear, or removing one pod to pause. You can find better-sounding BT headphones than the airpods for under $20, and they will have much better controls, but they won't have apple branding. The airpods charging case requires an apple-specific lightning cable, but one comes in the box so it's not a huge deal.
The soundsport free's, by contrast, feature the excellent sound quality of the soundsports, IMO they sound even better because they are newer. They are my favorite headphones for just listening to music around the house or taking a quick phone call. Unlike the airpods, they don't really work with just one. The right bud is the "master": it is used for phone calls (there is no mike in the left bud), it also has the +,...,- buttons on the top, which are slightly awkward because they are hard to press. The left bud does not play voice calls, it is used for music only. It also has the BT pairing button on it. You can almost get away with using only the right bud, so long as you don't want/need to switch devices. You can also use just the left bud, but the right bud needs to be kept within range (e.g., in a pocket) and also out of the charging case.
However, the soundsport free's have one big advantage, or disadvantage depending on your use case, and there is no wire connecting them. Because I have long and bushy/curly hair, my hair will push the wire around if I'm not wearing a headband or hat (e.g. whenever I'm not running) and it will cause the headphones to come loose. That is a thing of the past with the free's, and the free's are the only headphones I have ever used where I can stick them in and forget them - the airpods are slightly better than the wired headphones included with the iphone (best just left in the box, IMO) but will still fall out and bounce all over the floor if you turn your head even slightly to one side. I have noticed that if sweat gets into the free's they get a bad honky sound to them, and then need to be rinsed out. If sweat gets into the regular soundsports, they just get quieter (muffled) and the volume can then be turned up to compensate.
Both versions of soundsport are quite discreet as they stick mostly within the ear area. The airpods have a white stalk that dangles below the earlobe... this contains the battery and antenna so it is necessary for now but it is quite noticable, as they are bright white. Depending on the earrings I'm wearing the stalk can clack against the earring. Right now I'm wearing 4awg glass spirals and I wear them all the time, they definitely clack into the airpods. However, the airpods are still small enough that people will want to talk to you and not realize you have headphones in to ignore them on purpose. For this purpose (e.g. airports, lounges, etc) the Soundlink around-ear's still reign supreme (mine are bright white from 2015, even with my hair they cannot be missed).
If you are concerned about price, these soundsports are the least expensive of the 3 (although in such a case it is hard to argue against a pair of jvc or koss gummy headphones for 9 dollars, and live with the wire going to your phone... if the wire rips, it's only $9... I also bought my first soundsport in 2016 and they were 150 even back then - the airpods being 160 and free's being a bit more around 200. Ideally Bose would have introduced the free's at 150 and dropped the regular soundsport to 120 or so, but I don't think any of these brands are competing on price. The IT man gave me the airpods, I would not have spent my own money on them.
My first pair died after about 2 years of daily use - early morning runs and then showers. While bose advertises them as waterproof, they are not necessarily sweatproof, dirtproof, chlorine proof, shampoo proof, etc. My 2nd pair I have been careful to rinse them out in the shower after every run, I've had them for about 8 months now and they are still going strong. I sometimes wear the airpods in the shower too and they are holding up fine, but they fall out easily (same reason why I don't run with them) and their sound is really only meant for phone calls and spoken word, not music. I try to avoid getting the soundsport free's wet. I'm sure they are just as waterproof as the regular soundsports, but there's no easy way to dry them off without worry about losing them (don't want to put in case wet, can't be hung from the towel rack because no wire, looks suspiciously like a doggo treat, etc).
Long story short, if I only had one pair of headphones, it would be these. If I didn't run and exercise so much, it would be the free's. If I never listened to music and only used them for phone calls and podcasts, it would be the airpods. But, I like to run and I like to listen to music, so... the end!
Still the best bluetooth in-ear headphones of early 2017 (8/10). Let me explain.
Well, first, I cannot believe there are so many raving reviews claiming these headphones to be the "best I have ever heard at any price, wired or wireless, period". Um. Ignore Vine reviews. And then one-star reviews complaining about defective units -- well, every electronics is prone to defective units, and Bose has some of the best warranty policies, so please.
So you're thinking about wireless in-ear headphones. As of 2017, your two best options are Bose Soundsport Wireless and Jaybird X3. Here's how they compare:
SOUND (Bose: 8/10)
-- Very good and fun sound. Warm and slightly bass-heavy, although the lowest bass rumbles as well as harsh trebles are cut off (like most bluetooth headphones). I wish mids had more clarity, but I'm nit-picking here. These aren't replacing my wired headphones, but if I'm traveling, I can definitely enjoy music with these.
-- Jaybird X3 (7/10): These are slightly brighter-sounding headphones, with less bass impact but clearer mids and trebles. Still pretty good. These are closer to neutral, but high trebles are still rolled off. So it's up to personal preferences. I also think it depends on your ear fit, and if you can get a better seal than I did, then your experiences may vary (bass is the first thing to go with a poor seal).
COMFORT (Bose: 10/10)
-- I generally don't like to give perfect score to anything, but Bose really deserves a perfect ten here. This is the selling point of Bose. Despite the ugly bulky looks, the headphones are incredibly comfortable, and wires don't distract.
-- Jaybird X3 (8/10): These have average comfort, like most other in-ear headphones. Wings help a bit. Wires are heavy and tug on the ear pieces when I move around a lot. Overall, significantly less comfortable than Bose.
PRICE (Bose: $149)
-- Bose is pricey. They're known to be pricey/over-priced, and discounts are hard to find.
-- Jaybird X3 ($99). These are definitely a great deal, and you can often find cheaper deals.
OTHERS
-- Bose remote buttons feel weird to press. Buttons are big, not very clicky, and generally unpleasant to work with. Jaybirds feel better.
-- Battery life is fairly advertised at 6 hours. I get around 7 hours. I wish it lasted longer. Jaybirds are advertised at 8 hours but I get around 7, same as Bose.
-- Bose looks ugly, if you care about these things. Jaybirds look nicer. I personally don't care.
-- Bose provides a more useful case. Jaybird case's opening is too small and frustrating to use on the daily basis.
Overall, Bose Soundsport Wireless is extremely comfortable and sounds great. I wish the battery lasted longer, but I don't think any competition (as of 2017) provides a significantly better battery life, yet. Until then, Bose is still the bluetooth in-ear headphones to beat.
LOVE THESE! Let me count the ways: I went on CNET.com to find the BEST headphones (after being disappointed with a crappy pair that I bought here trying to save $). These SOUND AMAZING. And they FIT in my ears a completely new way: they sit in my ear, snugly, without feeling like my finger is stuck deep in my ear (if that makes sense). But I can still have a conversation at the gym; ideal. I LOVE them being cordless -- omg, to be on a spin bike and not worried about the distance from my phone, lol. And... HEART-RATE MONITOR -- I thought that would be a tedious set-up and I would never use it? Wrong -- I'm pedaling along looking at my heart-rate go up and down in real time! And get this: even the little pouch it comes with is perfect: it's flexible so you can jam the headphones back in, and even has a carabeaner to attach it to my backpack! IF YOU"VE READ THIS FAR, you're a weirdo like me, who actually reads a lot of reviews before choosing. BUT THESE NOW! :)
Feature Product
- A high-quality audio experience, consistently balanced at any volume, thanks to Bose active EQ. Connectivity Technology: Wireless
- Wireless convenience, with easy Bluetooth and NFC pairing aided by voice prompts
- Exclusive Stay Hear+ tips keep the headphones comfortably in place during workouts
- Sweat and weather resistance for reliability while exercising
- Up to 6 hours battery life per charge. Please refer the User Guide before use
Description
With no wires in the way, Bose Sound Sport wireless headphones keep you moving with powerful audio and Stay Hear+ tips designed for comfort and stability. A soft silicone material and unique shape provide a secure fit that stays put and feels good. Connect to your device easily with Bluetooth and NFC pairing, and use the inline mic and remote to control volume, skip tracks and take calls. With the Bose Connect app, controlling and switching between multiple devices is easy. These headphones are sweat and weather resistant and have a lithium-ion battery that delivers up to 6 hours per charge. With performance like this, the only challenge left is your workout. Included: Sound Sport wireless headphones; Stay Hear+ tips; USB charging cable; carry case. Allow up to two hours to fully charge the battery. A full charge powers the headphones for up to six hours. The headphones will not play while charging.Note: Before charging, be sure the headphones are at room temperature between 41 degree Fahrenheit (5 degree Celsius ) and 104 degree Fahrenheit (40 degree Celsius )
I bought these 10 months ago, and unfortunately the power button broke after near daily use for that time. I contacted Bose support and within 10 minutes they were able to set up a replacement, including them paying for the return shipping on my broken headset. I was mildly apprehensive about calling them because I have heard mixed reviews from others, but my experience couldn't be better. Now about the headset itself:
Comfort - this is the best feature of these. Bose in ear headphones are the most comfortable for me to wear, so when they made a wireless one I knew I had to try it. They are about 90% as comfortable as their wired model, because the flanges are a bit bigger to keep them from falling out of your ears, but I am 100% satisfied. If you like Bose in ears then these will work for you.
Battery life - perfectly reasonable. It is not all day performance, but easily 5+ hours on a single charge, and they recharge quickly in-between uses. While I hope in a few years they make them with 10+ hour life, with today's technology these are great, and perfectly adequate for normal use
Fit - I use these for exercise as well, and this is where they shine. I have zero issues with them coming out of my ears, and no risk of hitting a cord going down to my phone that happens too often with wired headphones
Sound Quality - My over ear bose headphones and bose speakers both sound better than this, but they have the space to have a driver over 10x as large. For such a small driver I am incredibly satisfied with the sound quality, and greatly prefer them to any more basic headphones I've used
Connection - good but not perfect. They can remember at least 4 devices, be connected to up to 2 at a time, and play audio from only 1 at a time. This seems a reasonable compromise, but I will note that about every 2-3 months they seem to forget all their connections and you have to tell all your devices to forget the headphones, then repair each of them. A bit of a hassle, but not the end of the world
Overall: I am perfectly satisfied with the product. I was a bit disappointment they broke in under a year, but they give me a whole new year with my replacement set so they certainly stand behind their product and I am content. They sound great, work well, and I would buy them again.
I finally found a wireless option to use with (not entirely replace) my wired Bose SoundSport earbuds. I first tried the Jaybird X3s but had to send them back because they kept falling out of my ears. Even the Comply ear tips kept coming out, and when they were in, I didn't like the earplug-like removal from outside sounds. I was hesitant to switch over to wireless because of battery life issues, but the Boses have proven to last plenty long on one charge so far, and the wireless convenience is well worth having to charge them every once in a while. I read countless reviews on the Jaybird X3s and these Bose SoundSports (and have tried both) and, at least for me, Bose win easily. Well worth the additional $40.
I go to the gym a lot and have been looking for a great sounding pair of wireless in ear headphones. I have tried several, from the original beats to the powerbeats and most recently the beats x. These blow them all away......big time. They fit in my ear very well (with the medium ear tips that come on the headphones) and had a small and a large size as well. From the moment you power them on they are (in my opinion) much better than beats. When turned on they tell you what device they are connected to and how much battery is left. Another great feature is the call feature. When you receive a call it tells you who is calling (if you have them as a contact) this way you don't have to take your phone out of your pocket to check who is calling before answering. The call quality was amazing, way better than on my beats.
Now, the sound quality, in my opinion is MUCH better...MUCH MUCH better, than the beats x. Deep bass, clear voice. and they are very comfortable as well for the duration of my home long workout.
For battery life, I have only used them once so far, but at the start of my workout they were 70%, and at the end (a little over 1 hour) they were at 60%. I listened to spotify the whole time and made one roughly 10 minute phone call, only losing 10% battery life.
For anyone shopping around, or debating on whether to purchase these headphones versus the beats in ear headphones, take it from someone who has tried them.......buy these BOSE soudnsport, you won't be disappointed
After buying, wearing, and giving up on four (4) other brands of Bluetooth earbuds, I invested in these, primarily because all the other BT brands were junk and did not want to continue dealing with wires jostling about, coming unplugged from the audio source (smart phone) while running. I also own a pair of Sound Sport Free (SSF) earbuds (purchased while these were sent in for replacement). Personal opinion: If cost is any factor and the utility of having "truly wireless" headphones isn't a necessity, I would opt for these over the SSFs, purely based on the tactility of the buttons.
- Sound is Bose quality, no surprise there
- Form/Fit is excellent - no worries of the buds coming out, even in heavy sweat situations
- These do NOT cancel noise and are especially susceptible to wind noise (dropped 1 star)
- In-line dongle buttons are easy to use, even while running
- Earbud frames protrude outside the ear significantly and may occasionally snag on things
- Battery life is good; typically several days of moderate use (~45min each day) between charges and several runs of 2 hours or more with no issue
- Signal quality is better than any other "wireless" buds I tried
- Customer support is excellent
- The included cord clip is almost worthless - invest in "Bud Buttons"
I had to send my original pair back after they malfunctioned and stopped working altogether. Bose arranged everything (you can actually text their tech support from your phone to arrange a return) including a pre-paid shipping label. The process from mailing in the broken pair to receiving brand new replacements took a couple weeks, but there was no additional cost. Also, Bose honors the 1-year manufacturer warranty from the time you receive your replacement headphones, not from original purchase date. You're paying for the quality of their product, but also their customer service.
I have recommended these to others.
I wanted to wait on reviewing these until I had a significant amount of use, as I've had other headsets in the past which either didn't hold up physically, or had rapidly diminishing battery performance. I'm pleased to report that the SoundSport headphones are still going strong, after months of near-daily use. I've worn them in a variety of activities, including running, biking, and just taking long walks, and the headphones never dislodged from my ears. Battery life is good - I've averaged 6+ hours of listening to music on a full charge. I've never had a phone call last more than 2 hours, but I would expect similar performance. Although the fit felt a little odd initially (they are larger than most earbud-style models I've worn), after a few sessions I became completely comfortable with them. The rocker control under the right earbud is a bit tricky, as you can't see it when you're wearing them and the contours of the buttons are not so distinctive that you can tell by touch alone if you're on the right button. Sound quality is excellent! Low range comes through with good depth and little distortion, even at high volumes. Voice performance is also great, and other callers are able to hear your voice clearly. One issue is that the microphone can be overwhelmed by wind when outdoors...but that's been my experience with every phone headset (wired & wireless), so I wouldn't consider it a knock on these. Charging is fast and easy with the mini-USB connector, and pairing to the phone (Android in my case) is simple - and the Bluetooth range before connection is lost is surprisingly good. Although these are more expensive than most other models I looked at, I'm confident the extra money was worth it. I definitely prefer them to the Plantronics BackBeat, which are similar in style & size.
Pros
- Great sound!
- Solid battery life
- Well-constructed & durable
- Remains in-place, even during intense exercise
Cons
- Larger earbud size than most models
- Some initial "awkwardness" in feel
- Rocker control could use more distinctive button textures
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