Wireless Earbuds

Wireless Earbuds: a reader asks…

I’m going to get the new iPhone 7 and I’d like to get some wireless earbuds. Other than the new AirPods that Apple’s going to start selling in a month or so, is there anything else on the market I could or should buy?

As soon as the headphone jack-less iPhone rumors firmed up, wireless headphone manufacturers started gearing up with new offerings. Of course, Apple announced the AirPods which will be available in late October and will cost $159. I’m sure they’ll be decent and well-integrated with your new iPhone, but the design is not promising a better fit than the currently available wired EarPods. The problem is that the wireless earbud market is just starting to boom, so nearly any pair you buy today will be eclipsed by new models that come out over the next few months. For that reason, if there’s any way you can wait a bit on getting wireless earbuds, you should give it some time and make do with the wired earbuds that’ll come with your new iPhone.

The problem is that most of the cheaper wireless earbuds have a lot of trouble with Bluetooth connectivity and lag. Once we have some actual experience with Apple’s AirPods, we can then compare their performance with others. Even the higher-cost wireless earbuds such as from Sony or Bose are likely to get some significant upgrades in quality in the next few months, as they work to compare positively with Apple’s offering and give someone good reason to pay perhaps double for the best earbuds.

For the most part, shop now and you’re going to see almost exclusively tethered earbuds where the two earbuds are connected by some type of cord or contraption. There are arguments for and against having a tether between the two earbuds – it helps keep them together so you don’t lose one, but catches on your collar easily. The tether can also incorporate controls for volume, answering calls and more. Apple’s tether-less AirPods will be nice in that you can tap them to answer calls (and hang up), but there’s no way to adjust the volume short of pulling out your iPhone. Tetherless earbuds are on the way, expect to see models being released about the same time as Apple’s Airbuds. When they hit the market I’ll update this article.

For tethered wireless earbuds, there are some current market leaders. Bose’s new SoundSport Wireless earbuds are $149 and are great all-around wireless earbuds. They have a tether with the volume control and microphone and a power button & charging port on the right earpiece. They are sweat-proof and give about 6 hours of active use after 2 hours of charging. They fit (my) ears well and are comfortable to wear for extended time.

JBL’s Reflect MiniBT earbuds are about $100 and also give great audio performance. They are water-resistant and good for workouts as well as weekend warrior work, and even have hi-vis color for night visibility. JBL says they get up to 8 hours of use on a charge.

The Jabra Sport Coach ($99) or Jabra Sport Pulse ($130) are very similar to the ones above. Jabra adds a simple fitness app on your smartphone for workout support with the motion sensor built into the Coach earbuds, and adds heartrate monitoring and VO2 Max measuring (oxygen use) in the Pulse model.

For untethered wireless earbuds, I’d be very careful about buying right now. There are a few items on the market, but if you look hard, but in every case I’ve seen that quality was lacking. Coming in time for the holidays are the excellent Here One wireless earbuds (pre-order them for $300), which are a significant step up from Apple’s Airbuds. These include active noise-cancelling and noise-shaping with an app on your smartphone. They give you about 6 hours of use on a charge, and the included carrying case recharges them at least a couple times before you have to plug in. I’m currently using their precursors, the Here Now earbuds that don’t have phone or streaming capability, and have pre-ordered a set of Here One’s. Of course, they are double the cost of the Airbuds, but I think they offer more than double the capability and performance. They are very comfortable for extended wearing.

Another option is The Dash from Germany (Bragi, $300/pair, from Amazon.com, available now). Similar to Here One, Bragi doesn’t have sound-shaping, but includes some advanced biometrics to track your physical activity. I haven’t tried out these headphones, but their support site does talk about concerns with latency and Bluetooth connectivity. Bragi’s offering is two individual earbuds: the right one uses regular Bluetooth to connect to your smartphone and handle the heavy lifting for most functions. The left earbud uses Bluetooth Low Energy to connect and communicate. Controls are comprehensive with various tapping, touch-and-hold, and swiping, plus two (current) movement controls. Answer the phone by nodding your head, decline a call by shaking your head. Two great bonuses: The Dash has 4gb of storage space built-in for playing music without streaming, and they are waterproof, good for swimming.

Other current devices on the market include the Rowkin Mini, the Samsung Gear IconX, and the Motrola VerveOnes. Within the next few months, I expect there to be more than a dozen – Sony is certainly working on theirs, and there are several Kickstarter projects going in the wireless earbud arena. At this point, we’re looking at early adopters trying these out, which will help develop the next generation with significantly better capability and reliability. One thing that isn’t going to change that quickly is the size of the earbuds. You’re balancing size (e.g., battery size) with how long they’ll last before needing to be recharged. Until battery technology gets a lot better, all these earbuds are going to be noticable. With Apple’s move into the wireless earbud world, I expect the … stigma…? of wearing these earbuds to fade away as more and more consumers start wearing earbuds in public.

What I look for in wireless earbuds are foremost comfort, then capability. Chances are that you’re going to wear these for hours at a time. For comfort an earbud should be lightweight, and your best choices come with a selection of small, medium and large soft silicone inserts so you can choose the one that fits best in your ear. I like the design of the Bose earbuds with the little crescent-shaped tab that helps keep the earbud securely in your ear and positioned for a good fit and seal.

So to sum up, delay your wireless earbud purchase for a month or three if you can. There will be a lot more choices on the market soon. If you simply must have some now, you can get nice tethered earbuds for $100 or so. I can tell you I’ve used more than just a few of the cheaper Bluetooth earbuds and been sorely disappointed, so stay away from the cheap ones (less than $100).