Best Headphones for Gym User Guide
Best Headphones For Gym Comprehensive User Guide in 2018
My first advice is this: go true wireless. There are several true wireless bud options for the gym – think Apple Earbuds but more robust and sweatproof. I know a lot of you reading this will think, "no way, I'm not an early adopter and they're too expensive." However, you are bang wrong: once you get used to having no wire at all rubbing on the back of your neck and no snagging on things ever, it is bloody hard to go back to the more traditional styles of running/gym headphones.
I also feel that the various limitations of true wireless, which make them irritating to use as full-time buds, just don't apply if you only run, ride or work out in them. The battery life is short but it’s more than long enough for gym and running, at least for anyone who's not doing ultra-marathons. The usually slightly poorer sound quality is also less important for pumpin' workout-style listening.
1. Optoma NuForce BE Sport3
Prior to the BE Sport3, NuForce was known, if at all, as more of an audiophile-type brand, but nonetheless, these T3-Award-winning in-ear headphones with ear-hugging hooks are the best headphones for exercise that you can get.
With the possible exception of the vastly more pricey SoundSport Free, the Be Sport3 offer the best sound quality of any of these. They are easily good enough to use as day-to-day headphones, thanks to their fantastic clarity, support for both AAC and Apt-X (giving improved audio quality on Apple and Android devices respectively), well-deployed bass and 8-hour battery life. They also offer a very solid yet comfortable fit.
2. Bose SoundSport Free
The way Bose's buds protrude from your ears gives a look that is somewhat less than icy cool, but if you work out a lot, you probably value performance over appearance, and are well used to looking a tad 'off-beat'. And their is no doubt that at the gym, the SoundSport Free perform.
Although perfect for the gym or home, I don't consider these great for running outdoors, or cycling. The fit is brilliantly comfy but less unshakeable than the Jabras, which is off-putting if you hit the ground like a runaway giraffe, as I do. The way they protrude also makes them impossible to wear with your hood up in winter, as they will catch on it. The real problem with the way they protrude, however, is wind noise. They whoosh quite a bit in a breeze and in a high wind, I'd go so far as to say they are unusable.
3. Urbanears Stadion
The Stadion headphones from hipsters' favourite, Stockholm's Urbanears. However, this is actually a great pair of headphones for running. Because the Stadion has a solid (but not uncomfortable) neck band, and springy, coiled cables, running to hooked earbuds, it pulls off the unlikely feat of an unshakeable fit, without totally blocking out the world around you.
Personally, I don't like hearing the world around me, but I know many runners and cyclists would like to be able to hear large, wheeled objects bearing down on them when on the roads, and some people, more bizarrely, even want to be able to hear the ambience of their local gym.