I first heard about the Jabra ear bud range on the MarathonTalk podcast. I was instantly intrigued. They sounded amazing (especially the heart rate monitoring ones). So naturally I was over the moon to get to test out a pair from their range for a review. Sadly not the heart rate ones, but sport-focused ones nonetheless: the Jabra Sport Rox Wireless ones.
Perhaps I’m not a ‘proper’ runner because I like to listen to music during races or speedy training runs and podcasts during my long runs. For me the two go hand in hand. That’s not to say I can’t run if I’m not listening to something as I often do races where ear phones are not allowed or sometimes just fancy a run where I just hear the world around me. It’s just I prefer to have something going on. In hard races it can take the pain away, when I’m de-motivated a good song can power me back up again, and on long runs I can get lost in a funny anecdote and I’m entertained.
They come in a very nifty, minimalistic little box
In the pack you get the ear buds (obviously), an instruction manual, a charging cable, an armband for your mp3 device of choice, and several choices for the actual buds (“ear gels”) that go into your ear and ‘wings’ that help with stability of the buds.
I won’t lie, it took me a good while to work out which buds fitted my ears best. When I thought I had it figured out one fell out just as I started to run, which was frustrating. What I will say is take your time when choosing and working out what works best. One of my ears is clearly different to the other so required a different ‘setting’ and the wings took a bit of fiddling with to see out how they worked. There’s a video online you can watch which is referenced in the instruction manual. It’s funny because when I read that before I had attempted wearing them I laughed and thought “who the hell needs help with putting in ear phones??”…yes that would be me it turned out.
But when you have the correct fit, those bad boys aren’t going anywhere. I’ve run in them for fast 5k parkruns and steady long miles over an hour and a half long. I forget they’re there.
The short cable just sits nicely behind your head
What’s very handy is they’re Bluetooth so they connect wirelessly to your device, in my case my iPhone. It is very easy to connect (take it from me, a technologically challenged individual). The short cable just sits behind your head nicely (there’s a little grip thing that can shorten the length of the cable to keep things tidy and stops cable flapping).
On the cable there’s a handy control where you can increase/decrease volume, skip songs and even answer phone calls. This is so much easier for me than faffing about with my iPhone in it’s armband when I’m running!
Handily as well the two ear buds are magnetic so if you want to take them out and let them hang round your neck, they’ll connect together creating a loop. This also pauses the music! I always rip my ear phones out as soon as I finish parkrun so this is great.
Charging the earphones is very easy as you just connect one of the ear buds to charging cable and then connect that to a USB port, like you PC or a corresponding plug.
My PC is resting on my make-shift standing desk
They’re built with solid steel and are waterproof (apparently built to US Military rain, shock, sand, and dust standards!), which was fairly handy for my windy and wet 13 miler last Sunday. The sound quality is brilliant. Very clear and immersive. My only sadness is that to enhance the sound quality with Dolby you must install the Jabra app (this is fine, it’s very easy and comes with the product so it’s free). But this will only work with music on your phone/device, not music you’re streaming. I use Spotify for my music and it doesn’t support this 🙁 That being said, I actually didn’t realise this until recently and I honestly think the quality is fabulous without the app anyway.
Thoughts? I love them. The ease of wearing them and not having a long cable flying about my arms and body is such a relief. Not having to faff with my phone to skip a song or pause is also brilliant. The quality is great and though I had a few bumps wearing them at the start, they now they fit like a glove (in my ear? Weird).
On the website (find them HERE) they cost £129. Yes that’s expensive but it’s an investment in a good, durable product. For me as a runner who loves music and podcasts (and not just running, walking and going to the gym – especially on the rower!!), these are perfect.
Now I’m just desperate to try the Sport Pulse Wireless earbuds… heart rate monitoring without a horrible strap!!! I mean these guys are good!
Do you listen to music when you workout?
Have you ever tried wireless earphones?
Gadget junkies, if you had to run without a watch or music what would you choose?
***Full Disclosure: I was sent the Jabra ear buds for free to review. All opinions are my own honest ones.***
These sound great. The amount of times I’ve left my earphones in with my iPod in the back pocket of my shorts. Then gone to the toilet and, when my shorts are pulled down this has broken the wire now totals two. I am also forever catching my arm in the wire when I carry my iPod becoming a tangled mess. I am actually the least graceful runner ever!
I love the concept of having heart rate taken through your earphones as well.
Mary recently posted…April Fools and an all-body massage
Hahaha yes this is a serious toilet-running related dilemma!
They sound really good. At the moment I have some seinheisser ones with a solid band around the back of my head, as all other headphones fall out of my ears- I used to have to wear ear bud ones upside down as I think my ears are a strange shape. Anyway, they are a bit rusty now (they are years old) so could do with an upgrade. I don’t mind the cable too much, although it is annoying when I take off or put on layers as then it gets all tangled. I never leave my bluetooth on though- I didn’t think it was good for security (not sure why) so I only turn it on when I upload my vivo band thing and the turn it off after.
It sounds great that they stop the music- the pocket cast app that I have for podcasts does that too- if the wire comes out accidentally it stops so you don’t miss anything which is great.
I would choose to keep my Garmin though as I always run with it, even just to track my miles after, whereas mostly I don’t run with headphones now. Although at Brighton I think I am going to take some little ones and then if I struggle I can listen with one ear for a bit of a boost.
Maria @ runningcupcake recently posted…New baking supplies
Yeah getting tangled in cables with layers is highly annoying.
I like the idea that you can take the buds out of your ear and let them dangle round your neck and it’s paused. I know the iPhone pauses when you unplug the cable from the phone but then you have to carry both the phone and the ear phones.
Yep I’d choose my watch too. If you don’t track it it doesn’t exist (JOKING)!
Ooh I just lost my headphones so I am on the hunt for a new, good pair! I have never tried wireless but I love the idea–I hate when the cord gets caught around a machine/weight at the gym and it makes the earbuds fall out! Heart rate monitoring without the chest strap would be awesome too!
Emma @ Em-powered Wellness recently posted…Thinking Out Loud
Yes!! Exactly! Ripping an ear bud from your ear when lifting weights is very painful!
this review is perfect!! I have been looking for wireless earbuds for the LONGEST time. I love my yurbuds, and I know that they make a wireless kind, but I was wanting to compare a few. definitely going to look into these!
Kat recently posted…Thinking Out Loud #47
Yeah these are very nice I’d definitely recommend!
These sound like a decent pair of headphones. I just use the ones that came with my iPhone, which are pretty generic and probably not the best quality where the sound is concerned.
Jemma @ Celery and Cupcakes recently posted…My ultimate apps for healthy living
I used my iPhone headphones all the time and found them OK. It’s just the cable that irritated me as it kept getting caught on my arms when running or lifting weights. The fact that the sound quality is better is a definitely plus as well!
I really wanted to love these, but I just couldn’t get them to fit and stay in my ears. I did persist for quite a few runs fiddling with the different attachments but something just wouldn’t work- maybe I have small ears or something! So I’m back to using my Yurbuds for the moment, which I love, although I was a fan of not having cable tangling me up all the time with the Jabras!
these sound like a decent pair of headphones..look’s like a perfect review,,keep it up dear