Great sound for your workout

With the new and not unwelcome focus on fitness, users are beginning to want a good set of bluetooth earphones that they can wear during workouts, running and other exercises. It took a long while for Bose to go wireless, but now the audio company has several wireless product options, among them the Soundsport earphones, especially for workouts.

The Soundsport earphones are of course, feather-light, as they must be. They’re two clumps with a cable between them — and it doesn’t tangle easily.

A simple but very rough plasticky controller houses the volume buttons, on and off, and track change buttons. A little power button and the charging port are tucked in behind a flap into one of the earplugs. You can take calls using the controller as well. There’s a small plastic clip, like you’d find on a lapel microphone, to secure the earphones to your clothes and make sure they don’t fall off during overenthusiastic exercise.

So far so good. But the in-ear set is a bit oddly designed. They’re sweat and water resistant, which is wonderful, but they have this big round hard plastic button like exterior that feels peculiar. Towards the inside, there’s a nub covered with a soft silicone glove. There’s also the hooked silicone appendage on top, which is meant to balance the earphones in the ear. But even after changing the silicone caps to the smallest size available in the box, I always felt they’d fall out of my ear, and if I jumped too hard, they did. I also had to spend some 10 minutes to get them to fit in. It’s altogether possible that my ear canal is smaller than usual, but I’ve rarely ever had a problem wearing earphones, including many others from Bose.

Unlike many other in-ear headphones, the Soundsport doesn’t go right into the ear. That means there isn’t that much noise cancellation as with other products, but many agree that this is probably a good thing. You don’t want to cancel out the outside sounds when you’re outdoors, perhaps running on the road, or in any other way needing to be aware of what’s around you. So, sound will both leak in and leak out.

But also unlike other lightweight bluetooth earphones, the Soundsport sounds really, really good. While music isn’t their sole purpose and you could be listening to a guided workout just as easily as you could be pacing yourself to your favourite workout music, they can be used for a plain listening session as well, because they sound that good. They actually pack a good bass and sound clear and loud enough. Of course, if music is the only requirement, it’s better to go in for something else, including over-the-ear full-fledged headphones that enclose you and tune out the world. The SoundSport is however, clear in its positioning as a sports device — that’s in the name.

I do find the SoundSport earphones a little on the expensive side — as are most Bose products. They work with Android and iOS devices and charge in about two hours, lasting for five to six hours of play. They pair very easily — in fact, they paired themselves while I was trying to figure out how to do so. Both Bluetooth and NFC can be used to connect. The Bose Connect app can also be used, especially if there are multiple devices.

Those who want higher end sound and noise cancellation may want to wait for the QuietComfort 30 in-ears, though those will cost twice as much.