New Generation Earphones

Some people get a bit worked up when it comes listening to music while riding. It’s often considered to be unsafe as you can block out surrounding noise; such as cars when you’re on the road or a rampant dirt moto that could collect you around the next turn. Others feel it detracts from the mountain biking experience; the bush, the birds and at times the silence that lets you solve life’s bigger big problems while you pedal.

Personally I sit on the fence with earphones. At times I’ve used them and enjoyed some music, especially on long fire trail epics and quiet backcountry road rides, but most of the time I prefer to have a greater awareness of my surrounds. If you do like to listen to tunes on the bike, it’s up to you to do it responsibly and turn the volume down (or pull them out) in situations where you need to hear what’s going on around you.

Of late we’ve had a number of sports earphone systems appear in the office, and they all claim to allow ambient noise through, which should answer one of the main arguments against using them. So, with three different systems at our disposal, we decided to put their claims to the test.

Yurbuds Inspire Pro

Standard earphones can be annoying and uncomfortable whilst on the bike—at least this has been my experience in the past. Most tended to fall out frequently, especially in hot weather when they got sweaty. Some interfered with my helmet straps, constantly getting bumped and dislodged. They also became uncomfortable after a couple of hours on the bike.

The Yurbuds earphones have soft rubbery ‘enhancers’ that are shaped so they sit right up inside your ear canal. They fit via a ‘twist-lock’ action; it’s a bit like winding a corkscrew deep into your ear. At first the sensation is quite intrusive but once in place the silicone-rubber enhancers are comfortable, so you soon forget they are there.

Their promotional material states, “Guaranteed – will not come out.” My experience suggests that they are on the money in this regard. These are the most secure in-ear style headphones that I’ve used. They really do lock into the ear; you can tug quite firmly on the cord without and the earpiece won’t fall out. Yurbuds supplies the Inspire Pro with regular and larger enhancers. The standard ones were perfect for me but the fit can be tweaked if required.

With the buds channelling the tunes deep into your ear, the sound was great. I don’t think the actual earphones themselves are excessively special (if anything they sounded a little tinny), but the silicone enhancers ensure that the sound reaches your ear with minimal interference. Wind noise does intrude once your moving at speed on a descent but the same applies to every system that I’ve used.

Yurbuds are said to allow more ambient noise than most other earphones at the same volume levels. To me they seemed to block out a large portion of the surrounding noise. Whether they were better or worse than other buds was hard to say but they don’t perform any miracles. Turn the volume right down and you’ll take in more ambient noise but the music gets much harder to hear.

A three-button control lets you change tracks, pause and adjust the volume without having to track down your music device (this aspect only works with an iPod, iPhone or iPad). It worked well but I found the buttons a little hard to locate and operate with full finger gloves. With a compatible phone you can also take calls without removing the ear buds—pretty cool.

Available in red, black or white, the Inspire Pro earphones sell for $90 which includes a storage bag and a spare set of enhancers.

Yurbuds (03) 95533447 / www.yurbuds.com.au

 

Monster iSport Intensity

Like the Yurbuds product, the iSport Intensity earphones use sound-isolating ear tips that push into your ear cavity. They don’t penetrate as deeply as the twist-lock system that’s used on the opposing product; instead they have an added hook that fits within your ear. While there’s always going to be an element of individuality when it comes to matters of fit and sizing, I didn’t find the Monster iSport product as secure. Despite this, they never fell out and proved to be very comfortable on longer rides—they were far better than standard earbuds.

One of the claims is that the Monster earphones are washable. I assume that this means you can wipe them over with a damp cloth but I really put this to the test when I left them in my pocket and unintentionally ran them through the washing machine! I expected the worst but they pulled through unscathed and much cleaner than before.

The sound quality was better than average with plenty of base. According to the blurb, the patented sound channel design seals in music but also allows traffic noise through. I found that they certainly sealed in the music but also blocked out the surrounding world—don’t expect to hear the birds chirping while your tunes are pumping. Monster also offers a model that’s designed to let in more ambient noise, the iSport Strive, but we didn’t get to try them.

An in-line controller lets you change tracks, pause and adjust the volume while you ride (only with iPods, iPhones and iPads). The control buttons are rubberised with a nice tactile ‘click’ that lets you know what’s going on. Phone calls can be taken whilst riding and the flat profiled cords were less prone to getting tangled.

At $109 the iSport is an expensive set of earphones but they appear to be an excellent quality product.

O-tus Mini-Speakers

O-tus takes an entirely different and cycling-specific approach. Rather than sitting inside your ear, these miniature speakers mount to your helmet and direct the sound towards your ear. As they don’t just plug into your ear, setting up the speakers is more involved and involves sticking velcro tabs onto your helmet.

To get decent sound, the 15-watt speakers need to sit reasonably close to your ear (as pictured). First up I tried them on my road helmet and mounting proved difficult. The foam needed to be trimmed to provide a flat surface for the velcro to adhere to. This wasn’t a big deal and there’s a good instructional video available online, however you mightn’t be keen to attack your helmet with a blade if it’s an expensive one. Even with the mounting point sorted, the higher cut of my road helmet made the speakers a little too distant, so the sound was always very faint. In contrast, mounting them on my new MTB helmet was trouble-free and took a couple of minutes. In the end I rigged up a ‘custom system’ to suit my road helmet, where a small rubber band was used to attach the speaker to the helmet strap, right next to my ear—problem solved.

I chose to use a compact MP3 player mounted to the back of my helmet. With no wires leaving the helmet and the controls easily reached whilst riding, this proved to be a very clean system. You can also link the speakers to a phone that’s in your pack via an extension lead, or you can use a Bluetooth device to connect wirelessly to a smartphone. I tried the latter using the Bluetooth device that’s sold through the O-tus website but had constant issues with lost connections and having to re-sync the devices. Personally I’d prefer to stick with a cheap and simple MP3 device that can fit to the helmet.

As the O-tus speakers don’t block your ear; they really do allow you to take in the ambient sounds. You can hear kangaroos jumping around in the bush, conversations don’t require shouting (as long as you’re not really cranking the volume) and they offer a far better awareness of cars and other dangers. It’s similar to having the radio going in the background—the music is there but it’s around you, not inside your head as with regular in-ear buds. As an added bonus, there’s no discomfort whatsoever as they don’t touch your ears.

If you want to block out the surrounding world and become immersed in cranking tunes, the O-tus Mini-Speakers won’t be for you. Even with the speakers set up nice and close the volume isn’t that high and wind noise will be a factor at speed. For me they offered the best all-round qualities. You still feel in touch with your surrounds, they don’t compromise comfort in any way and you’ve got some music to crank to if you feel that way inclined.

The Mini-Speakers can be ordered directly from O-tus and sell for around $55 plus shipping, or $119 all-up if you want them supplied with the Bluetooth device.

www.o-tus.com