First to all who celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope your day was safely held and you had a wonderful meal with lots of leftovers. My wife is looking for a pair of Bluetooth Earbuds that she can use on her walks. She will not need them for running. I know absolutely nothing about this subject so I am counting on our knowledgeable forum members for direction on this purchase. She will be using the pair to listen to Podcasts, our local NPR station and phone calls. For this reason her primary two concerns are comfort and battery life followed by clarity of voice and then accuracy of music. I believe noise canceling will also be a priority due to canceling out wind and traffic noises. Looking forward to hearing which ones are comfortable in the ear and give good battery performance. Thanks.
I have a pair of Cambridge Audio Melomania1. Sound pretty darn good. Good battery life. Several different size ear tips included. I had problems with my original pair. Customer service (US) was friendly even at the height of the pandemic in April/May. A replacement was promptly shipped after I returned the defective ones.
Yes, she uses an iPhone. I assume both of the above suggestions includes the sound canceling ability. The upper tier iPhone as well as the Bose ear buds, both noise canceling, are on the expensive side for someone who wants them solely for her walks to listen to Podcasts and talking on the phone. The least expensive Airbud is $120.00 on sale now, however I do not believe this model has noise canceling. Maybe there is not such an animal that will come in at 100 or under that is both wireless and noise canceling. The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 looks really attractive and wonderful battery life however, again I do not believe this has the noise canceling feature. She may have to drop the noise canceling feature and go for the best battery life, so the Cambridge might fill this feature best.
Has anyone had experience with these - JLab Audio - Epic Air Sport ANC True Wireless Earbuds? The cost at Best Buys is $50.00 which for my wife would be perfect considering she is not going for music quality.
I use the Beats-X with an iPhone, mainly for calls, but also for music when doing errands. Great for what they are, and Best Buy was running a $39.99 special for Black Friday. Picked up a backup pair for myself.
If you really want decent noise cancelling and decent audio quality, I’m afraid going super cheap is not an option. I’m using the Sony WF-1000XM3 and they’re still £150 in the U.K. but they really are everything I want right now. Great audio quality, great noise-cancelling, easy to pair with my iPhone, great battery life, carry case not too cumbersome for a jeans pocket. I still don’t think the AirPods Pro have anything like the ear canal seal you need to get proper bass or noise cancelling... and they’re even more expensive. At the end of the day, “buy cheap, buy twice” really does apply with this type of thing.
Monoprice TWE-ANC TrueWireless Earphones with Active Noise Canceling (ANC), 6 Hour Playtime, 30 Hours Total Playtime with Charging Case, IPx4, Sweatproof, USB-C Charging - Monoprice.com
Basically she will not be playing music, pod casts and phone calls, so spending even a hundred dollars seems silly. The noise canceling may even drop, due to a few posts above someone pointed out how it cuts on battery life. I do not think sound quality is hyper critical if it is just non singing voice.
The OP mentions noise canceling, but I'm not sure this is wise if the phones are going to be used on walks. I'd want to be able to hear a honking horn, especially if I don't otherwise see the car.
I’ve been in a similar place needs-wise for a while. I just need something comfortable and clear for audiobooks when I’m walking. I also want volume control without touching the iPhone and music quality that doesn’t offend. I will probably buy these as they are now getting closer to what we both wanted to pay; Jabra Elite 65t Earbuds. Apparently they’re good for calls too but that’s wasted on me as I often take a lunchtime walk to get away from the work phone. It would be good to hear from someone who already uses wireless earbuds, if they might reduce or eliminate the audible thud of my walking boots on hard ground, which I think is down to microphoning from the cable loop type I use at the moment. @mds I Hope the suggestion offsets me hitchhiking on your thread.
Those Jabras are great, I use mine all the time. I’ve had three sets of True Wireless earbuds and they are the best hands down. Mainly because of connectivity. Pull them out of the case, pop into your ears, and they’re already paired. Will pair with two devices at a time, too. Mine connect to my laptop and phone, critical for the ubiquitous Teams calls these days. I don’t think I’ve ever had one fall out, either. You can also do a sound pass through mode-the opposite of noise cancelling, it passes outside sounds through in case you need to catch something. Sound is more than adequate, I’d say pretty good. The Klipsch set I have sounds better, but are always falling out of my ears. Their connectivity is lacking, too.
I too have a pair of the Melomania 1 and really like them a lot. I had to get after market foam tips before I got he perfect seal, but other than that they have been a real winner. The only potential downside is that I'm not sure how good the mic is for phone calls.
Jabra Elite 65t Earbuds are the winners, due to features, cost and ease of purchase for someone who is looking for earbuds to listen to POD Casts and talk on the phone while taking a walk. Thanks to all who responded to help me out.
A pricer option but you can now pre-order the RHA true connect ANC earbuds. These things are feature packed so might be a good option for people looking for specific needs. I have no experience with their previous wireless earbuds but liked an older wired pair. I went ahead and used the discount code on the site and pre-ordered. If they don't sound that great, they have a free return policy. TrueControl ANC | Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds | RHA
I use the Apple Air Pods Pro. They work well for me. The slight reduction in ambient noise from the noise cancellation built-in doesn’t affect the important aspects of traffic noise. I’ve tried half a dozen Amazon/odd-brand wireless ear buds/pods as well. Enacfire, RTGT, etc., etc., have all been junk in my experience. Some of them seem to have actually been calibrated at the factory and can produce good quality, balanced sound. Where they all fall down is that the stereo connection fails (causing annoying intermittent drop-outs), pairing flakes out intermittently (causing annoying drop-outs), and battery life is poor. The Air Pods Pro offer good fidelity, good calibration, moderately good battery life, and a charging carrier that works well and that is also less bulky than the ones supplied with the Enacfire, RTGT, and several of the other odd-brand ear buds.
Got me a pair of Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 based on positive reviews and their sound for music is a major disappointment. Was really looking forward to using these on long walks with my smartphone instead of a wired set of in-ears. My old pair of wired in-ears are from the 80's: Philips SBC 3132 and they've got a case hardly bigger than the Melomania. The Philips pair sounds way better. I've tried everything to get the Melomania sound right, but it's just incapable of producing decent bass and drums sounds, whatever EQ settings and curves are used. A lot of high frequency sounds dominate the overall sound.
I've used quite a few over the years all the usual suspects Beats, Sony etc. This time I went a bit left field and got the LG Tone FN7 which are made in some sort of partnership with Meridian. They were very reasonable in a sale and arguably the best I've had in every department from sound, comfort and functionality. Worth a look anyway.
In addition to the rather poor sound with practically no bass at all there's serious communication problems. If you turn your head to check traffic when walking the sound is frequently interrupted, especially when the left and right earbud sort of line up in the direction of the smartphone. I only discovered this when trying them again after my wired earbuds died because of metal fatigue in the wire after 30+ years of great service.
I just bought a pair of these. Not so concerned with how they are for music but rather battery length as I'm shortly going to be doing some longer air travel. https://www.lypertek.com/pureplay-z3
I just got these, and if you're simply looking for the best-sounding wireless buds, these can't be beaten. Marked down to sub $50 from $150 makes these an absolute steal. These sound better than the wired Ultimate Ears I used to have. AKG N400NC TWS | True Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones
