It’s no secret, I love listening to music when I run.  The headphones I usually use are some cheap Phillips earbuds with a hook over the ear which looks kinda stupid but keeps them from falling out.  Sound-wise, I’m sure they’d make an audiophile have a Klipschit fit, but for my purposes, it’s been fine.  That said, when the lovely people at H20 Audio offered to send some of their waterproof earbuds my way, I was pretty excited to try something new.

The cool thing about the Flex Allsport Waterproof Headphones is that they’re waterproof for 30 minutes down to 3ft.  While I’ve yet to need that, it’s a handy thing to have in my back pocket should pool running ever become a necessity (knock on wood that I never have to test this, but in theory it’s good).  And despite my affinity for land running, my outings leave me wringably soaked 3 months out of the year, so it’s nice to know these earbuds can handle this sweat machine.

The things I really liked about these earbuds are:
1. The fit: They don’t have hooks going around your ear but they don’t need it.  The soft rubber tips (3 different sizes are included) are very comfortable and kept them in place without falling out once.  Thus, I looked infinitely less dorky than usual (in my mind, anyway).
2. The cord: Unlike my cheapy earbuds which have a stiff wire cord, the cord on these is really soft, so I didn’t even have to neaten the excess into a bundle, I just tucked it into my shorts and didn’t notice it.
3. Noise Cancelling: It’s really amazing how well they cut out all background sound.  I imagine this would be great in a gym or anywhere you want to zone out.

The things I did not like about these earbuds are:
1. Sound Quality: I was hoping for something better than the ones I currently use but there’s too much bass in these (or more likely, I’m conditioned to like the amount of treble in my usual earbuds) so they seem a bit muddy to me, I prefer a brighter sound.
2. Noise Cancelling: While this isn’t in any way a fault of these headphones (it’s a bona fide feature) when I run I need to hear what’s going on around me.  Between traffic on my way to the park and then cyclists zooming by once I’m on the loop, I don’t feel comfortable being unconnected with the outside world.  But for any other use (I keep thinking these would be great on an airplane), this would be a pro, not a con.

Aside from that, the price is super reasonable, especially considering they’re waterproof, and they come in 4 colors.  So if you swim, row, pool run, paddle or simply want to ignore the boor sitting next to you on that long flight, consider the H2O Audio Flex Allsport Waterproof Headphones.

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