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If you can’t enjoy your favourite tunes or podcasts when you’re out having a run, is there even any point? You can wear a watch or a band to help you keep in touch with the statistics of speed, distance, heart-rate and what-have-you – but without a worthwhile pair of headphones to keep you company, the motivation to achieve those speeds and those distances will be harder to come by. You may as well go out for your run in a pair of flip-flops.
Of course, you’re hardly short of choice where headphones that have apparently been optimised for runners (and keep-fit enthusiasts of all other kinds) are concerned. There are plenty of companies that reckon they have the perfect solution – but how can you be sure you’re making the most informed choice and getting the best results?
Well, you could do a lot worse than start here. We’ll give you some practical tips, and help you avoid the more common pitfalls runners can stumble into when making this most crucial of decisions.
1. It’s over for over-ears
We’ve all seen them – runners out and about, doing their thing while wearing over-ear headphones. Let there be no doubt about it: this is a mistake, and for a few reasons. Most immediately, though, there’s the issue of fit – because an in-ear headphone is designed to fit in your ear, while an over-ear headphone will slosh about on your head in reaction to your body’s movement.
They might feel secure when you try them on, but once around the block will be enough to confirm that over-ear headphones are best suited to stationary listening, or, at a push, for use while walking.
2. The wrong fit
It’s not enough to realise you need a pair of in-ear headphones, mind you – the way they fit is absolutely crucial. Nothing is more off-putting than a pair of in-ear headphones that aren’t comfortable or cease to fit properly after a few hours. It’s worth considering a design with stability hooks (like the Dottir Freedom On-Grid) that fit around your ear, or fins that brace the earbud against the inside of your helix (such as the Cleer Goal or Beats Fit Pro).
If this extra weight and material doesn’t appeal, though, it’s important to make sure your preferred in-ear headphones aren’t too bulky to fit comfortably, and come with a wide selection of eartips in different materials in the box. This is crucial to achieving comfort and security.
3. Weight matters
Don’t overlook the weight of your headphones, either. The difference between 4g and 6g per earbud may not seem like much in absolute terms – because it isn’t – but a 50% increase in weight can make itself apparent over the course of a longer run.
It doesn’t matter how carefully you’ve made sure your earbuds fit properly and stay secure, excessive weight can make for a less-than-comfortable experience. And nothing is more certain to spoil a run than aching ears.
4. Sweat is wet, don’t forget
Running is a sweaty business, isn’t it? It is if you’re doing it right. And while the sweat you’re generating might conceivably affect the way your earbuds fit, it’s even more likely to affect your earbuds’ ability to function – and not in a good way.
So it’s important to check out the IP rating of the earbuds you’re considering. IP stands for ingress protection, and for our purposes we want to guard against liquid and, to a lesser extent, dust.
An IP rating will include two numbers. The first covers solid particles and ranges from 0 (no protection) to 6 (completely dust-tight). The second covers liquid, and the range is 0 (no protection) to 9 (completely fine while continuously submerged in water). If a product hasn’t been tested against one of these hazards, it will be rated ‘X’ (like Apple’s AirPods Pro 2, which are rated IPX4).
Consider IP54 or IP55 as all the protection you’re likely to need against sweat generated during your run – Bowers & Wilkins’ Pi8 earbuds, for instance, are IP54 rated and should have no problem dealing with any realistic environment.
5. Don’t block out the outside
Wireless earbud manufacturers will talk proudly about the passive noise-isolation provided by the physical fit of the earbuds, and active noise cancellation can be a real benefit if you want to ignore the outside world and just concentrate on your tunes.
But not being able to hear what’s going on around you can be a hazard when you’re running – so look out for earbuds that have a transparency or ambience setting that will actually give a gentle boost to external sounds in the interest of safety.
Alternatively, you might want to consider an open-ear pair of headphones like the JBL Soundgear Sense; designs like this don’t cram your ear full of material and make hearing the outside world much easier. You could also check out bone-conduction headphones – models like the OpenRun Pro by Shokz vibrate the bone structure of your face to deliver sound rather than piping it directly into your ear. It’s not as weird as it might sound, honestly.
6. Charged up for the full run
If you’re running the London Marathon or you’re training for a half, you need to make sure your earbuds can keep up with you. They’re tiny little things, after all, which means there’s not a lot of space for a battery, and that in turn means battery life may not be all you’re expecting.
It’s not unreasonable to expect four hours of action (when playing at moderate volume) between charges, and some of the more long-lasting designs will run for more than twice that.as long.
The Technics EAH-AZ100, for instance, will go for ten hours before they need to be put in their charging case, while the 1More ComfoBuds Mini can barely manage half that. Make sure your earbuds can outlast you, in other words – unless you want to finish your run in silence…
7. Don’t forget the extra features
Earbuds perform a very specific function, it’s true, but some manufacturers have given their earbuds extra features that you may also find useful. The Powerbeats Pro 2 from Beats, for example, come with an in-built heart-rate monitor which helps to keep you informed during a run.
And it’s also worth considering how your earbuds operate, because you don’t want to be fishing out your smartphone or MP3 player to adjust volume or skip tracks during the middle of your routine.
Touch controls can be good, although sometimes are a bit hit and miss when you’re in motion, it’s raining or you’re sweating a lot. Maybe consider headphones like the Jabra Elite 10, because as well as fitting the bill in many other respects, they have physical control buttons that are easier to access and operate while you’re running than touch controls can be.
