While you occur to’ve ever puzzled whether or no longer you must seemingly seemingly seemingly swim with a definite pair of earbuds or headphones, the acknowledge is incessantly no. Even the many that provide an IP68 rating aren’t meant for the more impolite pressures of swimming, and Bluetooth doesn’t proceed back and forth by water very far. But some headphones are designed for swimming, and the H2O Audio Sonar are seemingly the supreme among them. With on-board storage and Bluetooth as strategies, these bone conduction headphones strap factual onto your goggles and lift the jams alongside for even lengthy coaching courses. They’d seemingly well just be rather niche, but must you’re buying for swimming headphones, these are potentially lawful what you admire to possess.
Source: H2O Audio
H2O Audio Sonar
The H2O Audio Sonar are a killer gadget for swimming. They might be able to store audio files in the community or play over Bluetooth from a smartwatch as long as both are connected to your goggles whereas you swim. In the water they give pumpy sound to acquire you in the exercise mood whereas preserving your ears beginning to hear lap timers and your environment. They’d seemingly well just no longer be just correct for loads on land, but swimmers received’t glean loads better strategies than these.
- Connectivity Technology
- Bluetooth
- Play Time
- 7 hours
- Water-resistant?
- Yes
- Heed
- H2O Audio
- Vitality Source
- USB
- Special Feature
- Constructed-in 8GB MP3 participant
- Speaker Technology
- Bone-Conduction
- IP rating
- IPX8 (as much as some meters)
- Music Source:
- Bluetooth, MP3 participant
- Supported codecs:
- MP3, M4A
- Weight:
- 40g
- Color:
- Blue and dim
Pros
- Sturdy sound in water
- Water-proof in opposition to some meters
- To hand internal storage
Cons
- Need separate scarf/goggles to position on
- Restricted utility out of water
- Stiff buttons
Label and availability
The H2O Audio Sonar are listed on H2O Audio’s contain net net page at $130, but they’ve been promoting for $100 for years now, and Amazon lists their trace as $100.
Form and fit
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones former with swim goggles
The H2O Audio Sonar possess a acquire in difference to most headphones you must seemingly seemingly just possess encountered, becoming two rather chunky, almost peanut-shaped, bone conduction drivers at both end of a blue tether. That tether is long and thoroughly versatile, taking under consideration a significant differ of suits and head sizes. The dear driver devices provide controls with play and a Mode button on the factual side and volume up and down on the left side. The buttons are a little stiff to make utilize of.
Every driver unit has a cutaway channel designed namely for you to walk the band of swim goggles by. This approach, the band will withhold the drivers pressed in opposition to your cheek bones so H2O Audio Sonar can work their bone conduction magic. The channels work handiest with flat bands, preserving them securely slotted, though thin, string-admire bands will work as properly and are no longer seemingly to return out whereas carrying the headphones and goggles.
A device back to this acquire is that it’s successfully supreme wearable with swim goggles. While you occur to contain you’re going to acquire some utilize for these headphones out of the pool as properly, you’re in for a letdown. You are going to just be ready to pull one thing off with a surely low-profile scarf or the factual pair of glasses, but those solutions will seemingly prove in an substandard alignment of the drivers and an dejected fit for the glasses or scarf.
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones connected to swim goggles
The headphones are made for swimming and possess the correct waterproofing with an IPX8 rating and tolerance for submersion the overall formulation down to 12 feet — deeper than you’re seemingly to proceed whereas lap swimming. In my time swimming with the H2O Audio Sonar, they confirmed no area with water even from the further stress of flip turns and immediate beginning turns.
The support side of the factual driver unit has a series of metal contacts for linking up with the pogo pins on the proprietary USB charging cable. The cable latches on magnetically to the headphones. Despite the incontrovertible fact that the connection is stable ample for charging, data transfer is just a bit more peaceful and surely requires the headphones to be fully undisturbed.
Factors
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones sitting out
The dear feature of the H2O Audio Sonar is their acquire, allowing them to be ragged for swimming — one thing your day to day earbuds and headphones merely can’t cease. While the headphones toughen Bluetooth, the more serious feature is the constructed-in 8GB of storage and MP3 participant. Bluetooth can’t transmit bigger than a couple inches by water, so unless you’re taking part in audio from a water resistant smartwatch also connected to your goggles or tucked into a swim cap, you’re going to make a choice that MP3 participant.
The MP3 participant helps M4A (iTunes) files as properly. Once loaded up, it is going to play relief your audio whereas you swim. Controlling it requires some faucets, multi-faucets and long-presses. This permits for discover skipping, volume adjustment, immediate forwarding and rewinding, or folder navigation must you load music to the headphones with a folder construction. With out a visual interface, it on the overall is just a bit tricky to search out exactly what you admire to possess to play at any given 2nd. While you occur to don’t admire repetition, the headphones with ease resume playback where you left off when powered relief on, so that you received’t continuously be beginning relief first and valuable of the identical playlist. Double-tapping the play/end button will also enable a scoot mode for random playback vow.
Finally, the headphones are rather straight forward, feature-wise, because of their most vital job is to signify you must seemingly seemingly seemingly hearken to one thing rather than the sound of speeding water whereas you swim. That’s already one hell of a treat must you’ve already spent a bunch of of hours wishing you possess any assemble of distraction from the pool tiles passing below whereas you acquire your exercise in.
Performance and audio quality
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones sitting above an ear
The H2O Audio Sonar are a mixed rep for sound quality, no longer because of they’re corrupt, but because of they’re very reckoning on positioning and area. Getting the drivers on the cheekbones conclude to the ear, lawful touching the threshold of the tragus, produces the supreme sound in my experience. Further away, treble begins to descend off considerably, and it was already restricted to open.
Outside of water, the H2O Audio Sonar provide mellow but fulfilling sound with rich mids and crispness at the easier end of mids. Bass and treble are rather lacking right here, but that’s the open of the story. If you dip your head below water, where these headphones are meant to dwell, the sound shifts from gentle to disagreeable.
Submerged, it’s no longer lawful your bones that the sound is transmitting by but additionally the water reach your ears. This offers the sound an even bigger presence, boosting the bass considerably. For an brisk pump-up discover to acquire in the exercise mood, it’s superb. It’s no longer essentially the most actual listening, with the bass outweighing the leisure of the sound, nonetheless it’s thrilling on the opposite hand. For the reason that headphones don’t quilt your ears, you must seemingly seemingly seemingly peaceful readily hear the beep of a build apart of dwelling timer or a coach’s instructions when your head is out of the water, too.
Battery and charging
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones and their charger
The H2O Audio Sonar battery is rated to walk for 7 hours, and that resolve tests out. After an hour of taking part in music at 50% volume, which is heaps, the gadget was peaceful reporting battery ranges at 100%. It’s rather general for devices to supreme document battery ranges in magnificent increments, and these headphones must peaceful peaceful be in the 80-100% differ after an hour of playback.
After two hours, the headphones reported 75% battery excellent, which strains up properly with the 7-hour rated runtime. That’s about ample time for the strongest swimmers in the sphere to swim all the procedure by the English Channel, so it is going to peaceful cease properly for a range of informal swimmers buying for a little of music in the pool.
Competition
Source:James Holland
The H2O Audio Sonar has some competition from other bone conduction headphones, but there are few rather admire it. The Finis Duo is conclude, providing a acquire that’s functionally the identical apart from it puts the total controls on one side of the gadget. At $109, it’s just a bit dearer, has half of the storage for onboard audio, and lacks Bluetooth entirely, so the Sonar has a clear acquire right here.
The remaining of the competition is from neckband-vogue systems admire the H2O Audio Tri or Shokz OpenSwim. The H2O Audio Tri offers the identical substances at the identical trace, but has a sure get better suited to mixed utilize, where the Sonar reigns in the water. In the meantime, the Skokz OpenSwim are dearer at $150 whereas coming with much less storage and the identical neckband formulation to the Tri headphones.
I’ll original there are also the H2O Audio Sonar Knowledgeable and Tri Knowledgeable, but they advance with a substantial develop in trace so that you must acquire a dubious and unhurried feature called Playlist+, which is merely a gadget for having the headphones acquire a recording of one thing else taking part in over Bluetooth and then place it to internal storage for later playback.
Would possibly perchance just peaceful you aquire them?
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones connected to swim goggles and sitting out
The H2O Audio Sonar relief one position: to give you some audio enjoyment whereas you slog away at your underwater exercises. They cease that job properly. They’d seemingly well just no longer be rather, but their ability to connect alongside side your most popular goggles is a perfect formulation to easily integrate them alongside side your swimming gear, and they’re very versatile as far as fit goes — one thing that wasn’t so for H2O Audio’s Tri Knowledgeable headphones.
While they would possibly seemingly seemingly just no longer be so versatile on land, peaceful requiring a band to position on and failing to return any place conclude to the feature build apart of dwelling of modest earbuds admire the EarFun Air Knowledgeable 3, they bring when its comes time to acquire moist, going deeper for longer than any of the identical old earbuds you’ll glean.
Source: H2O Audio
H2O Audio Sonar
The H2O Audio Sonar are a killer gadget for swimming. They might be able to store audio files in the community or play over Bluetooth from a smartwatch as long as both are connected to your goggles whereas you swim. In the water they give pumpy sound to acquire you in the exercise mood whereas preserving your ears beginning to hear lap timers and your environment. They’d seemingly well just no longer be just correct for loads on land, but swimmers received’t glean loads better strategies than these.
