For those who’ve ever puzzled whether or not you’ll be able to swim with a sure pair of earbuds or headphones, the reply is normally no. Even the various that supply an IP68 score aren’t meant for the extra excessive pressures of swimming, and Bluetooth doesn’t journey by water very far. However some headphones are designed for swimming, and the H2O Audio Sonar are maybe one of the best amongst them. With on-board storage and Bluetooth as choices, these bone conduction headphones strap proper onto your goggles and convey the jams alongside for even prolonged coaching classes. They might be fairly area of interest, however if you happen to’re trying to find swimming headphones, these are most likely simply what you need.
Supply: H2O Audio
H2O Audio Sonar
The H2O Audio Sonar are a killer gadget for swimming. They’ll retailer audio recordsdata regionally or play over Bluetooth from a smartwatch so long as each are linked to your goggles when you swim. Within the water they provide pumpy sound to get you within the exercise temper whereas conserving your ears open to listen to lap timers and your environment. They is probably not good for a lot on land, however swimmers gained’t discover a lot better choices than these.
- Connectivity Expertise
- Bluetooth
- Play Time
- 7 hours
- Waterproof?
- Sure
- Model
- H2O Audio
- Energy Supply
- USB
- Particular Function
- Constructed-in 8GB MP3 participant
- Speaker Expertise
- Bone-Conduction
- IP score
- IPX8 (as much as 3 meters)
- Music Supply:
- Bluetooth, MP3 participant
- Supported codecs:
- MP3, M4A
- Weight:
- 40g
- Coloration:
- Blue and black
- Strong sound in water
- Waterproof to three meters
- Helpful inside storage
- Want separate headband/goggles to put on
- Restricted utility out of water
- Stiff buttons
Worth and availability
The H2O Audio Sonar are listed on H2O Audio’s personal web site at $130, however they’ve been promoting for $100 for years now, and Amazon lists their value as $100.
Design and match
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones worn with swim goggles
The H2O Audio Sonar have a design not like most headphones you should have encountered, becoming two pretty cumbersome, virtually peanut-shaped, bone conduction drivers at both finish of a blue tether. That tether is lengthy and totally versatile, permitting for a broad vary of suits and head sizes. The primary driver models supply controls with play and a Mode button on the best aspect and quantity up and down on the left aspect. The buttons are a bit stiff to make use of.
Every driver unit has a cutaway channel designed particularly so that you can slip the band of swim goggles by. This manner, the band will maintain the drivers pressed in opposition to your cheek bones so H2O Audio Sonar can work their bone conduction magic. The channels work greatest with flat bands, conserving them securely slotted, although skinny, string-like bands will work as nicely and are unlikely to return out whereas sporting the headphones and goggles.
A draw back to this design is that it’s successfully solely wearable with swim goggles. For those who suppose you’re going to get some use for these headphones out of the pool as nicely, you’re in for a letdown. You may be capable of pull one thing off with a really low-profile headband or the best pair of glasses, however these options will probably find yourself in an imperfect alignment of the drivers and an uncomfortable match for the glasses or headband.
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones connected to swim goggles
The headphones are made for swimming and have the suitable waterproofing with an IPX8 score and tolerance for submersion right down to 12 toes — deeper than you’re prone to go whereas lap swimming. In my time swimming with the H2O Audio Sonar, they confirmed no situation with water even from the additional strain of flip turns and quick open turns.
The again aspect of the best driver unit has a collection of steel contacts for linking up with the pogo pins on the proprietary USB charging cable. The cable latches on magnetically to the headphones. Although the connection is steady sufficient for charging, information switch is a little more delicate and actually requires the headphones to be utterly undisturbed.
Options
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones sitting out
The important thing function of the H2O Audio Sonar is their design, permitting them for use for swimming — one thing your on a regular basis earbuds and headphones merely can’t do. Whereas the headphones help Bluetooth, the extra important function is the built-in 8GB of storage and MP3 participant. Bluetooth can’t transmit greater than a pair inches by water, so until you’re enjoying audio from a water-proof smartwatch additionally connected to your goggles or tucked right into a swim cap, you’re going to want that MP3 participant.
The MP3 participant helps M4A (iTunes) recordsdata as nicely. As soon as loaded up, it could play again your audio when you swim. Controlling it requires some faucets, multi-taps and long-presses. This permits for monitor skipping, quantity adjustment, quick forwarding and rewinding, or folder navigation if you happen to load music to the headphones with a folder construction. With no visible interface, it may be a little bit tough to search out precisely what you need to play at any given second. For those who don’t like repetition, the headphones conveniently resume playback the place you left off when powered again on, so that you gained’t all the time be beginning again initially of the identical playlist. Double-tapping the play/pause button can even allow a shuffle mode for random playback order.
In the end, the headphones are pretty easy, feature-wise, as a result of their predominant job is to allow you to hearken to one thing aside from the sound of dashing water when you swim. That’s already one hell of a deal with if you happen to’ve already spent a whole bunch of hours wishing you may have any kind of distraction from the pool tiles passing beneath when you get your exercise in.
Efficiency and audio high quality
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones sitting above an ear
The H2O Audio Sonar are a blended bag for sound high quality, not as a result of they’re unhealthy, however as a result of they’re very depending on positioning and scenario. Getting the drivers on the cheekbones near the ear, simply touching the sting of the tragus, produces one of the best sound in my expertise. Additional away, treble begins to drop off significantly, and it was already restricted to begin.
Exterior of water, the H2O Audio Sonar supply mellow however satisfying sound with wealthy mids and crispness on the higher finish of mids. Bass and treble are pretty missing right here, however that’s the beginning of the story. When you dip your head beneath water, the place these headphones are supposed to dwell, the sound all of the sudden shifts from delicate to monstrous.
Submerged, it’s not simply your bones that the sound is transmitting by but additionally the water close to your ears. This provides the sound a a lot larger presence, boosting the bass considerably. For an brisk pump-up monitor to get within the exercise temper, it’s glorious. It’s not essentially the most exact listening, with the bass all of the sudden outweighing the remainder of the sound, but it surely’s thrilling nonetheless. Because the headphones don’t cowl your ears, you’ll be able to nonetheless readily hear the beep of a set timer or a coach’s directions 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 run for 7 hours, and that determine checks out. After an hour of enjoying music at 50% quantity, which is loads, the system was nonetheless reporting battery ranges at 100%. It’s pretty frequent for units to solely report battery ranges in massive increments, and these headphones ought to nonetheless be within the 80-100% vary after an hour of playback.
After two hours, the headphones reported 75% battery remaining, which traces up properly with the 7-hour rated runtime. That’s about sufficient time for the strongest swimmers on the planet to swim throughout the English Channel, so it ought to do properly for many informal swimmers searching for a little bit of music within the pool.
Competitors
Supply:James Holland
The H2O Audio Sonar has some competitors from different bone conduction headphones, however there are few fairly prefer it. The Finis Duo is shut, providing a design that’s functionally the identical besides it places all of the controls on one aspect of the system. At $109, it’s a little bit dearer, has half the storage for onboard audio, and lacks Bluetooth completely, so the Sonar has a transparent win right here.
The remainder of the competitors is from neckband-style techniques just like the H2O Audio Tri or Shokz OpenSwim. The H2O Audio Tri presents the identical options on the identical value, however has a special design higher suited to blended use, the place the Sonar reigns within the water. In the meantime, the Skokz OpenSwim are dearer at $150 whereas coming with much less storage and the identical neckband method to the Tri headphones.
I’ll be aware there are additionally the H2O Audio Sonar Professional and Tri Professional, however they arrive with a considerable improve in value in an effort to get a doubtful and tedious function referred to as Playlist+, which is solely a system for having the headphones make a recording of something enjoying over Bluetooth after which put it aside to inside storage for later playback.
Do you have to purchase them?
H2O Audio Sonar bone conduction headphones connected to swim goggles and sitting out
The H2O Audio Sonar serve one function: to provide you some audio enjoyment when you slog away at your underwater exercises. They try this job nicely. They is probably not fairly, however their capability to connect to your most popular goggles is an effective way to simply combine them together with your swimwear, they usually’re very versatile so far as match goes — one thing that wasn’t so for H2O Audio’s Tri Professional headphones.
Whereas they is probably not so versatile on land, nonetheless requiring a band to put on and failing to return wherever near the function set of modest earbuds just like the EarFun Air Professional 3, they ship when its comes time to get moist, going deeper for longer than any of the everyday earbuds you’ll discover.
Supply: H2O Audio
H2O Audio Sonar
The H2O Audio Sonar are a killer gadget for swimming. They’ll retailer audio recordsdata regionally or play over Bluetooth from a smartwatch so long as each are linked to your goggles when you swim. Within the water they provide pumpy sound to get you within the exercise temper whereas conserving your ears open to listen to lap timers and your environment. They is probably not good for a lot on land, however swimmers gained’t discover a lot better choices than these.
