Ear Buds with winter cap/helmet, etc..

**Crippity** · 12-02-2020, 03:53 PM

For those that ride with ear buds, today was first time I had winter cap over ears with my current ear budz PLT sport ones on and didn't greatly enjoy the pressure from the cap on the ear buds pushing into what is left of my brain. Can anyone recommend ear buds that they wear when you have an outside cap/helmet whatever they feel cozy? Thank you in advance.

**scrublover** · 12-03-2020, 06:23 AM

Originally Posted by Crippity

For those that ride with ear buds, today was first time I had winter cap over ears with my current ear budz PLT sport ones on and didn't greatly enjoy the pressure from the cap on the ear buds pushing into what is left of my brain. Can anyone recommend ear buds that they wear when you have an outside cap/helmet whatever they feel cozy? Thank you in advance.

Just get some small and cheap ones - they are going to get sweaty and wet under that cap anyhow.

**Shredhead** · 12-03-2020, 07:17 AM

I really like the Beats Flex tethered Bluetooth buds. They pair well with IPhones and with the Apple Watch, I can leave the phone buried next to my body for warmth.
The buds themselves are really small.

**climberevan** · 12-03-2020, 11:25 AM

Warning: I'm a headphone whore.

I'm in the midst of a quest for the right BT earbuds at the moment. My strategy is to buy a bunch of them from Bezos and take advantage of the free returns to try them all out on rides and runs.

The main problem I'm running into is wind noise above 15mph. Otherwise comfortable and good sounding buds seem to be really susceptible to it.

Preliminary results: the fully wireless style with a stem that hangs down (like Airpods) is good under a hat and otherwise, but does not work at all with a helmet, as the front strap touches it and telegraphs scraping sounds.

The most comfortable buds I have are actually the cheapest: ~$8 "sleeping" corded ones. They are really tiny and don't have interchangeable tips (medium usually works for my ears anyway). The sound is very meh, with no bass at all, but they are ok for podcasts. Best of all is that they suppress wind noise well. My running hypothesis is that this is due to the tiny size.

The front runner for comfort and sound in the current batch of BT buds is the Shure 215 with BT cable. The battery is huge but surprisingly not an issue at all when clipped to a collar. They were comfy for 7hrs of riding a couple of days ago and at that point I still hadn't heard a low battery warning. The isolation is good (or bad if you want to hear the world), but wind noise remains an issue. The cons are that they are a little fiddly to put in and the BT is a little unstable. They don't lose connection as long as the phone is in my pocket, but they cut out way more than they should, especially since the $15 ones are rock solid.

I'll update as the results come in. I'll also happily buy more if mags have good recs of models to try.