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You are here: Home / Archives for yurbuds

yurbuds

Go Wireless! A YurBuds Review

OperationMove · June 30, 2014 · Leave a Comment

We love being able to offer our Operation Move team the chance to participate in product experiences and reviews. Today, Christina shares her thoughts on the new YurBuds Wireless earbuds.

photo 1

As a runner, I listen to music or audio books to keep me moving. Thanks to Operation Move, I have had the chance to try out Yurbuds’ Limited Edition Inspire Wireless ear buds.

In the box:

Earbuds
Charging cable
Spare set of silicone enhancers
Case

First impressions

When I removed the headphones from the box, my first thought was that they would not fit in my ears. These are the largest earbuds I have ever seen, dwarfing my standard issue iPhone earbuds.

photo 2

The earbuds connect wirelessly to any blue-tooth enabled device with just one click. It took less than 30 seconds to pair the earbuds with my iPhone 5s. It took far longer to jam them in my ears, but more about that in a minute. My iPhone also displayed a battery monitor – a handy feature to make sure they last the distance – up to six hours. This does not work currently with Android devices. The earbuds give auditory feedback for power status, maximum volume, and critically low charge. The controls are on the right earbud, and it is easy to adjust volume, change tracks or answer a phone call. The earbuds are connected by a cloth-covered adjustable cable that can be worn at the front or back of the head.

photo 3

These earbuds are not for the audiophile, offering adequate mid range sound, but no booming bass or crisp treble. Inserting the earbuds properly significantly improves sound clarity – the narrow end of the washable silicone covering needs to point into the ear canal. This is not intuitive, and I actually had to consult the manual to work out how to position them so they would not fall out. The ‘twist and lock’ action felt more like jam and wrench.

Performance on the road

Yurbuds claim that the wireless Inspire earbuds never fall out or hurt. Once I wrestled the earbuds into place they were surprisingly comfortable, and I mostly forgot about them on both short and long test runs. The wireless signal did not drop out, even though I carried the phone in my Spibelt rather than the recommended position on the right arm. The controls were easy to use on the move. The earbuds are not especially loud, but that suits me. I like to be aware of my environment, and these earbuds allow ample ambient noise awareness. Perhaps too much – I was much more aware of wind noise than I usually am with my regular earbuds. Sound quality was acceptable when fitted properly, although the range was not as dynamic as I would like.

On my long run I had trouble balancing the sound. This was due to incorrect fit, and annoyingly, I had to stop running to reposition them. They did not fall out when fitted properly. I loved not having wires dangling in front of me, and the controls were easy to access. I tried a phone call, and while I could hear my friend clearly, my friend had trouble hearing me. I would not use these earbuds for making phone calls outdoors.

Verdict – measure your ear cavity and check these headphones out in the wild before shelling out $199. If they fit and you are not overly fussy about sound quality, they are a good option for wire free moving.

Yurbuds Inspire for Women: A Review

OperationMove · April 30, 2014 · 3 Comments

yurbuds

I am an avid music listener when I run. Actually the last three words are unnecessary. I’m an avid music listener. I love though, that on a run I have all that time to myself to listen to music uninterrupted and undisturbed. Yes, I have small children, how did you know?

I have playlists for speed runs, I have playlists for long runs, I have playlists for races and I have a Christmas playlist which I listen to all year round, BECAUSE I CAN and it’s awesome.

I have gone through all sorts of headphones, the one’s Apple and Samsung gave me (depending on what phone I’m using), noise reduction headphones developed for Sport and pretty much any other kind of headphones that I saw that looked like they might be good, or pretty. I’m a fan of pretty.

You know what I’m also a fan of? Safe. As someone who does the vast majority of my runs on a highway in low light, safety is pretty important. Me running on narrow shoulders at dawn with cars zooming past keeps my mother and my husband up nights. Well maybe not up, but concerned at least. And one of the big things with safety and road running is not about reflective clothing, it’s about having headphones that will let in enough ambient noise that if a big mack truck is coming up behind you, you will actually hear it.

If I was to rate most important features of headphones they would go like this:

1) Ambient noise – noise reduction is great but it is no good for running and has anyone else noticed how if you use noise reduction headphones you can actually hear your own pulse. It’s very disconcerting.

yurbuds-road

2) Won’t fall out – any adjustment of headphones on a run is too much. You just don’t want to spend any time thinking about it. And once you are really sweating, that’s a pretty tough ask.

3) Sound quality – I don’t want to hear static (yep that has happened even with new headphones), have connection issues where the sound goes in and out (yep, that’s happened too) but I do want to hear nice, clear sound.

pre-race

 

The Test Run

If you are going to test out new headphones, I figure that a 25km trail run with an 860m ascent is going to be a pretty good place to start. You need to be able to hear runners around you so you don’t cause a pile up situation, you are going to sweat more than you do on any road run and if anything would cause them to fall out it would be heartbreak hill. Which I have to say is a million times worse than it looks in this photo. Photos really don’t do gradients any justice.

heartbreak-hill

 

The Verdict

Did not fall out. Not even once. Not even when I fell over and grazed both of my knees. I was able to hear all the runners around me with no trouble. On a tough 25km course it was nice to have my crystal clear music with me, particularly when I was having thoughts like ‘how do I even get up that/down that/across that’. Because no one wants to listen to their own hard breathing for four hours.

 

We have a pair of YurBuds Inspire to give away to one of our newsletter subscribers! If you are already subscribed you are in the running already. If not, join the team right here!

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