Underwater Audio Swimbuds Sport Waterproof Headphones and iPod bundle review

Underwater Audio has outdone themselves with this product.  I have used these headphones for over two months now and whether I’m walking, running, mowing my lawn, weeding my garden or swimming (in that order every Saturday or Sunday) these babies are with me.  Let me tell you why I love them so much. 

First of all, I was so excited when they showed up and I realized they came with a waterproof iPod Shuffle.  No more stuffing my iPhone (which I used for music before this) in my pants when it begins to rain. I clip my Shuffle right on my shirt where its easy to skip to the next song, and not interrupt my workout, or my tasks at hand, rain or shine.

Here is what you get:

• One pair of Waterproof Short Cord Swimbuds Sport Headphones
• 1  39-inch (1m) Swimbuds Sport Waterproof Audio Extension Cord (white)
• 4 types of eartips: 1 pair or round eartips for comfort. 1 pair or tree eartips for swimming, 1 pair of fin eartips for water activities, and 4 different sizes of the ergo eartips for running and biking
• 1 black mesh bag for storing and carrying your headphones
• 1 iPod Shuffle (if you get the Sport Bundle like I did)
• 1 round carry case made of neoprene to keep extra cords or eartips not being used.

I was impressed that there were two different cases that it came with to hold all the pieces together.  One to keep the iPod and headphones that I use every day, and the other to put the extra eartips and the extension cord in.  I was in love with this product before I even put them on.

The first thing I did was try on all the eartips to see which ones fit best.  I decided on the round ones as they were the most comfortable to me. They can be seen in the first picture in this post. Then,  I went out to the pool where my 16 year old daughter was laying in the sun and she noticed my new getup right away.  It’s too bad I wasn’t video recording the look on her face when I went down the steps into the water without taking out my headphones, or removing the iPod.  It was priceless.

Being that I’m not a distance swimmer, but more of a lounger-floater-loafer type of swimmer, I was pretty happy with the way the round eartips stayed in my ears.  But, for the purpose of this review, I used all of the tips and swam a few laps with each just to see what would stay in the best and feel the best.  In my opinion, the one they refer to as a “tree” style  (pictured below) seems to stay in the best for me.  The clear ones shown in the pic did not work well in my ears for some reason and when I did get them to fit right, they hurt my ears.  I tried fitting them all on many different days because after awhile, my ears would get sensitive then all of them would hurt so I’d have to give it a rest.

I live about 10 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, so my next stop was to try these in the ocean and see how well they stayed in with waves hitting me.  I love to body surf for fun and play in the ocean with the kids, so this would be a good test for sure.  The “tree” style again won the prize for staying in the ear the best.  My girls and I took turns using the waterproof earbuds and we had a lot of fun, but I realized I probably won’t use them much at the beach, for this reason:  I’d rather listen to the sounds of the ocean!  But that’s just me.

Speaking of sound, I would rate the sound quality of these headphones as very good.  Swimming is loud with the water splashing and hitting your ears, but these tend to muffle that noise and allow you to stay “in tune” with your music and your work out.  In and out of the water, these have performed great for me over the past few months and I use these exclusively over my Apple earbuds when I work out.

All in all, I am very impressed with the sound quality of these headphones, the selection of eartips they come with, and the cases they supply to keep everything organized. I am very happy and satisfied with the fact that I can go from the mower, to the pool, and not have to worry about rain, or changing out the headphones or iPod to swim.  If you’re in the market for waterproof headphones, look no further.

Source:  The sample for this review was provided by Underwater Audio.  Take a look at their site for more information and to buy or go to Amazon to purchase as well.