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So running with headphones, or any play near cars with your headphones on is dangerous, right? I should probably reconsider this behavior. That said, adults will be, well, the point is some folks will really feel a need to listen and want to remain safe while doing so. That said, I recently read a review of the new Auria headphones which are designed to grab the cartilage of the outer pinna of the ear. I’ll refer you to the well written review here http://run192.blogspot.com/2011/07/great-headphone-debate.html and then add my two cents.
The cartilage that you can see on the side of a human head is small, not uniform, and covered with oil and sweat, once you begin exercising. Only once I began wearing “in-ear” headphones did I begin to realize how much perspiration can accumulate in a human ear – yuck is the first challenge but getting anything, much less a headphone to stay in there is a huge challenge. I am thinking that with the above list of variable and the number of models on the market – I am not the only guy who is tough to fit for headphones.
I have tried over the head, headband behind the ear, ear bud, ear hanger or clip style, I have even applied a ski hat to my head (not joking) to keep those babies in and most do not fit the bill and those that do stay attached to the ear, often pinch or numb some part of the ear in the process.
So this is why I feel compelled to write a follow-up review. These headphones do not feel like they will stay in, I am waiting for them to fall out because they do not feel attached well and they are barely touching your ear. By not sitting in the ear canal and not giving some part of my head a full-nelson, I assume these will be banging my knees in no time, while I am running down the road. I am used to something heavy, something slippery, something vise-like, and so there is no way these things will stay on my head, because I think I know it all. So I cut grass, run 4 miles, and wear them while doing dishes and laundry and just wait for them to fall out of my ear.
Since I am still waiting for them to fall out, I feel compelled to write. This is the moment most designers wait for in their careers – a time when they change expectations about how something is done through design. I assumed I’d never see an ear-bud thingy that was ever worth a damn and now I have. Besides that they are comfortable, are sufficiently loud, and allow you to hear background noise. They truly do hang in your ear so well that you hardly notice them if it were not for the cord. You will need to experiment with all of the four sets of gaskets they give you to get a great fit for your ear. When you do get a fit, it leads you to think that maybe they actually measured human ears or something crazy like that. The in-line control for volume will be used constantly, but the one button control for start/stop/repeat/skip or whatever, is already broken and largely useless – leaving me wondering how they can get such a great fit, only to be bamboozled on what should be a simple solid state issue. That said I give this a solid thumbs up in agreement with the above mentioned review and encourage you to check these out, if headphones are what you must use sometimes when you are around cars.
