Tuesday 21 June 2016

Under Armour's new JBL-engineered wireless sports headphones show promise but have pain points

Harman and Under Armour have a new strategic partnership and the first fruits of their joint labour are a line of wireless sport headphones. Both sets, UA Headphones Wireless and UA Headphones Wireless Heart Rate, are engineered by JBL. I got my hands on an early sample of UA Headphones Wireless, which are shipping in late January and retail for $180 in the US. No international pricing has been announced yet, but that converts to around AU$280 or £125. I can't say I'm all that enthusiastic about them, but mainly because they simply don't fit my ears that well. The problem is the buds' housing is big and has a silicon cover (you can choose between two sizes) that's ringed with a row of treads, with a integrated silicon eartip that extends out. You kind of screw the bud into your ear and the treads are supposed to lock the headphone in place. JBL says its "Twistlock technology guarantees the headphones will never fall out while the Flexsoft finishing provides long-lasting comfort." It didn't work so well for me, however. The outer rim of the bud -- the part that has the treads in it -- was just too big to fit comfortably in my ear and the silicon tip of the earphone didn't extend into my ear canal far enough to get a good seal. That's not to say these won't be a perfect fit for someone with bigger ears, which is why I'm going to have some other CNET editors try them out before I put a final rating on them. Alas, because of the poor fit of the headphone, it was hard to judge how good the sound was. When I manually pushed the tips into my ears, I got a lot more bass and the headphones sounded good. With the more open fit I ended up with, though, they sounded flat and had little bass

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