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Hour 1 Guests
If you’re like most folks, you like to listen to your tunes while you’re working out. For that, of course you’ll want a pair of headphones that are sweat-resistant, lightweight, rugged, and able to stay in place when you exercise. Does your current pair need upgrading? Consumer Reports electronics spokesman James McQueen is here with some recommendations.
The $30 Scosche SportClip 3 workout headphones are billed as splashproof and dustproof; in our testing, they provided very good sound quality. A set of earhooks help them stay securely in place even if your bobbing and weaving through a kickboxing workout. It’s a small detail, but we like the carrying bag, which keeps the wires from getting tangled up in your backpack or purse.
The $200 Jabra Sport Pulse workout headpones combine elements of in-ear and earbud earphones and delivers very good sound quality, along with the convenience of Bluetooth connectivity. What sets this model apart is that it has a built-in heart-rate monitor function: A sensor in the earbuds picks up the wearer’s heart beat, and a free mobile app (on your iPhone or Android device) calculates the heart rate. Our tests found the app to be impressively accurate.
Like the Jabra model, the $200 Beats by Dre Powerbeats 2 wireless Bluetooth headphones has built-in Bluetooth, for wirelessly connecting to your mobile device. These workout headpones also combine elements of in-ear and earbud earphone technology, and provides very good sound quality.
For more info on this story, visit ConsumerReports.org.