Our Top Picks For Outdoor And Sport Headphones
Go straight to recommended products.
Nothin' like jamming to your tunes while enjoying the great outdoors, eh? But there's a few things you need to know when buying active headphones, or you might get into trouble. Your ears are a beautifully designed early warning system; much of their work happens subconsciously. If you use in ear headphones that block out a great deal of sound, casually walking across a parking lot can get you hurt. When you engage in outdoor sports it is important to use headphones that allow you to hear your surroundings; and it's similarly important to turn your music down far enough to hear outside sounds. This is even true in controlled environments like skate parks and ski hills---even just noticing enough to flinch and tuck may help significantly in a crash. The truth is, we don't recommend using headphones in these situations, but we know people do, so we try to help.
Our Top Recommendations For Sport Headphones
Possessing an oddly likable '50s retro look, the Koss KSC75 sounds as good as any headphone near $20. Great for wearing under beanies and helmets, the KSC75 also has the famous Koss lifetime guaranty---if the headphone fails at anytime, Koss will fix or replace them for free. Skullcandy also has a lifetime warranty and their cool graphics are a favorite of shredders and extreme sport lovers; check out the Icon Soft for a compact over-ear model. The nifty Sony MDR-G75LW behind the neck is a sport headphone that's cool to look at and good sounding too. Its unique retractable cord allows length adjustment to minimize cable flopping and it will easily store in a backpack side pocket or purse. For an extremely secure fit, the Sennheiser PMX 100 has both a neckband and ear clips for maximized wearing stability while the Sony MDR-AS50G uber-lightweight spiral-flex neckband is ideal for high-impact aerobics and motion-filled activities; their terrific sound is sure to please active types. Yuin has made a name for themselves building superb sounding headphones in the earbud and clip-on categories; their Yuin G2 clip-on headphones are very good sounding, and the Yuin G1 clip-on is the best sounding in this category by far.
Check out our Exerice Category for more great headphone recommendations, including the Sennheiser-Adidas Sport Line and H2O waterproof headphones.
