Aftershokz Bluez – a review….

Update 14/10/2013 – After almost a year of constant abuse, being rained on, sweated on and used extremely heavily, the Aftershokz finally gave up the ghost, and the buttons on the side stopped working. It didn’t really make much difference to the every day use, apart from not being able to pause and use the voice functions on my phone.

Would I buy another pair? Definitely.

Did I have to? Well it turns out that Aftershokz come with a 2 year warranty, and when I emailed their reseller in the UK, Pinpoint Electronics, they told me to send them back, and have replaced them with a brand spanking new set of Aftershokz Bluez free of charge. Review coming soon….

Read on for the review about the AfterShokz Bluez.

 

Aftershokz Bluez – Bluetooth Headphones.

When I heard that Aftershokz were releasing a Bluetooth version of their bone conduction headphones, I was interested right away. I’ve owned a set of their wired headphones for some time, and although they have their faults, most notably sound leakage and insufficient volume for listening to audiobooks whilst running close to traffic, the fact that you could listen to music, podcasts etc whilst exercising and still hear ambient noise was a winner for me. They are also way more comfortable than standard in ear phones for longer period as they sit on the skin.

Anyway, enough about the Aftershokz Sportz, on to the Aftershokz Bluez. Similarly to the Sportz, the Bluez wrap around the head, and the bone conduction plates make contact with your  skin just in front on your ears. A soft rubber band holds the hard plastic slightly away from your head, and absorbs shock when running etc. They also contain a tiny microphone, so can function as a bluetooth headset.

A small button the the right ‘bud’ mutes the playback. A small button on the left activates voice dial (or Siri if you have an iPhone).

Charging is handled by a micro USB on the underneath of the headband which is covered to prevent rain ingress. To the side of that are volume control buttons. Holding down volume down will skip a track back, similarly holding down volume up will skip forward a track.

So basic functionality aside, are they any good?

I currently use a 6th Gen iPod nano to listen to whilst running, but this doesn’t support Bluetooth, so I got myself a Kokkia i10s. This nifty little (tiny) device plugs into the bottom of the iPod and enables Bluetooth support. So Bluetoothed up, I went for a run.

The sound quality is slightly better that the Sportz (in my opinion), and the volume limit is much higher, to the point of being uncomfortable at maximum volume. You are never going to get super high fidelity from a set of headphones like this, but they do sound surprisingly good, and the extra volume really helped whilst listening to audiobooks downloaded from Audible, which seem to be on the quiet side – a problem the wired Aftershokz had whilst running close to the road etc.

I clipped the iPod to the back of my running cap (as I usually do), so the distance between iPod and the headphones was small, but connectivity was rock solid. After finishing the (one hour) run, however, the battery on my iPod was almost completely drained. I suppose it’s fair enough, considering the fact that it was never designed to power a transmitter, but that wasn’t going to cut it for long distance running / cycling, so I bit the bullet and bought an iPod nano 7th gen which has Bluetooth built in, and apparently will run for around 7 hours whilst transmitting. Perfect for the Portsmouth Costal marathon.

I’m still looking for an elegant way to carry the iPod, but for the race, I used a key holder I bought from Sports Direct for a couple of quid clipped on to my number belt. The only problem is that the key holder was a little too small, and for the first mile or so until I figured out what was happening I kept inadvertently pausing the iPod (which appears to happen when you press in between the up and down volume buttons on the side). Once I’d cracked this, I was laughing.

There was more than sufficient charge in the headphones for the whole 5 hours that it took to run the marathon, and then the hour or so it took to drive home. The Aftershokz sales guys I spoke to at the Running show (where I bought the Bluez) claimed around 7-9 hours per charge depending on how loud the volume was set, and that really is realistic. Pretty amazing considering the size and weight. The ability to be able to skip forward/backward a track without messing around with the iPod itself is really useful too, especially when you’re running and don’t want to stop.

Since buying the Bluez, I’ve found I’ve been using them more and more, both for listening to stuff and as a Bluetooth headset. I’m really very impressed.

So pros:

• No wires
• No more concerns about being able to hear (Audible.co.uk) audiobooks
• Charge lasts long enough for even the longest run/bike ride I’m likely to do
• You really can hear ambient noise – although you probably wouldn’t want to have a conversation with them on.
• Easy skip/mute/volume controls

Cons:

• Sound leakage – people around WILL be able to hear what you’re listening to.
• Bass reproduction isn’t fantastic
• I’ve noticed that leaving my iPhone in my trouser pocket and walking around causes micro-stuttering in the transmission occasionally. This is odd as the range seems to be very long – probably 5-6 metres at least.

Aftershokz headphones and a lack of training…

I’ve been a bit quiet of late. Except for karate on Sunday and Monday for a total of 2.5 hours, I’ve not done anything really since the epic run and bike session last thursday. This has been mostly down to #1 daughter bringing home a stomach bug from nursery and is in no way due to the fact that I’m a lightweight shandy drinking mincer.

As I’ve got nothing else to report, I’m going to start writing about various triathlon related gadgets I’ve bought recently, so here’s mini-review #1.

Aftershokz S2 headphones
These headphones are a little different from most other designs. Rather than sitting in the ear canal or over the ears, they sit in front of the ears and work by transmitting sound using bone conduction.

Before buying these, I usually used something like the Philips SHQ4000 Sports Neckband
series of headphones. I find that normal in ear buds just seem to fall out, and the type which hook over the ear are uncomfortable. The neckband though seems to provide a bit of support.

The two problems I’ve found with having any thing in your ears when exercising are:

• You sweat, and that is probably not terribly hygenic. At the end of a run I’m not terribly inclined to go and take the headphones to bits and clean them.
• You can’t hear any ambient noise. This isn’t so much of a problem in a park, but if you’re running near roads where cars might be turning, or even if you’re on your bike, this is a massive no no.

Step up Aftershokz. Since these headphones don’t sit in the ear canal, they don’t block ambient noise, so you can actually hear what’s going on around you. Obviously if you have them super loud then the effects are negated somewhat, but for the most part they do their job really well.

The Good
It does what it says on the tin. The sound produced is decent, and even at a reasonable volume, you can still hear ambient noises – enough even to have a conversation with someone.

The headphones have had quite a bit of abuse, being chucked into a sports bag at the end of a bike ride/run and they’ve not fallen to pieces yet, something I can’t really say of the Philips headphones where the fragile joints connecting the headphones are prone to cracking.

The heaphones seem to hold a charge for quite a while. I’ve not tested them to exhaustion, but the battery pack certainly lasts for over 4 hours of continuous use.

They’re comfortable. The pads sit on the cheek bones and don’t move around at all. After wearing them for a little while you forget you’ve got them on. Previous conventional headphones I’ve used have become uncomfortable after an extended period of usage.

You can wear them with glasses – pretty essential if you’re cycling.

The bad

Audiophiles will not love the sound quality. It’s OK, but you don’t get great bass reproduction. I personally don’t have a problem with this, and I suspect that it’s a tradeoff you have with bone conduction.

The headphones leak sound like a sieve, so forget using them discreetly at anything above very low volume.

They feel a bit weird to start with. The first couple of times I used them, and even now, at high volume, they cause a slight tingle on the skin. It’s not unplesant, just a bit odd.

The small battery pack is a bit of a pain, it would, perhaps of been better to mount it at the back of the headphone band, it’s not heavy after all.

Finally, I usually listen to Audible audiobooks on long runs. Due to the volume recording level, it can be difficult to hear occasionally when you’re running near to a road with heavy traffic. They are able to output a much higher level with music though, so this last negative is perhaps a little unfair.

The Ugly:

Some people might think you look like a bit of a twat.

In conclusion….

All in all, I’d buy another pair – I’m even considering buying some of the new bluetooth enabled ones just so I don’t have any cables hanging about.

Finally a ghetto tip. I use my Aftershokz with an 6th gen iPod nano (the one with the clip). If you wear a running cap, you can clip the iPod to one side, the battery pack to the other, and the cables in the velcro strap at the back and you have no moving cables at all like so: