[MERGED] Best Bluetooth Headphones [for Apple Watch]

[Shinigami301]

The Jaybirds switch between all my iOS devices and my Apple watch seamlessly, never drop a connection unexpectedly, and run for up to seven hours on a charge. They are the best overall wireless canal phones I have ever used. Being a BT headset, they don't hold a candle sound wise to my wired Sony XBA-Z5's or even my cheaper Shure 535's, but they are great in sports activities.

 

[EdisEdward]

just bought the powerbeats 2 for $150. fair price for these pair imo.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

just bought the powerbeats 2 for $150. fair price for these pair imo.

If you don't mind shining, can you let me know where you got that price?

Thanks!

 

[EdisEdward]

If you don't mind shining, can you let me know where you got that price?

Thanks!

so fry's posted the wired powerbeats2 for $150. i honestly thought these were the wireless ones when i went in there, but i took it to bestbuy for a price match and had no trouble. it was only afterwards that i noticed the model number in the fry's ad was different. but anyway, if you take this ad to bestbuy, they should price match it for you easily. i sent this to a friend and he did it as well.

http://www.frys.com/product/8429218?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

 

[jefftroll]

Do the jaybirds bluebuds x cancel out noise? I actually like to hear my surrounds when I run so I don't get run over by a bicycle or car. I currently run with plantronics backbeat fit and they are comfortable for me. They also do not cancel out noise since they don't squeeze into the ear canal. The plantronics play time is pretty good but I like the 7-8 playtime on the bluebuds

 

[Aluminum213]

Just buy the $200 Powerbeats2, yes it's expensive but from my experience with them, best sound, most comfortable and most well built


If you workout 3-4 times a week, it's a no brainier to just plunk down the extra cash for something you're going to use all the time anyway

 

[laff]

I was at the Apple store on Sunday and tested the Jaybirds X and the Powerbeats2. I liked the sound of the Jaybirds much better as the sound stage seems bigger and I could hear the mids highs, with some good and not over powering bass. BUT, fit is the problem, the Comply's may make the difference as some have said. If they fit well then I would say that is the way to go.

Now the Powerbeats2 did sound good as well...more comfortable out of the box, but I found the soundstage more limited or at least not as wide. It was not bad, but for me, if you get a good fit with the Jaybird X they do sound a bit better...but...damn if you do, damn if you don't. Personal matter. I do not think $200 US is worth it for the Beats. Jaybirds at $125 US on Amazon is more worth it, but again personal choice and personal fit is key.

The reality is that no bluetooth headset can compete currently with a wire set at a similar price. Its the convienene and ability to have no cord that makes it appealing.

 

[Ctguy]

just bought powerbeats2 at best buy for $145.96, it on sale for 170, but if u add iPhone5 cases, total came out to be 145.96. follow this direction to get it,
http://dealnews.com/Beats-by-Dre-Po...es-for-141-padding-free-shipping/1376609.html

 

[Bigboi]

I got the Powerbeats2 but I am on my 3rd pair the first 2 quit working after 2 months. I sweat a lot when I workout so I think that has a lot to do with it.

 

[shortcut3d]

I purchased the Jabra Pulse Sport this week because I just could not wait any longer for the Bragi Dash. After playing around with the different "gels", I found a decent fit. Since I typically wear collared shirts the cable can get snagged. The mic also seems to pick up all the ambient noise based on comments from the person on the other end. The Pulse battery life is okay. No where near the time others have quoted for the Jaybirds. At least the Dash has a charging case.

Patiently waiting for the Dash.

 

[swandy]

Don't know how many votes for the Bluebuds but I love mine - though I do connect them to my iPhone directly, not the Watch. (Have not tried syncing songs to it yet and as I generally have my iPhone either in a pouch when biking or in my pocket when jogging, never seemed important.)
And I love their customer service people. I lost one of the rubber pieces and when I called to order extras, I asked if instead of a pack with all three sizes, could I just get a 6 pack of all medium and that is what they shipped me.

 

[fischersd]

Don't know how many votes for the Bluebuds but I love mine ....

You don't get a lot of breaks in the music?
I want to be able to toggle the BlueBuds between my watch, iPhone and mac mini (for around the house), but it's looking like the bluetooth stack that Apple implemented on the Watch doesn't play nice with the BlueBuds. I have my watch on the left and the control/antennae for the BlueBuds on the right and it's very susceptible to any sort of interference (don't walk by the water either...breaks are constant). Working with their support on these issues, but it's appearing they're just pointing the finger at Apple.

Anyone recommend bluetooth earbuds that work great for runs on the beach?

 

[swandy]

You don't get a lot of breaks in the music?
I want to be able to toggle the BlueBuds between my watch, iPhone and mac mini (for around the house), but it's looking like the bluetooth stack that Apple implemented on the Watch doesn't play nice with the BlueBuds. I have my watch on the left and the control/antennae for the BlueBuds on the right and it's very susceptible to any sort of interference (don't walk by the water either...breaks are constant). Working with their support on these issues, but it's appearing they're just pointing the finger at Apple.

Anyone recommend bluetooth earbuds that work great for runs on the beach?

Never experienced anything more than the VERY occasional "break" when synced to either my iPad Mini or my iPhone 6.
I did try connecting the Bluebuds to the Watch, but as opposed to switching between my iPhone and iPad - where you just have to go into Bluetooth settings and tap the Bluebuds and the connection is automatically switched - for the Watch I had to actually first disconnect the Bluebuds from the iPhone, it would not disconnect and switch to the Watch automatically. Now I will admit I only tried it once - but figured I would just leave it connected to the iPhone.
The only "issue" I had with this setup - connected to iPhone and carrying that when jogging - was several times the music would completely stop and I would have to turn the Bluebuds off and on to get it to reconnect. Not sure if it was a coincidence, but it only happened when I was running the app Map My Run on my iPhone (and the Activities App on the Watch). And as soon as I stopped using Map My Run, it never happened again.

 

[fischersd]

@swandy I did another test this morning. I turned off the wifi and bluetooth on my iPhone (and didn't wear my Tilley had for the beach) and the performance was flawless. You wouldn't think wearing a big, floppy Tilley hat would muffle the bluetooth signal (when both sender and receiver are below the hat), but it obviously does!. Took the same path with the watch on the water side, controller on the land side. Performance was night and day.

This is the ONLY way I've found to use the bluebuds and the watch with no breaks in sound. The only other flawless (kinda) experience I get is the bluebuds and the iPhone, leaving the watch at home. But, then, you lose all of your fitness tracking. I say kinda as the iPhone was cutting out further south when I was near the water - but that could just be poor cell signal.

The tech I'm dealing with at JayBird now said that their little company really doesn't get a lot of help from Apple with instances such as this. Hmm. Think that has anything to do with Apple's Beats acquisition? (the FTC certainly wouldn't like to hear that).

Don't really have a mechanism to return them now...(Best Buy won't take them back once they're opened). I mean, they're functional, but it's a little annoying to have to disable the BT and wifi on my iPhone for them to work properly with the watch.

 

[cekaai]

Received my Urbanears Plattan ADV Wireless headphones today!! It's so sleek and clean.

 

[swandy]

@swandy I did another test this morning. I turned off the wifi and bluetooth on my iPhone (and didn't wear my Tilley had for the beach) and the performance was flawless. You wouldn't think wearing a big, floppy Tilley hat would muffle the bluetooth signal (when both sender and receiver are below the hat), but it obviously does!. Took the same path with the watch on the water side, controller on the land side. Performance was night and day.

This is the ONLY way I've found to use the bluebuds and the watch with no breaks in sound. The only other flawless (kinda) experience I get is the bluebuds and the iPhone, leaving the watch at home. But, then, you lose all of your fitness tracking. I say kinda as the iPhone was cutting out further south when I was near the water - but that could just be poor cell signal.

The tech I'm dealing with at JayBird now said that their little company really doesn't get a lot of help from Apple with instances such as this. Hmm. Think that has anything to do with Apple's Beats acquisition? (the FTC certainly wouldn't like to hear that).

Don't really have a mechanism to return them now...(Best Buy won't take them back once they're opened). I mean, they're functional, but it's a little annoying to have to disable the BT and wifi on my iPhone for them to work properly with the watch.

The idea about the hat causing the issue seems - at least to me - a bit far fetched. Not saying that that did not occur, but I would think it was something else.
If I have a chance I will try syncing some music to the Watch (never bothered before because I always carried the iPhone when either walking or bike riding) and try playing directly from the Watch to the Bluebuds. Might not be until later in the week though as I am going away.
Also, I don't see why you would have to turn off Bluetooth and Wifi on your iPhone though. All I had to do is just turn off Bluetooth (to un-pair the Bluebuds) and then pair them to the Watch. I could then turn the Bluetooth on the iPhone back on.

 

[ElCidRo]

I'm not really convinced about any of the current offerings to be honest. Powerbeats2 seem to best at the moment, but for their price I still feel they could offer better value.
I think Apple will release new Beats earphones soon and maybe some other high-end manufactures like Shure, Klipsch, Bose, B&O, Audio Technica etc will join this segment. Does anyone knows of any rumor?

 

[fischersd]

The idea about the hat causing the issue seems - at least to me - a bit far fetched. Not saying that that did not occur, but I would think it was something else.
If I have a chance I will try syncing some music to the Watch (never bothered before because I always carried the iPhone when either walking or bike riding) and try playing directly from the Watch to the Bluebuds. Might not be until later in the week though as I am going away.
Also, I don't see why you would have to turn off Bluetooth and Wifi on your iPhone though. All I had to do is just turn off Bluetooth (to un-pair the Bluebuds) and then pair them to the Watch. I could then turn the Bluetooth on the iPhone back on.

Well, you're welcome to repeat the experiment yourself - but you'll need a wide-brimmed hat to do it. I have a big head, so the brim on the hat is about 4".
And, yeah, I know - it doesn't make any sense to me either why something ABOVE the watch and earphones would somehow muffle the bluetooth signal?! (and I managed engineers at BlackBerry - so I have some idea of what I'm talking about with RF) - it's got me shaking my head, but it happened and it's repeatable. Baffling!

@ElCidRo - Apple just brought out the PB2's in the sport band colours - to me that suggests we won't see any new headphones for at least a year, no? I also hear Bose isn't doing well (shame, LOVE their stuff!!) - I hear they've been laying off. Sad news. I'd love to see them come out with amazing BT headphones - maybe they will yet.

 

[luckyblue]

I got these Jabees headphones and they work great! They were only $33 and amazon prime so they came quick. I wanted wireless sport headphones for when I go jogging in the mornings. Now I can jog with out my phone because it works directly with my watch. I'm really glad because running with my phone is a pain, it swings in the pocket of my basketball shorts. The sound is great, I'm really impressed! I didn't have to spend over $100 to get good sound. When I run, I wear my watch on my right wrist because the brain of the unit is on the right ear. It doesn't cut out at all. I love that they are waterproof too, if it's sprinkling I can continue to wear them. Nothing is better than spending way less, and getting way more than you expected!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XDLKGLQ?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

 

[T4R06]

Best Bluetooth headphones! I'm talking abut sound and for the money you spent it will beat most popular headphones out there. I have Bose and B&W as well

 

[Advil]

got the qy7 and trying to figure out which ear tips to use. can i use any third party tips with them, the stock ones hurt my ears

 

[fischersd]

Thankfully, the BestBuy customer support were willing to take them back, as I explained that JayBird customer support was unable to resolve the disconnecting issues - so they're flagging them as defective (with 6 days to spare in my 30-day window).

Nathan at JayBird said that I was basically in a waiting game for Apple to resolve the issues with the BlueTooth stack of the Apple Watch. Sorry, not going to gamble on their finger-pointing going to be right.

Guess I'll be getting PB2's.

@Advil - check to see if Comply has tips for them.
Edit: on another page, someone said they ordered these tips for their Soundpeats: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DKZP7K

 

[Andydigital]

These are my new Denon AH-GC20's with active noise cancellation, they sound superb being audiophile quality gear, they also use the APT-X codec over Bluetooth which is as good as it gets, shame the iPhones don't support it yet but a least the Macbook Pro's do from 2012 onwards.

IMG_0465 by Andy B, on Flickr

IMG_0466 by Andy B, on Flickr

 

[fischersd]

Umm...all of you guys posting this massive headphones - you DO see that the topic is best BT headphones for apple watch, right?

I somehow doubt you guys are pairing these to the watch.

 

[Andydigital]

Why not, I've had mine paired and playing during 2 workout sessions today, the Denons aren't as big as you may think, they are over the ear rather than on, but they still are a lot smaller than my Sennheiser RS170's which I use for TV and Movies.