Great headphones for the commute home; find something else for the workout afterwards (Bang & Olufsen Earphones)

Member Name: grey0220

Product:	Bang & Olufsen Earphones
Date:	02/11/09 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Look great; sound quality you know to expect from B&O

Disadvantages: Difficult to get the hang of putting them in; liable to fall out/off; quite pricey

My husband and I live in Canary Wharf, and it's hard to pass ten people and not see at least four of them sporting these headphones. With a Bang & Olufsen store just down the road from us, the hubby decided to pick up a pair to use with his iPod Nano. At the time, I was still using the bog standard white buds that came with the iPod, but was looking for headphones that I could wear to the gym without fear of them falling out. He offered to let me borrow them for the express purpose of seeing if these could be "the ones".

Before I say anything else, it has to be mentioned that these do offer exquisite sound quality when used properly. Listening to, for instance, Let It Be...Naked using these earphones as you sit on the Tube is like listening to a completely different album, for all the nuances you can finally pick up. So if you're a music fiend, then I would definitely recommend at least trying them out.

Alternately, I'm not a massive fan of the actual physical design of the earphones. I've had to become accustomed to it as I received the Serenata as a present last year and its hands-free set is essentially this set with a microphone attached. However, when I first tried my husband's out on the treadmill, and today, I find them difficult to fit exactly into my ear - often, the running motion jiggles the bud out, so there's quite a lot of space between it and my ear, making any fine improvement of the sound useless because I can't hear it! It's also difficult to work out how exactly it fits best on your ear - the top part actually moves up and down, so you get the sense that it COULD fit very well, if only you could figure out how to make it!! My ears are quite small, so I found this even more problematic than most.

These ear phones are perfect for the commute home, as when you're sat relatively still, the sound quality, like I said, is great. They're even good during a brisk walk. However, any more intense cardiovascular activity and they're liable to pop out - and after paying so much for them, the last thing you want to do is let them fall under a treadmill or worse.

I use these for Tube journeys, but I bought a cute pair of novelty pig in-ear buds to use when exercising instead. To be honest, when I'm running on the treadmill I'm not overly concerned with the delicacies of my trashy work-out music! So it works out great for me.

Summary: You wouldn't want to get them sweaty, anyway!

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