Is it because I’m a spoiled Gen Xer who needs stimulation and entertainment all the time? Or is it because I have such a great collection of music and audiobooks that I just can’t leave it behind? I don’t know, but nowadays it’s rare to find me anywhere without earphone or earphone of several descriptions.
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I love my strength and flexibility Professional AirPods. And I wear Shock OpenRun Pro bone conduction sports headphones when walking, hiking, and cycling because they don’t separate me from my surroundings. But there was one flaw in my need to wear headphones: swimming.
No more!
Now, I have Audio Sonar H2O Pro underwater headphones and I can’t see myself bringing anything else to the next pool party.
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Audio Sonar H2O Pro
Open-ear bone conduction headphones have an IPX8 rating, 8GB of memory, and up to seven hours of battery life.
Making headphones work underwater can be a bit of a challenge. Not only do they need to be completely waterproof and easy to control, but they also can’t rely on Bluetooth alone — because this wireless technology doesn’t work reliably underwater. In fact, Bluetooth underwater range drops from 240 meters (800 feet) to less than 8 centimeters (3 inches).
To work around this limitation, it is recommended that you pre-load audio into your headphones using Playlist+ technology.
How does this work?
Simple.
Connect your headphones to a charging cable, plug it into your PC or Mac, and the headphones appear as external storage so you can download music, podcasts, and other audio files (note that you can’t. use files protected by any digital rights management/DRM as found on Spotify and Apple Music).
Sonar Pro includes 8GB of storage, so there’s plenty of room for your favorite tunes.
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For the record, the Sonar Pro headphones are IPX8 rated, meaning they can be submerged in water for up to 30 minutes.
Swimmer wearing H2O Audio Sonar Pro. H2O . sound
In addition, if you have a waterproof smartwatch, you can set it up so that the watch is close to the headset. H20 Audio even makes a special holder for Apple Watch to keep it on the strap of your gogglesclose to the headset.
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To control the headset, there are buttons on the side of the device. As with most controls that are out of your sight, they can take a while to get used to, but once your fingers figure out where things are, it all becomes second nature. .
The control buttons on the H2O Audio Sonar Pro are large and easy to use. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
The headphones come with a single proprietary magnetic charging cable (so don’t lose it!) that plugs into USB-A. (I wish this was USB-C because most things are like that these days.) The cable is used for charging and transferring files.
Exclusive magnet charging cable Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
The main issue — do they work underwater?
Yes, they work very well. Both music and speech are clear and crisp, and the overall experience is excellent. Sure, the quality isn’t on par with the AirPods Pro, but since the Sonar Pro headphones are transmitting sound through my skull while I’m underwater, I’m happy with the experience.
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It takes some time to get used to how these new bone conduction headphones work compared to regular headphones; but if, like me, you come from somewhere else bone transmission headphonesThe transition went smoothly.
If you don’t want water in your ears, the Sonar Pro kit comes with earplugs that not only improve comfort, but also improve sound quality.
At the time of writing, you can choose the Sonar Pro headphones from Amazon for $160. But even without the discount, they’re competitively priced and offer things your AirPods don’t.
If you’ve ever dreamed of swimming to your favorite tunes, now you can!
