OPINION: I'm not sure whether I'm a sucker or a serial killer, but I've had enough of wireless running headphones.
It started with a set of Beats.
All the pro-athletes and musicians had them, so surely they were good.
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I emptied my bank account, handed over the $300 and took them home.
They sounded good, but I was soon left disappointed. The sound dropped out when I ran. And the only way to make them work was to position my phone in a certain way.
I persisted, but a month after the one-year warranty ended, they stopped working.
Bar going to a witch doctor I tried everything to revive them. But they wouldn't turn on. The music fell silent. My running became torturously dull.
On Boxing Day, I found myself with the urge to spend and got sucked into dropping $200 on another set.
This time, I tried JBL.
They too were sweat proof, had a nice fit, and the sound was better than the beats. Their connection event worked most of the time.
But disaster struck after about a month. They too just stopped working.
I took them back and had them replaced. But before I could get the new pair out of the packaging, they were destroyed by an almighty beast.
An unsupervised puppy had made quick work of them. My $200 left lying in pieces on the floor.
"That's it," I thought. "I'm done."
I couldn't justify forking out for another set, so I went to the warehouse and bought an ordinary pair for $20.
They sounded horrible and the cable drove me nuts while I was running. But at least the damn things worked.
Months later, somehow I got it in my head that I should give them another chance.
Fearing another epic fail, I googled the hell out of it.
Jaybirds were the answer. "Designed & built for runners, by runners," they promised.
Another $190. But I was convinced it would be worth it.
They seemed to have nailed it with the design. The fit was great. The sound was even better, and you could adjust the EQ through an app.
I followed the instructions to the tee, carefully wiping them down after each run.
But after five weeks of joy, my headphone euphoria was shattered by a little red light.
An unstoppable leech, sucking the battery dry.
A part of the internet undiscovered in my research said they were dead, and there were plenty of other people complaining about the same problem.
$700. Three brands. No luck. How can that happen?
Maybe, I have murderous sweat that hates headphones. Or, perhaps it's all just a rort.
But it seems unfathomable, that in an era when North Korea can build an intercontinental ballistic missile, that some of the world's best audio brands can't build wireless headphones that last the distance.
Newshub.
