Until fairly recently listening to music whilst running was not my thing. I like to leave my phone behind and focus on being outdoors and the sounds around me. So have I been missing out all these years?
Who is it aimed at?
Runners who can access their music via Bluetooth and need a wireless connection.
Best bits?
Great build quality, decent battery life and great sound reproduction.
Our experience
As I mentioned, I am new to music whilst training and it was my recent test of the TomTom Runner 3 watch that made me try it out and I was hooked. So began my quest for the best in wireless headphones to utilise this training watch feature. Several cheap pairs worked for a while but either wore out or did not work very well from the start. One pair only worked at full volume with the watch so were relegated to use with my phone only and another refused to pair. Enter the Monster iSport Intensity In-Ear wireless headphones, not the cheapest out in the market but so far are proving to be the best of a growing market.
Pairing was straight-forward and all the controls have worked which sounds like a simple request but as you read above not all headphones have fulfilled this seemingly simple requirement!
Sound quality was an immediate upgrade over my cheaper test headphones. Clarity, treble and bass all felt vastly superior and more akin to wired phones than Bluetooth wireless. The electronics on the headphones seem to operate in a similar fashion to several other pairs I own but sound quality here is a mile ahead!
The iSports come with a little carry pouch and spare/different sized in ear adapters which on first fitting seem as though they will fall out as they do not protrude too deep into the ear canal. I opted initially for the medium size as I have mid sized ears. Further testing revealed I should use the large size and an even better fit was achieved. So far they have stayed in place and even on a few very hot and sweaty runs have behaved well. A clever little toggle helps stop the connecting flat anti tangle cable from flapping around too much whilst in motion.
Charging is via a micro USB and should last up to eight hours. In use they last perfectly well over quite a number of runs and have shown to top up charge speedily. They do feature a built in microphone but I have not used the iSports with a phone in a conversation as yet as I mostly run to get away from the phone!
One thing I never liked about running with music was the isolation from the external world that some headphones offer, whilst this might be important to some I actually like to have a degree of sound coming in from outside, be that an engine or another person and these headphones are marketed as such. They are not offering total sound isolation which I think is a big plus for this runner.
One final point is the reflective stripe along one side of the cable for better visibility out at night. A nice little safety feature. Overall these are excellent headphones and are working extremely well and sounding amazing. They are well worth your consideration.
You can find out more HERE.
Racing to keep up: Is social media making us train harder?
