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I have a new pair of bluetooth earbuds. They are LEOPHILE ZERO with active noise canceling. I don't use the noise canceling feature, so I could have gotten the model without the feature. I hear the feature consumes battery, which makes sense.

The set is a horseshoe which goes around the back of the neck. The earbuds hang from the front of the horseshoe. Sound quality is pretty bad, as it lacks bass. The earbuds catch a lot of wind and introduce more noise into my ears, but it's not horrible. The microphone is on the underside of the horseshoe, which is great. I occasionally need to talk on the phone, and this prevents wind noise from getting into the audio stream. People can hear me just fine, even when I'm riding on the bike. My previous headphones were utterly unusable as a phone because wind noise was deafening.

Controls are on the top side of the horseshoe, easy to reach and feel.

Another nice thing is that it's easy to use just one earbud rather than two.

Some people on Amazon complain that the dangling of the earbuds is annoying. I don't mind it, but you could rig up a magnet or piece of velcro if it bothers you.

I listen mostly to spoken word, so sound quality isn't that important to me. If good bass is important to you, don't buy these.

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Originally Posted by Hypno Toad (Post 20388232)

Quick update on the Skullcandy Methods: I tested them for 'rain-proof' in the heaviest rain you can image (like cars-pulling-over-to-stopping-on-the-highway-heavy rain*). I wore my earbuds on Saturday's Westside Dirty Benjamin, is was ~7 hours of non-stop rain punctuated with the-skies-opened-up downpours. They didn't sound good (like they were under water) when I get back to the car to call Lisa, but once they had some time to dry, they recovered fine.

* We needed to cross a major divided highway (HWY 169), the traffic was stopping on the roadside during the worst of the downpour, we took 'shelter' under a tree until visibility improved to cross.

One downside to the Skullcandy: there is no way to know the battery level. I like when the LED or audio at start up tells you the battery left on the earbuds.

Late to the party here but these are nano-coated to protect against sweat/water etc, they have a loop to stay in your ears (regular earbuds constantly fall out on me) and they have a stated battery life of 12.5 hours.

Anker Soundbuds Curve Wireless Waterproof Built-In Microphone In Ear Lightweight Sports aptX Bluetooth Headphones

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use them on long gravel rides, including several hours at DK this year when I found myself fighting the wind by myself. I haven't ever actually tested the 12.5 hour claim but they last for hours, at any rate.

[MENTION=373854]ksryder[/MENTION], those Anker earbuds look good, and I regret I didn't know about them. How are they for the phone?

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Earbud to use in my office

(OK)...

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and while riding

(NO, except while on the trainer inside)

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Originally Posted by noglider (Post 20388983)

[MENTION=373854]ksryder[/MENTION], those Anker earbuds look good, and I regret I didn't know about them. How are they for the phone?

They're fine - my phone is my music player. They don't have a microphone so you still have to speak into the phone -- not really an issue for me because I'm not answer the phone on rides anyway, but might be relevant to others.

No microphone? Deal killer.