I generally get a cheap set ~$15 off amazon. If I get 6 months out of them then I’m happy, usually around the year mark they die, last set were the pod style and I’ll never go back to wired. No particular brand, Im not worried about sound quality when I’m running or biking, so the cheap ones work for me just fine

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Ask me how much I love my Kiwami LD Aero Trisuit

AfterShokz Titanium are $80 now - https://aftershokz.com/us/products/titanium - bone conduction, so different than what you had, but my preferred exercise headphones now. I've killed too many other "sweat-proof" regular headphones in the past.

I've been pretty happy with the jlabs bud air icons. If you're in the US, buy through Best Buy and get the warranty and when they die you'll get a free pair.

You know based on our personal conversations and on my Lavender Room posts that I absolutely hate Apple and their walled garden. You also know I also have penchant for cheaper more affordable products for the most part. However, I cannot tell you how good the Apple Airpods Pro are. This especially true if you cycling with earbuds in. Without a doubt if you are riding with anything else you need to switch.

Apple Airpods Pro defining feature is their noise canceling feature. Only the Airpods Pro have this. I think you also know about my long-term ear issues and what I can tell you is I think these are actually safer than any other earbuds out there. This is for a couple of reasons including the biggie that because of noise-cancelling you will find yourself having a much lower level of volume in the first place. You simply don't need to turn them up as loud to overcome the background noise which is priceless for long-term ear health. High decibel level for long duration is the number one thing that causes permanent ear damage. Secondly, I believe while riding on the roads this is compounded as the wind noise is so loud and much if it is blocked out by the noise cancelling. This also allows you to hear passing cars more easily IMHO as well.

I can't say I love them for running as they still don't work for my ears and stay in, but for cleaning up around the house, cycling, yard work etc they are absolutely fantastic. They aren't cheap but so far they have held up in summer Florida weather where I just sweat it out doing yardwork. I am still looking for a more affordable pair that have great noise-canceling. Unfortunately the Airpods Pro is the best at it.

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I have the pricey Aeropex version of these, way over $100 ($160ish?). Form factor is awesome, seems like the most sweat-resistant of any design (since it doesn't get trapped in your ear sweat) but there's a real downside and it's the lack of clarity.

I'm no audiophile - I don't even listen to music with my Aeropex, and mainly use it for Netflix when I'm on a SoleF80 treadmill or Vasa erg. It works fine for that, but I'd say subpar compared to normal earbuds since it does get muddy enough at low volumes that you have to crank it up pretty good, even with earplugs (earplugs make them louder and help block ambient.)

I thought I would love Aeropex's ear-aware design outdoors running so I could hear all the cars, etc unimpeded, but turns out it just annoys me. I didn't realize car traffic was so loud while listening to podcasts! I def prefer normal earbuds for sound quality and blocking the loud traffic noise. (I wear earplugs with Aeropex which helps, but still not as good as earbuds.)

Bottom line it's not for everyone, although I do say it's an impressive piece of gear in truly doing bone-conduction sound at a good level. And again, I'll bet this is THE most sweatproof design out there.

I just picked up 2 more pairs of these:

https://www.amazon.com/...pop_mob_b_asin_title

Been using my current paid for about a year, but the sweat is starting to get to them. At ~$20 a pop, not a big deal.

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Strava

I remember you mentioning those. Just feel kind of burned with my Powerbeats dying after a year of use. Hmmm... I'll chime back here with what I eventually pick up. Thanks for the recommendations all.

Do yourself a favor and buy these: https://www.amazon.com/...TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

I had the original version that were not IPX7. I got over a year out of them, then they stopped charging. I emailed customer service and they sent me a new pair, and they are the 2nd gen, IPX7 waterproof version. This new version will sync L or R or both. Great if you're out for more than 4-5 hours. You can toss the other earbud in the case (or without the case and turn it off). Great customer service, and I doubt you'll find better a better deal for true wireless, IPX7 headphones with great customer service. If you're riding or running outside, you shouldn't be using both earbuds anyway!

Edit: On sale for $32. 16k+ reviews, most 4-5 star.

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

Ditto! I usually by 3 pairs at a time and use one pair for my swimming, one for my cycling and one for running.

You have used this model in the pool? Do they stay synced to your phone?

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

I have a pair of Plantronics Backbeat Fit that have lasted forever. If they died, I would buy the same in an instant. They are fantastic for running and cycling.

I also have a pair of active noise canceling Anker over-ear for the trainer and a pair of AirPods Pro. I do not use my AirPods for exercise, but a good friend does, and he raves about them.

I have the AirPod pros that I use for work. But I struggle to keep them in my ear. Maybe it’s just me. I did a few trainer rides with them when I first got them and I had one of them fall off. I’m almost tempted to go back to the cheaper version.

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...if / when I keep my head up (kickboard work) and swim an outside lane. I put the phone at the edge of the pool at mid-length, that way there’s no more than 40ft for transmission.

I have Aeropex headphones too. They're great at what they're supposed to be - so-so audio without preventing you from hearing outside noise. I think of them like having a radio on while driving a convertible - background tunage. If one really wants to hear great audio, stay at home with noise canceling headphones. I think it's unrealistic to use earplugs and expect audio quality to improve much from so-so with the Aeropex.

Had a reminder of the safety aspect of the Aeropex headphones the other day while riding slowly on a bike path- heard a noise (thought it was another bike shifting or something) and was on a bit of alert. Came around a corner (and there was an elderly man in the bike 1/2 of the lane, in the shade, bending over to pick up his aluminum cane). I can't fathom the degree of guilt if I didn't hear him and sent him flying!

Yes, I can't get them to stay in my ears in Florida running but if it is dry they will stay. I will say that I tend to see people wearing Apple Airpods Pro and the stick is too far out which tells me they are using the wrong size tips. If you use the right tips the stick should be nearly hugging your face. But yes, it annoys me to know end that Apple has a one-size fits all approach and they could have some sort of loop system around the ears. I think the killer product product for running is actually vertical bluetooth headphones. You could actually put some serious battery into too

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I hear you on that and believe me I am worried too as I haven't had good luck with earbuds over time not dying which is why I usually buy cheap and treat them as disposable. However, I really do think that anything earbuds that reduce the level of volume you need to listen to get the full effect is worth its weight in gold and their noise-cancelling is that good. Sometimes I don't even listen to anything and just wear them. You can always purchase on an AMEX and double your warranty and their warranty process is super simple. I don't abuse their warranty process and I have been AMEX customer since 99 but they have never even followed up on anything. They just take my word on it. Probably submitted 5 claims in the last 15 years. That gives you hassle-free two year guarantee.

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Just my $0.02; IME Beats products are mediocre quality (at best) with a premium price tag based on brand image. I had a pair of Beats earbuds and sound quality was no better than some mid-tier Sonys, plus some of the cheap plastic on the volume switch broke after just a few months. There was also this: (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/...-better-quality.html) about Beats using steel plates to make their headphones seem heavier/better quality while using cheap components.

All that being said, this doesn't mean that high-priced headphones can't be great quality. I have some Bose over-ear headphones and the quality is spectacular (great for flights and other times I care about audio quality). I have the Aftershokz xtrainerz and they are bombproof; the audio quality is so-so, but for swimming/zwifting I don't mind. My wife works out with Airpods, and they have been great (tempted to get a pair myself, but I already have too many devices).

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I got a set of Jabra Elite Active 65 off of Amazon Warehouse for $50. They're normally like $175. The Elite Active 75s are even nicer, and you can find them open box on Amazon Warehouse for like $125. But the 65s are awesome. I'd highly recommend them. Just wait for someone to buy and return on Amazon. That's for sure the best way to get deals on stuff like headphones.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

I have them both and they are the best I have used after going through a dozen pairs of other BT headphones. The 75s are marginally better so the 65 is the way to go if you can find them in the <$75 range. They constantly advertise refurbished ones. One of my 65s and my 75 were both refurbs in perfect shape. I use them hours every day which is why I have a few pairs between home and work. I'm confident Jabra's 'HearThrough' option will be standard on every headphone sold in a few years.

Don't buy ones that connected with wire like this. We have to wear mask these days and it's inconvenient.
Two separate pieces like AirPods is the best.

Well I don't wear a mask when I ride my bike, especially on the trainer, so I'm good.

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Strava

I learned about these from this forum and am sold. Solid design and they also solved the issue I had with wind noise when running on a windy day with the in the ear type of headphones.

I listen to music all the time and go to the gym, grocery store, bike store and whatnot.
I wear glasses as well, so wire bothers me a lot.

I just bought these on your recommendation. Thanks, they're awesome for $33.

Cheers! They also have flanges on the new ones to help when extra sweaty

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

Another vote for the aftershokz titanium.

Got them today. First impression is that they're pretty great. They fit my ears very well and don't foresee them coming out while running. I actually think their ear bud hook/insert system is pretty well thought out as is the general shape. Used them for music and calls for about two hours and had over 50% battery remaining. Audio quality I would rate as an 8/10, certainly good enough for my purposes.

Can you expand on this? Are you saying that you don't hear wind noise with the Aftershokz while running

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You will have to circle back around after you get some runs in as I am always curious how the various designs shape up for running, and not just for a single set of ears. Also, would be curious about the voice calls. With the Airpods the "transparency mode" is another killer feature. It makes it much easier to hear yourself talk. Maybe I am the only person that thinks about it, but for the full form-fitting ear buds that block the canal, well I find talking very distracting because of the Occlusion Effect. Again maybe it is my hyper-awareness of my own ears that cues me into this and is just something others either don't notice or don't have a problem with.

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AfterShokz hands down

FWIW, I have been using these in Dallas this summer while on long sweaty rides and have had no issues. I don’t run so I can’t help there. But they get a good seal if you pick the right size tip.

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

I see a couple of people recommending AfterShokz but nobody recommending them is really say why, just recommending. What are the defining features of AfterShokz that make them such a killer recommendation. My only personal experience has been negative. For one your ear canal is still open so you get a bunch of wind noise in there. More of an issue cycling. The wind noise IMHO drowns out other more important features and sounds, ie having your ears canals open provides a false sense of security. Then there is the fact that the sound is terrible (without ear plugs) and I would suspect that because of all the external noise that people crank AfterShokz to hear their muffled music which may also lead to faster rate of damaged hearing.

To me AfterShokz wearers always seem to have the same irrational fear of people that avoid the ocean... Sharks! or Airplane fears, even though it is proven safer than driving. In the case of AfterShokz, the ability to "hear" our external environment could potentially lead, I would like to see this studied, to increased hearing damage down the road, leading to social isolation, and higher levels of depression.

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Same. The sound quality was poor. All I wanted was to listen to books on tape or podcasts. I had it nearly maxed out to understand the words and would get headaches. Plus they are fairly large and clunky compared to current offerings.

I posted above already, but agree with you. I don't find the open-ear format any safer than just wearing normal earbuds - in fact, I welcome the noise reduction on roads when I'm running since passing trucks are so loud!

I think the longevity of these Aftershockz will be unbeatable though - since they sit outside the ear, they simply aren't exposed to all the compressed and collecting sweat that pools and kills earbuds (in my case over 7 of 'em, including several IPX7 ones.)

I actually think the Aftershockz are sort of mismarketed for triathlon/running. They work best for me around the house doing errands since I hear my family easily if they ask me something in the middle of my podcasts, and also work great as a driver in a car since you can listen to podcasts privately while being road-aware (so the rest of your family in the car don't have to hear your boring podcasts on the car stereo.)

However, I suspect I'll always use these for tri at some point, even if I get something better - I just can't see how any in-ear earbud, no matter how pricey, can be more sweatproof than this thing.

Aftershokz are fine for music. But in my experience, they are terrible if you listen to podcasts or books. With road and wind noise, I simply could not hear all of the words when listening to a podcast. In fact, I found myself more distracted trying to figure out what was being said than otherwise. So the ability to hear ambient noise seemingly had the opposite effect to the one intended.

I don't disagree with you on the sweatproof thing. I will say that if you live in place like Florida enough you will realize it doesn't really matter if it is direct sweat, often times it is just the exposure to humidity that will nuke the devices. Some of the ears buds out there are completely sealed units, no buttons, no seams etc. I suspect some of these that have no real design weakness will face better than most. I haven't taken a look at Aftershockz that closely but I would suspect they could fall prey to the same sort of thing too and wouldn't be immune but they might be better than the majority of earbuds on the market.

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I just did a run to verify that there is no wind noise when running, it used to be if running into a headwind with some of the headphones I tried I would have to take them out since they were useless.

Note that I use cat-ears (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H2LSOQ6/) on my road bike but my tri helmet is surprising quiet.

My Why:

I run in pretty quiet areas so there aren't a lot of noises that I want to get rid of.

I use the headphones for a distraction to the fact that I don't have that many running routes so I don't need to have great quality
that said I find listening to music just fine and the volume is pretty low.

I, for some reason, sweat a lot in my ears (and everywhere else) and so the non-supported headphones don't stay very well.

I don't get wind noise like my over the ear headphones give me. (MPow Flame, Treblab XR100, etc)

For me the in the ear canal buds hurt after awhile, I've tried multiple buds and different adapters.

I don't agree that all of us are afraid that we won't hear a truck hit us, for me it's a much more enjoyable experience and surprisingly overrides my tinnitus noise. Probably because the sound is taking a different path.

They could be less bulky, I'll give you that.

Disclaimer: I'm old and my hearing isn't the best. I have some well defined notches in my audio frequency response due to being stupid when I was younger. I don't listen to anything loud anymore and I'm happy with the quality of the bone conduction system.

I also use Aftershokz because of tinnitus. My tinnitus is mild, low-frequency and only noticeable when things are quiet, such as bedtime. But use of standard headphones/earbuds seemed to exacerbate it. Aftershokz does not seem to do so.

Another vote for the trekz. You can usually find a pair of new trekz airs on ebay for $75 or so. Keeps you under your $100 budget. I have not used the titanium but the air for $75 is a good deal.