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Headphones for swimming
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Hi,
Few months ago I wrote an application that helps in swim training. I tested it in on few friends of mine and results are promising (I cut my 400 meters test from 8 minutes to 6:50 in ~10 weeks).

But there is "small issue". The general idea of app is to guide swimmer with voice commands through workout (ordering workout segments, pacing, counting laps etc), and we have some serious problems with headphones. About 30% of testers couldn't find headphones that allowed them to hear sounds while swimming - they very quickly get water in their ears. I tried ~3-4 models and only one of them worked for me (rest of them were "not compatible" with my ears, and got water inside after 2-4 laps)...

I said the one model was quite ok, because after few months of using it definitely lost its waterproof treat, and now after few laps it catches some water, and I can't hear anything until I dry it out.
Basically I'm quite disappointed with my purchases.

I live in Poland - swimming is not very popular here, and on local market there are only some Chinese products branded by local companies - generally low quality products.
I saw that in US there are some companies that claim their products are dedicated to swimming, so I wanted to ask if you can recommend some.

Basically what I'm looking for:
- headphones with standard mini-jack plug or headphones integrated with mp3 player (my app needs only standard waterproof mp3 player)
- headphones that work for most swimmers, and works for 45-60 minutes
- headphones that can be used in front crawl (holds firm in ears, and can be submerged for most of the time)
- headphones that doesn't slip from ears on flip turns (but I probably asking to much ;) )
- It would be great if price would be around 50$

I hope that you will help me find solution, because swimming with "couch" was such fun&productive experience, that I can't imagine swimming without headphones now.
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Re: Headphones for swimming [athabus] [ In reply to ]
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H20 audio www.h2oaudio.com
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Re: Headphones for swimming [tri3ba] [ In reply to ]
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underwateraudio.com

Team Zoot-Texas, and Pickle Juice
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Re: Headphones for swimming [athabus] [ In reply to ]
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I made a pair of bone conduction headphones to be used on any water proof MP3 player.

When using swimming earbuds i found that when the ear canal fills with water the music become faint.
the bone conduction headphones the cheekbone conducts the vibrations to the inner ear

Using a 3D printer I made a hollow housing . It’s 2 inches long .5 deep x .5 width (at the top) and 1 inch oval the fits over the cheekbone.
I used a set of earbud parts and lightly silicone the parts inside the housing then used soldering iron to seal the back part of the housing together.

You use the strap of your goggles to hold the housing next to your cheekbone.



this is where you place the head phones while swimming

Last edited by: heliix: Dec 4, 18 6:20
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Re: Headphones for swimming [heliix] [ In reply to ]
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tri3ba & Taugen. Which model are you using? I have read about basic models of both manufacturers and many people claim that Swimbuds are quite faulty (you need new pair every few months) and h2oaudio tend to slip out form ears/catch water. Tomorrow I'll give last try to my current headphones (I modified earbuds and hope it will work out). If they fail again, I probably buy Swimbuds.


@Helix - amazing. Bone conduction is definitely the best way to go, but on the market there is only one (as far as I know) waterproof model (Finis Duo) that is insanely expensive (and also not very durable as many claims). I found some models on Aliexpress that are way cheaper but has bad reviews.
Do I understand correctly that you put standard earbud inside? I thought that there is little more advanced technology behind bone conduction. I don't get it why they charge us over 150$ for. I wish I had 3d printer and some manual skills.
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Re: Headphones for swimming [athabus] [ In reply to ]
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I used these when training for my marathon swim and a persistent issue was the seal. I tried several suggestions such as putting vaseline on the buds and wearing my swim cap low enough so it would press on the headphones, but water would always manage to come in. If you could consistently solve this problem for users then your idea seems very promising. For now, I shall stick continue writing my workouts on a post-it
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Re: Headphones for swimming [athabus] [ In reply to ]
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athabus wrote:
tri3ba & Taugen. Which model are you using? I have read about basic models of both manufacturers and many people claim that Swimbuds are quite faulty (you need new pair every few months) and h2oaudio tend to slip out form ears/catch water. Tomorrow I'll give last try to my current headphones (I modified earbuds and hope it will work out). If they fail again, I probably buy Swimbuds.


@Helix - amazing. Bone conduction is definitely the best way to go, but on the market there is only one (as far as I know) waterproof model (Finis Duo) that is insanely expensive (and also not very durable as many claims). I found some models on Aliexpress that are way cheaper but has bad reviews.
Do I understand correctly that you put standard earbud inside? I thought that there is little more advanced technology behind bone conduction. I don't get it why they charge us over 150$ for. I wish I had 3d printer and some manual skills.

I have been using the finis for a few years . I got tired of buying a new Finis every year so I tried the water proof iPod shuffle.
the water proof shuffle was by far better than the Finis but the Finis has better sound quality.

You are correct the earbuds were weak but did work. My version 2.0 i used a set of really cheap bone cond headphones as the donor. that worked much better
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