The Dash wireless earphones - EPIC FAIL

Triathlon Forum
1

Having lost my Beats wireless earbuds, I thought I would see if there are any cool ones out there to replace them. I ran across The Dash wireless earphones by BRAGI at Costco. They claim to be true wireless (no cable at all), waterproof, HR monitor, and tailored basically to triathletes. What?! At $230, it was pricey but if I could swim with music (along with bike and run) and it tracks my progress, yippie!

Now, I’m no DC Rainmaker here but here is my review if anyone is looking to purchase wireless earbuds. The box says it won a design award and it is very cool. The whole thing screams expensive. The carrying case is actually the charger and they claim will hold up to 3-4 charges before having to plug it in again to the wall. Never made it that far.

In order to pair, you have to put them in your ear (which are comfortable) and listen to the soothing female voice as she walks you through the set up. To save time, make sure you have candles and goat because it takes some sort of sacrifice to the bluetooth gods to get these thing to pair. After holding my finger to the left unit, you get it to pair, then 7 digit codes comes up then you have to tap the right unit (or nod your head though that didn’t work). After 30+ min of cussing and pressing, I apparently did the right sequence of things (none of which I could repeat) to finally get it to pair. Contrast this with my Beats where it popped up a verification screen on my phone, I hit yes, and in less than 30 seconds, was done.

After loading the app and reading through the manual, it appears that you only get 3hrs of continuous playback and I cannot find anywhere anything about transferring data to apps like training peaks. OK, gonna try to look past this because I get music when I swim and they have this cool pulsating light (must…go…toward…light). Suddenly though, the $230 is not sounding like a deal.

Maiden voyage time. I get the buds loaded into my ear, turn on the tunes (had to bluetooth sync again), get the run activity to start, throw my phone in my belt pack, and off to my run! Instantly, the music cuts off every other step. Argh! OK, well I have my phone in my belt pack on my back, I will just turn it to the front like a fanny pack. Nope. Still cuts out. I take my phone out and literally hold it next to the unit and it STILL cuts out with every other step. Now the soothing voice comes on and announces that I have run for 5 minutes, my step count, and HR. She is very soothing but I’m pissed. I load them back up into their award winning packaging and take them back to Costco to which the guy says to me that he is seeing a lot of people returning them. Nice.

It appears that BRAGI spent more time worrying about packaging design, cool voices, and nod gestures than just doing the basic stuff right. I really wanted these to work and they have all the right components but just lack in execution.

2

Frustrating! …I don’t know if I would’ve ever trusted them in a pool…

It is not trivial to communicate wirelessly through parts of the human body, like the head. That development and making everything small enough is where all the cost comes from. The cut-out every other step, though, sounds to me like bad battery contact or something similar inside one or both of the ear buds.

3

Luckily Costco has the most lenient return policy of any retailer in the country…and if what the Costco employee said was accurate, they won’t be in Costco for long. Fastest way to lose business there is have a high return rate. Costco doesn’t tolerate that.

4

But Helle Fredriksen wears them!

5

Dead honest here -

You’re having bluetooth connections issues. I can guarantee that $230 wireless earphones certainly are not meant to perform/connect at that glitchy a level, given that my cheapo $30 ones connect without a hitch.

I had the same thing happen to me sporadically as well as my first time out on a pricey pair of $100+ Jaybirds. I was really mad at first, but then after turning everything on and off a few times, it connected fine and kept doing so.

It’s still possible you have a defective pair, but odds are higher that something glitchy is going on with the bluetooth that may go away if you somehow get everything reset to pair correctly.

6

On a whim I ordered a pair of the new Apple Airpods when they were released. I did so with the full expectation of not liking them and them sucking on the run and planning to have to return them within Apple’s 14 day return window. However, I now have just under a 100 miles running with them and I love them. They work flawlessly. They stay in my ears even when hot and sweaty as well as running in the rain. They are definitely a keeper for me.

7

So basically you are pissed because you struggled to connect them and on your first run the connection was faulty? you try their help at all? you try more than one run?

8

strange, after updating one or two times, i have had no issues. i purchased mine in the kickstarter, and to date have enjoyed them.

9

Im with the one above. I got a pair recently and they work perfectly fine. I did have the problem with one popping out during the swim but i just had the wrong bud size. Easy fix.

10

IMHO.the sensory deprivation associated with wearing earbuds while biking and running outdoors makes it a reckless activity. Specially biking.In many places they are forbidden while driving, for a reason.

I had a discussion about this with a tri-club mate. Afterwards he got run by a car while crossing a lane while running (fortunately nothing happened) and attacked by a dog from behind, being a face-plant the first notice that something was going on (again, nothing happened). He didn’t give them a third opportunity and ditched the earbuds.

11

thanks for not letting me be the guinea pig. I’ve been eyeing those, but not seeing great reviews and they seem pretty bulky compared to the new ones coming out.

12

Did you update the firmware? I’ve got a set that I’m testing out for a review, and they are fantastic.

There was a BIG firmware update that improved pretty much everything. MAKE SURE YOU UPDATE THEM.

The only problem I’ve had is:

  • if it’s really cold out, and your ears get cold, the lack of bloodflow can make them think they aren’t inserted and they will turn off. But as soon as your ears warm up (say, you put on a headband), they turn right back on

  • if you listen to a LONG podcast, there’s no way to scan if you accidentally hit “next.” It’s best for music. But with that said, I listened to quite a few hour long podcasts - including finishing listening in the shower - and it was great.

But almost all of the complaints you list here were legion (if you scan the web) with the OLD firmware.

13

On a whim I ordered a pair of the new Apple Airpods when they were released. I did so with the full expectation of not liking them and them sucking on the run and planning to have to return them within Apple’s 14 day return window. However, I now have just under a 100 miles running with them and I love them. They work flawlessly. They stay in my ears even when hot and sweaty as well as running in the rain. They are definitely a keeper for me.

How in the world do you keep water and sweat from ruining them? I thought they weren’t waterproof. They are?

14

How in the world do you keep water and sweat from ruining them? I thought they weren’t waterproof. They are?

I haven’t done anything special with them except wear them, including about 40 minutes in a rain storm this morning. NO issues at all.

In the past I’ve had issues with wired headphones with sweat and water but it wasn’t actually the headphones. I think it was the control switch on the headphones that would short out as sweat and water ran into it down the wire. Just my thoughts.

15

I did not read all the other responses… but these are well known to not pass signal through the body. If you wear (the phone) on your arm you are golden. Also they have built in memory you could use.

16

I’ve had a pair for over six months and absolutely love them. I’d buy another pair today if I lost them, even for $300. They aren’t perfect, but work great for me. I use them at least 2 hours a day at work, the gym, running outside and in, and biking outside and in. I even use them in the hot tub. sorry you had a bad experience, I hope you find what your looking for. The key for me was uploading my favorite music to the buds for biking. That’s the only time it ever drops, so I just use the internal player and it works great.

17

Forget it…no use preaching.

Good thing is that you always got a legal leg up if the shit hits the fan.

I actually like them to be plugged in, this way I know they don’t flinch when I pass them and they tend to respond better to visual cues = ‘hand signs’.

IMHO.the sensory deprivation associated with wearing earbuds while biking and running outdoors makes it a reckless activity. Specially biking.In many places they are forbidden while driving, for a reason.

I had a discussion about this with a tri-club mate. Afterwards he got run by a car while crossing a lane while running (fortunately nothing happened) and attacked by a dog from behind, being a face-plant the first notice that something was going on (again, nothing happened). He didn’t give them a third opportunity and ditched the earbuds.

18

to be honest those were the only wireless earbuds that have player built into them. I dont like running with my phone; I never do - that my time to unplug; and was looking for wireless phones with inbuilt player for long; have them from kickstarter and they work great - as you said playtime on them is for me around 2h 20 mins which is a bit bummer as not long enough for my longest ironman runs. but otherwise they work very well.
couple of times when i used them on a treadmill with a phone placed on the machine itself was ok too but as i said my deciding factor was built in player - which just recently got added full shuffle mode

i am based in asia so i sweat profusely and wore it during torrential rains and everything works fine - usually wd need to replace phones after 6 months