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Is it as a result of I am a damaged Gen Xer who requires fixed stimulation and leisure? Or is it as a result of I’ve such a terrific assortment of music and audiobooks that I can not bear to depart behind? I do not know, however these days it is uncommon to seek out me anyplace with out headphones or earbuds of some description.
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I like the ability and flexibility of my AirPods Professional. And I put on my Shocks OpenRun Professional bone conduction sports activities headphones when strolling, mountaineering, and biking as a result of they do not reduce me off from my environment. However there’s been a spot in my headphone-wearing wants: swimming.
Not anymore!
Now, I’ve the H2O Audio Sonar Professional underwater headphones, and I can not see myself bringing anything to the subsequent pool social gathering.
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H2O Audio Sonar Professional
Open-ear bone conduction headphones with an IPX8 ranking, 8GB of reminiscence, and as much as seven hours of battery life.
Making headphones that work underwater could be a trivial problem. Not solely do they have to be absolutely waterproof and simple to regulate, however they can’t rely solely on Bluetooth — as a result of this wi-fi expertise does not work reliably underwater. In truth, Bluetooth vary underwater is decreased from as a lot as 240 meters (800 toes) to lower than 8 cm (3 inches).
To get round this limitation, it is strongly recommended that you just pre-load audio onto the headphones utilizing Playlist+ expertise.
How does this work?
Easy.
Join the headphones to the charging cable, plug this right into a PC or Mac, and the headphones seem as an exterior storage drive onto which you’ll be able to load music, podcasts, and different audio recordsdata (be aware that you may’t use recordsdata which can be protected by any digital rights administration/DRM as discovered on Spotify and Apple Music).
The Sonar Professional consists of 8GB of storage, so there’s loads of room in your favourite tunes.
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For the document, the Sonar Professional headphones are rated IPX8, that means they are often submerged in water for as much as half-hour.
Swimmer sporting H2O Audio Sonar Professional.
H2O Audio
Alternatively, in case you have a water-resistant smartwatch, you would set it up so the watch is near the headphones. H20 Audio even makes a particular holder for the Apple Watch to carry it on the strap of your goggles, near the headphones.
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To manage the headphones, there are buttons on the facet of the unit. As with most controls which can be out of your sight, they will take a while to get used to, however as soon as your fingers determine the place every thing is, all of it turns into second nature.
The controls on the H2O Audio Sonar Professional are huge and simple to make use of.
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The headset comes with a single proprietary magnetic charging cable (so do not lose it!) that plugs into USB-A. (I want this was USB-C as a result of most issues are lately.) The cable is used for each charging and transferring recordsdata.
Proprietary magnetic charging cable
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Onto the primary bit — do they work underwater?
Sure, they work extremely properly. Each music and spoken phrase comes throughout crisp and clear, and the general expertise is nice. Certain, the standard just isn’t on par with the likes of the AirPods Professional, however provided that the Sonar Professional headphones are transmitting sound by my cranium whereas I am underwater, I am pleased with the expertise.
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It does take some time to get used to how these new bone-conduction headphones work in comparison with common headphones; but when, like me, you are coming from different bone-conduction headphones, the transition is a easy one.
In the event you do not need to have water in your ears, the Sonar Professional equipment comes with earplugs that not solely enhance consolation however enhance the standard of the audio.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
On the time of writing, you possibly can decide up the Sonar Professional headphones from Amazon for $160. However even with out the low cost, they’re competitively priced and supply one thing your AirPods do not.
In the event you’ve dreamed of swimming to your favourite tunes, properly, now you possibly can!