I spent 2 weeks testing the H2O Audio Sonar 2 Professional, and located them to be the right headphones for swimming

H2O Audio Sonar 2 Professional: Two-minute assessment

The H2O Audio Sonar 2 Professional are presumably the absolute best headphones for critical swimmers. They safe onto a headscarf as a substitute of getting their very own (and are very steady when in place), making them distinctive amongst H2O Audio’s choices in addition to setting them aside from the remainder of our greatest swimming headphones. Since Bluetooth connectivity has bother in water, H2O has added some options to get round that.

Nearly as good because the H2O Audio Sonar 2 Professional are for swimmers, they’re most likely among the many least fascinating headphones for some other objective. They solely sound good underwater – that is by design, in fact – and it’s nonetheless not fairly an audiophile expertise. And that type issue could be very limiting. Whereas a few of our greatest working headphones checklist use bone conduction know-how and can be utilized in water and on land, there are different choices, even from H2O Audio, that I choose for that objective, such because the H20 Audio Tri 2 Professional, rated our greatest bone conduction headphones general.

However for his or her supposed objective, you’ll be hard-pressed to do higher than the H2O Audio Sonar 2 Professional. With that in thoughts, let’s dive a bit deeper on why that’s.

Whereas I already had an thought of what to anticipate after I obtained these headphones, I used to be shocked by how small the field was – it’s not a lot larger than the field AirPods are available in – nor how small the soft-shell case inside was, which was mainly the identical dimension because the field.

The precise headphones got here contained in the case together with the folded up charging cable and a pair of waterproof earplugs. The headphones themselves, in addition to being pretty small, are distinctive wanting as a result of they don’t have any headband of their very own, only a thick, blue cable that goes behind one’s head connecting the drivers to one another.

The bone conduction drivers are every in black housing with a clip on the skin and three management buttons – the left has the Mode (switches between Bluetooth Mode and utilizing inner storage in Reminiscence Mode), ahead and again, whereas the suitable has Play / Pause / Energy, and Quantity Up / Down.

Since these are made for swimming, they’ve an IPX8 score – about nearly as good because it will get in any client product not meant for the Mariana Trench – so it may be underwater “as much as 12ft/3.6m” with none restriction. When you’re contemplating these for critical diving, be warned the strain in deeper waters might have an effect on these headphones.

Additionally, because the H2O Audio Sonar 2 Professional are made for swimming, they arrive with a pair options meant to avoid one of many greatest hurdles for utilizing headphones whereas swimming. Bluetooth connectivity tends to turn into extra intermittent the extra water is between the supply like a sensible cellphone and headphones, so these headphones include a built-in MP3 participant with 8GB of storage.

Loading music onto these headphones then is paying homage to loading music onto a cellphone as one may need completed ten years in the past, which isn’t essentially the most handy, utilizing the included charging cable and connecting the headphones to a pc. That additionally signifies that you must have the music you need saved in playable type like MP3 in your laptop.

The H2O Audio Sonar 2 Professional do have an extra function to make this extra manageable that the non-Professional model doesn’t have, and that’s the Playlist+ function. This function lets the person load music onto the headphones wirelessly. Now, H2O Audio advertises this function as a strategy to switch a playlist, however that overcomplicates what this function truly does.

Consider the Playlist+ function like a tape recorder. Whether or not you do it by way of the headphones (you press the Quantity Up button twice to start out and cease recording) or the app, you mainly begin the recording course of, press play on no matter music or podcast you need, after which cease it when the track is finished. It received’t cease by itself, so you might probably have a number of songs on one monitor. One factor that I do respect is that it’s going to learn the title and track title from the supply and mechanically title the file after it. It’s a pleasant work-around, if a bit inelegant. It’s actually a digital model of urgent ‘report’ on a boombox to make a mixtape.

No matter whether or not you’re streaming by way of Bluetooth or listening to an MP3 in Reminiscence Mode (aka the built-in MP3 participant), the sound high quality is similar. And it’s a bit unusual. The way in which bone conduction headphones work impacts the sound high quality a bit, since what you’re listening to is vibrating by way of your cheekbones into the interior ear as a substitute of really passing by way of your ear. So, all the things sounds extra intelligible when additionally sporting the included earplugs.

It additionally sounds clearer when underwater. The listening expertise just isn’t fairly HiFi, nonetheless. I’ve listened to H2O Audio merchandise underwater earlier than and I don’t keep in mind them being as bass-heavy. Perhaps it’s intentional to make the music sound extra motivating however the low-end appears to be entrance and heart to the purpose the place a track like “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” feels like a bass solo and songs with 808 drums like hip-hop and EDM are considerably overpowered by the kick drum.

What’s unusual is that there’s no actual strategy to EQ the headphones in a strategy to offset it, particularly for those who’re utilizing Reminiscence Mode (you possibly can all the time use an EQ on the cellphone for Bluetooth audio). That mentioned, the mids and highs are pretty clear when underwater, so if H2O Audio adjusted their app to have some sort of EQ changes, I feel these headphones could be even simpler to advocate.

They’re nonetheless simple to advocate, regardless of that difficulty with the low-end. I haven’t actually mentioned match but, and when you’re considerably on the mercy of no matter headband you utilize, when these slip on they’re extremely steady. They don’t transfer. They don’t jiggle. I discovered by struggling or thrashing my means by way of a pair laps in an Olympic pool to see what would occur. This can be a huge purpose why they’re among the many finest swimming headphones.

There’s not else to put in writing house about relating to the H20 companion app, apart from to say that it gives you a readout of battery life and allow you to navigate the songs saved on the system when in reminiscence mode. You may as well begin the Playlist+ function right here.

Lastly, the 10-hour battery life doesn’t appear spectacular in comparison with what we see on the most effective wi-fi earbuds, particularly while you embrace the additional expenses of their carrying case – one thing you don’t get with the mushy shell case because it’s not an influence supply. However I feel it’s truly a good quantity of juice for a swimmer.

H20 Audio Sonar 2 Professional: Specs

H2O Audio Sonar 2 Professional: Value and availability

How a lot does it price? $149.99 / £117.00 / AU$234.00When is it accessible? Obtainable nowWhere are you able to get it? Obtainable within the US, UK, and Australia