Review: AirDrive Earphones

AirDrive earphones:

I am very particular about my running gear, whether it's shoes, shorts, shirt, cap, Camelbak, gloves, whatever. I'll spend a little more to get quality merchandise that lasts longer or performs better. This includes my mp3 player & my headphones. Up till now, the weakest link has always been earphones. Well, not any longer. I finally got some AirDrive earphones.

Three things separate AirDrive earphones from others:

• The ability to hear ambient sounds
• The ability to adjust the ear piece so it stays in place, even on long runs
• The built-in volume adjustment slider.

The ability to hear ambient sounds: The AirDrive earphones do not cover your auditory canal. When you put the earphones on, the speaker is located just to the front of your ear, so you can hear the music but also hear everything that's going on around you. You can carry on a conversation, hear approaching cars, listen to the sounds of nature...in short, you're no longer unaware of your environment while running. I can hear footsteps in the grass 10 meters in front of me while I'm listening to Led Zeppelin, in other words. I can hear a dog barking across the Chattahoochee River while I'm running on the Riverwalk listening to Korn. And when I'm running on the street I can hear all the traffic sounds. I'm not locked inside my own isolated music cocoon.

The ear grips stay put during runs: Usually I'm constantly fiddling around with the earphones. Forget earbud earphones, they don't work at all. The earbuds fall out once I get sweaty. And with all the other ear grip type earphones, the ear grips get sweaty and rotate around, because they aren't moldable enough... but the AirDrive ear grips are a little bit thicker and easier to shape, so that I can shape them to fit my ear exactly. I can totally mold them to fit my ears. I put them over my ear, adjust them, and they stay put. Even on a 3-hour run, I never once have to touch them- they stay in place.

The built-in volume slider: I've got gigs worth of mp3 files, and the recording level is different on all of them. Or it sure seems like it! I'll set the volume just perfectly, and 3 songs later I can barely hear the words. Or it will be too loud. And I'm too lazy to normalize the volume, so it's just been an embuggerance I've learned to live with. Well, on the AirDrive earphones, there's a built-in volume adjustment slider that's easy to find and use. I can adjust the volume as I'm running, from loud as hell to totally silent or someplace in between. It's a great feature and one that I've used many times already.

Obviously, I like these earphones a lot. I've used them for running, and I've used them while sitting at my desk at work. My co-workers have tried them and have been astonished that they can listen to music and still hear what's going on in the office. My wife now wants a pair, since they mold to her smaller ears (that's a first- she's gone through more workout earphones than I have).

The earphones are $99 and they're available by going to the AirDrive site and following the link to an online retailer. The price is well worth it.