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    Gadgetslab: yurbuds Inspire

    TechnologyGadgetsLabGadgetslab: yurbuds Inspire

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    Sports aren’t for everyone. Some people just aren’t cut out for running, jumping and breaking a sweat; it’s tiring. Still, it’s a good idea to go out and raise your heart rate on a regular basis, so you should do everything possible to make the experience a little more tolerable. One of the simplest ways to get in the mood to work out and keep that mood going is through the use of music. For the average fitness enthusiast, it is a way to distract yourself from the miles and burning sensation in your legs. For the more hardcore, it gives you something to think about while you knock out another 1 OOk. The weakest link in any sports audio system, however, is your earphones. Bounding around leads to the inevitable exit of all but the toughest earbuds from your ear canal, cables whip and tangle, and headbands are never really the most comfortable.

    Fortunately, yurbuds has come out with the lronman series of earphones that promise a superb fit even through the most violent of workouts. We got a pair to test, and I had the good fortune of being able to use them exclusively for a week’s worth of workouts. The yurbuds Inspire (yes, the brand likes keeping the”y”lowercase) is a simple pair of earphones that come in a fetching array of sporty colors. It is a standard pair of in-ear plugs that comes with a convenient, cloth-wrapped cable and angled jack. The drivers themselves look pretty ordinary, but what makes them shine is the proprietary locking system yurbuds designed. It’s not a complicated hook-type thing that goes around the back of your ear, or a headband, or one of those weird wedges that you cram into your ear; it’s a simple, oversized rubber cup that sits snugly just outside your ear canal with a little channel that plugs shallowly inside. The shape makes a comfortable seal that you will cease noticing after a few short minutes. Sitting down at my desk, I could immediately say that this is one of the most comfortable pairs of earbuds I had ever tried. There was just enough give to seat, but they weren’t so soft that they’d pop out immediately.

    Sound quality is really quite good for a pair of earbuds. The light weight might make some wary of the bass response and range of the headphones, but they are surprisingly clear. They lean a little towards the bright side, but bass if definitely present, though not as powerful as some other brands. I do appreciate the clear, clean highs and mids, and it doesn’t make me feel like I’m drowning in bass, which is a major plus in my book. While you wouldn’t get a pair of sports headphones solely for the sound quality, it’s nice to know these guys can hold their own. The real test of any pair of earphone designed for the sport crowd is an actual workout. I took the yurbuds, my trusty phone, loaded up some tracks and got to it. The snug fit and light weight really led themselves to a comfortable listening experience even as my workout started to get rolling. No matter how hard the bumps, the inserts did their job superbly, and I was not the least bit concerned that they would pop out at an inopportune time. Because they seat so deeply in the space outside your ear, they are a little warmer than the usual sport headphones, but by no measure were they uncomfortable no matter how long I ran. Running with music has always been a little worrisome for me, as I tend to zone out and pay a little less attention on the road. The yurbuds, however, allow a fair amount of ambient sound to come in from the outside, allowing you to hear trouble before it becomes a problem. A lot of the sport headphones I have tried in the past were problematic because of the cable. Rubber or vinylenclosed deals usually weigh a little bit, and eventually cause even the most secure-fitting plugs to come out eventually. The fabric-wrapped cables on the yurbuds are particularly light, so apart from decreasing the strain on your ear canal, the bounce doesn’t affect the fit nearly as much as on other pairs. It’s not a very big thing on paper, but trust me, you’ll feel it when you’ve been running for any longer than half an hour.

    There’s a reason yurbuds is the biggest-selling sport headphone brand in the US. They perfectly bring together comfort, a secure fit and surprisingly clear, powerful audio in a sweatproof and waterproof package.

    SPECIFICATIONS:
    Cord:1.2M,fabric-wrapped Frequency response:20Hz to 20KHz Connector: 3.5mm Stereo plug
    Sweat-resistant
    Drivers:15mm

    WHAT’S HOT:
    • Super secure
    • Extremely comfortable,and lets
    outside sound in
    • Light-weight

    WHAT’S NOT:
    • A little warm

    BOTTOMLINE:
    If you can’t pound pavement without some tunes,this is the pair of
    headphones with which you should
    headphones
    be doing so.

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    Words by Ren Alcantara

    First published in Gadgets Magazine March 2013

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