SHOKZ OpenSwim Pro - Open-Ear Bluetooth & MP3 Bone Conduction Sport Headphones, Swimming Headphones, IP68 Waterproof, GreyCarbonfree Certified

I just started getting back into swimming. I had the Swimp3 players 15 years ago that made swimming a lot less dull and was looking for whatever the new version of that was. These are better for a host of reasons.First, they stay in place pretty darn well. My old mp3 player was bulky on the side of my goggle strap, and if I did butterfly, they would fling around and I had to stop to fix them. These stay put just fine, even when I jumped in the water from the pool deck. It does feel a little weird to put these on and then to put my cap over the ear part (I can't have my ears out of my cap entirely or it would pop off and/or drive me nuts), but I sort of got used to it. There were some times that I had to tug down the sides of my cap over my ears because it was riding up, but that may have been unrelated to this device. The back of the neck portion stayed outside my cap the whole time and if it moved around at all, I didn't notice it.These are also plenty loud. I had to click them down a few notches from the max volume to be a comfy listening volume. I didn't use the earplugs, but had no problem hearing them clearly, whether or not my head was underwater.With my old mp3 player, I could hear them somewhat even when they weren't on my face. I could tell that some other people could hear it somewhat, too, since I got some funny looks when my music started playing. But with these Shokz, it didn't seem like anyone else could hear them.It is annoying to me that there isn't more playlist control (song order, etc.) and that there's no way to transmit tunes via bluetooth from my phone directly to the device. But I will say that the magnetic USB charging/data cable is pretty slick. It clicked on so easily that I didn't even think it was really plugged in until I saw the light and it auto-opened the file window on my computer. One thing I was really happy about is that it can play M4A files, no problem. I was worried that I'd have to do some lame mp3 conversion to get them to play, but I didn't. I just made a playlist in iTunes (all individually purchased music) and copy/pasted into the file window for the Shokz.Room for improvement in future models? Sure. But for now, this is a HUGE upgrade over my 15-year-old version and it works well enough for me to be very happy with them.

These are a product that I'm shocked (no pun intended) at how much they have changed the game for swimming (and other activities). For background, I'm no expert swimmer, but am an Ironman triathlete (completed 4 full length). These have changed my entire outlook on training. Fairly easy to setup. Charge, familiarize yourself with the controls, and get used to the feeling on headphones not in your ear.Swimming: Absolute game changer. Make sure you change the setting to MP3 setting, bluetooth doesn't work underwater. You can download the app and connect to your phone, but I would recommend knowing the button controls. Once you dial in the swim settings, side load MP3s, get into a comfortable position, it's absolute magic. Some of the reviews mention can't hear out of water - settings must be off, bluetooth must be on, something is wrong. AGAIN - MP3 mode, swim EQ mode, and your are golden. I have swam 6000 meters over the last 2 weeks, and listening to music flawlessly. Even between sets. Freestyle, other strokes, pool, open water. Barely tell they are on, no discomfort with goggles, cap, etc.Running/Cycling:-Again, make sure mode is back out of swim EQ mode, and the sound quality is better. Hitting 30MPH on the bike you will experience some wind noise, but still better then one headphone (I previously used one right ear air pod or one wired apple headphone as the AirPods would come lose or die on long rides). These eliminate all that stress with better sound quality 90% of the time.-Make sure back into bluetooth mode and you can stream anything from phone.Some quirks that were basically only annoying:-The controls aren't the same for each Shokz model. When searching online be careful to learn the controls for FF, Rew, skip song, etc. Some trial and error and using I'm now familiar.-The charge and data transfer cable is proprietary. I got some Shokz 710 to usb adapters so I'm not out of luck when traveling or can't find the proprietary cable.-Sideloading MP3s for non-bluetooth mode is kind of annoying, which I knew it was going to be but it's not entirely clear. We are heavy spotify and Amazon music users. We have thousands of songs in our libraries, but those songs can only be downloaded if the song or album is actually purchased (OUTSIDE OF THE MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION). Turns out only 300 of our 10K songs were purchased over the years, which highly limits what can be downloaded and trasnferred for MP3/Swim mode. There are some hacky ways to convert podcasts to MP3s, etc. but it's not super easy.-The battery life isn't quite as great as the Open Pro 2 that my wife as , but it's sufficient. The charger on those is USB C as well, which I'm sure the next generation of will convert to.If you are on the fence, figure out the purchasing of MP3s and these work well for swimming. If you won't use for swimming get the non open swim version with USB C charging. If you ever will swim with these or will do any training in the pool - ABSOLUTE GAME CHANGER.

Difficult trying to decide to award 4-stars or 5-stars.PLUS's: These are an excellent product, super-comfortable, stay on, have a LONG battery life, and work very well. With the phone app (pretty necessary) and the included USB cable, it's pretty intuitive to load MP3s from computer into the headphones. Bluetooth also works very well between iphone and headphones. These bone-conduction headphones are optimized for swimming and they seem to be well thought out, very well made, comfortable, durable, and include everything you need including a perfect case of some kind of soft rubbery material that feels good in the hands and is just the right size. Sound quality when both ears are mostly submerged (backstroke) is just perfectly amazing - very full and accurately pleasing sound. But...MINUS's: The sound quality when the ears are NOT fully underwater is somewhat tinny and disappointing - even when not in 'swim mode'. In 'swim mode' while swimming, each time one side of the head raises out of water (breaststroke, fly, crawl) that ear's volume and quality decreases markedly. That really does reduce the pleasure of listening to music and audiobooks while swimming laps. The controls are minimalist and clever and you'll need to learn how to find the right button and clicks to increase or decrease the volume, change from MP3 to Bluetooth mode, pause, skip forward and back, etc.So, they're kinda expensive and I'm happy with them and use them all the time but I'm not totally thrilled with the sound when I'm listening out of the water, swimming freestyle, etc.