Bose SoundSport Wireless Headphones
$64.99
$149
56% off
Reference Price
Condition: Refurbished
Color: Black
Top positive review
797 people found this helpful
soundsport vs. airpod. vs. soundsport free: classic soundsport still the best.
By xavi on Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2018
This is my 2nd pair of these headphones - and they are my favorites. I also own an old pair of around-ear bose soundlinks, the soundsport free, and the apple airpods. All have their pros and cons, as I will explain below. The only experience I have with noise-cancellers is with the sony wh-1000xm2 that my wife got as a surprise gift (she loves them). These are my favorite headphones for running or working out, and also watching movies on an airplane. The sound and fit is nearly identical to the soundsport free. They sound like bose headphones - pretty good, you can probably get better sound but there will be compromises in other areas. The soundsport free's have a few strange compromises to eliminate the wire - phone calls only play through the right side, and they have trouble pairing to my laptop (a razer running windows 10)- they would only pair in headset mode and not music mode. I would blame razer or microsoft, but I've never had this problem with any other headphone. These Soundsport have no nonsense with oddities like that, and the reception is a bit better as the antenna is in the wire, not enough to make a difference in practice. But there is, of course, a wire. I consider this a good thing when I run (and I run almost every day) as I tuck it into my headband to keep them from moving. I also have a lot of hair so it can be hard to fit the free's back in on the fly, need to clear all the hair out of your ear first, same with any in-ear. You can also dangle one phone from the wire around your neck without worrying about it. The buttons are much easier to press. The only downside is, they charge using a micro-usb and not the usb-C that my laptop, phone, and nintendo switch use. In fairness, the frees, sony's, and bose's soundlinks use micro-usb, too, so you'll be stuck needing to worry about an extra charging cord no matter what. By comparison, I wanted to also mention how these compare to the airpods and free's. Both of those eliminate the wire, but with the addition of a charging case that has an extra battery. The apple case is quite discreet, whereas the bose free case is hilariously huge. If you keep your phone in an otterbox or it is a panasonic toughpad, you probably won't mind the bose case. It makes quite a bump in your jeans pocket. The airpods have some funky pairing mechanisms that make them difficult to use if you have other apple equipment - For work, my employer has given me an iphone 7 and an older macbook pro from 2015. Switching the airpods between these devices will occasionally require the device be signed out and back into icloud - which is a huge headache. After the 2nd time of hitting the massive icloud reset button in the sky, they have been relegated to phone use only with my xperia. This is where the airpods excel - phone calls play through both ears, you can use both, or either one, or even share one with a colleague for a conference call. The mike is great at noise cancelling, and I work in very noisy environments. Both pods have a mike and the work some voodoo when you wear both of them to cancel out almost all noise. They do a lot of really nice stuff. My personal phone is a sony xperia xz1, and the airpods pair to and work with the sony without any hiccup, never failing to pair. They also pair to my windows laptop fine, but will only connect to one device at a time (They forget the other device and must be re-paired, which is quite painless but still an annoyance compared to the Bose). They also sound really really bad, and don't have any controls other than a play/pause by either 'double flicking' either pod while it's in your ear, or removing one pod to pause. You can find better-sounding BT headphones than the airpods for under $20, and they will have much better controls, but they won't have apple branding. The airpods charging case requires an apple-specific lightning cable, but one comes in the box so it's not a huge deal. The soundsport free's, by contrast, feature the excellent sound quality of the soundsports, IMO they sound even better because they are newer. They are my favorite headphones for just listening to music around the house or taking a quick phone call. Unlike the airpods, they don't really work with just one. The right bud is the "master": it is used for phone calls (there is no mike in the left bud), it also has the +,...,- buttons on the top, which are slightly awkward because they are hard to press. The left bud does not play voice calls, it is used for music only. It also has the BT pairing button on it. You can almost get away with using only the right bud, so long as you don't want/need to switch devices. You can also use just the left bud, but the right bud needs to be kept within range (e.g., in a pocket) and also out of the charging case. However, the soundsport free's have one big advantage, or disadvantage depending on your use case, and there is no wire connecting them. Because I have long and bushy/curly hair, my hair will push the wire around if I'm not wearing a headband or hat (e.g. whenever I'm not running) and it will cause the headphones to come loose. That is a thing of the past with the free's, and the free's are the only headphones I have ever used where I can stick them in and forget them - the airpods are slightly better than the wired headphones included with the iphone (best just left in the box, IMO) but will still fall out and bounce all over the floor if you turn your head even slightly to one side. I have noticed that if sweat gets into the free's they get a bad honky sound to them, and then need to be rinsed out. If sweat gets into the regular soundsports, they just get quieter (muffled) and the volume can then be turned up to compensate. Both versions of soundsport are quite discreet as they stick mostly within the ear area. The airpods have a white stalk that dangles below the earlobe... this contains the battery and antenna so it is necessary for now but it is quite noticable, as they are bright white. Depending on the earrings I'm wearing the stalk can clack against the earring. Right now I'm wearing 4awg glass spirals and I wear them all the time, they definitely clack into the airpods. However, the airpods are still small enough that people will want to talk to you and not realize you have headphones in to ignore them on purpose. For this purpose (e.g. airports, lounges, etc) the Soundlink around-ear's still reign supreme (mine are bright white from 2015, even with my hair they cannot be missed). If you are concerned about price, these soundsports are the least expensive of the 3 (although in such a case it is hard to argue against a pair of jvc or koss gummy headphones for 9 dollars, and live with the wire going to your phone... if the wire rips, it's only $9... I also bought my first soundsport in 2016 and they were 150 even back then - the airpods being 160 and free's being a bit more around 200. Ideally Bose would have introduced the free's at 150 and dropped the regular soundsport to 120 or so, but I don't think any of these brands are competing on price. The IT man gave me the airpods, I would not have spent my own money on them. My first pair died after about 2 years of daily use - early morning runs and then showers. While bose advertises them as waterproof, they are not necessarily sweatproof, dirtproof, chlorine proof, shampoo proof, etc. My 2nd pair I have been careful to rinse them out in the shower after every run, I've had them for about 8 months now and they are still going strong. I sometimes wear the airpods in the shower too and they are holding up fine, but they fall out easily (same reason why I don't run with them) and their sound is really only meant for phone calls and spoken word, not music. I try to avoid getting the soundsport free's wet. I'm sure they are just as waterproof as the regular soundsports, but there's no easy way to dry them off without worry about losing them (don't want to put in case wet, can't be hung from the towel rack because no wire, looks suspiciously like a doggo treat, etc). Long story short, if I only had one pair of headphones, it would be these. If I didn't run and exercise so much, it would be the free's. If I never listened to music and only used them for phone calls and podcasts, it would be the airpods. But, I like to run and I like to listen to music, so... the end!
Top critical review
52 people found this helpful
Bose SoundSport versus LG HBS: Bose wins only on sound quality.
By rsmacleod on Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2018
This review will get a little detailed and the main goal is to compare the Bose SoundSport with the LG Electronics Tone Pro HBS-750 Bluetooth Wireless Stereo Headset - Retail Packaging - Black, which I have been using for almost five years now. The short version of the review: The Bose has much better sound quality but in most other regards, the LG HBS models are functionally superior. Here is some detail: 1) Basis of the review: five years of using the LG units across the line of their models HBS-700W, 730, 750, 760, and 900. The Bose I have had for only 3 months, so too soon to make any longevity claims; only almost daily use of both units for the past three months. My application is 3-6 hours per day, split between listening to audio books, podcasts, and other voice media (70%) and with perhaps 30% to music. I use both for phone calls and to participate in VOI meetings, perhaps 5% of my usage per day. A typical example was today when I listened to my book as I worked around the house and garden and now am enjoying some music while I work on the computer. As background, I have owned all three generations of Bose Quiet Comfort over-the-ear headphones and would not get on a plane without my current QuietComfort 35 wireless. I was a sound engineer in an earlier life and own several other headphones, including studio-quality AKG K 240. I have also tried a long series of portable wireless headphones and would not consider anything except the LG and the SoundSport. 2) Comfort: this one is subjective so I will dispense with it quickly. I find that over time, the LG BS-750 are more comfortable. And by time, I mean hours of continuous wearing. I put headphones on shortly after I get up and often wear them through my commute, for calls and music while at my desk, for the commute home, and around the house at night. The comfort difference is not huge and is, of course, too subjective to be important; neither is uncomfortable. 3) Sound quality: also an easy one to settle. Despite efforts from LG, their headphones are not even close to the Bose in terms of quality of listening to music. The voice listening is also better with Bose, but the difference is minimal or at least not significant for that purpose. Both seem to generate about the same sound levels. 4) Bluetooth reception and performance. No significant difference here that I could detect. I did not carry out extensive technical comparisons and focus here on real world and subjective comparisons. 5) Ease of use and wearability. This is where things start to get different and defining. The LG have a neck collar that contains the electronics and light earbuds connected with very slim wires and the result is a comfortable and stable experience. I can wear them without adjustment for hours, even with only a single earbud in place, a convenient way to track my phone while still having a conversation with someone. None of this works well with the Bose. The wire that connects the earbuds slides around with my own activity and I regular have to realign it so that it does not tug on one or the other ear. In a feeble attempt to compensate, Bose provides a small clip that I could never get to work; it also required that I actively unclip before taking the headphones (or my shirt) off. The one-ear mode that is so easy with the LG is almost impossible for more than a few minutes with the Bose. As soon as I move around even my desk, the implanted earbud starts tugging from my ear. Another important feature is how comfortable the headphones are to wear when not in use and here, again, the LG is superior. The earbuds snap into the collar unit via magnets (or some models retract) so that the whole package hangs around the neck unnoticed. The Bose, by contrast, dangle in the way, slide around, and as often as not, end up falling off (or are annoying enough that I remove them and leave them lying around somewhere). A simple solution would be for the earbuds to connect to each other but only other brands have thought of this, not Bose. 6) Wind noise. One of the features I see in reviews is the utility of the Bose for runners and cyclists, with the touted benefit that a lack of noise cancellation allows one to wear the SoundSport and still be aware of acoustic activity in the vicinity. While the comparison may be apt for a noise canceling headphone, the LG achieve this goal in a much better manner; they block less ambient sound and allow the single-ear mode so important when cycling in traffic. Much more important, the wind noise that the Bose SoundSport generate when cycling makes them almost useless, even at modest speeds (e.g., 20 km/h). I found the background wind noise completely overwhelmed the text of my book to the point I could not follow it. The LG actually reduce wind noise and only at 50 km/h+ do I need to turn them off because I cannot hear well enough. So for a cyclist, the Bose are completely worthless. I wear them only when sitting at my desk or walking quietly around the house. 7) Controls and connections. This is another major differentiating topic. The LG have a wider range of controls that are much easier to operate than the Bose. The LG have not only volume control but both trackwise (one and multiple) and continuous fast forward and reverse. For book listening, this is a very important feature. The Bose require double and triple clicking a fairly viscous switch for skipping by track, much harder to use and without a way to scroll back a few seconds, only by a single track at a time. A plus for the Bose is that they have a finer volume control. Another major differentiating factor is the ease of wearing the headphones. The controls of the LG models are more accessible, more numerous, and easier to activate. The Bose has a built-in handicap with their small size and only a single control block with three buttons and an on/off switch. But why is it so hard to push the on/off control on the Bose? 8) Weather and water resistance. I have five years of experience with the LG and they are moderately resistance to water and sweat. I commute by bicycle most days over 30 km with a 300 m elevation gain on the way home and I live in Utah, so there is plenty of sweat going around, whether commuting or working around the house/yard. I find I get about 6 months of life from the LG units and have to replace them for what I assume are internal failures due to water/sweat. I cannot tell how the Bose will do in this regard, simply too early to tell. 7) Battery consumption. I cannot claim careful testing, but my empirical sense is that the LG last hours longer than the Bose under identical usage patterns. Both report their battery levels when activated and so I can track approximately how quickly they lose charge. The summary? For active use, and especially cycling, the LG are functionally much superior, at a substantial cost in sound quality for music. The Bose sound great, but otherwise have numerous weaknesses that limit their practical use and the whole advantage of using wireless headphones in the first place. And the Bose cost about twice a much as the LG.
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