Running Buddy Single Ear SportBud 3'

Let me start with the list of problems to overcome when you are planning to listen to something while doing sports:- One-Ear Sound: For safety, you really ought to only have sound in one ear. Otherwise, you risk getting into an accident of some sort because you didn't know what was going on around you. If you use standard buds and only stick one in your ear, you are going to have one bud dangling, which will never work out well. It will pull our the other one, and the dangling bud will drive you nuts as it bounces around. Further, true stereo earbuds split the sound into two channels. You want all the sound going through one channel, which means that you really need a single bud.- Wireless vs. Wired: As much as people think wireless is the way to go, I have never liked wireless. Even the best wireless earbuds have occasional static, and then you need to worry about keeping them charged all the time. Who will remember that? Further, I have never seen a single wireless bud. If you try to use a bluetooth earpiece, the sound quality is horrific. Nyet!- Taking Calls: You probably want to have an earbud that will allow you to take a call and listen/talk with the bud in your ear. This one works for that.- Fit in Ear: Some buds just sit there, like the ones that come with iPhones. Terrible. With wind and noise around you while you are outside, you will not be happy with them. You want a bud with a rubberized tip that fits comfortably into your ear canal, like this earbud.- Fit on Ear: Without something to hold an earbud onto your ear, even the best fitting earbud will pull out. If you are running or cycling, you need an ear loop. But there a million versions of earloops. You need the right one for you!- Dangling Wires: You need a clip on the wire, if you choose wired buds, so that you can accomplish two things. First, clipping the wire will partially keep it out of the way. Second, clipping the wire will prevent tugging from happening on your ear, as any tugging will happen at the clip location--much preferred.Having suffered through much learning on the above points, I'd probably tried a half dozen different solutions before I came upon this SportBud. It's a home run. It addresses all the concerns above perfectly. I love the rubberized tip on a fully adjustable ball-in-socket peg. Yes, that little stub holding the rubberized tip is like your arm socket in your shoulder. It can move any direction you wish, to get just the right fit in your ear. And the unique ear wrap design that wraps around the back of your ear is better than any cheapo ear loop you will ever find. It holds the SportBud securely. The wire includes a clip that you can clip onto your running shirt or cycling jersey. The sound is amazing, and you will never have to worry about static or dead batteries in your earbuds.Truth be told, I'd rate these 5 stars at twice the price. So, at this price, they are one of the best buys I have ever made on Amazon. Buy them, and you will love them!

UPDATE 6/26/19: After four and half months of semi-regular usage, my SportBud has apparently developed a short in it somewhere around the microphone connection and has left it almost unusable, unless I want to fiddle with the cable all day. Additionally, the microphone component died a couple months ago, though I rarely would use that part of the product (and only discovered it was no longer working when attempting to answer a phone call). A shame, because it's a very comfortable product and was perfect for what I needed at work. Ultimately knocking off a star because it worked great for that time...until it didn't. Might try and go single ear Bluetooth next time to completely eliminate the possibility of cable shorts.I've had the Running Buddy Single Ear SportBud for about a week now and I use it primarily to listen to podcasts during the day at work, while being able to keep one ear open to hear the goings-on around me.Previously, I had been using an older over-ear set of earbuds from which I had cut off one of the buds (the dangling of the non-used bud had gotten out of hand), but they're starting to show their age with a lot of fraying of the cables. The SportBud here is an absolutely perfect replacement.I haven't used it for working out, per se, as I have a pair of Bluetooth earbuds for that purpose, but I do wear it for a bit of background music when going for lunchtime walks with my Kindle and it's served nicely for that.It's also reasonably comfortable to wear consistently throughout an 8+ hour work day too, whereas other over-ear buds I've had can result in my ear getting rather sore a few hours in.The only thing that knocks off a star for me is that the sound quality is a bit hollow and tinny compared to other earbuds I've had and used, but for the price, I'm not expecting amazing fidelity on that front. It's honestly more than suitable for my podcasts, sound quality-wise, just took me a little bit to get used to.The only other complaint I have is that I wish it utilized an angled jack as opposed to a straight one, but I knew what I was getting when I ordered, so that's no fault of the product itself.Pretty happy with this and I'm hoping it lasts for a good long while!

I loved the idea of this small earphone, since I was looking for something like those old in-ear phones from the transistor radio days (and if that's before your time, similar to the headphone the agents wore in The Matrix. And if THAT'S before your time... I don't know, Google it or something.) This seemed to fit the bill and I'd quite comfortable to wear. I like that it mixes both channels so you can hear all of the audio on stereo songs.Originally I was disappointed with the audio quality, as it was extremely scratchy & distorted at my phone's max volume, to the point where I was considering sending it back. But before writing this review, I figured I better check a little more carefully. So I plugged it into my laptop. The quality was fine! You're not going to get Bose quality audio from such a small device, but the music was mostly clear up to the max volume of the laptop, with just a bit of distortion coming in at the highest setting. Then I tried it on my phone again and got the same result - nice clear audio, very little distortion, up to the max volume. Very high frequencies can sound tinny when it's that loud, but again, given the size & the cost that's not unexpected. I don't know what happened before, but I'm chalking it up to phone weirdness.So this earphone is a little gem after all!