WavePort – A new kickstarter reached out to me with their 'waterproof' headphones and
asked If I wanted to test them out.
Naturally I said yes.
Testing Electronics is my specialty.
These headphones are Bluetooth, BUT also have 8 gigabytes of internal memory so they can
function as a normal MP3 player without needing a phone to control them.
The packaging is pretty solid.
Little magnets hold the flap in place.
And foam holds in the headphones and all of the ear buds.
These earbuds are important, and Ill come back to them later.
A soft rubber coated wire wraps around your head and over your ears to keep the headphones
in place.
The headphones have a sealed body, and supposedly a coated PCB board... but we'll check on that
later.
Inside the mesh bag comes the Micro USB charging cable that plugs into the dock, and an extra
batch of headphone buds.
Now, these are extremely important if you plan on using these headphones underwater.
As we know, speakers use AIR to produce sound.
Without air, there is no way for the speaker vibrations to reach your ear.
So this extra set of earbuds, traps a little pocket of air between your ear and the headphone
speaker.
Allowing you to hear underwater.
Now this does quiet the sound ever so slightly.
I had to turn my headphones all the way up, but it does still work.
If you try and wear the regular earbuds, with the hole, underwater, your headphone will
still waterproof...
it just has not air to transfer the sound, and you wont be able to hear anything at all.
The air pocket earbuds are important.
The micro USB charging cable plugs into the charging dock, and then the little pins on
the dock match up with the contact points on the left headphone to charge.
This is part of the waterproof features.
There is an LED indicator on the dock that indicates when the headphones are fully charged
and that takes about two hours or so.
I have tried out quite a few wireless headphones in the past, When comparing the waveports
to some of the big boys.
Like the Power Beats, The Beats have a similar behind the ear design, and weigh about the
same, but the behind the head wire design of the waveports make it slightly more comfortable
and get the earbuds a bit deeper into your ear.
And since your ear is sealed off, the base of the waveports comes through a lot more
than the base on the beats.
The Underarmor JBL headphones are another favorite of mine.
They also seal off your ear, BUT since the JBL's do not have any 'over the ear' hooks,
they don't stay in quite as well during running.
Battery life, and Bluetooth connectivity distance are pretty much the same across all of the
headphones.
I've been wearing the headphones around for the last few days, getting a feel for the
sound.
When not in use they'll sit secure around my neck.
And they don't fall out when I'm benching or lifting weights like the JBL under armors
do.
And the behind the neck wire gently keeps things snug.
Unlike the long lose ribbon on the Beats that catches and tugs at my ears every time I turn
my head.
And most importantly...
they do NOT bounce out when I am running.
I spend more time out of water than in it.
So the 'daily usability' factor of the headphones is more important than the 'waterproof' feature
for me.
But since the whole point of waterproof headphones... is the waterproof part... lets test test them
out in some water.
Now, Waveport claims that the headphones are IPX7 which means they can be underwater for
30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter.
I'm not the best at following rules.
So I took off my arm floaties and swam on over to the deep end of the pool.
Blue tooth does not work underwater.
So Spotify or Pandora is out of the question.
BUT since the headphones have 8 gigs of internal memory...
my phone does not need to be nearby.
At this point I do have the 'water ear buds' attached.
The ones with the little air pocket inside.
So the sound is a little quieter than normal, but still definitely audible.
The headphones stayed on well enough for the general floating and swimming around, but
fell off if I ever pushed away from a wall.
I imagine wearing one of the rubber hair caps would help keep them in place... but im fresh
out of hair caps at the moment.
These headphones would be great in the shower, or for a water aerobics class.
But if they fall off...
they will sink to the bottom of the pool.
Now... one of my qualms with the 'water resistant' Galaxy S7 is that the motherboard was not
coated with a hydrophobic spray...
And therefor missing an important layer of protection.
Waveport didn't exactly give me permission to take these apart....
BUT here we go.
Remember I am only doing this as a demonstration and to verify advertising like I always do.
If you open these headphones AT ALL you will lose any waterproof capabilities, and warranty,
and all that good stuff.
Once the speaker cap is off.
We see the shiny circuit board, and speaker wires, and the internal memory card.
If I drop any water on the components, it will immediately run off the board.
Leaving it completely dry.
Unlike on the Galaxy S7 where the water would cling to the uncoated circuit board, and not
run off.
So this board is indeed coated with the hydrophobic spray, and with that, you are definitely safe
to use them in the rain, the pool, the shower, or anywhere else that they might get wet.
Pretty impressive.
Now - Are these going to be my favorite headphones of all ever?
Time will tell.
I usually decide which headphones to wear as i'm walking out the door to the gym.
I do know that these headphones will hold their own against headphones that are 4 times
the price.
So thank you Waveport for sending these out to me, and I will leave all the related kickstarter
and product info down in the video description if you are interested in checking them out.
Or curios and want more information.
Thanks for watching!
Hope to see you around.