Bose Soundsport Free
The SoundSport Free earbuds are supposed to be perfect for exercise, thanks to the addition of StayHear+ Sport tips. These are specially engineered so the nozzle spreads contact evenly around the inside of your ear, while the fin fits into the upper ridge of your ear, making for a secure fit. However, getting a right fit wasn’t the most comfortable venture, and we found that we had to take a size smaller than what we normally use, so it’s good that you get a selection of di erent sizes to start, and that they’re fairly easy to replace.
As you might expect from something with “sport” in its name, the SoundSport Free earbuds are IPX4 rated so will take sweat or light rain just ne. The StayHear+ Sport tips really do help to keep the earbuds in securely, but that doesn’t translate to a strong audio seal as you will still be able to hear your environment. Connecting to these somewhat oversized earbuds is a simple affair, and we didn’t experience drop outs during our testing. However we did occasionally have issues where the left earbud didn’t connect on startup – a situation easily remedied by putting both earbuds in the case and putting them on again. While the right earbud sports a multifunction button that allows you to adjust volume and control playback, we found this to be too sti to activate – so trying to increase volume would lead to us shifting the earbud for example.
In terms of audio, we thought the SoundSport Free performed well in the midrange, but had perhaps the best low end of the entire group. On a recording of Correnteza by Ana Caram for example, the earbuds manage to serve up a nice full-bodied bass to lead the track, while presenting Caram’s vocals with good clarity. We do think the earbuds could have done a better job with balance on this piece though, as we found ourselves struggling to pick out some of the nature sounds sprinkled throughout the piece, especially those on the higher end of the audio spectrum. Perhaps because of the more substantial bass, we found faster moving pieces to work better with these earbuds, as pop pieces like Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic were presented with more than enough energy to get our feet tapping along.
Good all-rounded performance. Very secure t when set right.
Large earbuds can take some getting used to.