Sound higher within the water than out of it

The Jukes Solo Wave are inexpensive headphones that supply good sound for swims, however the bone conduction tech struggles exterior in opposition to the weather

Introduction

The Jukes Solo Wave are bone conduction headphones made to hitch you on swims with an onboard music participant and Bluetooth streaming modes at your disposal.

At £69, they’re a extra inexpensive pair of swimming headphones than the Shokz OpenSwim (previously generally known as the Aftershokz Xtrainerz) and the Naenka Runner Professional, which additionally gives twin listening modes.

Jukes undercuts each of these choices and has the important thing issues in place that ought to make the Solo Wave an incredible choice for swimmers. Do they minimize it within the water?

Design

• Bone conduction expertise
• IP68 waterproof design
• Earplugs included for swims

The Solo Wave flip to bone conduction expertise to ship sound with out blocking your ears. It does that by utilizing transducers that ship vibrations up the cheekbones and face, that are then interpreted by your mind and become sound.

Bone conduction headphones generally have settled on a constant look and that’s no completely different with the Solo Wave. It’s a skinny, headband-style, open-ear design that is available in gray, orange or blue seems, with the larger components of the body sitting simply in entrance of the ears. The thinner a part of the body has a pleasant flex to it and it hasn’t been in any respect uncomfortable to put on the Wave for runs, basic exercises and swims.

Jukes suggests carrying them with goggles and a swim cap, which is one thing I do with swimming headphones and it turns into very obvious why. It means they keep in place to provide the greatest audio expertise and doesn’t come on the expense of consolation or having the headphones press firmly in opposition to the perimeters of the top.

The explanation you may take these for a swim is as a result of the Wave are tagged with an IP68 waterproof ranking, which suggests it’s protected to be submerged in water as much as 1.5 metres depth for as much as half-hour. I’ve finished 5, 40-minute+ swims and so they’re nonetheless in working order. I ought to add the primary pair I used to be despatched did cease working after a number of swims and runs however was instructed it was a defective unit. I’ve not had any points with the brand new set.

Jukes packs in some bodily controls on the fitting aspect of the headphones, which provide you with a solution to change between listening modes, flip the quantity up or down and skip again and ahead tracks. They’re fairly tightly packed collectively, which I discovered made it tough to differentiate between them within the water. They’re good sized buttons and have a pleasant raised really feel to them, but it surely might need been higher to unfold them out.

Within the field, you’re getting a pleasant massive carry case and silicone earplugs, which may be tied to the headphone body to supply the optimum listening expertise within the water. Final up is the proprietary charging cable, which clips to the fitting aspect of the headphones and can be the best way to switch music. The connection between port and cable could be very flimsy, making it simple to knock misplaced when charging or syncing.

Options

• 16GB music participant
• 10 metre Bluetooth vary

By way of battery life, Jukes quotes a working time of 5 hours. It doesn’t say whether or not that applies to Bluetooth streaming or utilizing the music participant. I’d be inclined to say that applies to the previous primarily based on my testing. For an hour of swimming and operating utilizing the music participant, the battery drop-off was 30%. That will work out to round simply over 3 hours, so not significantly lengthy, however sufficient to get you thru a number of long-ish swims.

There’s two methods to take heed to audio on the Solo Wave. in the event you’re heading into the water, you’ll want to make use of the 16GB music participant, which provides you room for roughly 3,000 songs to pile onto it. To get that music, you’ll must plug the headphones into a pc utilizing that proprietary charging cable after which it’s a drag and drop job from there.

I managed to get some podcasts and the few bits of bought music I’ve knocking round on my Mac, which actually didn’t sync over in a speedy trend. It solely helps MP3 and WAV file codecs so throwing on offline playlists from music streaming providers just isn’t supported right here.

When it’s time to get within the water, you may hit the center bodily button to change from the Bluetooth mode to the music participant mode, and no matter is queued up first begins taking part in. You should use the earplugs supplied and I used the Jukes with and with out the plugs and located with each you get some fairly rewarding sound right here.

Sound high quality

• Strong sound when used within the water
• Emphasises readability over bass
• Lacks steadiness when used outside

Initially, they’re loud and don’t sound murky or really feel like they’re battling with the water and sounds round you to get that audio into your ears. I discovered them tremendous to make use of with out the ear plugs as nicely. They appear to default to the loudest quantity, which suggests stronger vibrations and may initially really feel a bit unsettling, however issues do calm down fairly shortly. It’s readability over a balanced sound with somewhat punchiness within the bass division, but it surely gives a stable sound efficiency within the water.

When it is advisable to use them again on dry land, you continue to have that choice to make use of the music participant, however you additionally convey Bluetooth streaming into play. I had no points pairing them with an Android cellphone or an iPhone, however by way of the sound, I discovered them somewhat subpar once I swapped swims for out of doors runs, and its lack of steadiness turns into extra noticeable. The highest quantity isn’t extraordinarily loud, even for bone conduction headphones, the place consciousness can be a precedence in fact.

The sound was simply drowned out by windy, blustery situations even at that prime quantity. The sound profile of the Jukes is typical of most bone conduction headphones the place the emphasis is on readability over energy and bass, and if you flip these up these vibrations that ship audio up your face may be felt a bit extra. Finally, they sound higher within the water than they do out of it.

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