Beats Solo Buds
The complete 18 hour package
Car drivers have it really easy. My Polestar 2 has beautiful Harmon Kardon speakers to produce amazing sound, and a fully enclosed canopy to keep the road noise out. So what’s a motorcyclist to do?
Previously I’ve used little flat pancake speakers stuck inside the helmet itself, but they lacked any volume and were hard to hear when going over 80km/h. They also sounded like crap.
Maybe noise cancelling buds were the answer? A set of Bose QC-20 headphones, one of the earliest onto the NC scene might work. Unfortunately they seem to build up a response to wind noise and release a loud crack in your ears every minute or so. Not exactly what I was looking for.
Eventually I settled on noise isolation as the option that would be best, combining the protection of ear buds while still producing audio so my brain doesn’t have to be alone with its own thoughts for extended periods.
The Beats Solo Buds were released in just the last week, and these seem to be the business. They offer a compact design, long battery life, and good sound quality while keeping out ambient road and wind noise.
I found a website listing a bunch of pros and cons, but for my use, there are no cons.
Pros:
Affordable price point ($79.99) - Ripper!
Long battery life - 18 hours is more than I can spend on the bike. Charge it overnight.
Good sound quality - Better than anything else I’ve tried.
Compact design - Fits in bike gear easily.
Cons:
No active noise cancellation - Does not want. Useless on a bike.
No water resistance rating - Helmet keeps the rain off.
No replaceable batteries - Environmental thumbs down.
No equalizer or spatial audio features - Good enough for government work though.
So how have they fared? Well, on my daily commute, pretty damn good. They’re comfortable, easy to hear (once set up, more on that below), and they sit under the helmet very nicely. For the past six months I’d been using the Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless Headphones, truly a frustrating ear bud to use. The big fat buttons on the outside of the Sony’s keep pausing or changing volume, and the buds themselves get caught on the helmet when you put it on, dislodging them from your ear. It’s a lesson in frustration. The Beats don’t have these issues at all and are actually a joy to use. A joy I tells you!
So what are the listed features for these headphones?
Design and Comfort
Compact and lightweight design
Four ear tip sizes (XS, S, M, L) for a comfortable fit
Ergonomic design with nozzles angled to match the natural shape of the ear canal
Sound Quality
Good sound quality with decent bass and clear highs
Passive noise isolation helps block out ambient noise. Yeah boi! This is what we came here for
Battery Life
Up to 18 hours of battery life on a single charge
No battery in the case, but each earbud has its own battery
Fast charging: 1 hour of listening time with 5 minutes of charging
Features
One-touch pairing across iOS and Android devices
Integration with Apple’s Find My network and Google’s Find My Device network
Customizable ‘b’ button for playback control, answering calls, and activating Siri
And what about that set up issue?
Well it was lucky I went into the Apple Store to try them out, because the first time I put them in my ears I could hardly hear anything. I compared them to my AirPods Pro 2, and they were whisper quiet. Different set of buds yielded the same results. Pairing them with an in-store iPod had the same issue. Surely Apple didn’t release a set of headphones, and Beats no less, that had less volume than a normal conversation? Apparently they did, and the staff had received no training on how to rectify it. They didn’t even know these new buds were coming until the turned up at the store! Shame Apple, shame.
Fixing The Volume Issue
You can resolve this issue by modifying the B button's function from "Siri" to "Volume Up" and easily adjust the volume directly on the earbud. Once you've increased the volume, you can conveniently adjust it as usual using your iPhone. It seems as though the earbuds have a distinct internal volume setting that is configured at the factory prior to purchase. Figuring this out took some time between myself and the Apple Store representative, and it's puzzling as to why they would be shipped in this manner.
Conclusion
For a $A130 pair of noise isolating ear buds, they’re perfect for the motorcycle, which is exactly why I bought them. Good fit and comfort, decent sound, all day battery, and the price is spot on.
Buds with case
There’s no battery in the case, keeping it small and light
