Finally, a pair of clip-on earbuds with enough bass to fuel my workouts

A runner who sweats xenomorphic acid destroyed many traditional in-canal earbuds during runs, prompting a switch to bone-conducting headphones about a decade ago. Bone-conducting models proved vulnerable due to poor sound quality. Open-ear earbuds were attempted but still failed from sweat damage. Clip-on open-ear earbuds that wrap around the ear with a small ball that sits in the ear but not the canal reduced sweat-related failures and delivered much better sound than bone-conduction. These clip-ons typically emphasize mids to preserve ambient awareness and often lack low-end punch. The XC1 clip-on earbuds delivered smooth, present acoustic low end on test tracks.

"As a runner who sweats xenomorphic acid, I have to be careful about the earbuds I use when pounding the pavement. I've ruined more earbuds than I can count because of this. In the end, I can't use any traditional earbuds. If they go into my ear canal, they will most likely fail to function by the end of my run. To mitigate this, about a decade ago, I switched to bone-conducting headphones."

"The problem with all of the bone-conducting headphones I've used (and I've used several) is that they sound terrible. It's a problem, because I still want halfway decent sound when I run. Also: These $60 wireless earbuds made me question my audio spending habits I eventually switched to open-ear earbuds and found that they weren't ideal either. No matter the make or model, by the end of my run, at least one earbud wouldn't be functioning."

Read at ZDNET