Riding a bike can often be a fantastic thrill in itself, but getting some cycling headphones to listen to music, podcasts, and more at the same time can also be cool. When listening to your favorite songs, there’s nothing like riding your bike. Of course, being able to answer calls and keep in touch while you’re out on your drives is really fantastic.
The world is now wireless, and when it comes to listening to your music, that brings serious advantages. Although it can still be risky to travel in traffic with earphones, modern versions allow for more ambient sound, so you can hear more of what’s going on around you.
In addition to using them on your trainer or in the gym, that makes them good options for mountain biking, bike paths, and gravel roads. Plus, as earphone technology advances, cycling solutions are becoming more rugged and sweat-resistant, and come with longer-lasting batteries, even while costs are dropping.
Joyfully, the option of high-quality earbuds and riding headphones has never been easier today. Moreover, some of the highest performing cycling headphones don’t necessarily need to smash the bank. Our list includes some fantastic options for protecting any pocket and use. Hopefully, there’s going to be something for you and for your cycling.
Sennheiser Momentum In-Ear Wireless
A pair of lightweight neckband-style earbuds that are compliant with aptX and AAC and ready to go anywhere with you is the Sennheiser MOMENTUM 2.0 In-Ear Wireless. One of the benefits of this style, particularly if you need to remove one or both earbuds, is greater stability. You will leave them waiting without the risk of missing them. It also provides you with the battery and Bluetooth receiver available to be kept elsewhere.
The first thing you notice about these earbuds is the beautiful, comfortable sheepskin Nappa leather and stitching around the adjustable neckband, so any contact with your skin is really pleasant. It looks secure because it is lightweight. This is because all the controls are inserted into a section at the end of the left arm of the neckband. On the left-wing of the neckband, replication sensors, a power lever, and an omnidirectional microphone are mounted.
Any stainless-steel earbud is rocked by a mirrored chrome finish and complemented by impact-resistant polycarbonate components. There is a separate button to turn them up and a trio of buttons, much like the regular in-line set-up of wired headphones. They do work in a similar manner, but with a few minor differences. To skip a track forward or back, instead of double or triple-tapping the middle button, you press and hold the top or bottom keys. On these buttons, individual taps raise and lower the pitch. The middle button is used for answering calls and for tracking song replication.
The neckband will also vibrate softly to alert you to incoming calls, useful if the earbuds are not in it. Within the neckband for playback control, there are three buttons on the left, and the middle button can be used to activate virtual assistants such as Google Assistant and Siri. It’s easy to differentiate between all of them because they are distinct buttons with a spacing of around 1 mm between each. The battery life is an impressive 10 hours, and a fast-charging only takes about an hour and a half.
The Sennheisers also support USB audio, so you can connect them to your laptop directly and listen to music – but the process is quite cumbersome. The sound staging is good, even though they are not quite available. Although the headphones are pleasingly noisy and strong, if you really turn up the volume, the mid-range starts to become somewhat overwhelmed. They have heard, though, decent sound quality in the end.
Pros and Cons of the Sennheiser Momentum In-Ear Wireless
PROS | CONS |
Well-conceived | Distorted by the end |
Powerful bass response |
Bowers & Wilkins PI3
For those whose focus over all else is sound quality, the perfect neckband earphones are the Bowers & Wilkins PI3. The volume of audio per pound is impressive, and they are more reliable performers than many of their competitor headphones, too. They have a good audio experience with rich bass and exact peaks, with their two drivers per earpiece, and they do so with intuitive controls in a refined style.
The earpieces are metallic, with an eggshell-like finish on both sides of the neckband that suits the look of the inline control compartments. To get an ideal in-ear fit, the ear fins and ear tips are distinct and can be mixed and balanced.
They exert the smallest pressure on the back of your neck as you walk around to keep them in place. In such a nice relationship with each other, the bass, midrange, and treble are set up such that it will be impossible for you to feel any distractions or have unpleasant problems. Narrowly in front of the inner ear, the stage is transparent and multi-layered, leaving behind the fun feeling of wearing the correct in-ears that often provide a strong tonal impression during sport, i.e., under increased pressure.
The twin hybrid engines, powered by different amplifiers, give your astonished ears dense bass, full mid-range, and lovely treble. The new adaptive aptX codec allows streaming up to 24Bit at 48kHz and causes very little delay, allowing video viewing to be lip-synchronous. PI3 from Bowers & Wilkins includes both Bluetooth 5.0 and aptX.
The latter is a streaming standard that enables higher bit rates than the default SBC of Bluetooth. And there’s support for all three versions: aptX, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive. Often, an inclusive option is AAC. The battery life is around 8 hours and the Bowers & Wilkins PI3 reaches 2 hours of use from a 15-minute charge by using a USB-C socket. These are very simple and easy to run and you just put them on and enjoy them if you want to catch a short film.
Pros and Cons of Bowers & Wilkins PI3
PROS | CONS |
Excellent audio performance with solid bass depth and bright highs. | Expensive. |
Easy-to-operate, secure-fitting design. | No waterproof rating. |
Preview | Product | Rating | |
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Bowers & Wilkins PI3 in Ear Wireless Headphones - Space Grey | CHECK PRICE |
Libratone Track+
Libratone also has a line of wireless earphones, though its fashionable wireless headphones remain the most popular. The Track+ provides you with 4 levels of active noise cancellation (ANC) to choose from for multiple tasks such as exercise, driving, or relaxing at home, as with any Libratone headphones. In fact, Libratone’s mobile app can also adjust the ANC level automatically for you by using your phone’s accelerometer to sense motion. If you are looking for a trendy pair of earbuds with solid bass, adjustable noise cancellation, and excellent build quality, the Libratone Track+ is a great option.
The Libratone Track+ are wireless earbuds that you wear around your neck. Although real wireless earbuds are all the rage right now, some will prefer the tethered earbud experience because of the better battery life and wireless performance. Crafted from anodized aluminum and silicone, the Libratone Track+ makes it a comfortable suit that looks like it can handle some abuse. The headphones are IPX4 approved, which ensures they can withstand humidity and moisture because instead of tugging at your ears, much of the weight lies on your shoulders.
They are really lightweight as well. The earbud cases are made of titanium, and the provided ear tips are secure for extended listening. In order to get the full experience, you’ll want to download the Libratone app to set up your active noise cancellation levels and pick an equalizer.
Those headphones have a good warmth and energetic bass that fits well for mainstream music. We understand why Libratone tuned the headphones to have a bass bias, so the sound will be fine for most people, and having more bass helps block out the ambient sounds of the area, even though we prefer to have a more balanced tonal balance.
The mids are quiet, yet the bass bias drowns out the voices at times. In-depth, the highs are rolled off, and soft. Wireless performance is outstanding as the Libratone Track+ will continue to play music with several walls between our phone and headphones without skipping. The call quality is good, but it struggles in noisy and windy conditions.
The battery life is estimated to be 8 hours, and we found this number spot on during our test with automatic noise cancellation allowed and medium volume. This means that you can be aware of your surroundings while you are on the move, but when stationary, be isolated from noise. For the headphones and app, it was a nice task to quickly distinguish whether we were walking or stationary.
Pros and cons of the Libratone Track+
PROS | CONS |
Strong connectivity | Poor battery life |
Sweat-resistant design | Bass-heavy sound signature lacks balance with highs |
Preview | Product | Rating | |
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Libratone Track+ Wireless Active Noise Cancelling Headphones, Bluetooth 4.2 w/Mic, IPX4... | CHECK PRICE |
Bose QuietControl 30
The first headphones on the series, the Bose QuietControl 30, are one of the finest noise-canceling neckband wireless headphones. Whenever we think of Bose and its noise-canceling headphones, we like to lean towards the Bose QuietComfort 35s, but with its diversity, Bose has built in-ear headphones and come up with the beautiful Bose QuietControl 30. This is an update to the 20i headphones. With the normal volume, play, pause, skip keys, there are a total of five buttons on the remote with the optional option of an additional pair of buttons to help you control the level of noise cancellation.
It is an outstanding feature, since the worst of the traffic noise can be canceled, and you can monitor how effectively you choose to be aware of the environment. The first thing they did, they converted them from wired to wireless, and they also gave us the power or ability to regulate the exact amount of noise cancellation we need. These have outstanding battery life and can give you 10 hours of entertainment per charge and you can essentially use them between charges for days at a time. As the high notes really sparkle to life, the sound is also fantastic, while the bass and drums are very clear and distinct and almost too true.
Pros and Cons of the Bose QuietControl 30
PROS | CONS |
Great battery life | Expensive |
Very comfortable to wear | Noise-canceling isn’t as effective as QuietComfort 20 or QuietComfort 35 |
Preview | Product | Rating | |
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Bose Quietcontrol 30 Black (761448-0010) | CHECK PRICE |
Sony WI-1000X
The Sony WI-1000X headphones are lightweight around-the-neck headphones that are suitable for everyday casual use. They have a good ANC mechanism that blocks a great deal of noise, making them a good choice for everyday commuting. They have a more premium look and a range of tip choices are also available to find the best comfortable match for you. One of the models we saw for bulkier neckbands is the WI-1000X, and it’s also one of the classier-looking models. The inside of the neckband has a padded portion covered in a leather-like material, and the outside has a refined brushed metal finish.
The WI-1000X’s in-ears are handy, but not as much as we’ve checked other around-the-necks, such as the Bose QuietControl 30. The packaging feels like a cross between silicone and memory foam, and they do a solid job of sealing the ear securely and quickly. The control scheme is perfect on the Sony WI-1000X. It is easy to use the interface of the button, and you shouldn’t have too much trouble doing it correctly. The physical button input is above normal, and the play/pause button feels a little harder to press because it’s the one at the end of the neckband. We have typical characteristics such as play/pause, track-skipping, take/end calls, and a sound rocker.
They also have a button to change the noise-canceling mode on the right side of the band. The power button can also be pressed once to be told of the battery level while the headphones are on. With the WI-1000X earphones, successful noise cancellation is excellent (ANC). There’s no high-frequency hiss applied to the listening experience here, like Bose’s best ANC on the market, when no music plays, and you’re in a pretty quiet room, the earphones don’t add an audible hiss, and you can make it even louder.
When you hear on airplanes, low-frequency rumbling can be significantly diminished, as well as other low frequencies in general. The whir of an AC unit is replaced by the ANC in its entirety. With higher frequencies, the earphones have a little more trouble, like all ANCs, but the ear tips do a great job of tamping them down quite naturally. Audio sounds practically the same as it does when both ambient listening mode and ANC mode disable any of these modes, which is just how it should feel. The WI1000X has a good battery life of about 10 hours, with ANC on. This should last you for a whole day without too much of a concern. It takes about 3 hours, though, to fully charge them.
Pros and Cons of the Sony WI-1000X
PROS | CONS |
High-quality audio performance with sculpted, but the balanced sound signature | Sound signature not for purists seeking an accurate, flat response. |
EQ allows for sculpting audio to your taste. |
Final Verdict on Best Wireless Headphones for Cycling
Picking the correct earphones for cycling is an instance of coordinating up your own interesting necessities to the kind of earphones on offer. While a few highlights, for example, great sound quality and soundness are fundamental, various cyclists may focus on various capacities. One of the key contrasts when discovering earphones for cycling is that the need may move from sound to security.
Having a fair nature of sound is significant yet pointless on the off chance that you are wearing genuine remote earbuds and they continue to drop out. Cycling earphones don’t will in general come in over-ear or on-ear models, and they should have the option to fit under head protectors. So look at the definite data with respect to probably the best cycles which are the most awesome for cycling and pick whichever is advantageous the most to you.
Ashley is a mastering sound engineer. In addition to his studio work, she is particularly interested in the areas of loudspeakers and headphones. She was able to compare dozens of loudspeakers and wireless headphones over the years.
Last update on 2023-01-23 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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