Thursday, December 15, 2011

Panasonic Sport Headphones (RPHSC200K) are brutal

I do a lot of running, biking, and other active sports. I tend to do most of these carrying my IPhone 4 so that I can track my progress using TrimbleOutdoors.com app AllSport GPS (I really need to do a review of that app some day because I love it).

The only problem with this setup is that the earphones that come with the IPhone just aren't great for staying put when active. They are fine when loafing around but the minute that I start moving they are out of my head. I end up spending most of my activity adjusting them or putting them back in.

So, I decided that I would break down and buy a decent pair of sport headphones so I did some looking around online and perusing at FutureShop . My criteria when selecting headphones weren't elaborate. I wanted something with a reasonable sound spec and something that was in an in-between price range. My second criteria was based solely on the fact that I figured a cheap set wouldn't be any good but I didn't want to spend $100 on something that I would be beating around with outside.

I settled on the Panasonic Sport Headphones. At the time these were $59.99 + tax (they have since dropped in price). They were from a reputable company and met my criteria.

The performance of these has been less than stellar.

The sound quality is dismal. They have absolutely no bass output (despite what the package assured). They sound as though they are only half inserted (so I find myself constantly trying to jam them in further).

They sort of stay in when running but I still find they rattle out to some extent.

The volume control is laid out the same as a standard set of Apple headphones but the rubber coating makes them practically useless when active.

I would avoid these headphones. There are really no positive attributes.