Earshots Earshots 2021

At a glance

Earshots are a set of wireless headphones that use magnets to make sure they stay in place. Bluetooth takes care of the connection, and the built in microphone makes it able to answer calls too.

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About the brand

Earshots is a new venture out of New Zealand. Like many products out there, it was born out of frustration. Founder James Bell-Booth was training for an adventure race and got totally fed up with his headphones. They fell off, dislodged and needed constant re-adjusting. After some prototyping he reached a final design and took it in production. The Earshots are available worldwide through their website and ship from New Zealand. They do not mention a specific environmental policy on their website but when asked about this, they told us they spend a lot of time on 100% compostable packaging, and they don’t include paper manuals to reduce waste.

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The product

Delivery is very quick, we had our test set within 3 working days. They’re packed with care, and well protected. First thing you notice is they come with a really nice hard case, which has a built in powerbank to charge your Earshots when you store them.
Getting them set up is a breeze. In order to save paper, all instructions are online videos that tell you how to pair it with your device. They use the Bluetooth 4.2 technology, which is able to transmit the highest audio quality currently available. There is a 5.0 Bluetooth version out there, which has a longer range, bigger bandwidth and is more aimed at ‘Internet of Things’ applications. Your Earshots will last about 4 hours out on the trail and the charging case has the power to give 4 full charges. On the back of the pods, you find small buttons to answer/reject calls and pause/play/skip to the next tune. If you’re more of a single earbud type of person, no problem. You can also set them up for mono use.
In case that you wear out the batteries or break them, Earshots offer a repair service from their HQ which is free of charge the first year, you only pay the shipping.

Quality piece of kit

Out on the trail

Getting the Earshots fitted took a little awkward messing around in front of the mirror, but once in place they really impressed. One thing that we really liked is that they sit over instead of in the ear canal. Where most headphones block out the rest of the world, with the Earshots you can still hear what is around you (like your buddy telling you to please lower the pace). When wearing your helmet, the straps don’t interfere with the headphones, even when you add some sunglasses to the mix it doesn’t get uncomfortable.
Once set up and out in the woods the fear of losing them was nonexistent. They did exactly what’s on the package. No matter how rough the trail got, they did not budge at all. Although my backflips are a little rusty, I am pretty confident they could handle those with ease too.
When the phone rang, it took a second to find the button to answer it. Gloves don’t help with that to be honest. The call was crisp and I had no problems making clear to the person on the other side that I was going to be late for our meeting because I decided to try out a new trail that ended up nowhere (oops).

The Verdict

With a retail of 90GBP/105EUR/125USD they are a bit cheaper than Apple Airpods, and they do their job of staying on your ears extremely well. Only minus point we could find is that they could do with a bit more ooompfh on the low end of the sound. The four hour use time is long enough for most rides, and the sleek charging case and build give you that quality feel. Definitely a thumbs up from us.

Nice charging case

Easy and comfortable fit

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This review was in Issue 65 of IMB.