Review By: CGR Cooke, ANutr nutritionist, certified personal trainer, boxing coach, and trail runner with many years working in all sectors of the health, nutrition and fitness industry.
First Impressions
If I can be honest, which is my only default setting, I didn’t have high hopes when the package for the Groove E-Buds arrived on my desk here at TRAIN Magazine.
Having worked in this industry many years and having been involved in my own line of production before, I got the fear from the generic packaging and messaging on the box that this would be yet more of the same as I have experienced in the past, especially when I delved inside to find a solid black box to charge and transport the headphones.
Build Quality
At $40, I wasn’t expecting miracles, so I am happy to forgive the cheap plastic looking buttons on the earbuds and the poor build quality on the hinge of the box.
The headphones themselves are robust and surrounded in a textured rubber construction which, unlike many other budget earbuds, beautifully fits the contours of the ear for a great fit. Even the box is fairly weighty and robust which, although not being the most pocket friendly, is perfect for being hauled about in a gym bag as it rustles between my training gear and gets thrown in and out of lockers.
Performance
It’s a nightmare trying to maintain your music through a wired connection nowadays, with your very expensive phone regularly falling out of your pocket and yanking out a headphone before it clatters to the ground while you precariously balance a couple of *cough cough* 50kg dumbbells over your head…. Okay maybe 15kg, but it’s still not safe to worry about a falling phone!
The true wireless features of these headphones completely negate this issue and being true wireless (that is, without a wire connecting the two buds) this makes the irritating head shuffle on the bench to try and shift that darn wire into a comfortable position on your neck a thing of the past!
Not only that, but the phone dropping clatter is no issue as I could simply place my phone in a safe place on the floor and rely on the impressive range from the Groove E-Buds to provide the beat. Even when testing at my desk here at the office I was able to wander off for a coffee in the kitchen downstairs without losing any connection, and in the gym I was able to perform sprints with my phone sitting at the starting line without worrying about any patchy tracks when I needed motivation the most.
The most important factor, for myself at least, was their performance in a boxing workout. Not only was the fit so great that I was able to drown-out the obnoxious gym music that blasts in my local sweat shop, but I was able to perform all of my skipping and bag work with only some minor pushes of the bud back into the ear between rounds.
Although I’d love to say it was perfect, this is a hard target to achieve when you are quite literally jumping around like a lunatic, so for $40 I can’t even begin to explain just how impressive these headphones really are.
Sound Quality
One word – outstanding. I recently purchased a pair of big brand wireless over-ear headphones to use while working and I must admit that I have since been gravitating back to the Groove E-Buds headphones as the sound simply has a depth and way of reverberating through my brain that supersedes that of my more expensive model.
Not only that, but as in-ear headphones go, they are incredibly comfortable when worn for long periods thanks to the over-ear hook which help to relieve some of the pressure placed on the inner ear which most earbuds require in order to get a secure fit. I have worn these headphones for multiple runs of up to 3+ hours without the need to take them off every now and again to ease the pain, which is so common from other budget brands.
Battery?
Finally, and not to forget one very important factor, I have not experienced a single loss of battery power thanks to this hardy case packing plenty of recharge value as it juices up the headphones in transit. For this, I salute the Groove E-Bud Sport.
Summary
All in all, these are an incredible pair of budget sport-buds. Although the packaging and build materials may be wanting for a little more razzle-dazzle, if I were to only experience these buds for their performance in sound, battery life, comfort and fit, I would be very much happy paying double.
If you’d like to try these headphones you can find them here!
