YURBUDS: One Man's Perspective
at this moment, i am sitting on the toilet, (as some of you who read this may well also be, and that is ok). various thoughts are running through my head, as i multi-task, with my laptop sitting comfortably where it was designed to be...
as i log onto slowtwitch to seek out opinions from my peers about the latest bike related object of desire in my life, i scan the tabs in my browser, which mainly consist of planned workouts, race websites, or, predominately, these days, searches, reviews and pics of the above mentioned bike porn items. funny, how many times i look at them. they visit a certain kind of warmth upon my soul.
and warmth is just what i need. it is cold here in toronto. i mean really, really cold. we are deep in the grips of old man winter and he is being a real sonofabitch this year. which means that long, long hours in the mangeon downstairs are in my foreseeable future, (that, and hours dreaming about bike parts that won't be relevant to me in any real sense, for months).
the sun is bright today, even brighter as it reflects off the mountains of salt that coat the pot-hole stricken roads which have contracted/expanded in a more than typical toronto january pattern of freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw. the air is dry like mars and probably just as frigid. it was biting me on my walk home from work.
as i was trying to motivate myself for my threshold intervals on the trainer, with yet another espresso,
my mind turned towards music, that most obvious of things which i have come to take for granted. i thought about how much i love my new yurbuds and how they bring music to me on long runs and bike rides, in a variety of places. i thought about how sick i am of my own philosophical/introspective blogs (even though i often fantasize about being discovered by some cyber-archeologist of the future and studied as a literary stylist of the early 21st century). so, i thought it would be fun to write a product review about my new yurbuds.
if you stuck with me this far, you deserve a break and here it is. some music. a song that i found particularly entertaining during today's trainer session and to keep you upbeat through the rest of this blog.
if you have kids, or for some other reason, you can't blast music as loud as you would like on your hi-fi while working out, chances are, you have dabbled around with ear-phones enough to get irritated by them.
here are my top five peeves:
1. really poor bass
2. no "sound stage", tinny, horrid sound.
3. they move around too much in your ear, thereby reducing what was already poor sound quality
4. cords that tangle and tangle...ad infinitum
5. not being able to control the music choices without accessing your iPod; a difficult and potentially damaging task with sweaty hands.
enter yurbuds; the answer to all 5 peeves (and more).
yurbuds have several rather unique design features that together combine to make them, in my opinion, the cadillac of exercise ear phones (or rolls royce, or lambourghinin for that matter).
the "buds" come in different sizes, are made of water-resistant material, and are shaped in such a way as to sit inside your ear, creating a tight seal, and not moving around. once you have them in, you do a simple twist, and the resulting torsion just keeps them suspended in there, exactly where you want them. nothing around your ears, just a nice, tight seal that can last for a long run on any terrain.
i was sceptical, but i have to say, it works, and it works really well.
the sound quality is extremely good. with eyes closed, i can actually visualize a soundstage that separates elements out in space the way a well set up pair of hi-fi speakers would. remarkable.
and the tight seal means that lower frequencies don't get lost. there is clear, consistent and deep base, that stays, and does not keep getting lost as the ear-piece slips around while you move through space. the result is a listening experience that allows you to fully enter into your own world and actually can have you appreciating nuances, textures and layers in your favourite music that you hadn't noticed before.
however, if you don't wish to totally fly away, you can keep things at a mellow level and still hear a fair amount of ambient noise with the buds in your ears. but who wants to do that???
the next thing i like about yurbuds, doesn't work perfectly, but at least well enough. there is a small remote button on the cord that allows you to mute the sound, or else to fast forward to the next song, without touching your iPod. this is quite a sweet feature, that, at least for me, doesn't always work the way i want it to, but still has its moments when it comes in handy and shines.
the cord is long enough to allow un-encumbered running space on a treadmill without placing your music device on your body. there are many options while riding a bike on a trainer (i like putting my mp3 player inside my x-lab bento bag and zipping it up), and the long cord allows you to sit up, drink, fiddle, shift gears, reach for the TV remote, towel off and all those other things you need to do during a long trainer ride.
furthermore, the cord is like piece of yarn and does not tangle the way all other earphone cords i've ever owned have.
yurbuds come in various colours and are packaged rather nicely, with their own little carrying pouch.
they are on the expensive side, but in this case, you are getting what you pay for, and more, in my opinion. they make training with portable music that much more hassle free and enjoyable.
yurbuds are most definitely one of my most favourite training aids and they are playing a big part in keeping this amazing cold winter enjoyable. i would recommend them to anyone who likes to listen to music when they run or ride on the trainer.
as i log onto slowtwitch to seek out opinions from my peers about the latest bike related object of desire in my life, i scan the tabs in my browser, which mainly consist of planned workouts, race websites, or, predominately, these days, searches, reviews and pics of the above mentioned bike porn items. funny, how many times i look at them. they visit a certain kind of warmth upon my soul.
and warmth is just what i need. it is cold here in toronto. i mean really, really cold. we are deep in the grips of old man winter and he is being a real sonofabitch this year. which means that long, long hours in the mangeon downstairs are in my foreseeable future, (that, and hours dreaming about bike parts that won't be relevant to me in any real sense, for months).
the sun is bright today, even brighter as it reflects off the mountains of salt that coat the pot-hole stricken roads which have contracted/expanded in a more than typical toronto january pattern of freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw. the air is dry like mars and probably just as frigid. it was biting me on my walk home from work.
as i was trying to motivate myself for my threshold intervals on the trainer, with yet another espresso,
my mind turned towards music, that most obvious of things which i have come to take for granted. i thought about how much i love my new yurbuds and how they bring music to me on long runs and bike rides, in a variety of places. i thought about how sick i am of my own philosophical/introspective blogs (even though i often fantasize about being discovered by some cyber-archeologist of the future and studied as a literary stylist of the early 21st century). so, i thought it would be fun to write a product review about my new yurbuds.
if you stuck with me this far, you deserve a break and here it is. some music. a song that i found particularly entertaining during today's trainer session and to keep you upbeat through the rest of this blog.
if you have kids, or for some other reason, you can't blast music as loud as you would like on your hi-fi while working out, chances are, you have dabbled around with ear-phones enough to get irritated by them.
here are my top five peeves:
1. really poor bass
2. no "sound stage", tinny, horrid sound.
3. they move around too much in your ear, thereby reducing what was already poor sound quality
4. cords that tangle and tangle...ad infinitum
5. not being able to control the music choices without accessing your iPod; a difficult and potentially damaging task with sweaty hands.
enter yurbuds; the answer to all 5 peeves (and more).
yurbuds have several rather unique design features that together combine to make them, in my opinion, the cadillac of exercise ear phones (or rolls royce, or lambourghinin for that matter).
the "buds" come in different sizes, are made of water-resistant material, and are shaped in such a way as to sit inside your ear, creating a tight seal, and not moving around. once you have them in, you do a simple twist, and the resulting torsion just keeps them suspended in there, exactly where you want them. nothing around your ears, just a nice, tight seal that can last for a long run on any terrain.
i was sceptical, but i have to say, it works, and it works really well.
the sound quality is extremely good. with eyes closed, i can actually visualize a soundstage that separates elements out in space the way a well set up pair of hi-fi speakers would. remarkable.
and the tight seal means that lower frequencies don't get lost. there is clear, consistent and deep base, that stays, and does not keep getting lost as the ear-piece slips around while you move through space. the result is a listening experience that allows you to fully enter into your own world and actually can have you appreciating nuances, textures and layers in your favourite music that you hadn't noticed before.
however, if you don't wish to totally fly away, you can keep things at a mellow level and still hear a fair amount of ambient noise with the buds in your ears. but who wants to do that???
the next thing i like about yurbuds, doesn't work perfectly, but at least well enough. there is a small remote button on the cord that allows you to mute the sound, or else to fast forward to the next song, without touching your iPod. this is quite a sweet feature, that, at least for me, doesn't always work the way i want it to, but still has its moments when it comes in handy and shines.
the cord is long enough to allow un-encumbered running space on a treadmill without placing your music device on your body. there are many options while riding a bike on a trainer (i like putting my mp3 player inside my x-lab bento bag and zipping it up), and the long cord allows you to sit up, drink, fiddle, shift gears, reach for the TV remote, towel off and all those other things you need to do during a long trainer ride.
furthermore, the cord is like piece of yarn and does not tangle the way all other earphone cords i've ever owned have.
yurbuds come in various colours and are packaged rather nicely, with their own little carrying pouch.
they are on the expensive side, but in this case, you are getting what you pay for, and more, in my opinion. they make training with portable music that much more hassle free and enjoyable.
yurbuds are most definitely one of my most favourite training aids and they are playing a big part in keeping this amazing cold winter enjoyable. i would recommend them to anyone who likes to listen to music when they run or ride on the trainer.
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