H2O Audio’s RIPT Lite earbuds promise a lot: Noise cancelling, sweat-proof earbuds designed for use while you’re exercising, at a very affordable price. You can naturally use them for any device that supports a Bluetooth connection, so after the gym session you can then zone out with your Nintendo Switch, but the real point of these earbuds is for music, audio books, podcasts, and similar. As a person who sweats heavily, I’ve actually lost earbuds in the past using them for dance training, so I was particularly interested in these. I’m very impressed with the results.
At first, I was a little concerned about the Apple AirPod-like design of the RIPT earbuds. My experience with that design is that they’re prone to falling out, which is obviously not great given the amount of movement involved in Dancesport. My general preference is for silicon-tipped buds for this purpose. Thankfully, though, the RIPT buds fit snugly and I’ve not had an instance where I send one flying across the room following a spin. They’re also lightweight and comfortable for use over long periods of time, so I’ve been able to use them right through my training sessions without an issue.
Noise cancelling is another key feature for dance training, as dance studios tend to be noisy places. To be fully effective in this application, the earbuds need to drown out the noise of teachers talking to students, the occasional argument between partners, and, most critically, the omnipresent noise of the studio music system. I needed the RIPT earbuds to allow me to focus on my waltz when the studio system was blasting out a Jive. For this it wasn’t quite perfect – I’ve got earbuds that are much better at noise cancelling than this – but it was enough that I could focus my listening on the specific rhythm that I wanted to hear.
The only real issue I have with the RIPT earbuds is the on-bud controls. As with most modern earbuds, you can tap the surface to turn noise cancelling on or off, or start and pause music. However, these controls are located precisely where you’d touch to reposition the earbuds in the ear, and the activation can be twitchy. A couple of times I’ve accidentally turned noise cancelling off or paused the music. It’s only a quick tap to get going again, but it’s a small, mildly irritating design flaw nonetheless.
In terms of sound quality, the RIPT earbuds are more than adequate. When you’re exercising you’re less focused on the nuances of the sound, so it’s not totally essential to deliver something that will make audiophiles weep for joy, but it is important to be able to enjoy a good beat cleanly, and these buds are more than up to the task for that. I’ve also been travelling around Japan while testing them, and while the clarity isn’t quite there compared to what high-end earbuds can achieve, it’s still a pleasant experience, and there’s almost no sound leak, meaning that you can turn up the beat without upsetting anyone around you (particularly important on Japanese trains).
And, of course, as they’ve been designed for use during high-impact exercise, there’s a robustness to the RIPT earbuds that makes them appealing for everyday use, and you might end up wanting to leave the really good earbuds for home use after picking up these.
As a final, really neat touch, the earbuds case is my new favourite. A little screen on the case displays the overall percentage battery charge remaining, as well as an indication of whether the earbuds are charging or not. It makes it much easier to tell at a glance whether you need to recharge the device or if there’s an issue with one of the buds charging. As someone who has, more than a few times, gone to use my earbuds only to discover that the charge had run down, this is an excellent design implementation and I’d like to see it standardised across all earbuds cases.
The H2O Audio RIPT Lite earbuds aren’t particularly stand-out if you’re looking for a pure music or gaming experience. But then if you’re a true audiophile you’re going to want to invest in a much higher-end kit than this anyway. H2O has produced something that is very comparable to other earbuds in this price range, and, more importantly, delivered something that is excellent for use in sport and training, where sweat and impact would ruin those much more expensive earbuds. For that reason, I’m going to be using these on an almost daily basis going forward.