Alpecin-Deceuninck’s audio partner, H2O Audio, recently sent a pair of their top-tier RIPT Ultra headphones to try. They were excellent, and I awarded them four stars. I was impressed not just by the sound quality, but their clear understanding of what people who train a lot need from a good pair of headphones.
However, as over-ear headphones, they weren’t at all recommended for cycling outside, where as cyclists, we need all of our available senses to keep us and other road users safe.
If you just can’t live without music when on the move however, they’ve got that covered. With their bone conducting headphones, which leave your ear completely open, to hear whatever is going on around you, whilst enjoying your favourite playlists.
Bone conducting headphones have transcenders which transmit vibrations to the ear via the cheek bone, not the ear canal. This leaves the ear and ear drum free to pick up noise from your surroundings, even when listening at volume.
H20 Audio is a San Diego based audio-tech company, and since Paris-Roubaix, has also been the official Audio Partner of Alpecin–Deceuninck and Fenix–Deceuninck World Tour Cycling Teams.
It makes a range of water or sweat resistant audio products and their bone-conducting models are waterproof, which means you can sweat buckets on the turbo without any worries, or even take them to the pool. They also have in built storage, so you can play music straight from the device, which is great for triathletes who swim train and don’t want interruptions to their music or audio books.
The Tri 2 headphones feature the same soft silicone finish as the RIPT Ultra's I tested, and they also come with a hard case. I am using Sunnto's bone conductors just now, which compare well, but do not come with a hard case, so this is a bonus.
The RIPT Ultra's share a Bluetooth 5.3 system with these headphones. I tested them for weeks, and never found any issues with the 5.3 system, so I'd expect these to be similarly robust. There's nothing more annoying than your stream dropping out, or having to mess around to get them to connect. Whilst I've not used the Tri 2 to test that myself, I think with 5.3 here too, you can expect solid performance.
Where the RIPT Ultra's start to lose ground on the cheaper Tri2 is on its MP3 hardware. You don't need bluetooth at all, if you upload your music. If like me, you can remember MP3 players, they were great for training, as they were so small, with one or two buttons to keep it simple, and they made getting out of the house for a training session a doddle. The MP3 player is built into the headphones with the Tri2, which makes it even better than those wired MP3 systems of old. If like me, you value a little break from the phone, or don't want the bulk this is a welcome addition to the Tri2's technical arsenal.
They didn't design it for that purpose alone of course, the MP3 functions are designed for training in the pool or sea, where Bluetooth struggles – it just won't transmit under water. Not a problem if your music is on board and submersible. The player holds up to 8GB of music or podcasts. It's also compatible with losses file types, such as FLAC. If you're only listening to lower quality files, like those on Spotify or MP3's, you'll get a few thousand tracks on that I would expect. Around 2000 tracks, or 130 hours of music they claim. Files supported are M4A, MP3, WMA, FLAC, and APE.
Battery life in my RIPT Ultras has been insanely good. So I would have some confidence in their claims that the Tri2 will last for 8.5hours between charges.
At $199.99 they’re not cheap, but today thanks to Amazon Prime Deals, we’ve spotted them at a 50% discount for just $99.99.
If you’re in the UK, they’re not on quite such a generous discount but you can still save 26%, bringing them down to £119.00.
