[Fiend]

I need something more convenient / less tanglesome for listening to music whilst gymming / bouldering / running etc. I have a Sandisk Sansa (great, very small, clips onto things, SD card for 68 gb total music, good equaliser, etc), and Sennheiser CX300II earphones (good sound BUT the cable is a pain in the arse).

I'm after one of the following options:

Bluetooth transmitter to plug into Sansa - I've seen a few on amazon, although this adds another device, they seem pretty small and I could imagine clipping one on next to the Sansa...

Bluetooth MP3 player - this would be a preferable solution to have something specially designed. However looking through Amazon, almost all of them seem to be dodgy, typically including bad equaliser functions and all the positive reviews being people who got it for free. There are good Sony ones but at £150 which is say 3x the price I'm after.

(plus bluetooth headphones)

Earphones with an in-line jack extension that I can take out and have a very short cable - I had a pair of Sony's that had this so I could basically use a 0.5m cable which was fine, but they are discontinued and Googling produces no results.

Any ideas / suggestions??


P.S. No I am not going to use my phone, it's 6 times the size of the Sansa and I don't want to be carrying it to gym / wall / running.

[cjsheps]

These:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mpow-Bluetooth-Wireless-Headphones-Hands-free-Swift-Fluorescent-Green/dp/B00OK5BELU

They connect to your phone bluetooth with no problems, sound good and the battery lasts for hours. They fit well too.

[Fiend]

Cool I will take that into account, once I get the actual Bluetooth MP3 player / transmitter sorted, which is the main issue....

[cjsheps]

Sorry - "momentary" lapse of concentation!

Could you get a cheap 2nd hand phone with bluetooth that's small enough for running to be bearable with it? Headphones have sufficient range that you can leave your phone a fair distance away from you and remain connected.

[Fiend]

I don't think the oldest MP3/Bluetooth capable phone I've seen is small enough to be comparable to a typical compact MP3 player, and probably would lack decent equiliser functions...




Edit: Before anyone else mentions using my own phone, it is far too bloody large and far too precious to be slammed around at the wall / gym etc. I AM NOT WANTING TO BLUETOOTH CONNECT TO MY PHONE, I'M AFTER AN MP3 PLAYER AS PER THE ORIGINAL POST. Thx xxx

[lagerstarfish]

most modern smartphones can do bluetooth and can play mp3 files

and they look really cool fastened to your bicep with a big neoprene strap

and whenever you have your phone with you, you can't miss out on the latest accident claim offers or PPI bollocky fuckity piss wank calls

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Alternatively...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01BBWU834

Not a cheap solution but neat. Various other versions available, some cheaper, some more expensive.

[Fultonius]

Can you not just use your phone and  BT headphones?

Sent from my XT1039 using Tapatalk

[Paul B]

Can you not just use your phone and  BT headphones?

Sent from my Bluetooth^TM enabled XT1039 using Tapatalk

 

[Fiend]

P.S. No I am not going to use my phone, it's 6 times the size of the Sansa and I don't want to be carrying it to gym / wall / running.

Edit: Before anyone else mentions using my own phone, it is far too bloody large and far too precious to be slammed around at the wall / gym etc. I AM NOT WANTING TO BLUETOOTH CONNECT TO MY PHONE, I'M AFTER AN MP3 PLAYER AS PER THE ORIGINAL POST. Thx xxx

 

Obi-wan, thanks for that idea. I have looked into those as they definitely fit the bill for compactness and simplicity. However the cheaper ones have only 4gb storage (I currently use all 36gb on my sansa + sd card), and the 16gb ones are quite a few fuck alls. Worth considering tho, maybe....

[Johnny Brown]

My first smartphone was Sony Xperia Ray which is one of the smallest phones I've owned including the old Nokia days. I still use it as a GPS although it doesn't work as a phone. Android equaliser, you can plug your micro SD card in, battery life is good and bluetooth works fine. Under £50 on ebay.

[SA Chris]

Surely all you need is a set of wireless headphones?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=Thomson+WHP3001BK+Wireless+Headphones

Or am i missing something?

[Johnny Brown]

Yes.

[Fiend]

 

[Stu Littlefair]

You do realise that with some Bluetooth headphones you can leave your phone nicely protected in a bag and three soft cases whilst still training and playing music through aforementioned headphones?

Should be a practical solution for anyone except Dom Joly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dave]

Just to clarify what's the issue with your current headphones, the fact that they are wired, or is the wire too long or something?

[tomtom]

[rosmat]

At the speed you run surely a ghetto blaster would suffice?

[Fiend]

Rosmat - fuuucck yooouu. I bet I can run pretty fucking quickly on sprints, that's anaerobic right??

Stu - that would be okay for smaller walls, but not for gym nor running.

Dave - thanks for asking a relevant question. The current earphone cable is too long and annoying. I have it tied in a wee loop and threaded behind the sansa, this is a bit of a hassle and there is still cable everywhere. Also, when the cable bounces and hits fabric, there's slight interference to the sound (this is the same with other earphones I've tried). The previous Sonys I had had an inline jack connection so you could shorten the cable to a very convenient 0.5m or something, but I can't see anything like that.

[dave]

Word, maybe if you're handy with a soldering iron (or find someone who is) you'd be better shortening the headphone cable to the perfect length, or even replacing the bulk of the cable with a 3.5mm jack and convert the rest to an extension/s? It's not that hard to do, you can buy spare jacks to DIY it for fuck all. If the perfect product doesn't exist then DIY that shit.

[benno]

I've got some Shure SE102 earbuds that sound excellent and like they'd be pretty good match to your requirements. The fixed cable is about 40cm long and then goes into an extension. They're also worn with the cable going up, over and then down behind your ear, so are relatively secure and impervious to cable noise. I think they're discontinued, mind... perhaps worth a look at their successors?

[Fiend]

Word. Someone has suggested that, but I am worried about fucking up the impeccable sound quality I need for listening to relentless 200bpm industrial dnb / gabber crossover hardcore 

Bennno, yeah that's the shizzle, will look into those.

Edit: Yeah that's the sort of thing that works well, unfortunately they're not available, not even on Ebay. Do you know what the correct terminology would be for searching for earphones like that?? I tried "in-line extension" to no avail.

[Fiend]

Finding some options in that area:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MEE-audio-Sport-Fi-Isolating-Headphones/dp/B0038W0K2K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456830826&sr=8-1&keywords=MEElectronics+Sport+Fi+S6

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-CX-400-B-sennheiser-400/dp/B000WOIG8C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456831050&sr=8-1&keywords=Sennheiser+CX400+-II

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jays-t-Jays-Three-Dynamic-Earphones/dp/B003EV68UI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1456831427&sr=8-2&keywords=JAYS+t-JAYS+Three

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XDENON-Ear+Headphone+Black+AH-C360K.TRS0&_nkw=DENON-Ear+Headphone+Black+AH-C360K&_sacat=0

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XDenon+AH-C710.TRS0&_nkw=Denon+AH-C710&_sacat=0

 

[benno]

Not a clue, I'm afraid. Your best best is either going to be finding a pair in the real world and having a look or Googling product images or places like http://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/ often have a form on their product pages where you can ask questions and they've been quick and helpful in my experience. I had a pair of the Sennheisers you linked to, and they were great bang for your buck. Can also be worn over your ear, but mine didn't last very long.

[duncan]

Ask a nerd: http://www.head-fi.org/f/