The Jaybird X3 wireless headphones ultimately deliver excellent sound quality with a fun companion app, a snug and customizable fit, and great battery life. Plus, at only $129.99, they’re $50 less than when the X2 came out — and those didn’t even include the comply foam ear tips. For this price, the value here truly shines. All of these factors combined elevate Jaybird X3 to the top choice wireless headphones for athletes.
Buy Jaybird X3 Headphones:
We’re steadily shifting toward a totally wireless world and Apple is making sure of it. While many view the removal of the headphone jack in the iPhone 7 as premature, make no mistake it was a purposeful shove toward faster adoption of wireless accessories. Plus, not only is it important to have wireless headphones as an iPhone 7 owner, but it’s downright crucial at the gym. Having to be tethered to your phone is restrictive and annoying.
I see more and more people at the gym with wireless headphones and that’s likely thanks in part to Apple’s nudge. But good headphones for working out comes with its own set of standards: they should be lightweight, somewhat waterproof, sound good, and have a comfortable and secure fit.
All things considered, our pick for the best wireless headphones for working out is the Jaybird X3.
Jaybird bills the X3 as the ultimate wireless headphones for exercise and working out. It promises a snug fit, eight hours of playback, total sweat resistance and the new MySound app that lets you customize the sound profile to your liking. Our review finds the headphones to fulfill its promises.
Finding the Perfect Fit with Jaybird X3
The X3 comes with quite a bit in the box. It features three pairs of silicone ear tips in small, medium and large, three pairs of comply foam ear tips in those same size options, three pairs of ear fins in the same size options, a shirt clip, two cord management clips, the micro-USB charging cord with (sigh) a proprietary charging clip, and a carrying pouch. All of this has a purpose: so the Jaybird X3 work for pretty much anyone.
Three pairs of silicone tips, three pairs of comply foam, three pairs of ear fins, a shirt clip, and cord clips all included.
I won’t lie, it took about a half hour of playing around with all the different size options to figure out a fit that works best for me. It turns out I’m best suited for the large ear tips and large ear fins. While the silicone tips fit just fine, I find that the comply foam ear tips feel slightly more snug and also provide more noise isolation. The X3 also work either over the ear or under, so depending on your preference you can wrap the wire over the top of your ear and insert them upside down, or let the wire hang underneath. I prefer the over-ear especially for workouts because it feels much more secure.
After that I moved onto attaching the cord management clips, which let you tighten the cord around the back of your neck so it doesn’t flop around and loosen the earbuds. Jaybird seriously isn’t messing around — it wants these things to fit in your ears and stay there.
My first time in real-world usage I did have to fumble around quite a bit trying to actually get them in my ears. It takes a minute. I had to insert the ear tips, then make sure the ear fins weren’t sticking out of my ears, then wrap the cord around my ears and tighten the cord in the back. That was a tad annoying, but I’ve already noticed myself getting the hang of the process. Plus, what matters is that once these bad boys are in, they’re really in there.
They don’t exactly feel like soft pillows in my ears, but they’re very comfortable, enough that it’s hard to notice them.
Sound Quality and the MySound App
The sound these tiny earbuds are capable of pumping out still blows my mind. It’s very well balanced. It provides just enough strong bass without being overpowering, and the mids and highs are full and clear without sounding too bright. They get plenty of loud too — even in a noisy gym I only needed to crack them up about half way. Jaybird X3 may very well have the best sound you can get out of wireless headphones of this size and price range.
Equally as impressive is the noise isolation from these. I don’t know how, but they manage to block out sound better than my Bose AE2 over-ear headphones. They bring the noise of the gym down to a muffle and that’s without music playing.
If you aren’t for whatever reason satisfied with the sound, the free MySound companion app lets you customize it to your liking. At first, I wasn’t sure why anyone would ever need it because the sound is already so great, but once I dived in more I understood the potential.
The Jaybird X3 are tuned out of the box with their “signature” sound profile, which makes them sound great to begin with. Not only can you edit and create your own EQ presets, but you can choose from a wide variety. Jaybird got a lot of athletes on board to post their own presets, which should excite many users. But outside of that, there are preset sound profiles for working out, dance clubs, slow R&B, “high-def” and more.
You can save, edit, and rearrange your favorite ones whether you created them or not. Plus, sound profiles stay with your Jaybird X3 wherever you go. If you connect to a different device, they won’t suddenly reset.
Speaking of devices, you can connect your Jaybird X3 to two simultaneously. I had initial issues getting this to work, but for some reason it just started working the next day and now the X3 headphones are happily in a polygamous relationship with my iPhone and Mac.
Real-World Usage and Performance
We’ve established that the Jaybird X3 fit well, are adequately comfortable and have great sound quality. But for my fit friends, the question remains: how do they fair at the gym?
The carrying case fits all the included parts and even the headphones and charging cable.
I went for a half hour run with the Jaybirds on. In that time, I had to adjust them three times. I was pretty pleased with that statistic since other earbuds I have to adjust at least once every minute when I’m running. Plus, they were pretty stable for the first 15 minutes, then started to loosen up a bit as I sweat more. They never fell out once though or even came close. I just had to firmly press them back in for self-assurance.
The Jaybird X3 also gets eight hours of battery life. In my usage that seems about right. I didn’t drain the headphones entirely yet but a little under two hours of usage dropped the battery by about 20 percent. You should be able to get in several lengthy workouts per week before these die on you. A nice lady gives you battery life updates through the speakers too so you aren’t in the dark.
Bang for the Buck
The Jaybird X3 wireless headphones ultimately deliver excellent sound quality with a fun companion app, a snug and customizable fit, and great battery life. Plus, at only $129.99, they’re $50 less than when the X2 came out — and those didn’t even include the comply foam ear tips. For this price, the value here truly shines.
All of these factors combined elevate Jaybird X3 to the top choice wireless headphones for athletes.
