SHOKZ OpenFit for 2023 Open-Ear True Wireless Bluetooth Headphones with Microphone, Earbuds with Earhooks, Sweat Resistant, Fast Charging, 28HRS Playtime (Black)

Product Information

The OpenFit’s other strengths relate to their open-ear design, one which successfully achieves the goal of increasing awareness of your surroundings while the headphones are in use. This is invaluable if you’re running or cycling and can be useful when crossing the road or listening out for deliveries at home, too.

However, similarities between the dissimilar twins with different fathers can certainly be discovered. Neither of them succeeds in overcoming the localization of solo voices or instruments in the center of the sound panorama, which is the biggest disadvantage of headphones in principle. This has a simple, but unfortunately hardly solvable physical reason. Evolution is to blame

The extra situational awareness means that if you’re cycling to work, you can listen to music while still being able to hear the sound of cars, pedestrians, sirens and other cyclists around you. For runners, the benefits are much the same. They’re also handy in the office, where you may want to listen to music while still being able to hear your colleagues.

There are a couple of standard true wireless earbuds features you won’t find here. There’s no multi-point pairing mode and no ear detection either, so remove one and your music will keep playing. Although you can just listen with one bud, which is handy.The OpenFit are the first Shokz headphones to use its proprietary “DirectPitch” technology, which channels the audio from 18 x 11mm dynamic drivers directly into your ear canals. The idea is that this enhances audio quality while minimising sound leakage. The latter proved hit and miss during testing but the technology delivers when it comes to audio performance. They sit securely outside the ear canal, with the soft plastic band wrapping over and behind the ear lobe. This makes them very secure as well. I wore them running, and they don’t budge. They are IP54 water-resistant, so sweat or light rain should be no problem. IP54 water-resistance only applies to the earbuds, and charging case is not rated waterproof. OpenFit was tested under controlled laboratory conditions and has a rating of IP54 under IEC standard 60529. Water-resistance is not a permanent condition and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear. Please do not submerge or expose OpenFit for an extended period to water. Please do not attempt to charge a wet OpenFit. This massive construction, which was also used for experiments on the MIR space station, was mainly made of steel and was a constant reminder that you were carrying a foreign object on your head. In addition, the K-1000 was extremely expensive at 1,400 marks and very demanding in terms of control. It only really got going when I connected it to the sinfully expensive reference mono amplifiers Accuphase M-1000 (pair price 38,000 D-Mark). In these two criticisms, there are light years between the Viennese classic and Shokz’s tiny open-ear, offered more than four decades later for a fraction of the price.

In combination with the already mentioned pressure-free wearing comfort, this results in a total work of art that solves not all, but many essential problems of headphones. With the Shokz OpenFit, you always stay a bit connected to your environment and enjoy a sound that is remotely reminiscent of speakers in a room. Thus, the Bluetooth open-ear makes head-fi culture quite a bit more attractive for anyone with chronic headphone phobia. The Shokz OpenFit are engineered to get sound from the buds to your ear canals in the most effective way possible.I had mixed feelings about the fit and comfort levels of the Shokz OpenFit. I spent a lot of time adjusting them at first and had similar niggles every time I reached for them over the fortnight of testing. I had to rotate them and tinker with them to get the fit right and at first didn’t realize that because I wear glasses they needed a bit of extra adjustment – there’s just not that much space behind my ears to play with. Now, with the launch of the Shokz OpenFit, Shokz has become the clear frontrunner in open-ear earphone technology. In this article, we’ll explore what sets the OpenFit apart from other open-ear earphone models, and explain how you can be open, engaged, and alert without sacrificing your audio quality.

Pairing was super easy, and there’s no buttons to press to activate the headphones, you just open the case, put them on, and hit the play button. Battery life appears to be good – I ran for 3 hours at the weekend with no issues, the case re-charges them between use. The battery life appears to be pretty good so far. I’ve been quite impressed with this and the fact that the case can add further charge is good for long days out.The result is that you are able to hear sound clearly. This, combined with the 18 X 11mm dynamic drivers means these earbuds deliver quality, crisp sound, even when they’re near your ear and not inside it. Trebles can feel a little strangled on the standard sound profile, with the electric guitars in Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning” sounding dampened, in favour of more weight in the drums. While the Treble Boost preset did a reasonable job at countering this issue, I found that I had the most success when I opened a custom EQ and bumped the higher frequencies up a couple of notches. Each earbud weighs 8.3g, so heavier than a pair of Apple AirPods Pro 2 and uses what Shokz calls a Dolphin Arc earhook design, wrapping a flexible hook over the top of the ear to keep it securely in place. Those are attached to what are speakers that fire sound towards the ears. The earphones can be used independently as well. The headphones are also water resistant, allowing you to enjoy your music during sweaty workouts or even in the rain, worry-free.