Reviews

Yurbuds Inspire 400 – Sports in-earphones for athletes

Yurbuds Inspire earphones

Yurbuds Inspire 400 – Sports in-earphones for athletes
Overall Ranking: 7/10
Price: $49 Now selling at $41.80
Owners: Harman/JBL

Buy here: Yurbuds Inspire 400

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INTRODUCTION 

Athletes are always in a run to find a pair of “stay on” set of music companion which doesn’t interfere with the workout and sits calmly and securely in the ear – like put it and forget it types.

Seems like Yurbuds from HARMAN/JBL (Harman is the parent company of many legendary brands like Harman Kardon®, JBL®, Mark Levinson®, AKG and Infinity Systems®) has captured this market segment and pushed their baby to take on the world of active listeners. JBL Yurbuds inspire 400 hits all the right buttons!

There is a wide range of yurbuds with many options like with/without the microphone, different cable types colors and creed. But we are today focused on the most celebrated Yurbuds Inspire 400 wired in-earphones. And most of all they come with an inspirational IRONMAN logo embedded (heart beat = 190 J), the real earphones for athletes!

  • To start with Inspire 400 (as claimed by the company) are developed by athletes, for athletes. I would say that the prime selling point and if I can confess to you here, I have bought these because this reason and another gigantic claim made by Harman as “GUARANTEED TO NEVER FALL OUT”, man!! Seems like they struck the correct chord here. As most of the active people face this problem of earphone falling out during curling their bodies in awkward positions J
  • I am currently using my second pair of the Inspire 400 series and can confidently say that they “do stay”. So, let’s began here and drill down to the descriptive review now:

Sound quality: let me first reiterate, these are sports earphones. Yes, that doesn’t mean that they should not produce good low-frequency sound to boost you up or enhance your listening session to another level, but still, to me, it feels like the sound quality is in good if not brilliant. The whole play is of the earbuds which make them exceptional to own.

            LOW frequency: enough and controlled bass to pump up with a good source playing

MID and Highs: Decent enough not that your jazz player will come to life. The soundstage it creates is average. Adequate for a workout session where I am not critically listening the artist.

Comfort: I have tested it for long running and cycling sessions (2-6 hours on and off the ears) while working out at the gym, lazy listening sessions in bed, even for conference calls at times and what not. I must say that these are ergonomically designed, comfortable, mostly because of the Sweat resistant slip on earbud covers, due to which it doesn’t induce pain in the ear canal and outer lobe as they don’t put negative pressure in our ears.

Twist Lock Technology keeps them secured in the ear; Once in place, the earbuds are ‘Locked’ into place and won’t wrangle free even during the most strenuous of exercises. Now with the Quik Clik Tangle-Free Magnets in the earplugs to wrap them around your neck or back while not in use they have become even convenient to use and store.

Yurbuds inspire 400 sports earphonesYurbuds inspire 400 sports earphonesYurbuds inspire 400 sports earphones

Noise cancellation: No, these are NOT Noise canceling earphones by any means, as they are not being positioned by Harman/JBL as noise cancellation earphones rather the structure of earbud cover is such that it allows some “ambient” noise inside while listening and here’s the best part/feature of these.

            I love these for not the sound quality that they produce (because the sound coming out of these is good but not audiophile quality, come one they are just $40ish) but for the Ambient Noise that they allow, as it is very important for the road runners and cyclists who cannot spare the music while on the road. Due to the shape of the covers, you can hear the loud traffic or honking or any loud noise and at the same time, the disturbance is balanced enough not to irritate your musical motivation, rather just adequate. I always use these during road running sessions.

Mobile control/buttons: The three-button inline remote on the Inspire 400 doesn’t interrupt your workout or training session when you need to take a call. The V-shape of the mic and button portion is well designed and the rubberized ends are flexible, even if you try to treat them bad. Easy and accurate control while changing tracks on the music stored on the device, music played through the apps, forwarding and skipping of tracks and taking calls, all works very well.

Yurbuds inspire 400 sports earphones

Yurbuds Earbud Covers: I have saved the best for the last, these are the hero of the package. The real deal, due to these earphone stays where you instruct them to stay don’t budge an inch. In fact, at times while wearing these, accidently while getting out of the car or otherwise I had them entangled with something (I make a lot of clutter at times) they pulled me back to source but didn’t come out of the ears and I was surprised.

The trick is to wear them correctly as suggested in the manual and choose the correct size cover. I have seen people complaining about discomfort while wearing them with oversized earbud covers. The company provides size 5 and size 7 along with these and they cover a wide variety of ears both men and women. Still, you always have the option to buy another size if these sizes don’t fit you well.

These boys are sweat proof and splash proof, rigorously tested during Half Marathons with sweat and occasional water pouring on my head…..gosh those were roasting runs during summers.

 PROS/CONS

PROS

  • Comfortable fit
  • Good sound quality with covers on
  • Highs: Good, Lows: Very Good
  • Magnetized earplugs for easy storage (also a pouch is included)
  • Good quality inline buttons
  • BIG One: you can use the earbud covers with your apple earpods/airpods or any round shaped earplugs and turn them into comfortable fitting earplugs

 CONS

  • With use, the earbud covers could get slippery and you need to take them out, wash them and put them back on (may be due to dust and earwax)
  • Magnets make them tangle free but the cable is not 100{0e0f650f2f0a423a739f20d7334b4e653cfe24bb5e9fe81c8ac78ae3b72beb93} tangle free (when stored in the pouch provided)
  • Size 6 inclusion would have been good as well in the package (yes, I turn greedy at times)

 

WHO IT IS FOR

Anyone who:

  1. is irritated with the falling earplugs while strenuous exercises
  2. Loves rugged and strong stuff and could hardly take care of the delicate earplugs
  3. Wants a budget sports earphones under $50
  4. Loves the spirit of IRONMAN and are budding triathletes


FINAL OPINION/VERDICT

This is one good pair to own, just throw them in your gym bag work the ass out, you will not be disappointed. I own the second set of the second generation of 400 (earlier one was without the clik magnets). Audio performance could have been better but still I would be anytime happy to buy these again in future for my comfortable and safe outdoor workout sessions. Every time I look at the ironman logo while training I get a boost and see a goal in front of me and passion which goes into building an ironman and the spirit of human endurance. I thank HARMAN and wish more advanced and brilliant products in future from the big house.

 Yurbuds inspire 400 sports earphonesYurbuds inspire 400 sports earphones

TIP: one of the pairs broke and HARMAN guys were quick and courteous enough to replace them asap

PS: I have not accrued anything while reviewing these earphones or being paid by the company to promote these. It’s my own true blue opinion.

Buy here: Yurbuds Inspire 400

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Also look at: Yurbuds Inspire Sport Earphones

 

 

6 Comments

  1. I love the comments presented. I used to thought that earphones is not necessary for athletes, which I am so wrong to make such judgements. Indeed, having such earphones can help reduce the noise level especially from the industrial areas or even a bustling congestion where it is filled with honking noises. Thanks for sharing here.

  2. Great site so far. I can tell it’s still a work in progress much like my own. Great niche and best of luck with it. Might want to consider a custom logo and over time, a little more organization. It seems like info overload for a single product. Play around with it and see if you can have a widget to show specific features like a mini tabbed window – Just a thought.

  3. These products look awesome and certainly are a whole lot better to what I have currently. I’m doing about 5km 3 times per week and the ear phones are always annoying me and getting displaced when descending from steel hills. All of the key points about it have been brilliantly explained – certainly want to check these out

    1. Thanks David, I have personally used these for 3 Half Marathons and approximately 300Kms in total and for my cycling session as well for last 2+ years and they are just fantastic. Under $50 its a must have for the athletes and prospective triathletes.

  4. Everything I have looked for right here. Thanks for saving me time, now I can decide will I purchase them or not. Thanks, keep up the good work!

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