Buzz
About the Design
Most sports headphones fall into the earbud category. However, personally, I believe that a broader range of earpiece sizes could be beneficial. Wearing a pair of headphones is much simpler than fiddling with earbuds. The prerequisite, of course, is that they are small and light enough not to be a hassle. They should also stay in place during sweaty workouts, allowing the ears to breathe while maintaining a secure fit.
The Adidas RPT-01 is small and lightweight (just over 200 grams) and is of the on-ear type. Therefore, they sit outside the ear rather than encasing it. As a result, they need to be larger, making this a reasonable choice.
To turn them on, simply press and hold the square button on the right ear cup, which also serves as a control to navigate through songs and adjust volume. A deep bass beat kicks in, then you'll find them in the Bluetooth list on your mobile phone. Play it your way.
Flexible and Rotatable Headband Without Snapping. It's also wrapped in detachable fabric, with a removable rubber strap that can be washed between it and the scalp. You can also remove the inner fabric cover of the headphones by twisting it slightly to the left. A delicate wash basin will work well.
Noise Isolation Capability
The bells sit snugly outside the ears. They'll never fall out when you run, and the fabric means they won't slip if you start sweating. This fabric material also means you won't start sweating around the ears like with synthetic leather. However, the cooling effect is still limited, as shortly after, my ears felt a bit warm. But I could still listen for a long time without it being too noisy. Here, Adidas / Zound Industries could still learn from Philips, which has cooling gel in the ear cushions on the much cheaper TASH402BK.
Features
With the Adidas Headphones app, you can choose the functions that the button on the left headphone should have. The basic setup is you call on the voice assistant with a single press, while a double press will start a workout playlist on Spotify, which may be a bit too “youthful” for my taste. A triple tap will start a hit playlist, but I've never managed to achieve this.
In the app, you can also choose sound settings (EQ), but here I prefer the setting called Adidas, which is the flattest. Pop has too little bass and too much midrange, Rock sounds unstable, and none of the settings work. Just use the Adidas mode.
Latency
The headphones have a slight audio latency, meaning the sound of cars and shooting games is slightly delayed compared to the visuals. It's a bit annoying, although it's probably only about 200 milliseconds. Many video apps on mobile devices now automatically sync audio via Bluetooth, so there's no issue. I didn't feel any problems lip-syncing on YouTube or Netflix.
Sound Quality
As I mentioned in the introduction, Adidas headphones pleasantly surprised me when it comes to sound quality. Contrary to stereotypes, the music is clear, engaging, and definite. The bass isn't overly heavy, but it's not thin either. Instead, the bass drums are both powerful and solid, while always keeping the focus on the vocals, whether it's a deep male voice or a lighter female voice.
The Sounds' new song Safe and Sound sounds even better than expected. Almost forgot the feeling of dancing to danceable tunes at parties! But now I have a party in my head, where I run up the hills in the neighborhood. In fact, listening to acoustic music is also no problem – even classical music. Only the piano lovers might find it slightly reminiscent of an electric piano. Still much better than other sports I've heard.
Conclusion
Applying bass during workouts is not helpful – the rhythm of the music you're training to is likely sufficient. Instead, it will seem good, and this is adidas RPT-01 in its ace.
While most other sports watches emit sounds in a way I'd never use for anything other than training (too much and bass-heavy), the Adidas RPT-01 is balanced and dynamic enough to be used for various tasks. They have vibrant sound, but with a uniquely tuned bass compared to the rest of the sound layout. This makes vocals and instruments stand out.
Firmly snug so the RPT-01 never falls out when running. They can squeeze a bit, but stay within the comfort limits I call comfortable. Then they have a great feel of quality.
They could sound clearer and be better resolved if they supported AAC and aptX for better sound over Bluetooth. Then they might find it hard to boast about a battery life of over 40 hours, but who really needs more than 20 hours?
