OpenRock X Open-Ear Sport Earbuds

If you're looking for some great quality open-ear earbuds for listening to music or podcasts when you're on the bike without drowning out the traffic, OpenRock has you covered. We've already reviewed the OpenRock S earbuds at the bottom of the range, and these OpenRock X buds are the brand's money-no-object option. They're certainly very good, and in some ways work better on the bike than the cheaper buds, though I'm not convinced overall that they're worth the extra spend.

Cards on the table, then: I really liked the OpenRock S earbuds and they made it onto the road.cc recommends list. So a fair bit of this review is going to be: are these more expensive buds worth the extra spend? They're twice as much, after all. So what's different?

OpenRock X earbuds: Sound

Firstly and foremostly, the sound isn't different, really, and that's good. The OpenRock X earbuds use a 14.2mm driver with BassDirect technology, which 'channels sound through tubes, providing incredible bass and effective noise reduction, so you feel every note', according to OpenRock. Back to back with the cheaper OpenRock S buds, there's not a great deal of difference in the clarity.

The earbuds manage to convey a very good dynamic range even though they're separated from your ear canal by clear air. Having used a number of bone-conduction headphones which also allow you to hear your surroundings, 'air-conduction' headphones like these give a much better sound overall, and they're not affected by what you're doing with your jaw. They're not as good as a high-quality pair of in-ear buds but they're perfectly good for listening to music or podcasts and they don't feel compromised for lack of being stuck right in your ear.

If you download the OpenRock app you can set a custom EQ (equalizer) that works for you, or pick one of the three standard ones. The app also allows you to change a bunch of other settings, find the earbuds if they're in range by making them emit a high-pitched sound, and update the firmware.

What does affect the sound – both the volume, and the bass response – is the position of the driver in relation to your ear canal.

One of the big differences between these earbuds and the cheaper options from OpenRock and others is that the position of the driver is a lot more adjustable: it rotates through 50 degrees in the same axis as the ear loop, and 45 degrees perpendicular to it. That means you can fiddle with them to get the fit just right. I found that rotating the loop back as far as it would go and then angling the driver down a bit was the best compromise for fit and sound.

On the bike the earbuds feel more secure if you jam the driver up to pinch the loop against the top of your ear, but positioned this way they're not as loud and the bass response isn't as good. The thinner loop section of these headphones compared to the OpenRock S means that they're less likely to clash with your eyewear, although I didn't really have any issues with the larger, cheaper earbuds. They're pretty comfortable, although I did find that several hours in I was starting to notice them a bit. I don't know if it's because the thinner band over the OpenRock S is more of a concentrated pressure point, but they're not as fit-and-forget as the cheaper buds.

The normal sound caveat applies here: these earbuds are an open design and that means you can hear things around you. If you're slogging up a busy road into a headwind then the combination of traffic noise and wind noise sometimes means that you're not actually getting much music coming through. There's no real remedy to the wind noise on the bike. Those furry cat's ear things you can stick on your helmet straps can reduce it quite a bit if it's a real problem for you. But it's not our practice to mark down open-ear headphones of any kind because the sound is fighting with other sounds – that's sort of the point.

The OpenRock X buds are fairly loud, but nothing like as loud as a closed-ear design pumping the sounds directly into your insulated ear canal. Compared with other bone-conduction and air-conduction buds I've tried, they're near the top in terms of volume level.

OpenRock X earbuds: Battery life

OpenRock says that you'll get 12 hours of life from the earbuds, and with the case you'll get a full two days of run-time. I've worn these earbuds all day listening to the test match, and realistically they'll last for any reasonable day ride. They charge quickly too: five minutes in the case adds an hour of battery life, so realistically you're not going to lose sound if you take the case with you.

The case itself is a nicely designed affair, with a pleasing clicky bit that drops down from inside an alloy outer case. There's a carabiner loop included to attach it to stuff. The case is a fair bit smaller than the OpenRock S one, but those earbuds have a bigger internal battery and case battery, and because of that the run-time (19 hours/60 hours) is longer, although either pair would be fine for pretty much any kind of riding, and the smaller case is going to take up a bit less space.

Charging the case from a battery pack or wall charger doesn't take long either; the internal battery is only 720mAh and an hour plugged in is normally enough to top it up.

Realistically, there aren't many riding scenarios where you're going to run out of charge; maybe if you're at the pointy end of an ultracycling race and can cope with a whole day of riding without stopping you'd struggle, but us mortals will be fine.

OpenRock X earbuds: Controls

The OpenRock X earbuds both have a single button on them, and these give access to a number of functions. Clicking either of them will mute playback and resume it, and multiple clicks can skip forward or back. You can also hold them down to adjust the volume, or customise what a long press does using the app.

> Catch up with the road.cc podcast here

I've found the presence of a physical button to be the thing I like most over the cheaper earbuds; the touch-sensitive panels on the Openrock S buds are a bit fiddly, and you can't change the volume either, meaning you're reaching for your phone more often than you'd like when you're out on a ride.

The IPX5 rating of the headphones covers the button, and that's waterproof enough for riding in the rain, with the caveat that if you're barrelling down a mountain descent in the pouring rain that might test the limits of the rating.

OpenRock X earbuds: Mics and calling

The OpenRock X earphones have a four-microphone array built in, and OpenRock says that 'Beamforming tech arranges 4 premium mics to power AI call noise cancellation, wiping out background sounds for clear voice pickup, even in strong winds'. This is good news for you if you like to take calls when you're out on your bike, which I categorically don't. I did make some calls to check, though, and I can confirm that I didn't have any issues being heard even on some quite windy rides.

The mics are also good if you're on a turbo in your shed with a fan pointed at your face and you like to chat with your mates on Discord while you're Zwifting. Again, everyone could hear me just fine.

OpenRock X earbuds: Value and overall

At £169.99 (and 10% off your first order at the OpenRock website) these are certainly pricey; they're almost exactly the same money as the top-of-the-range Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 headphones (we tested the previous version) which use a mix of bone conduction and air conduction, and nearly twice as much as the OpenRock S (now £89.99), and others like the SoundPeats GoFree 2. 

You can pay more: the Oladance OWS headphones come in at £189.99.

For riding I'd probably pick the OpenRocks over the Shokx or Oladance headphones purely for the fact that they don't have a rear band (which can fight with your helmet, or a buff if it's cold) and the extra run-time from a quick charge in the case.

The justification for spending £80 extra over the OpenRock S isn't as easy, though. They're more adjustable, and better looking, and the physical controls beat the touch controls, but I've been wearing the two pairs interchangeably and I still really like the cheaper ones. The sound is comparable, and on a long ride they're more comfortable. If it was me I'd get the cheaper ones, but that's not to say that these aren't very good headphones for cycling – they are, and they'll work for nearly any kind of riding, indoors and out.

Verdict

Good top-end air-conduction earphones that allow you to listen to music and hear traffic