A reviewer who tests endurance gear for a living went looking for the best bone-conduction headphones — and landed on ours.
Some reviews carry more weight than others. Not the quick five-star tap from someone who's never owned anything else. The one that comes from a person who handles hundreds of products a year, who knows what "good" feels like because they've had their hands on everything that isn't, and who has no reason to hand out praise they don't mean.
That's the review the TRI 2 PRO just earned.
In Cycling Weekly's gear coverage this week, the publication's tech editor — someone who lives near the coast, trains in open water, and has spent years putting headphones through their paces — called the TRI 2 PRO "the best bone-conducting headphones I've ever used." Not the best waterproof pair. Not the best for the money. The best he's ever used, full stop.
That's not a sentence a tech editor writes lightly, so it's worth sitting with what got him there.
The pool used to be the boring part
By his own account, the water used to be the dull stretch of his training. Lap after lap with nothing but the black line and the sound of his own breathing. The TRI 2 PRO changed that — and not only in the pool. He pointed to open-water swims, sessions down at the beach, and even paddleboarding as places the headphones quietly became part of the day rather than a gadget he had to think about.
That's the thing about real music in the water. It doesn't just pass the time. It changes how the session feels, which changes whether you show up for the next one.
You still hear the world
Here's what bone conduction does that sealed earbuds simply can't: it leaves your ears open. The music rides along your cheekbones while the world stays exactly where it is — the splash of your own stroke, the wind coming off the water, everything happening above the surface. Our tester loved that he never had to trade his surroundings for a soundtrack. He got both at once.
For anyone training in open water, that's not a nice-to-have. That's the safety case and the joy of it in the same breath.
Why it works where Bluetooth can't
The reason most "waterproof" headphones disappoint comes down to simple physics. Bluetooth can't cross the surface of the water, and nobody is swimming laps with their phone. So if you want music while you swim, the music has to live on the headphones themselves.
That's exactly what the TRI 2 PRO is built to do. It's 100% waterproof — the credential we've been earning for over eleven years in this category — with onboard storage for the tracks you already own and Playlist+, our patented feature that makes loading up effortless. Playlist+ records whatever's playing on your phone, from any app or any source, straight onto the headphones. You press play, it captures the audio onto the device, and then you leave the phone in the locker and go. No signal. No Bluetooth fighting the water. Just your music, with you, below the surface.
That's the whole idea behind everything we build: Below, Above & Beyond.
The verdict
When someone who reviews gear for a living puts the TRI 2 PRO at the top of every bone-conduction pair he's tested — after years in the field — that's worth more than any spec sheet we could hand you. He found out the same way thousands of swimmers, triathletes, and open-water diehards already have.
The pool doesn't have to be the boring part.
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