I’ve always been a bit of a gear-selective audiophile. Not the 1% with headphone amps on their desks insisting on only wired headphones, mind you, but enough to be a stickler about reviews and the occasional response curve here and there.
But over the years, much as I have with my camera gear, I’ve come to realize that audio quality is not the dimension you want to optimize for when you travel. Instead, it’s practicality. You need a setup that can optimally serve your needs when you need it, both in transit and on-the-go. What’s the point of having a chunky nice-sounding headphone you only use on the plane, or of having tiny earbuds with no noise cancelation and shit audio quality?
So although once upon a time, I carried either my wired Sony MDR-7520 headphones or my wireless Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones when traveling, that is no longer the case. As I’ve elaborated upon elsewhere (see below post), I’m all in on earbuds for their compactness. And the beauty of earbuds and their size is that you really can bring multiple sets of earbuds and still take up less space than a pair of headphones would.
After a few rounds of iteration, I’ve settled on a 3 set rotation to serve my audio needs while traveling. Full disclaimer: I would be able to get this down to two if I didn’t sweat like a motherfucker, as I’ll detail in the last section.
Primary: For situational awareness, Apple AirPods Pro 3
This might sound ‘obvious’ to many just because they’re a common daily driver, but I have a specific reason for the AirPods Pro being my primary in travel — transparency mode. The AirPods have the best transparency/ambient sound mode I’ve ever heard, sometimes you can barely tell you have earbuds on. And when you’re traveling, situational awareness is critical for general safety reasons as well as for more context specific reasons; you don’t want to miss your plane because you couldn’t hear your gate changed over your music, do you? It’s the combination of the transparency mode enabling safe phone calls while walking around and the robust noise cancellation — got me through a 5 hour flight with a crying baby across the aisle — that make the AirPods a truly worthy primary bluetooth set for travel.
In-flight: For max noise cancellation, Sony WF-1000XM6
This is the newest addition to my travel audio setup for sure. I previously only carried the AirPods Pro, or one set bluetooth earbud set of some kind, but I’ve decided it’s worth having a second set to tag team along. Why? Well, by the time you leave the airport, get through security, wait at the gate, and plonk your ass down on the plane, you are a good amount through its battery life, nor was the 8 hours battery life going to last you through a long flight even at full charge. The Sony WF series earbud have always been segment-leaders for their noise-cancellation and audio quality, so I decided to add them to my travel kit to rotate with my AirPods for flights to Europe, Asia, or Australia. Plus, they’re the set I keep permanently connected to my 1/8” to bluetooth dongle for watching movies on the plane without resorting to crappy airline earbuds, though I do wonder if the in-flight movie audio is too compressed to make the most of the XM6’s sonic capabilities.
Running: For sweat resistance, Shokz OpenRun Pro 2
Technically not earbuds per se, but compact enough I don’t feel bad including it here. Now, if I were a normal human being who sweats a normal amount, I’d probably be able to get away with not bringing this for runs and just using my AirPod Pros instead; you see plenty of running influencers far more talented than me doing their workouts with them. But I’ve always sweat a lot, to the extent I would joke as a child that my brain floats in sweat not cerebrospinal fluid. So I bring my running headset, the OpenRun Pro 2, on my trips. For those who aren’t familiar, the OpenRuns are bone conduction headsets that keep your ear completely open to the surrounding soundscape while transmitting the music through your ear bones. As you can tell from the top section, I greatly value situational awareness, and the OpenRun is excellent for maintaining that while running, with the added bonuses of compactness and sweat resistance. I can carry them in my bag naked or with a slim case.
EDIT: After my Australia/New Zealand trip, I’ve decided I will not carry these when I travel, not because they are bad, but because I’m fine not having music on travel runs if it means less shit to carry around.
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