The Avanca S1 Wireless Sports Headphone. A convenient wireless headphone for the gym, depending on your favorite music.
Table of Contents
Avanca S1 Wireless Sports Headphone
Last week, I received the Avanca S1 Wireless Sports Headphone at the office. A lightweight wireless headphone weighing only 17 grams and using Bluetooth 3.0 for connection to your mobile device.
During the training
Yesterday and the day before yesterday, I had the opportunity to test the headphones during a training session.
The Avanca S1 is a Bluetooth headphone designed for athletes. This means that it should provide more convenience during activities and, for example, should not fall off during fast movements. The latter has been quite successful. Leaning forward to pick up weights or lying on your back for a dumbbell bench press, no problem. On the first day, I quickly reached my headache threshold in an unsuccessful attempt to shake it off my head. The earbuds are also comfortable and very lightweight.
During the second training session yesterday, I subjected the Avanca S1 to a tough sweat test, a leg workout on one of the hottest days of the year in the gym, with a hoodie on. When sweat starts pouring from your head, you notice that the earbuds are more prone to slipping out of your ears. Not enough to fall off your head, but enough to lose quality, so after each set, instead of grabbing your water bottle first, you press your earbuds back in.
Ease of use
The Avanca S1 is easy to use. The first time, you have to press the power button until you hear “power on” and then keep pressing it until you hear “pairing”. If you read the manual, you might be tempted to release it after hearing “power on”. If you then press it again to “pair”, you will turn off the headset again. So keep pressing. After hearing “pairing”, you will see the headset appear in your list of Bluetooth devices on your mobile phone.
The buttons are a bit small, but personally, I found them quite pleasant. Once you know where they are, it feels very intuitive. You can switch between tracks with the buttons on your left ear and adjust the volume with the buttons on your right ear. You can pause tracks with a power button.
The headset automatically switches over for incoming phone calls.
Volume
In the case of the gym where I train, the volume is more than enough to drown out the usual dance music with my 90’s hip hop. In fact, it’s the only headphone I’ve ever used where I find the maximum volume simply too loud. Now, of course, you should worry about getting old when you say your headphones can be too loud. But even my 15-year-old daughter said it didn’t need to be louder at 70%. And she’s a metal fan!
Signal quality
The headset is said to have a range of 100 meters. I haven’t tested it that far. I count more in distances “from hack squat to drinking fountain”. That’s the greatest distance I covered in the gym between the phone in my gym bag and the headset in my ears. At that distance, the connection remained excellent.
Sound quality
The sound quality is great if Bach is your favorite artist. However, if you prefer listening to Ol’ Dirty Bastard, you’ll miss the necessary bass. At home, the Avanca S1 falls short in that regard compared to the “DJ headset” that I wear while listening to Spotify during the typing of this review. However, I don’t use that in the gym because of the cord and the fact that it easily falls off my head.
I found the sound of the Avanca S1 a bit hollow. Now it’s good to know that I also don’t understand how people can listen to music from their mobile phone’s speaker. I find that hollow, shrill sound terrible. So maybe I’m a bit more critical than younger users.
Conclusion
I actually never listened to music in the gym (except for the cheap dance covers of soul music that I’m forced to listen to). The reason for that was mainly due to ease of use. I write “was” because I’m converted. I loved it.
This is mainly due to the fact that I haven’t given Bluetooth headsets enough chance after disappointment in the distant past. Now I’m making gym playlists. I had forgotten how motivating and uplifting it is to hear good music during training. Especially when it doesn’t limit your freedom of movement and you hardly feel like you’re wearing a headset.
The Avanca S1 Wireless Sports Headphone has thus convinced me to go over the Bluetooth threshold. However, it also makes me wonder if there are alternatives in the same category that can offer better sound quality with the same comfort. Especially on the second day when I was once again accustomed to music in the gym, the lack of bass started to bother me more. Also because of this, I had to turn up the volume even louder to drown out the dance music in the gym.
