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Travelling Light: Compact Noise Cancelling Ear Buds + Bluetooth (BT) Adaptor (Airplane IFE or other)

dogdoctor

I wanted to pass along some research that I did this year when trying to think about how to make long haul and ultra-long haul flights more comfortable on my ears while being compact and not breaking the bank. Flying solo is one thing. Flying as a family of 4 is another. I know many on here fly business class, and airlines often provide some nice amenities (sometimes including nice noise cancellation headphones) to those passengers while those in economy often get the cheap and uncomfortable wired headphones or ear buds. I have always wanted to get a decent pair of active noise cancellation (ANC) headphones or ear buds. But as an Apple family, I simple just can't justify spending that much on AirPod Pros - especially when the kiddos have a knack for losing or destroying ear buds. My son has lost at least half of 2 sets of cheap ear buds and my daughter left a set in the yard for a rainstorm and my irrigation system to drown. 🙄 Add to that, say you do have a nice pair of fancy BT headphones or earbuds - how can you use them on airplane in-flight entertainment (IFE) devices when they use a single or dual 3.5 mm audio jacks? Sure I can watch stuff on my phone, but sometimes you would just like the flexibility to use the IFE.

Well...

Ear Fun Air Pro 3 - highly rated, low cost, active noise cancellation (ANC) up to 43dB, BT 5.3 supporting aptX- Adaptive with an ultra-low latency mode, 45 hours of battery, come in 4 colors, wired and wireless charging, pairing to 2 devices, and can be tuned/adjusted easily with supported app. Wt. 1.8 oz. They can be bought for $56-64 on Amazon.

Plus

Avantree SoundJet R2 - a BT adaptor that has excellent design (small, compact, with a dual 3.5mm adapter, and comes with a small pouch), supports BT 5.3 aptX-Adaptive and low latency, 30 hours of battery, and can pair to 2 sets of BT headphones should you want to share 1 screen. Great customer service as well. Wt. 2.0 oz. They can be bought direct from Avantree or on Amazon for about $40.

Full disclosure: I had pre-ordered their new R1s (slightly smaller design, 20 hours of battery) coming out back in March for $32. But as each month passed after May, the release date got pushed back, until just a few weeks ago it got pushed to the point that it would not be released/shipped until after we got back from Africa. Disappointed, I reached out to their customer service and they verified the delay. I countered with a request of would they ship me 4 R2s at the pre-order price of the R1s due to the delays. They were very quick to oblige and today I spent the day pairing the Air Pro 3's and R2 for the family. I tested the R2s out on my laptop and I was easily able to switch connecting the ear bud to my phone or to the laptop with ease. A very slick system if you ask me.

With the shortest flight being a little over 8 hours and the longest flight being 13.5 hours, this will hopefully allow some comfortable sleep as well as comfortable entertainment enjoyment and reduction of ear stress due to the benefits of being able to use BT noise cancellation ear buds with both with our phones as well as the IFE systems.

I am so looking forward to experiencing Qatar Airways for the first time, in economy (extra legroom), in 2 weeks!

Comments

BKMD

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought this was going to be spam, but then I recognized the poster, so it's real.

Anyway, I have Sony WF-1000XM4 noise cancelling earbuds. They're not cheap, but I'm very pleased with them. I've had them for about 3 years and they are now on the M5 version. They are also trackable on the Android Find My Device app, in case you misplace them.

I don't buy Apple products, but I can tell you my daughter has some Apple earbuds and I hate them on phone calls because the mic picks up so much background noise.

sevenseas

I have been using Twelve South Airfly Bluetooth Transmitters for a while now - they function much the same. As a bonus, I don't like the Vox Whisperer earpieces Tauck hands out on tour, so I plug my Airfly into the 3mm port on the Whisperer and transmit to my earbuds, one a set of Apple AirPods Pro and the other Bose bluetooth earbuds.

dogdoctor

@BKMD I'd like to think I've been around the forums long enough not to be considered spam.
As for your Sony's - they constantly rank in the top ANC earbuds. But damn the $$. If you fly regularly or need the ANC for work, so be it. But their cost is why I looked past them. I was looking for a for high functioning earbud that was more economical - especially when I was looking to buy 4 pairs. Flying solo and with cost as no object - Apple AirPod Pro, Sony WF-1000MX5, and Bose Quiet Comforts all day long!

@sevenseas the Airfly has great reviews for pairing with the AirPods. I sincerely looked at them for quite a while. That said, the biggest gripe on the AirPods is use of "older" BT versions and lack of low latency. The same goes for the Airfly adapter. But for those that use Airpods, the Airfly is one of the most reliable options. For those that chose to forgo the Airpods and may be looking for low latency (ie. lip sync issues), then there are a multitude of other adaptors. The Avantrees seem to rate very well with battery life and, dual pairing, and low latency, plus they come with a dual 3.5mm adaptor and a lower cost for similar features. Avantree and others have struggled to make Airpod compatible adaptors. And even when they do, the Airpod owners complain of latency issues. This is not surprising since the Airpods don't support the low-latecy codecs even though the new adaptors might.

British

I bought some cheap ear buds a couple of years ago and have hardly used them. They could be like the ones you picture but no idea. Of course i chose pink ones! I don’t like things in my ears and don’t do much video watching on the plane, I tend to read instead and fortunately travel business class these days so get the fancy noise canceling ones. Just the other day, I was reviewing the amenities for Qatar economy and surprised to see they provided earphones that are not the inside ear type. Our first trips to Africa were economy flying, who cares, you get to go to Africa!

RGM2

I have a reasonably priced set I bought on Amazon. Though they are wired. Uses one AAA battery to power on the noise cancelling.