I hate wires! My iPhone streams Pandora over 4G then beams the music to my bluetooth JayBird Freedom Sprints. But sometimes you gotta go old school…well, pre-2005 old school. Say you’re going to spend all day in airports and on planes, or you plain forgot to recharge you wireless one, or you’re just one of those freaks who wears tin-foil hats and is scared of getting ear cancer. In those cases, it’s Sennheiser Addidas to the rescue!

If you read my previous post, you know I like the in-ear designed headphones. Luckily, Sennheiser Adidas has a boat load of choices; I went with the CX685.

First time I put on these bad boys, I was immediately impressed with their comfort. They just mold into your ear and after a while you really do forget they are there (except for the blaring music and hanging wires). They have this “slide-to-fit” mechanism, which I was skeptical about at first, but it appears to work (definitely doesn’t hurt). In comparing these headphones to the JayBird Freedom Sprints — the Sennheiser definitely gets the comfort check mark. This is probably due to the fact that the JayBirds have both a bluetooth receiver and rechargable battery, weighing them down on your ear. Next month I’ll be getting the new JayBird Bluebuds X, which may even up the score…we’ll see.

The Sennheiser Adidas are sports headphones, so certain features matter more to me than others. Comfort, stability, blackout sound, battery life, water/sweat proof…those things are at the top of my list. Audiophile super-sound quality is lower. They gotta sound good, but I’m not looking for amazing performance (unfortunately for Sennheiser, this is one of the features they tout — sorry bros).

So, on to stability. The Sennheiser Adidas CX685s stayed snug in my ear — no problemo. Even at top speed, running hurdles or long jumping (remember, I’m that master’s decathlete guy), they held tight. Of course, I had to snake that cord through my shirt and down my arm and I hate that, but otherwise they exceed my expectations.

My last pair of wired earphones were of the Shure blackout persuasion. If you don’t know Shure, they are all about blackout sound…they focus on the music and stage industry. So, it’s totally unfair to compare the Shure to the Sennheiser. But the Sennheiser also failed to compare to the JayBirds. They were descent, don’t get me wrong, they just weren’t great.

Battery-life…well, duh. Forever!

Finally, sound quality. Stop reading…I’m not an audiophile. I’ll say they sound great to me…but my opinion aint really worth S*&#. The rumor (as in Sennheiser own marketing material) says their superior. So, let’s just go with that.

At the end of the day, I give them a big thumbs up. Way better than those Bose earbuds I have in my sock drawer. Way better than those cheesy Apple earbuds that came with my iPhone 5. And a 1000X better than those knock-off I give my kids. So, if you need some wired buds for working out…the Sennheiser Adidas are a great choice.