There are times when your journey is less involving than others. Times when there is a real risk of boredom and fatigue creeping in. Times when, frankly, you need a distraction of some sort to keep you on the ball. Sounds like a contradiction but I’m sure you know what I mean. Now you could, of course, simply turn the wick up and go faster and faster until adrenaline kicks in and keeps you going. Not the safest option, either for life and limb or for licence, though, and not one I can recommend here. You can change the route and ramp up your concentration that way, which is fine but not always an option. Or you can have some onboard entertainment.

Normally, having any audio device in your helmet is a huge compromise. Either you can’t hear it properly because you’re wearing earplugs or you’re risking permanent hearing damage because you’re not wearing earplugs but can hear the music fine. Sensorcom Microbuds address that problem by combining a set of their excellent silicon earplugs with a pair of high quality speakers. These speakers may only be the size of a hearing aid but they pack a pretty respectable kick and manage to do so without distorting as well. As supplied, you get a pair of silicone plugs similar to the Alpine ones we tested here, a pair of traditional foamies and a pair of strange looking clear silicone things that look like pipecleaners but presumably aren’t. You also get a variety of baffles, more on which later. Naturally, the kit includes a pair of small black plastic speakers (known, apparently, as drivers in the audio world) on very high quality cable with a decent looking jack plug at the other end. The whole lot comes in a smart spring top leatherette pouch to keep it all together.

Like so many things, it’s the details that seem to make a difference with the Microbuds. Details like the little plastic sleeve on the separate cables to the speakers that allows you to adjust how much slack there is (in effect shortening the individual lengths) so that the cables don’t flap in the wind. The high quality lead is a plus as well, eliminating the incredibly annoying noises you normally get using things like in-ear handsfree kits on phones or cheap and cheerful walkman speakers.

In use, Microbuds act both as earplugs and as earphones. As earplugs they are the attenuating type (again like the Alpine plugs we tested earlier). Rather than the traditional solid plug, attenuating earplugs allow a certain amount of background noise through, dealing with the damaging frequencies and cutting levels down by specially designed baffles. This design has the advantage of making the rider less ‘cut off’ from the outside world but still protects the ears. The owner can choose the level of attenuation to some extent by changing the baffles. Got a very noisy bike or helmet? Then you’ll want more attenuation. On the other hand, wearing your whisper quiet lid while wafting along on your supertourer you may want the lightest level of attenuation. Either is achievable.
Riding along without using music, I can confirm that they do indeed work as comfortable and effective earplugs.

But that isn’t really the point.

Plug in a personal stereo – I use an Olympus MP3 player, but if ever something was designed for an i-Pod then this is it – and the story changes. Sensorcom started off doing monitors for musicians, and oh boy does it show. The small speakers are clear and produce enough noise to probably negate any benefits you may have otherwise seen by using earplugs. In short, crank it up loud and you may well ensure that the last thing you hear is music. I only encountered any distortion at ludicrous levels, and then I think it may have been my skull vibrating instead.

So, in a nutshell, Sensorcom Microbuds are an extremely well made and usable way of getting music on the move while providing hearing protection as well. At just £25.50 for the pair, they’re pretty good value considering that they fulfil two functions very well indeed.

STOP PRESS... You can get these earplugs online from Sensorcom.
Click here to go to their site.