The Best Headphones for the Gym of 2019
By Michael Desjardin and Julia MacDougall, December 21, 2018, Updated January 18, 2019The gym is an unforgiving place. At least give your ears a break with our top-recommended gym headphones, the JLab Audio Epic Sport Wireless (available at Amazon).
Between work, hobbies, and maintaining social life, it can be tough to stay committed to a regular gym schedule. Plugging in a pair of headphones, however, can turn your exercise routine into an opportunity to catch up on some podcasts or to spin a couple of new records you've been meaning to listen to.
We've tested dozens of headphones that fit the bill for gym use, and we've managed to narrow it down to a handful that represent the best options out there right now. Unlike our similar round-up of the best wireless in-ear headphones for running, our gym headphone round-up isn't limited to wireless picks, nor does it exclude on- or over-ears.
Updated January 18, 2019

How We Test
We test all of our headphones on a head and torso simulator (HATS), which replicates how sound bounces around in the human body.
On our head and torso simulator (HATS), we put these headphones through our usual battery of headphone tests: frequency response, distortion, tracking, leakage, and isolation.
Headphone manufacturers are typically aiming for either a flat or a curved sound profile. A curved profile is most common, and most curved profiles are trying to replicate the Equal Loudness Curve (ELC). The human ear hears higher tones more easily than it hears the bass tones, so for a human to perceive highs and lows at a similar volume, the headphones boost the volume of the lows, and moderate the volume of the highs.
A flat profile is usually found in "studio" headphones; the highs, mids, and bass tones have the same volume. However, as I just mentioned, we don't hear all tones at the same volume, so the bass notes sound softer, and the highs sound louder. Some people prefer studio headphones because of their audio fidelity—they are hearing the music exactly as the producers intended them to hear it. Also, as implied by the name, studio headphones are used in studio recordings to help mixers figure out what, if any frequencies, they should boost or reduce.
In addition to the more scientific testing, we also wear each pair of headphones around town to get a sense for their features (like extra amps or noise cancellation) and short- and long-term comfort.
In-ear vs. On-ear vs. Over-ear
You've probably seen a bunch of different headphones in your every day life, but what you may not realize is that headphones, while they have a number of different selling points, are primarily categorized into three types: in-ear, on-ear, and over-ear.

Three popular types of headphones: in-ear, on-ear, and over-ear.
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