Jabees 7Seven

Price

The Jabees 7Seven are mainly available to buy through the Jabees website, where they’ll cost you £61 / $79.99, in either the black or lime navy colours. That price puts the 7Seven below most other swim-friendly headphones.

That includes the Shokz OpenSwim (£139) and OpenSwim Pro (£169). It’s also much cheaper than the Suunto Aqua (£159) and the H20 Audio Tri 2 Pro (£151).

Design

• Comes in two colour options
• IP68 waterproof rating
• Uses proprietary charging cable

In terms of design, Jabees doesn’t offer anything radically new when compared to most other waterproof bone conduction headphones. You’ve got a neckband-style design that’s wrapped in soft-touch silicone. It weighs just 28.3g, so that’s slightly heavier than the OpenSwim Pro (27.3g). These aren’t heavy headphones to wear and whether it’s been for swims or popping out for a walk, they’ve been very comfortable to don.

There’s two colour options – black and lime navy – with both carrying the same IP68 waterproof rating. That makes them suitable to be submerged in freshwater up to 1.5 metres depth for 40 minutes. That should cover most swimmers that are looking for some extra motivation in the pool or when jumping into a river or lake.

Jabees does include a set of physical buttons, which again, matches the placement of most other neckband headphones. They can be found tucked away on the underside of the headphones on the right side.

These buttons let you adjust volume, skip back and forward through audio and make it very easy to switch between Bluetooth and music player streaming modes. Thankfully, those identically shaped buttons aren’t sat so close to each other that you’re going to be accidentally pressing the wrong one.

Alongside the headphones, you’ll also find a small fit loop that’s designed to improve secureness of the fit. I didn’t find I needed it on any occasion though. They simply haven’t jumped about in the water or out of it.

Above the buttons is where you’ll find the charging port and your sign that these do require a proprietary charging cable. That’s pretty much the norm for most waterproof headphones to achieve a good waterproof seal. You’ll also need that USB-style cable to plug them into a computer to transfer over files.

Features

• Music player mode
• Six hour battery life

In Bluetooth streaming mode, you can pair to your Bluetooth-friendly device with ease. I haven’t suffered any connection drop outs pairing to a range of devices, including an Android phone, iPhone, a MacBook and a Bluetooth headphone-friendly Garmin smartwatch.

In music player mode, there’s 32GB of available storage, which according to Jabees gives you room for around 8,000 audio files. Those files can be in MP3, WAV, WMA, APE, FLAC, AAC and M4A formats. So it’s got most major formats covered.

Like most other swimming headphones, getting those files onto the headphones requires connecting them to a computer and then dragging and dropping files into a folder. I found trying to transfer over just a few podcasts took as long as 20 minutes to sync. I’ve definitely transferred files onto other swimming headphones quicker. Those audio files will have to be ones you own or you’re freely able to download like podcasts and audiobooks.

Battery life on the 7Seven is up to 6 hours, but that’s based on listening at 60% volume. I’d say those numbers are largely spot on. When I streamed over Bluetooth for an hour, the battery drop was just below 20%.

For a 30-minute swim, battery dropped by 10%. This would work out more around the 5 hour mark. This is typically the kind of battery drop I see on other bone conduction headphones. Especially if you listen above that 50-60% volume mark, which I imagine most will.

Sound Quality

• Open-ear, bone conduction technology
• Drag and drop audio files from computer
• Built-in microphone for handling calls

The Jabees 7Seven use two bone conduction drivers to deliver sound to ears without entirely blocking them up like in-ear headphones. If you need a reminder, that approach involves transmitting sound through vibrations up your cheekbones and towards your ears. This is the open-ear sound technology that Shokz, Suunto and H20 Audio also use on their swimming headphones.

In terms of sound, I didn’t have high expectations for the 7Seven. Largely based on other waterproof bone conduction headphones I’ve tried around this price point where results have been underwhelming. Thankfully, these are capable of producing some pretty likeable open-ear sound. I wouldn’t say they’re the best I’ve tested, but there’s definitely qualities that made me happily pick them up for swims.

The first good quality here is volume. They can go loud, and while they do invariably leak sound even at moderately loud volumes like other bone conduction headphones, it helps to counteract louder listening environments. This helps when you bring the onboard microphone into play and want to use them for taking calls. They do a pretty respectable job offering good volume and overall call quality.

At louder volumes, it doesn’t entirely escape from some vibration tickle you can experience through bone conduction. It didn’t feel so uncomfortable that I had to be more reserved about turning them up too loud.

I’d describe the open-ear sound profile as bright, not exceptionally clear, but reasonably balanced and versatile. On the Avalanches’ Since I Left You, mids were quite smooth while bass was woolly without ever feeling too prominent in the mix.

It was a similar story on Jamie xx’s Gosh and Massive Attack’s Teardrop. Switching to podcasts and audiobooks, there’s plenty of warmth and volume on offer. It’s definitely taken a few hours of listening to get to the 7Seven’s best sound.

In the water are where things really matter and I’m glad to report that it’s not a murky mess using them for swims. Some swimming headphones can be tuned to overdo bass and power at the expense of everything else. Jabees don’t fall into that trap. While I think the Shokz OpenSwim and OpenSwim Pro particularly offer a more balanced sound for swims, the 7Seven has made good company in the water.

Should you buy it?