The best waterproof headphones 2021: tough headphones built for swimming

Joseph Delves/Techradar

We've taken the plunge and tested the best waterproof headphones around so you can be confident you're choosing the best ones for swimming. While many sports headphones are marketed as water resistant to varying degrees, if you’re intending to soundtrack your swim with a motivational playlist or educational podcast, this is far from the only consideration. 

For one thing, you’ll need to think about where any music is going to play from. Your phone is unlikely to be either waterproof or convenient to carry while swimming. At the same time, wireless communication protocols like Bluetooth tend to struggle underwater. This means that while it’s possible to find standalone waterproof MP3 players, most successful swimming headphones instead tend to include an integrated MP3 player and internal storage into a single unit to let you carry your tunes with you into the pool.

The big exception is the Zygo Solo – our pick for the best waterproof headphones of 2021 – which uses an FM transmitter to stream audio from your phone instead.

Some work like conventional in-ear headphones, while others use bone conduction technology to transmit sound without blocking your ear canal so you can still hear ambient noise. We've rounded up a mixture of both, so you can choose the style that suits your preferences.

The Zygo Solo is the only set of waterproof headphones we've tested that can actually stream music and podcasts from a phone that's sitting by the side of the pool. Bluetooth signals can only penetrate water for a very short distance. The Zygo Solo gets around this problem by using an FM radio transmitter – an unusual, but effective approach.

The transmitter is quite large, but the ability to enjoy music, podcasts and coaching tips (provided by the Zygo app) without messing around with MP3 files is a real bonus.

The headset itself isn't as compact as the others in this guide, but in our tests it proved comfortable, and remained secure even when making turns underwater. The sound quality is impressive, too. Like the Aftershokz Xtrainerz and Sony NW-WS413 below, the Zygo Solo uses bone conduction to transmit sound to your auditory nerve, and while it sounds a little tinny on land, once you're in the pool the sound has an impressive amount of bass.

We're also big fans of the Zygo mobile app, which offers instructor-led workouts an drills to give you training some variety. In the future, the company plans to add Peloton-style interactive sessions, which will make use of the headset's built-in accelerometer to track your progress in the pool. The best waterproof headphones you can buy today.