Hello.
I've spent some significant time on google and seem to have read everything ever written about these two players - I guess it's coming down to personal preference. I'm leaning toward the Swimman, and if it was $50 or $100 cheaper (headphones and shuffle) I wouldn't even think about it. But it's not - $250 is a serious chunk of change. I still have two questions for those of you that have tried/own one of these: Is there significant/discernable volume loss from the Finis when your head comes out of the water, and does the swimman really stay in your ears when you're swimming reasonably fast laps, flipturns, etc.? I also don't like that with the Finis I'm going to have to convert all of my AC3's (Apple!) to MP3's and that I won't be able to listen to anything I bought from itunes. I've also read that I may have to wear earplugs with the Finis anyway - I picture it taking 20 minutes to get ready to swim and coming out of the locker room looking like some sort of Battlebot! If the Swimman stays in and with the cord wrapped up and tucked in my goggle strap stays out of the way, I'm in. Thanks for your advice and help - I need something to keep me going during those long individual workouts.
Parents
Former Member
I have the Swimman and I love it. However, my coach....not so much. I put it on in the locker room before practice to try to be discrete because it does take some acrobatics to put it on. Some folks just leave it on their goggles all the time. I take it off if we do drills, and afterwards to rinse and hang dry. I use Neosporin to make it easier to take the plugs in and out between sets because the plugs can get a bit dry from the chlorine and then you can't get a good seal, which is top priority. First I tried to save money by buying the H2O Audio headphones, but you really should get the Swimman headphones. After my first flip in the H2O Audio I had a headphone dangling in front of me. The goggle clips don't work as well with Socket Rockets or Swedish type goggles because the straps are so thin and the clips tend to come off the goggles occasionally. The clips don't fit on the bungee type straps at all because they are too thick. The music sounds just like it should and you can use it with iTunes. Only drawback is that my daughter has the same color shuffle and I have to be careful!
I borrowed the Swimp3v2 at practice once, but I couldn't tell what song I was listening too, although it sounded familiar; there was way too much splashing going on for me. My teammate is very happy with his Swimp3v2, so maybe it was just user error. I like my music loud and clear. He takes less flack because he can hear without taking anything out of his ears, but sometimes it's better to just tune everyone out!
Hope this helped, and good luck!
I have the Swimman and I love it. However, my coach....not so much. I put it on in the locker room before practice to try to be discrete because it does take some acrobatics to put it on. Some folks just leave it on their goggles all the time. I take it off if we do drills, and afterwards to rinse and hang dry. I use Neosporin to make it easier to take the plugs in and out between sets because the plugs can get a bit dry from the chlorine and then you can't get a good seal, which is top priority. First I tried to save money by buying the H2O Audio headphones, but you really should get the Swimman headphones. After my first flip in the H2O Audio I had a headphone dangling in front of me. The goggle clips don't work as well with Socket Rockets or Swedish type goggles because the straps are so thin and the clips tend to come off the goggles occasionally. The clips don't fit on the bungee type straps at all because they are too thick. The music sounds just like it should and you can use it with iTunes. Only drawback is that my daughter has the same color shuffle and I have to be careful!
I borrowed the Swimp3v2 at practice once, but I couldn't tell what song I was listening too, although it sounded familiar; there was way too much splashing going on for me. My teammate is very happy with his Swimp3v2, so maybe it was just user error. I like my music loud and clear. He takes less flack because he can hear without taking anything out of his ears, but sometimes it's better to just tune everyone out!
Hope this helped, and good luck!
