9. Rivet Stereo Lanyard Earbuds And GoClip

By: Barry Gerber

Rivet International specializes in solving problems with portable music players, wireless phones and earbuds that just won't stay where you want them to. The company's around the neck lanyard earbuds let you connect your MP3 player or phone to the lanyard for a more secure, no-hands ride. That's the device connector at the end of the earbud lanyard in the photo above. The buds come with a variety of gizmos for doing the actual attaching.

The earbud wires are covered in a heavy cloth-like material that keeps the wires from stretching or breaking. That's what lets Rivet include the word "lanyard" in the product name. I pulled rather strongly on the lanyard and was unable to break it or the wires inside.

If the lanyard is not enough, you can attach your player or phone to a belt loop, briefcase, backpack or bag using what Rivet calls their "GoClip". The GoClip is the separate device at the bottom left in the photo of the Rivet earbuds above.

Wearing an MP3 player on a set of lanyard earbuds

OK, so now you know how Rivet keeps music players and phones in place. How about the earbuds themselves? One of the things I really like about Rivet's stereo earbuds is the set of included small, medium and large gel ear tips. I have rather large ear canals and the puny tips that come with most earbuds are too small to fit them. So I'm constantly grabbing at my earbuds as they fall out of my ears and tumble to the ground. Who needs that? With the large tips affixed to my Rivet earbuds, grabbing's gone.

With the larger ear tips in place, I was able to hear more bass in music than usual, though, as with most modern headphones and earbuds, the bass seemed just a bit boomy and artificial. With classical music I wished I could totally flatten out the bass, but that didn't work. Mid- and high-range sound was good.

Rivet's lanyard earbuds come in a variety of models for music devices and wireless phones. The ones for phones include an in-line microphone, which lets you look almost as loony as you seemingly talk to yourself as the folks with the Bluetooth wireless shrimps around their ears.

The lanyard earbuds covered here retail for $39.99. It was worth nearly forty bucks just to get a set of earbuds that don't fall out of my ears every time I tilt my head slightly in one direction or another.