3. Mechanics, Continued

Surprisingly, both sets of earbuds have good long-term listening characteristics. I wore each headset for four hours while listening to music, watching movies and making phone calls. I experienced no pain or discomfort and I never had the desire to remove either headset for relief. The Rivet’s rubber earbud cushions played a major role in promoting comfort. Apple’s earbuds, though hard plastic, were designed for comfort. They fit perfectly into my ears and I quickly forgot about them. With the Rivet earbuds, I was sometimes aware of the little cushions pushing a bit against the circumference of my ear cavity. This was the case no matter which set of cushions I used.

The earbuds on the Apple headset, with their somewhat slippery plastic outer case, tended to slip out of my ears a little more frequently when I accidentally pulled on a wire than the rubber cushioned Rivet earbuds. Unlike the experience of others, I had no problem with the Apple earbuds spontaneously slipping out of my ears.

Speaking the headsets’ wires, all of the wires on the Rivet headset are surrounded by a strong cloth casing. This insures against pulling and breaking the wires. The stiffness of the Rivet wires makes twisting and jumbling up the wires a little less likely, but when the wires do get twisted, it can be a pain to untwist them.

The end-to-end length of the Rivet headset with wires is about 62". The Apple headset is 46" long. Both headsets can fit in your shirt or pants pocket or reach to your waist if you connect your iPhone to your belt. Taller folks will be most happy with the extra inches offered by the Rivet. Even though I’m 6’ 3" I had to roll up and cable tie part of the lower end of the Rivet wire to keep it from getting in my way and catching on an arm or an open desk drawer.

Mechanics continued on the next page.