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To see how they perform in different environments, I tested them in a seated position, as well as while walking and running. This benchmarked their ability to stay in place, as well as sound quality and comfort over longer periods.
Unfortunately, the first impression you get of the Sonic Sport ATH-Sport1 earbuds is not the greatest. Due to the large amount of hard plastic involved in their construction and the thin nature of the earbuds themselves, pushing them into your ear can be slightly painful, even with the smallest of the rubber bud attached. Similarly, getting your ear to fit the plastic surround that hangs off them is not very comfortable either. Perhaps it's because you can't really see what you are doing, but I found myself bending my ear to fit through the gap.
Once in place, they are not uncomfortable, but I would not go so far as to describe them as comfortable as there's no real padding beyond a thin layer of silicone, for any part of your ear. Throughout my extended listening tests I suffered from some inside ear ache, as I felt the need to give them quite a shove to get them in deep enough to boost bass response adequately.
I tried wearing the earbuds in different configurations to see if it would help, but neither was particularly great
In regards to sound quality, I thought that the Sonic Sport ATH-Sport1 were decent, although bass response is a little muddy. The highs and mids are better and do a good job of projecting whatever it is you are listening to. I found that the audio seemed clearer for talk or podcasts, but that might be because voices lack the nuances of music. Let us put it this way, for a £20 headset the audio is perfectly passable.
The only real problem I had with the audio, was that maintaining bass was quite difficult. This was because in order to get the full bass effect, you need to have the earbuds firmly in your ear and for whatever reasons throughout testing I was not able to make that last long. You would imagine that the whole point of the earloops on the earbuds would be to keep the headphones in place, but while they keep them attached to your ear they regularly slip out far enough that the bass simply disappears.
Unfortunately this seems to happen regardless of the size or shape of earbud you're using, but this is a problem I have encountered with a lot of earbud headsets.
One big plus point for these earbuds however, is that the claims of being waterproof are entirely true. As part of testing I submerged them in water completely and when drained a few minutes later, they continued to function without issue.
