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I’m not surprised to find that Suunto has given protection to the Spark from sweat and rain. The IP55 rating does not extend to the charging case, which is compact and slim enough to fit in a pocket or belt if you want to carry it around.
A snapshot
Suunto offers two control options, but neither is the type I like to see in sports earbuds. There are touch panels placed on the outside of both pages, which I often find handy when running or with sweaty hands. Although Suunto says that single-tap controls can be accidentally activated. Fortunately, the controls are well spread over the speaking units, and accidental triggers were rare. These controls can be tapped or held to skip backwards and forwards in a song. They can also change the volume or play and pause the sound. You can also use it to turn on metronome tracks and exercises. That’s all good, but I would have liked it to switch between EQ modes as well.
Head gesture control is not successful. This uses the smart motion sensors found inside most smartwatches to register head movements or shakes to answer or reject calls or skip music. I’ve used this on Suunto headphones before, and my experience wasn’t great. If you’re walking or on a bike, that’s fine. When you run, your head naturally moves around a lot, and this causes you to accidentally turn off the controls. It gets annoying easily.
Stellar Open-Ear Sound
Photo: Michael Sawh
Bottom line, the Suunto Spark sounds great. I’ve tested many open-ear headphones and headphones, and I rank the Spark among the best, including Shokz, Anker, and Bose.
Whether it’s the depth of sound or the versatility of its fit, I was impressed. It’s great even without letting the wind through and blocking podcasts or calls. A large part of this powerful functionality consists of available EQ modes, which (as mentioned) must be activated from the Suunto phone app. This is the software used to install Suunto watches. It’s not very pretty, but the head unit is easy to move around.
There are four EQs with an additional option, giving you more control over the audio compared to other Suunto headphones. The change in air conduction is what makes this possible. Air conditioning works by placing the speakers close to your ears and acts like traditional headphones. One of the best things about bone correction is the ability to provide precise settings.
