Design and features:The Run XT has an integrated microphone and music player and call connect/disconnect controls for paired Bluetooth devices. Additional features include the ability to activate Apple Siri and Google Assistant digital voice assistants when it is used with Bluetooth devices that have those capabilities. The free Jaybird app download for Apple or Android mobile devices can be used to provide tonal adjustments, to help locate lost the earphones if they are misplaced, and provides notification when firmware updates for the Run XT become available. This model is claimed by the manufacturer to be water resistant and comes with four pairs of ear pieces in various types and sizes, four pairs of removable ear bowl supports in various sizes, a carrying case/charging cradle/recharger battery that the manufacturer claims can be used to recharge the earphone batteries up to two times between its own charges, a USB charging cable, and a carrying pouch.
Sound quality: The Run XT comes with a free app download that allows customization of its sound. The tone settings of the app do have a noticeable effect on the sound of these earphones, but our tests were done with the tone settings bypassed. We found that these earphones deliver sound quality that falls in the Good range - they reproduce music and voice reasonably well despite the obvious shortcomings in their sound. The overall sound can best be summarized as slightly soft and lean and somewhat grainy. The bass (as in bass drums, bass guitars, stand-up bass, etc.) has good impact and goes fairly deep, but is a bit boomy. The midrange (voices, guitars, horns, etc.) is slightly thin and somewhat hazy and grainy and a bit staticky. The treble (cymbals, the upper range of violins, etc.) is extended, but is smeared (sounds that should have a delicate shimmer sound blurred) and a bit prominent. The sound has a good sense of liveliness, but is somewhat closed sounding (sound-wise it's fairly obvious you have something plugging your ears) and it only does a so-so job of recovering the room ambience of a recording (the sense of the acoustic space in which the audio program that's being listened to was recorded).
Comfort: As typical of in-ear models these earphones produce a sense of pressure in the ear canal opening might be uncomfortable for some. Users with small ear bowls might find that the earphone body does not fit securely into their earbowl and that the earphones are mostly held in place by the section of the earphone that is inserted in the ear canal. Users with medium and larger sized ear bowls will probably find that this model fits and stays in place with no problems and are very stable even during vigorous head movement. Some users might find pushing the control buttons to actuate the functions drives the earphone further into the ear canal and causes ear discomfort.
