I love lap swimming in the pool. It's great exercise. Oh my god.
I love lap swimming in the pool. It is great exercise.
>> Well, if you're a runner or a cyclist or you go to the gym, you know that
forgetting your headphones totally sucks. So, I did what a lot of people do
and I popped over to Amazon where I found out there are a lot of solutions
to my problem. We're going to take a look at some of those today. But once I
ventured off Amazon, I discovered that underwater audio is a whole underwater
rabbit hole. See, listening to music beneath the surface, it's not as simple
as you might think. I mean, just like in the air, sound is a wave, and it can
travel through water, in fact, faster and further due to water molecules being
packed more densely than air. But there are some problems. See, high frequencies
basically don't go anywhere. Low frequencies go extremely far, and the
surface of the water can act as a reflector, meaning that if you do it
wrong, you could be swimming around in a acoustic house of mirrors. So, you can't
just take a waterproof speaker, huck it into the pool, and expect it to sound
good. And that's even ignoring the uh obvious Bluetooth connectivity issues.
On top of all that, humans evolved to hear above the surface of the aquatic
zone. So, the best underwater audio solutions have to take a lot of factors
into account. Thankfully, my leap into the hydro acoustic pool led me to Renzo,
who makes custom professional underwater audio solutions along with a host of
other very interesting things. and he
happens to be local to us, which means I needed to come here myself to find out
which method of listening to music underwater would be the best while I
swim my laps. But please be honest with me. Are any of these any good?
>> Some of them. >> Some of them. >> Yes. >> Okay. Why do you make bad ones?
>> No, the ones I make are all good. >> Ah, yes, I see. Oh, perfect.
>> I was talking about the underwater speaker part of it. >> Great. That means my last question for
you is will you help me segue? >> Of course to our to our sponsor
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This place is incredible. But from what I understand, it didn't always belong to
you, did it? >> Um, no. No. >> So, why do you have this?
>> Well, it's a long story, but my daughter wanted to do the synchronized swimming.
>> That does sound like a long story. >> Yes. I needed somebody to cut pieces to
make a sound system so that the coaches could work.
>> But when you got this, it was just one threeaxis CNC.
>> Yeah. That the guy didn't even know how to use. >> Okay. You've got so much more than that
now. Like this four axis looks freaking incredible. What can you make on this?
>> We do 3D sculptures. We do columns. We
do pillars. >> Okay. But why?
>> For the film industry. >> Oh, okay. Well, where have I seen your
work then? >> Uh, we've done Skyscraper, we've done
World of Warcraft, we've done Percy Jackson, we've done Playing with Fire,
we've I have a list of different shows that we've done.
>> This desk must have cost a fortune.
>> Cost me nothing except sweat and tears.
>> Looks awesome. Let's get to the audio solutions. And here it is, an underwater
speaker, which we are actually going to get to after just one more side quest.
Oh my goodness, Renzo. What is this?
>> Those are some very high-end turntables. >> This is beautiful. What kind of wood is
that? >> It's a veneer. It's a black walnut burrow. Affordable, right?
>> Very affordable. They started about $10,000 US. That's before you add a tone
arm and a needle. So before they make any sound, you're off 10 grand. But
these are people that spend half a million dollars on their sound systems.
>> Sure. >> Yeah. You need one? >> Uh, no. >> Okay. I suspect that's going to make the
uh underwater audio solution sound downright affordable. What am I holding
right now? >> That's the soul of the underwater system. It's a PZO electric transducer
encased in epoxy resin. >> Right. Because unlike a normal speaker,
you wouldn't actually want to see the the cone which would vibrate the air.
You actually have to vibrate this entire heavy mass in order to pass that along
to the water. Or am I missing something here? >> No. No. There's actually very little
vibration. You don't see it moving. Actually, there's not like a speaker
cone that moves. >> Now, I see you've actually got two different ones here. This is a skinnier
one. >> Yes, this is the US model, the DRS8 and
this is the DRS82. The reason for that is because the
Canadian laws only allow a certain voltage. So, they put transformers
inside the speaker, >> whereas this one goes straight to high voltage.
>> Straight to high voltage. >> Okay. >> It's not going to kill you. It's very little voltage. It's just speaker line
voltage freedom. >> Okay, I'm ready. Go for it.
>> It's not loud. >> It doesn't have to be. Whales are not
loud, but you can hear them from one ocean to the other.
The clarity is surprisingly good. I mean, I I don't know what I was
expecting, but not for it to be pretty decent. >> No, that doesn't sound decent. You take
that. That sounds horrible. >> I mean, it's it's decent enough. It's
like a kind of coke. My expectations were extremely low. For context, the
solution that these are replacing was literally a coach grabbing their keys
when the underwater speaker doesn't work and just like wrapping them against the
side of the pool. So, like, I thought the bar was extremely low. The part I
don't get though is those seem pretty bulletproof. So, why did the systems
fail so often? >> Uh, well, that's only part of the equation. Uh, those I've had for 14
years, and I've never seen one fail, >> right? >> But you need to power them.
>> Uhhuh. >> So, you need an amplifier. You need a preamp. They have microphones. They have
You need a source of sound. >> You need an enclosure. >> You need an enclosure. The enclosure is
the magic of it because it keeps everything from getting corroded with the pool air.
>> Got it. And that is the special sauce that you've created.
>> That's correct. >> And you provide these to who? I mean, is
the market for synchronized swimming speakers pretty big or small or medium?
>> It's big. There's tons of clubs. >> And so, the coach can not only play
music, but can also use this to communicate to the swimmers under the water.
>> That's correct. >> So cool. I cannot wait to try it. Let's
go do it. >> The rope is so it stays at about 3 ft
underwater. >> Uhhuh. >> And then you just plug in your sound source, turn it on, and away you go.
To get started, I'm going to need a few things. First, a pool. Check. Second, an
Oceaner speaker with accompanying transformer. Check. Third, a Renzo to
act as DJ for us. Big check there. And there's one more thing I'm forgetting.
Ah, yes. A way to bring you guys along with us for the journey. This is the
Soundfish 2 Mark II from Ambient Recording, and it's a hydrophone. It's
not the most expensive one we could have gotten, but it's decent.
>> Yeah, it's supposed to be a pretty good one. >> Okay, this is a big moment. I have not
heard this yet. Okay, hit it, Renzo. Okay, above water. It sounds like it did
in the shop. A little tiny
Okay, that's pretty cool. Obviously, it's not
going to be competitive with a highfidelity speaker setup up here on
the surface, but like dude, you can hear it too, right? >> Yep. Sounds pretty good.
>> Like, that was very listen toable. Of
course, just because I can hear it when I'm stationary doesn't mean that it's
actually going to be that great. Like, can I do a quick lap swim before we
compare it to something else? >> Let's do it. >> Cuz one of my big concerns is that at
least one ear is going to be constantly coming out of the water when you come up
to breathe, right?
Okay, couple things right out of the gate.
First up, even though I knew this was supposed to happen, I was surprised at
how consistent the volume was throughout the pool, no matter how far away I got
from the speaker. The parts I didn't expect though were when I got to the
other side, it kind of started to sound like it was coming from a different
origin, like it was coming out of that corner of the pool. Then finally, I was
really impressed at how quickly once my
ear is submerged, it just sounded like it's supposed to sound underwater. I
thought that like having a little air bubble in my ear or something would make
it sound really different, but it doesn't. It's still not the most hi-fi
thing I've ever heard in my life. but very usable. You can actually see
how little it's moving. Like on a normal
speaker, you know, you would see the water like freaking moving around like
this. But look, it's barely moving at all.
>> I noticed that even though, you know, low frequencies travel best in water,
I'm really not getting that much bass out of it. What's the deal with that?
>> Yeah, it's just the nature of the transducer. It's not designed to produce
really low frequencies. There is a brand
of speakers that supposedly does that, but I've never tried them.
>> All right, crank it, Renzo.
Dude, that's so weird. That sounds like
it's coming from like over there somewhere. Okay. Okay, let's see what
happens when we go under.
That is really cool. But it isn't the only solution.
>> And this is one of the most popular bone conduction headphones. These are the
Shocks Open Swim Pros. >> I have to confess, I have never actually
tried bone conduction swimming headphones. >> It's very much a personal preference
thing. I do not like them. >> Oh, these are already on.
>> Yeah. And you can feel them vibrate. It's weird.
>> But you can't hear them basically at all. Like here, check this out.
But I put them on my ears. Whoa,
>> that's weird. >> Okay, that's pretty cool, too. >> If you haven't heard of bone conduction
headphones before, basically how they work is instead of vibrating your
eardrums, it vibrates the bone in your face, which then vibrates your coccia
directly, uh, bypassing most of your ear. >> Cool. Onar controls for power and
volume. And I guess they just have an MP3 player built into them because
otherwise, how do they pair to something outside of the water? the these ones.
That's the big upgrade of this year is they can pair to your phone via Bluetooth, but they also have storage
inside. So, you can upload music to them directly and control it that way. The
downside is you can't control that music via the app. You have to plug it into a
computer. >> Okay. I mean, I >> it's fine. >> So, iPod grade technology.
>> All right, let's go for a swim. Already, I can tell that your experience with
these is going to be heavily dependent on how well they fit you. Because
depending on exactly where I get the vibrating pieces, they sound either kind
of okay or like absolute hot garbage.
I'm also surprised at how more different
these sound above and below the water compared to the underwater speakers.
>> Well, I would have assumed above and below would be the same cuz it's right against your bone. As soon as I go
underwater here, try them. They sound like hyper bassy.
>> Huh?
>> Nice trick shot. Yeah.
>> We interrupt this fun video to show off the big hexi beach towel from
ltstore.com. It's big. It's orange. It's a bestagon.
Get yours today. >> I already think they're too bassy as is.
Below the water is really bad. You can EQ it probably. Maybe a little. And to
be clear, they're fine for listening to music. And honestly, not really much
worse than the ocean ears. No, >> it's just the inconsistency. And
obviously for an application like synchronized swimming, this is useless
because how would you get everyone perfectly in sync? You have to be all
listening to the same source. This isn't our only solution, though, right?
>> No. There's lots of other bone conduction headphones. But maybe that's the kind of thing we should do in a
roundup. >> Yeah. Let us know if you want to see that in the future. Leave a comment down
below. >> Yeah. with the headphones you'd want us to cover. >> But we do have one more thing to try
today. >> And it's the worst one. >> Oh no. Actually, wait. There's one more
thing I want to try. Um, do we have the underwater mic? I want to see if it can
hear these. Okay. Okay. Here it is above. Here it is above water.
>> Can you hear it? >> I can hear it a tiny bit. >> Not much. Okay. Okay. That's it. I was
just curious. >> That bit at the beginning was only kind of a joke. We have the Monster S620,
which is an IPX8 rated speakers, which means it's actually submersible up to a
certain degree. And it's a pretty okay Bluetooth speaker. Let's see how it does
underwater. Jeez.
Oh, well, this is terrific. It's all the downsides of absolutely everything we've
tried so far. Bluetooth connectivity issues whenever it's underwater
and ass garbage sound quality. To be clear,
Monster never claimed that this was an appropriate solution for listening to
music underwater. They're just saying that this speaker won't die if you
accidentally drop it in the pool and it goes underwater. In fact, they even
designed it to make sure that it doesn't go too far under the water by making it
float. So, good job, Monster, I guess. Just not a solution to the problem we're
trying to solve today. You know what is a solution to our problem today, though?
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offer. If you guys enjoyed this video, we're going to have Renzo and Janette
sites linked down below. You guys can go check them out. Was extremely gracious
of them to show us around their shop and lend us these incredible products to try
out. If you guys can think of any other esoteric technologies, by the way, that
you know we wouldn't normally think to cover, leave a comment down below. And
if you guys enjoyed this video, why not check out the one where we built a home
theater in my pool?