Rivet Rhythm Earphone Lanyard review: Rivet Rhythm Earphone Lanyard

Rivet, a company that lists as its main objective "to redefine the way people interface with mobile devices," focuses on simple products made with quality parts. The Rhythm Earphone Lanyard is a perfect example of this methodology--quality headphones attached to a lanyard that allows for hands-free listening to your MP3 player of choice. The best news for the budget-minded is that these nice-sounding earbuds will set you back only $50, while those of competitors from companies such as Ultimate Ears and Shure run anywhere from $100 to $300.

7.3

Rivet Rhythm Earphone Lanyard

The Good

Rivet's inexpensive Rhythm Earphone Lanyard offers surprisingly solid audio performance and a secure, lightweight design that's ideal for walking around or exercising.

The Bad

Rivet's Universal Pin connector, which is one of the options for attaching the Rhythm Earphone Lanyard, must be attached to your player with adhesive.

The Bottom Line

Looking for quality portable headphones that won't break the bank? For $50, Rivet offers the lightweight Rhythm Earphone Lanyard, which happens to deliver good audio performance and a snug fit.

The design of the Rivet Rhythm Earphone Lanyard is simple: The lanyard attaches to music players via either the universal pin connector, which uses adhesive to attach to your player, or the multipin connector, which uses a ring to slip through the lanyard hole on your player. We suggest using the latter method if your MP3 player has a lanyard loop, as it's less permanent. Once the clip is in place, the lanyard allows the music player to hang around the user's neck while the earphones fit snugly in place. The Lanyard is adjustable to personal preference and offers plenty of slack. Like most in-ear sets these days, the Rhythm Lanyard comes with several different-size earpieces to ensure a snug fit, as well as an extension cable for when you're sitting at your desk and need more length.

Too often, headphones marketed for their ergonomic design instead of their audio performance suffer from poor audio quality. However, we're happy to report that the Rivet Rhythm Lanyard performed exceptionally well, given its price point and its focus on functionality. The new Band of Horses album, Everything All the Time, sounded great: clear high end with a healthy amount of low end that didn't muddle the sound too much, which is a rare find in inexpensive earphones. What sweetens the deal is the sound isolation that the Rhythm Lanyard provides. We listened to the majority of our test songs while riding the subway, and the roar of the train was substantially blocked out by the rubber earpieces.

If you are constantly on the go and need your hands free but don't want to run around without your tunes, the Rivet Rhythm Lanyard is an excellent, affordable option that excels both in the ergonomics and audio departments.