I've been reading this thread for a while, it's been a really helpful discussion so I joined up to add my thoughts... I couldn't agree more with the Jaybird runs. Awful highs! An irritating crispiness, hard to tell if it's compression or distortion, but there's no way to EQ it out. I don't know why there's a consensus that these sound amazing, unless perhaps they did prior to a recent firmware update. Connection was 100% reliable but they had to go back, couldn't put up with that.
I bought the Jaybirds, Jabra Elites and Airpods to compare. There's no doubt which has the best sound quality - it's the Airpods, by a mile. I expected to hate these, but of the three, they're the best in every respect. They're more open-sounding, better separation, sound less compressed (as if they're streaming a higher bitrate), bass is great when fitted right. They stayed in fine on an 8km run. Only problem is I feel like an idiot wearing them! Can't get over that design, so I'm sticking with the Jabra elites until Apple release black ones. The Jabras have much smoother, albeit less pronounced highs than the Jaybird Runs, overall a rounded, warm sound, no connection issues, all controls are on the buds which is great for running. Certainly nothing mediocre about their sound, next to the fingernails-on-a-chalkboard highs of the Jaybirds! But they do plug up your whole ear, it's hard to forget you're wearing them which will annoy some. That's my two cents on three fully wireless models.
