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We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
Updated: 2026-09-27 · 6 min read · Independent comparison
• Skullcandy Riff — biggest strength: Up to 34 hours of battery with Rapid Charge (10 minutes gets you 4 hours), plus a flat-folding design and a backup 3.5mm AUX cable.
• Skullcandy Riff — biggest trade-off: It's an on-ear design, so it physically covers your ears and uses sound isolation rather than letting you hear your surroundings.
• RockShine R1 — biggest strength: An open-ear, bone conduction design that keeps your ears open to traffic and conversation — ideal for outdoor sport — with Bluetooth 5.3.
• RockShine R1 — biggest trade-off: Up to 12 hours of battery and no active noise control, and the open-ear fit means you're not getting isolation from the world around you.
• Who the Riff is for: Commuters, travelers and desk workers who want long listening sessions and a collapsible pair that packs flat.
• Who the R1 is for: Runners, cyclists and gym-goers who prioritize situational awareness, sweat resistance and a secure ear-hook fit.
The Riff Wireless 2 is a classic on-ear Bluetooth headphone, and its headline number is the thing that stands out most: up to 34 hours of battery life. That's a genuinely long stretch between charges, and Rapid Charge adds flexibility — ten minutes plugged in gives you roughly four hours of playback. For someone who forgets to charge, or who wants a pair that survives a multi-day trip without a wall outlet, that combination is the practical selling point.
Around that battery sits a design built for portability. The Riff folds flat and collapses, which makes it easier to toss in a bag, and Skullcandy includes a 3.5mm AUX cable so you can go wired when the battery is empty or when you're on a flight with a seat-back jack. You also get physical media controls for calls, track skipping and volume, plus Tile finding technology if you register the product — a nice touch for anyone who regularly misplaces their headphones. Bluetooth 5.2 handles the wireless side, with a 10-meter range, and multipoint pairing lets you stay connected to two devices at once and hop between them.
RockShine R1: Who It's For
The RockShine R1 takes the opposite approach. It's an open-ear sport headphone using a bone conduction driver, which means it sits outside your ear canal and leaves your ears open. If you run, cycle or walk outdoors, that's the whole point: you can listen to music and still hear traffic, other people and your surroundings. The silicone ear-hook frame is described as feather-light and skin-friendly, designed to stay put through gym sessions and long workouts without the pressure of in-ear buds.
On the spec side, the R1 runs Bluetooth 5.3 — the newer of the two standards here — and supports multipoint pairing, so you can take a call on your phone and switch back to music on a laptop without re-pairing. Battery life is rated up to 12 hours with one-hour quick charging, and the build is sweatproof and water-resistant for training in the heat. There's a built-in microphone for hands-free calls, and the sound is tuned for what RockShine calls "ROCK Dynamic" audio with deep bass and an open soundstage, from a bone conduction driver with 25-ohm impedance. Controls are button-based.
Who should buy it? Runners, cyclists, gym-goers and anyone who wants situational awareness as a safety feature rather than a compromise. Who should skip it? Anyone who wants to block out noise on a plane or in a loud office, or who needs marathon battery life. The R1 has no noise control at all — that's intentional, but it's a real trade-off. And at up to 12 hours, it's roughly a third of the Riff's rated runtime.
• Best for battery life → Skullcandy Riff. Up to 34 hours versus up to 12, plus Rapid Charge on the Riff.
• Best for outdoor sport and safety → RockShine R1. The open-ear, bone conduction design keeps you aware of traffic and surroundings.
• Best for travel and packing → Skullcandy Riff. It folds flat and collapsible, and includes a 3.5mm AUX cable for wired listening.
• Best for workouts and sweat → RockShine R1. Sweatproof and water-resistant construction with a secure silicone ear-hook.
• Newer wireless standard → RockShine R1. Bluetooth 5.3 versus Bluetooth 5.2 on the Riff.
• Noise isolation and focus → Skullcandy Riff. Its sound isolation is designed to shut the world out, which is the opposite of the R1's goal.
• Calls on the move → RockShine R1. A built-in mic and open-ear fit suit hands-free calling during activity; the Riff also handles calls with its button controls.
• Multipoint pairing → a tie. Both connect to two devices at once, so this feature alone won't decide it for you.
If I had to pick one for most people, I'd buy the Skullcandy Riff. In my opinion, the 34-hour battery, the foldable frame, the AUX backup and the multipoint pairing make it the more versatile everyday headphone — it covers commuting, travel, work and long listening sessions without babysitting the charger. I'd only steer you to the RockShine R1 if your priority is outdoor training and hearing your surroundings, which is a job the Riff simply isn't designed to do. Check the current price on Amazon for both, since that's the one variable this comparison deliberately leaves out.
how to pair multiple headphones
Multipoint pairing is what lets one headphone connect to two devices at once, and both the Skullcandy Riff and RockShine R1 support it. You pair the headphones to each source as normal, then enable multipoint in the headphone's controls or app so it holds both connections. Playback then switches between the two devices as you start audio on either one.
how to pair multiple headphones iphone
On an iPhone, you pair each headphone through the standard Bluetooth menu, but the phone itself only holds one active audio output at a time. Multipoint lives on the headphone side, not the iPhone — so a multipoint headphone like the Riff or R1 can stay linked to your iPhone and a second device simultaneously. You switch between them by starting playback on the device you want to hear.
how to pair multiple headphones on ipad
An iPad pairs with a headphone the same way as an iPhone, through Bluetooth settings. If the headphone supports multipoint — as both of these do — it can remain connected to your iPad and another device at once, letting you move between them. The iPad won't play through two separate headphones simultaneously; multipoint is about one headphone holding two sources, not one source feeding two headphones.
how to pair multiple bluetooth headphones
Connecting two separate pairs of Bluetooth headphones at the same time generally isn't supported by phones, tablets or laptops — they output to one audio device at a time. What is supported here is multipoint: a single headphone like the Skullcandy Riff or RockShine R1 connecting to two devices. If you want two people to listen together, a wired splitter or a dedicated dual-output transmitter is the practical route.
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