Im planning on doing a few walking tours with RS audio on my iPhone, so ill have my phone ear buds. What kind of buds should i bring for the churches and cathedrals like the Sistine Chapel? We will be doing tours there and Ive heard you need to bring your own ear buds. I will most likely bring a pair of blue tooth as well.
Most of the tours you mentioned (other than the RS audio iPhone ones) are offered on wired headphones/earbuds capable devices only. No blue tooth or any type of wireless. (At least last time I did any of these.)
When using downloaded podcasts and walking tours in Europe, I am sure you can use blue tooth as the Apple airbuds, which my granddaughter talked me into trying. They are wonderful for being wire(s) free! However, as Mark says, on a RS tour where you will be provided a "Whisper" unit, airbuds won't work and you will need the "wired" ones that will be provided, or use your own. I am able to successfully use the bluetooth airbuds with the RS podcasts and walking tours on his app.
We used standard ear buds that plug in to phones/devices. I found that the Rick Steves' audio tours are better than those offered by the facilities. But there were times we used both. We took a splitter, plugged it into the audio device, and used our individual ear buds (because we enjoy the shared experiences...)