I just recently learned that this is a thing that exists. I’ve had a couple audiology tests that use these weird headphones with firm rubber balls where normally expect to see the speakers; the rubber balls sit on your temporal bone, and there’s a metal bar the wraps around your head connecting them and giving them pressure to kinda squeeze your head.
The sound experience was pretty wild - my ears were completely open, so I could still hear ambient noises, but the sounds from the headphones were just kinda there… like it didn’t sound like they were coming from anywhere, but like beamed directly into my brain.
I was curious if these were exclusive for audiology testing or if there were commercial variants for listening to music and such… hit the ol’ search engine, and lo and behold: there are actually quite a few commercial variants!
- TLDR -
Anywho, I’m intrigued as hell, and am curious if anyone here has experience with bone conduction headphones. Lots of questions:
Which brand/model are you using?
How’s the sound quality?
How’s the sound leak?
What kind of music do you use it to listen to? (my poison of choice is symphonic metal, with emphasis on the symphonic bits – looking for that full range hit everything from the flutes to the howler monkeys :P)
Are they comfortable to wear? For how long?
Do you get any skin irritation or even breakdown where it contacts your temple?
Does the hook part wrap around your ears without any pressure points?
Does the behind-the-head band bounce around when you’re walking or running?
How much space is between the band and the back of your head/neck? (I think my noggin is a bit on the smaller side, and I have basically no hair… one of the manufacturers makes one with a smaller sized band, which might be a good selling point for me)
How’s the battery life?
How long have you had it?
When do you use it? (working out, at work, etc)
Do they stay put, or do you need to reposition them frequently?
Anything else to comment on?
I am an evangelist for these. I have a set of the aftershokz and I wear them like a watch, always on my head. I do a lot of work in different kinds of factories, forges, power plants, etc which are all places earplugs are required. No big deal with bone conducting headphones, I can listen to my podcasts while I work. A bonus too is the kind I ended up with can connect to two phones, so my work phone and personal phone don’t need two different headsets. The only downside is when I have to take a flight somwhere they aren’t really loud enough to fight the sound of the plane so you have to wear earplugs. But the upshot is people generally leave you alone if yer wearing earplugs which is nice. I grab handfuls of them from our customers anyways so it’s double not a big deal.
Can confirm everything this 👑 just said. Wear them everywhere. I’ve spent 45 hours listening to audiobooks in the last 2 weeks alone.
Being able to hear what is around you but also what you want is a game changer. Have a toddler as well. Comes in way handy for that also.
Someone at work does this, and I can never quite tell if he’s talking to me or is he’s on the phone when he starts talking
I had a pair of trekz titaniums before and wanted to wear them all the time but felt kinda rude if I were to talk to someone with them on
Maybe this is the Gen X or Millennial in me but I take phone calls outside, or to the other room.
They make them with Boom Mics so you pull it down when you’re talking.
Either way if someone is talking on the phone right in front of me - I don’t consider it rude to listen, or even butt in. It’s low key rude that they’re having a private conversation right in front of you whichever headphone they wear.
The guy doesn’t have the one with the boom mic, it’s work related calls and the office is not big enough to go to another room