Did you know that a new type of earphones is popular among young people now? They are bone conduction earphones. They’re pretty cool, and a different type of headphone than all the ones that came before it. If you haven’t read it, follow my article to find out.

What are bone conduction earphones?

Bone conduction earphones are headphones in which the sound generating unit is attached to temples. Their vocal units convert sound into mechanical vibrations, which cause bone vibrations, and transmit the sound to the auditory nerve.

They are vastly different from common headphones. Common headphones are air conduction, while the sound unit of them is a horn. When you play music, their horns convert the sound into sound waves, which travel through the air in your ear to your eardrum, causing the eardrum to vibrate and then send the sound to the auditory nerve, where it is finally heard by your ear. Bone conduction headphones convert sound into mechanical vibration when making sound, and directly transmit the vibration to the auditory nerve of the inner ear through the bone without passing through the air and tympanic membrane.

Because of this difference, the way Bluetooth bone conduction earphones are worn is also different. They don’t need to be plugged into the ear, but hang on the pinna so that the sound unit is pressed against the temple. Of course, there is another type of clip-on bone conduction headphones, which are clipped to the ear when worn, and then the sound unit will stick to your auricle. But the vocalization and delivery of the sound is the same for both.

The unique wearing method of Bluetooth bone conduction earphones also brings many advantages. The most important thing is that they are very safe,the do cause harm to your health

Are bone conduction earphones harmful to health

Some people may worry that bone conduction earphones are harmful to health. This concern is unnecessary, and there is no evidence that this kind of earphones are bad for health. We can analyze this problem from several perspectives on the effects of them on the ears, nervous system, bones, and skin.

1.The effect of bone conduction earphones on the ear

They do not need to be tucked into the ear canal when worn, which avoids damage to the ear canal caused by headphone plugging in and out. They also do not need to transmit sound through the ear canal and eardrum, which makes them have no harm to the eardrum. The oscillation of bone conduction earphones is relatively gentle and stable, and will not cause damage to the cochlea.

2. The effect of bone conduction earphones on the nervous system

Any electronic product has electromagnetic waves, and strong electromagnetic waves can damage the auditory nerve and brain nerves. The electromagnetic waves of them are very weak, and the intensity is close to that of the electromagnetic waves present in nature, so they do not harm the auditory nerve and brain nerve.

3. The effect of bone conduction earphones on bones

The sound unit of them vibrates and drives the bone vibrate to achieve sound transmission. Excessive vibration may theoretically lead to bone damage, but this theoretical vibration rarely happens. There are currently no records of bone conduction earphones causing bone damage.

4. The effect of bone conduction earphones on the skin

They are worn against the temple, do not over-squeeze the skin, and therefore does not cause damage to the skin. And many bone conduction earphones are made of skin-friendly materials, and are also more friendly to skin.

Therefore, bone conduction earphones are not harmful to health, but one kind of healthiest earphones. They are safer and more hygienic when used, and are a kind of excellent earphones.

Their advantages mainly depend on the way they work

How do bone conduction earphones work？

How can you hear the sound without putting earphones in your ears? Many people have such questions. To understand how bone conduction earphones work, let’s first understand how humans recognize the sound.

You may think that humans hear sounds with their eardrums, but this is not accurate. The sound we normally hear is vibrations in the air entering the ear and hitting the eardrum causing it to vibrate. Humans perceive the vibration of the eardrum through the cochlea located deep in the ear and transmit this information in the form of sound to the brain to perceive sound. In other words, humans perceive sound through the cochlea. From this perspective, humans hear sound through the cochlea.

Bone conduction earphones make good use of the above-mentioned mechanism of the cochlea to perceive sound. They apply vibration directly to the facial bones, and the facial bones transmit the vibrations to the cochlea, where the sound is perceived by the cochlea.

We can compare the difference between bone conduction and traditional sound transmission paths to understand more deeply how bone conduction headphones work.

Bone conduction path: sound wave,cranium,bone labyrinth,inner ear lymph,Spiral organ,auditory nerve,cerebral cortex auditory center.

Traditional sound transmission path (i.e. air conduction path): sound wave,auricle,external auditory canal,eardrum,auditory ossicles,vestibular window,internal and external lymphatics,spiral organs,auditory nerve,cerebral cortex auditory center.

We can see that the sound transmission process of bone conduction earphones does not need to pass through the eardrum, its sound transmission path is shorter, and it will not damage the eardrum.

Nowadays, more and more bone conduction earphones appear on the market, which may make you feel confused when selecting them. In my opinion, select brands with mature technology, such as Wissonly and Philips. Next, I will recommend some good products for you.

Best health bone conduction earphones in 2023

1. Wissonly Hi Runner bone conduction earphones

Reason for recommendation:

Wissonly is one of the few bone conduction earphones brands that have mastered bone conduction vibrator technology, and one of the few brands in the industry that have sustained experience in using bone conduction technology to protect hearing. Wissonly Hi Runner advocate a healthy way to listen. They perfectly combine the principles of healthy hearing and bone conduction sound transmission, to create a non-in-ear and non-ear-damaging bone conduction headphone which can effectively protect hearing.

Due to the particularity of the technical principle, sound quality of bone conduction headphones is more difficult to be improved . To this end, Wissonly Hi Runner subverts the traditional sound quality scheme, makes a breakthrough to use the large-size bone conduction vibrator. Through structural optimization, the effective vibration area of the vibrator is increased by 35%, thereby improving the vibrator sound efficiency, making the sound more powerful.It also optimizing the direction of sound transmission, reducing sound loss during sound transmission, and making the sound more concentrated.

The skin-friendly silicone material of the Wissonly Hi Runner’s body is a product that can be in contact with the skin for a long time. It is naturally a better choice and feels good to the touch. Because the entire headphone is made of skin-friendly material, it is very comfortable to wear. Even if you wear glasses, you can still hang it firmly on your ears. The headphone frame uses memory titanium, which has the advantage of being stretchable and lightweight.

2.Philips A8606 bone conduction earphones

Reason for recommendation:

The most peculiar point of Philips is that it is equipped with LED night running lights at the rear end of the fuselage, and the A8606 is also the same. The back of both sides of the headphones has rain-shaped lights flashing, wearing it at night can make people around you alert to your location. And turning on them during exercise can improve the safety factor, and night travel can also achieve the effect of not being collided. The Bluetooth version of 5.0 can maintain the smoothness of listening to songs at a short distance, and the 13.3mm vibrator makes it have a good performance in sound quality.

3.AfterShokz OPENRUN PRO bone conduction earphones

Reason for recommendation:

Openrun PRO bone conduction earphones do not need to be plugged into the ear when worn. With minimal impact on the ear canal, they will not harm the ear canal and eardrum. They are also equipped with the newly upgraded PremiumPitch 2.0+ technology, which has a high degree of sound restoration and better sound quality. They also use Bluetooth version 5.0, which improves the stability of Bluetooth connection and brings lower power consumption. But this one does not support MP3 mode.

4.earsopen FIT BT-1 bone conduction earphones

Reason for recommendation:

Earsopen FIT BT-1 bone conduction earphone, the new favorite of Japanese headphone industry, has an open listening experience and can also accept external sound. It has the BONE AUDIO feature with super telepresence, which has better listening effect.It adopts the exclusive latest AVV technology, with its correct vibration earsopen device, and improves the bone conduction ability by leaps and bounds.It also has fashionable and high-quality streamline design,it use light body material and weight of only 34g. Its waterproof, dustproof and anti-skid performance is also good.

It can be safely used indoors and outdoors, and it is comfortable to wear and moves freely.

5.Nank Runner CC3 bone conduction earphones

Reason for recommendation:

Runner CC 2 bone conduction earphones adopt a combination of soft and hard to reduce sound leakage. The entire headphones adopt a seamless design, even the headset mic is wrapped in silicone. The unique sound leakage cancellation technology can greatly reduce the leakage phenomenon.

It uses magnetic charging, after each use, you only need to put the magnetic tip in the buckle position of the headphones. Compared to traditional headphones, Runner CC2 bone conduction headphones has no holes in the entire body, and it has a certain waterproof effect.

It is generally a good entry-level bone conduction earphone. But the waterproof level is not enough, it is are not suitable rain or water sports.

Among the above five bone conduction earphones, Wissonly and Philips are most recommended. These two brands have the strongest technical strength and the best product quality. Among the two brands, Wissonly will have a higher cost performance.