Are Bone Conduction Headphones Good and What Are Their Pros and Cons?
Dec 14,2022 | Sylvia
Bone conduction is a form of sound transmission. Bone conduction headphones convert sound into mechanical vibrations of different frequencies, and transmit sound through human facial bones. They eliminate many steps of sonic transmission, so the experience is better. Simply put, bone conduction headphones allow you to easily enjoy wonderful music without the need for headphones to be plugged into or covered by headphones.
The sound transmission mode of bone conduction headphones: jawbone > ear ossicles > cochlea > brain auditory nerve
Pros and Cons of Bone Conduction Headphones
Advantage:
1. Protect hearing
Bone conduction headphones do not need to be in the ear at all, and can be used near the temple near the ear. During the transmission of sound, sound waves do not need to directly contact the eardrum, which reduces damage to the external auditory canal and eardrum, and is very effective in protecting hearing.
2. Better for sports
Bone conduction headphones make exercise safer, and you can pay more attention to the surrounding environment during jogging. While exercising and enjoying music, you can also protect your personal safety.
They use the ear-mounted design, which is more solid during jogging and not easy to fall off.
3. Comfortable to wear
After wearing traditional in-ear or semi-in-ear headphones for a long time, it is common to have ear pain. Bone conduction headphones do not need to be inserted into the ears, which is even better for people with small ear holes and patients with otitis media. Moreover, most bone conduction headphones are very light in weight and do not feel heavy when worn. Some excellent bone conduction headphones also use skin-friendly surface materials, and you will feel very smooth when they fit on your head. Therefore, bone conduction headphones feel very comfortable even if you wear them for a long time.
Disadvantages of bone conduction headphones:
1. Sound quality:
Because the sound is transmitted to the small bones of the ear through the skull, the music reproduction of bone conduction headphones is definitely worse than that of traditional in-ear headphones. From the perspective of sports headphones, in addition to sound quality, it is more important that bone conduction headphones are not easy to fall off, light and convenient. In addition, the poor sound quality is only relative to high-end in-ear headphones, not to say that their sound quality is too bad to be difficult to hear. At present, the sound quality of bone conduction headphones has been greatly improved compared with before, and some products have done a very good job in sound quality processing.
2.Sound Leakage:
Bone conduction headphones transmit sound clearly through the skull to the inner ear. But for wearing comfort, they are not designed to be completely close to the skull, so the vibration of the shell will cause the air to vibrate and cause sound leakage. This is unavoidable for all bone conduction headphones on the market, but with the rise of technology, this problem has been effectively solved by better bone conduction brands.
In general, bone conduction headphone technology is very mature, and using them is a good way to listen to sound healthily. So what bone conduction headphones are worth buying in the market, and I will recommend a few next.
1. Wissonly Hi Runner Bone Conduction Headphones
Recommended reason:
Wissonly's engineering team has 10 years of technical accumulation in the field of bone conduction technology. As early as 2012, their technical director began to explore the use of bone conduction technology as a music player. The long-term technical accumulation has given them unparalleled processing in sound quality and anti-leakage processing.
The fully-wrapped bone conduction vibration unit built into the Wissonly Hi Runner bone conduction headphone allows the vibration unit to work in a closed environment, reducing sound leakage from the root. They further reduce sound leakage by using a one-piece body to avoid openings. The intelligent anti-phase sound wave system, as the last line of defense, further offsets the remaining sound leakage, and finally achieves a 90% leakage reduction effect.
In terms of sound quality, Hi Runner uses a large-sized bone conduction vibrator, and through structural optimization, the effective vibration area is increased by 35% compared with conventional bone conduction headphones, making the sound more three-dimensional and shocking. They claim that the sound quality has reached the HiFi level. I have actually tested them for a long time and think that their sound quality is indeed very good.
The configuration of Wissonly Hi Runner is very powerful, including IPX8 diving level waterproof, 32G built-in storage, and so on. I won't introduce much here, if you are interested, you can go to its website to learn more.
2. AfterShokz Openrun Pro Bone Conduction Headphones
Recommended reason:
They have improved sound quality and anti-leak technology and can connect 2 Bluetooth devices at the same time. And they adopt the ergonomic over-the-ear design for high wearing comfort. AfterShokz Openrun Pro bone conduction headphones have two sizes 16.2cm and 18.7cm. If you are a girl, I suggest you choose the mini version. However, their Bluetooth version is only 4.1, which is a bit low.
3. Newmine GE06 Bone Conduction Headphones
Recommended reason:
Newmine GE06 bone conduction headphone adopts a streamlined design, conforms to ergonomics, and fits very well on the ear. They use a small-sized "dynamic vibrator", and the sound quality has been enhanced. And the design of their buttons is very reasonable and humanized. The right ear of the headset is also equipped with a breathing light, which will light up when it is turned on, which improves the safety of night running. In addition, they also have 16G of memory and can also be used as MP3 players.
4.Ears open PEACE bone conduction headphones
Recommended reason:
This is a kind of Japanese wireless bone conduction Bluetooth headset. They are worn in a clip-on style, which is novel. Although it is a way of clamping the ears, it will be painful if you wear it for a long time. They have IPX7-rated waterproof performance, and the charging compartment can be used as both a battery and a charger. But there is a small problem, that is, their charging case is not waterproof. In addition, their sound quality is still good, there are three audio frequencies: high, medium, and low. But the sound leakage problem exists. But overall, they are good.
Bone conduction headphones are now more common. They are not harmful to our ears, and they can also meet the daily needs of listening to music. I strongly recommend that everyone start using bone conduction headphones to protect their ears.