Have you ever heard music with headphones on while walking on the road, when the car behind you honks to remind you, everyone around you heard it, but you didn’t know it; or when you listened to music while wearing headphones in the office at work, even if your boss yells next to you, it can’t wake up your ears that were kidnapped by music. These awkward moments happen a lot in life, and they’re always unpleasant. However, there is a kind of headphone that can perfectly help you avoid these embarrassments, that is bone conduction headphones .

Bone conduction headphones are headphones that are worn differently from traditional headphones. They don’t have earbuds in your ears like common headphones do, and they don’t need the sound to travel through the air in the ear canal to the eardrum like common type do. They are generally hung on the auricle, so that the sound unit is against the temple, and the mechanical vibration signal of the sound unit is transmitted to the auditory nerve of the inner ear through the skull, and finally people hear the sound.

Are bone conduction headphones safe?

We often hear people worry about the safety of bone conduction headphones, but we can promise that they do not harm the human body at all.

First of all, due to the sound transmission method of bone conduction headphones, they do not need to pass through the ear canal and tympanic membrane, which can avoid damage to the tympanic membrane. Moreover, the vibration waves of them are relatively moderate, and the impact on auditory hair cells will be less, so they are the headphones that cause the least damage to the ears.

Secondly, traditional earphones have problems with electromagnetic waves, which can cause damage to the human brain and hearing nerves. The electromagnetic waves of bone conduction headphones are extremely weak, which is the same intensity as the electromagnetic waves existing in nature. So they will not cause damage to the human brain and hearing nerves.

Moreover, bone conduction headphones can help avoid the dangers of wearing them. It does not need to occupy the ear canal when wearing it. In addition to hearing the sound in the headphone, you can also hear the sound of the outside world. Wearing them when crossing the road will not be in danger because you can’t hear the sound of the horn; when you are exercising outdoors, you can also avoid some dangerous situations.

It can be seen that bone conduction headphones are relatively safe, but safety is not absolute. If you use them to listen to music at high volume for a long time, it will still cause damage to the cochlea.

In addition to safety, bone conduction headphones have many advantages, such as comfortable wearing, cleanliness, high waterproof level, etc.

Bone conduction headphone is healthy and safe, which is determined by its working principle.

How does bone conduction headphones work?

Bone conduction headphones are a new application of proven technology, but bone conduction has a long history, with its first applications dating back to the 18th century.

It is rumored that Beethoven, who was deaf, rubbed one end of a long rod into the piano. He put the other end in his mouth and kept it as close to the ear as possible. When playing, the long rod transmitted the sound to the jawbone and the cochlea of the inner ear, so that Beethoven could hear the sound of the piano. This was so important for Beethoven cause he regained his sense of hearing again and he can continue his music composition. This may be the earliest documented application of bone conduction technology.

When the bone conduction headphones works, it converts the sound signal into mechanical vibration by the sound unit and drives the skull to vibrate at the same frequency, allowing the sound to reach the cochlea of the middle ear and inner ear. Finally, we can hear the sound. In the process of sound transmission, they directly bypass the ear canal and eardrum to reach the inner ear, taking a shortcut. Just because it takes a shortcut, it reduces the damage to the ear canal and eardrum, making it the healthiest headphone.

Most of us have been exposed to bone conduction in our daily life. Put your ears close to the ground, and you can hear the footsteps of “tap, tap, tap” through vibration; cover your ears, and you can still hear yourself mumbling, which is a natural phenomenon of bone conduction.

As long as they are real bone conduction headphones, they are safe and healthy. There are some earphones with good technical strength, and their sound quality and leak sound reduction performance are also excellent. Now I will recommend several best safety and healthy headphones in 2023.

1. Wissonly Hi Runner bone conduction headphones

Reason for recommendation:

This is the fastest growing brand of bone conduction headphones in the last six months. The team are all engineers with 10 years of accumulation in the field of bone conduction technology. They started to develop bone conduction headphones that don’t hurt ears as early as 2012. To solve the problem of sound leakage of bone conduction headphones, wissonly has made comprehensive improvement in the aspects of vibrator, body design and software optimization. The final result has been applied to Wissonly Hi Runner, and the final sound leakage can be reduced by 90% after laboratory test. I actually used the test myself. At a distance of 2cm, the volume reached 70%, but I still didn’t hear the sound of the headphones, which protected my privacy.

Wissonly Hi Runner’s body is made of titanium, which can self-adjust the fitting position to ensure a good wearing experience for headphones, so that more people can wear it. As the core component of the product, the headphones plays a key role in the product experience. Hi Runner model is equipped with Bluetooth 5.0 chip, which makes Bluetooth connection faster and more stable. It also has 32GB of built-in storage so you can use it as an MP3 player.

Other parameters of Wissonly Hi Runner are also excellent. For example, the waterproof level reaches IPX8, and you can wear it to swim or even dive. The battery life reaches 8–10 hours, which is very important to me, because I go out for sports on weekends, and I go out for a whole day.

2. Philips A6606 bone conduction headphones

Reason for recommendation:

The headphones have a compact structure that is completely ergonomically designed.

They are stable to wear, and cannot be shaken off in rough sport, which helps you to do movements without restraint during exercise. They are open headphones that do not need to be plugged into the ear. This keeps the ear canal fresh, healthy and comfortable.

They support IP67 waterproof grade, daily sweating is no problem. But after all, they are not professional-grade waterproof, can not be used in swimming.

3.AfterShokz OPENRUN PRO bone conduction headphones

Reason for recommendation:

The light body weighs only 28g, it is like no weight in the hand, and it will not feel any weight when hanging on ears. Because of the characteristics of bone conduction headphones, there is no need to be stuffed into the ears or wrap the ears. And there will be no swelling or squeezing feeling when worn for a long time, which keeps the ears fresh and breathable. Its sound leakage reduction technology is also good, which can effectively suppress sound leakage and better protect personal privacy. It has a high-strength titanium alloy rear hanger. Before each pair of headphones leaves the factory, the official will carry out repeated tests to ensure that the quality passes. The body has high toughness, and it can be restored to its original shape when bent at will. You can toss it during the exercise, and don’t have to worry about the damage caused by bending of the headphones.

4.earsopen SS900 bone conduction headphones

Reason for recommendation:

Different from other bone conduction headphones, this earsopenSS900 is mainly worn by pinching ears, which requires both hands to finish wearing. Its’ IPX7' s waterproof grade can achieve the effect of short-time immersion under water, and it is easy to face the daily sweat. The 8g single side headphone body can play a comfortable and non-inductive role in the whole wearing process, but it will be a little uncomfortable when worn for a long time due to the wearing way of clip ears.

5.Nank Runner CC3 bone conduction headphones

Reason for recommendation:

Runner CC2 has a solid button area on the outside, which is very convenient to use. The surface of the headphone body is made of soft material, which makes it very comfortable to be attached to the ear. It is really stable to wear with the ear-hanging scheme, supports Bluetooth 5.0, and the earphone signal is very stable during use. The sound quality is quite satisfactory, and the sense of music rhythm and space is well controlled.

Among the five headphones above, wissonly and aftershokz are my favorites. Their technology accumulation is very good and the product quality is good. Wissonly has a higher cost performance. Wissonly is more cost-effective, and its price is much lower than other brands with the same product parameters.