How Do Wireless Bone Conduction Earphones Work and How About Their Pros and Cons?

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 earphone than all the ones that came before it. If you haven't read it, follow my article to find out.

What are wireless 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.

How do wireless bone conduction earphones work?

When it comes to the working principle of wireless bone conduction earphones, you must first understand the "essence of sound". Simply put, the sounds we hear every day are vibrations in the air. For example, have you ever seen a scene of “loud high-pitched sound shatters a glass window”on TV? This phenomenon is caused by the treble that transmits strong air vibrations to the glass window, causing the glass window to resonate.

We hear sound as vibrations in the air. Sound travels through the ear canal to the eardrum, then through a spiral organ called the cochlea to the brain, where it is finally perceived by us. While standard headphones that fit into the ear canal use this "standard" path to transmit air vibrations to the brain,wireless bone conduction earphones work quite differently.

The sound transmission path of common earphones: sound source vibration → external auditory canal → eardrum → cochlea → brain

The sound transmission path of bone conduction earphones: sound source vibration → skull → cochlea → brain

So, with bone conduction earphones, you can enjoy music without ear canals or eardrums. They do not need to be plugged into the ear canal when worn, which will cause less damage to the eardrum and better hygiene for the ear canal, so they are the healthiest headphones.

Pros and Cons of wireless bone conduction earphones

It does not occupy the ear canal when in use. In addition to hearing the sound in the earphone, it can also hear the sound of the outside world, so that you are not isolated from the outside world, which can ensure your safety. For example, if you wear headphones when crossing the road, you won’t be in danger because you can't hear the horn. That means if you often exercise outdoors, you can avoid dangerous situations. It allows you to listen to all directions while listening to music, protecting yourself without hindering others. Safety is the most prominent pros of them. Because of this advantage, bone conduction earphones are very popular among sports fans.

Wireless bone conduction earphones do not need to be tightly plugged into the ears, they are very comfortable to wear. It perfectly avoids ear pain caused by wearing in-ear earphones for a long time. The comfort of wearing is a near-perfect advantage for sports fans who need to wear it for a long time. To further improve wearing comfort, mainstream brands of bone conduction earphones also make the fuselage very light and use soft and skin-friendly materials for the fuselage surface. Companies like wissonly and Aftershokz have made great efforts in this regard.

Bone conduction earphones have another advantage: Since the earphones do not need to be plugged into the ear when worn, it is very helpful to maintain the internal hygiene of the ear. It will not cause a lot of bacteria to accumulate in the ear canal due to sweating for a long time during exercise. Compared with traditional earphones, it is more hygienic and healthy.

Of course, wireless bone conduction earphones also have some cons. For example, the sound quality may not be as good as traditional noise-canceling headphones, such as more or less sound leakage problems. These two problems are mainly caused by the sound generation principle of bone conduction earphones, and they are difficult to solve to a 100% extent. However, some excellent bone conduction earphones have made a lot of efforts to solve these two problems and they achieved good results. The sound quality of these earphones is generally very good, and the sound leakage problem has almost been solved.

In general, wireless bone conduction earphone has obvious advantages, their disadvantages have been gradually improved. It is a earphones worth buying.Next, I will recommend some excellent headphones.

1. Wissonly Hi Runner wireless bone conduction earphones

Recommended reason:

Wissonly is one of the few bone conduction earphone 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 A6606 wireless bone conduction earphones

Recommended reason:

The A6606 uses a titanium alloy frame. It is very stable to wear during running and has less shifting, helping you to exercise without feeling weight. The unique way of transmitting sound of bone conduction headphones bypasses the air, reduces noises, but is most afraid of having stethoscope effect. The A6606 is designed so that the frame of the headphones does not touch the back of the head, avoiding the "stethoscope effect" during exercise, so you can hear more precise and clear sound details.

3.AfterShokz OPENRUN PRO wireless bone conduction earphones

Recommended reason:

AfterShokz Openrun Pro's earphones are very light, weighs only 26g. It's very light and comfortable to run on your ears. The whole machine is made of titanium alloy, and the headphones on both sides are wrapped with skin-friendly silica gel, which make it has a IP67 waterproof grade. It can be drenched in the rain, splashed with water and washed, and there is no problem even in bad weather during outdoor sports. The structure adopts the back-hanging design and can't be worn in the ear, which is very friendly to users who often wears it. The whole machine is also equipped with Bluetooth 5.0 three-core chip, which can realize fast connection, stable sound quality connection within 10 meters, and intelligent identification by algorithm, which can effectively filter the ambient sound and make the voice clearer.

4.earsopen SS900 wireless bone conduction earphones

Recommended reason:

The fuselage is equipped with BoCo's bone conduction vibrator technology, with AVV's precise vertical vibration transmission technology. It has good lower potential and a wide sound range in low-frequency performance. The Bluetooth version of 5.2 helps it to maintain the stability of the connection within 10m. The weight of the body is 8g,it is light when clipping to the ear, but the wear method of the ear clip is not suitable for long-term wear.

5.Nank Runner CC3 wireless bone conduction earphones

Recommended reason:

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 above earphones, the two brands with the strongest technical strength are Wissonly and Aftershokz. Their teams have more than 10 years of technical experience in this field. If you pay more attention to cost performance, Wissonly is the best choice.