Bone conduction headphones are the most eye-catching headphones on the market after Bluetooth headphones.
The word “bone conduction” sounds very technical. Yes, bone conduction headphones are completely different from others. They have a different sound principle and a more novel appearance. For the emergence of new things, electronic products’ fans always maintain a mentality of eager to try something new, and are willing to actively try. I am one of them, and I enjoy the process too. In our lives, many people are attracted by bone conduction headphones, but they don’t know what bone conduction headphones are and how they work. Let me tell you about them today.
What are bone conduction headphones and what is the principle of them?
Normally, sound waves are transmitted to the inner ear through air conduction and bone conduction. Then, the internal and external lymph fluid of the inner ear generates vibration, the spiral organ completes the sensory sound process, and then the auditory nerve generates nerve impulses, which are finally transmitted to the auditory center. After the cerebral cortex analyzes it, the waves become the sound we hear.
The above information may not be easy to understand, so let me give you an example to let you understand bone conduction better: cover your ears with your hands, and then talk to yourself. No matter how softly you speak, you can hear what you are saying. This is what bone conduction does.
There are generally two ways of conducting bone conduction: mobile and extrusion. These two modes work together to stimulate the auger to induce hearing. The specific conduction pathway of bone conduction is:
sound wave > skull > bone labyrinth > inner ear lymph fluid > spiral device > auditory nerve > cerebral cortex auditory center.
Usually people don’t need to use their skulls to feel the sound. However, when the lesions of the outer ear and middle ear block the transmission of sound waves, bone conduction can be used to compensate for hearing. Devices such as bone conduction hearing aids and bone conduction headphones are those using bone conduction to make people feel sound.
Do bone conduction headphones have speakers?
To be sure, bone conduction headphones will not have speakers. If the headphones has speakers, then they are fake bone conduction headphones.
Some of you may have bought bone conduction headphones, and then found that there is a speaker hole in the place where the sound is produced, as shown in the picture below.
You will find that these headphones look like bone conduction headphones, but they are actually air conduction headphones. In order to make a profit, some merchants deliberately make air conduction look like bone conduction to deceive consumers. In fact, because real bone conduction headphones produce sound through vibration and the headphones are sealed as a whole, there are no speaker holes.
At present, the bone conduction headphone market is still in the development period, and there are not many truly reliable brands. So I am going to recommend some reliable bone conduction headphones for you.
1. Wissonly Hi Runner Bone Conduction Headphones
Reason for recommendation: They are the most versatile and top-of-the-line bone conduction headphones on the market
Wissonly is a headphone brand that focuses on health and does not hurt the ears. Their team was also the first to design non-in-ear headphones. They began to explore the application of bone conduction technology to Bluetooth headsets as early as 10 years ago, and after 10 years of accumulation, they have made great progress in improving the sound quality and preventing sound leakage of bone conduction headphones. And these technologies are now applied to their flagship product Wissonly Hi Runner bone conduction headphones.
In order to solve the sound leakage problem of bone conduction headphones, wissonly has developed closed sound leakage prevention technology. The vibration of the headphones, body design, software optimization and other aspects have been comprehensively improved, and finally the sound leakage of the headphones has been reduced by 90%. In terms of sound quality, most of them have mediocre sound quality. The sound quality of Hi Runner is undoubtedly the best in the field. They use a large-sized vibration unit and increase the effective vibration area through structural optimization, so that the sound range is wider. They officially claim that the sound quality of their bone conduction headphones has reached the HIFI level. However, I don’t think it has reached it, it’s just close to HIFI sound quality, but it’s enough to satisfy me.
The excellent performance of reduce sound leakage and sound quality makes Wissonly Hi Runner the basic conditions to become an excellent bone conduction headphone. The rest of their configuration is also very good: the headphones have 32GB of built-in memory, and they can play music even when they are not connected to the phone, which means that you can use them as an MP3 player. Moreover, they support IPX8 swimming waterproof, even in underwater scenes that do not support Bluetooth, you can use them with the music playback function.
2. Aftershokz Openrun PRO Bone Conduction Headphones
Reason for recommendation: It is an old brand of bone conduction, and the quality of them is trustworthy
The anti-leakage treatment of their headphones is very good. Openrun PRO adopts LeakSlayer sound leakage elimination technology, and is equipped with Qualcomm QCC3024 chip and adopts Bluetooth 5.0 protocol. At the same time, the Openrun PRO bone conduction headset also supports dual-device connection, and performs very well in terms of stability, compatibility, effective range and delay time. Their waterproof rating is IPX7. While adequate for everyday use, you can’t go swimming with them, which is a bit of a shame for high-end bone conduction sports headphones.
3. MOING DG08 Bone Conduction Headphones
Reason for recommendation: the price is lower
DG08 is suitable for users who have a small budget but want to experience bone conduction. Limited by the price, the sound quality of DG08 is average, and the problem of sound leakage is also serious. But they are reasonably comfortable to wear. The body weight of this headset is 30g, which is not cumbersome to use during exercise. The IPX5 waterproof is also enough to prevent the intrusion of sweat, and it is enough for daily running and fitness use.
4. Nank runner CC 2 bone conduction headphones
Reason for recommendation: entry-level bone conduction, the first choice for cost performance
The sound quality and anti-leakage technology of this headset are not bad. At the same time, they have a good performance in waterproof. IPX6 waterproof is enough to cope with most life scenarios. Other configurations may have been okay 2 years ago, but they are a bit outdated now. The overall performance is good among entry-level products, but don’t have high expectations.
5. Philips A6606 Bone Conduction Headphones
Reason for recommendation: special night running light design, suitable for night running crowd
This headset is compact and its door is completely ergonomically designed. It is very stable when worn, and it will not fall even if you exercise or shake it wildly, which allows you to perform movements without restraint during exercise. They are open-back headphones that don’t sift into the ear, which keeps the ear canal clean, healthy and comfortable.
Finally, you should keep your eyes open when purchasing bone conduction headphones, and don’t buy the so-called “bone conduction” with speaker holes on the headphones. Because they are not real bone conduction headphones, but air conduction headphones.
