What Is Bone Conduction Headphones?How about Pros and Cons of Them?

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 that have become popular in recent years.

What 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.

Bone conduction technology is widely used in the military, emergency rescue, hearing assistance and other fields. Bone conduction headphones are a new application of this technology in the field of consumer electronics. They are mainly positioned in the field of sports headphones. The existing products include running headphones, swimming headphones, cycling headphones and so on. They are becoming more and more popular due to the advantages that traditional headphones do not have, such as safety, health, hygiene, etc.

Pros of bone conduction headphones:

Bone conduction uses bone vibration transmission principle. The headphones are not inserted into the ear, do not need to transmit sound through the eardrum, but directly conduct sound to the internal nerves of the ear through the skull. So they can minimize the impact of headphones on ear hearing. In addition, the non-in-ear wearing method of them is very helpful for maintaining the internal hygiene of the ear. It will not accumulate a lot of bacteria due to prolonged sweating during exercise to block the ear canal, which makes the ear more hygienic. Because they are healthier to wear than common headphones, many doctors in the field of otology also recommend them.

Bone conduction headphones are not inserted in the ear. Whether when running, cycling, walking or commuting, etc., you can wear headphones to listen to songs and still can hear the surrounding sounds and communicate with others normally. Thus you avoid the risk of accidents caused by not hearing external sounds, which greatly improves the safety of outdoor sports. And bone conduction headphones are generally fixed to the head by hanging ears, generally have a anti-shake design and are not easy to fall off. So in the field of sports, many people use them.

Of course, it must be honestly said that just as a coin has two sides, bone conduction headphones also have their disadvantages.

cons of bone conduction headphones:

Because sound is transmitted to the ear ossicles through the skin and the skull, the audio restoration is definitely worse a little than that of the traditional in-ear type. But from the perspective of sports headphones, in addition to the sound quality, it is more important that the headphones are not easy to fall off, light and convenient. The sound quality of bone conduction headphones is slightly poor only when they are compared to in-ear headphones of the same price.That doesn't mean their sound quality is bad and hard to hear. The sound quality of most current bone conduction headphones have been improved to varying degrees.

Another disadvantage is that they leak sound when used. This is unavoidable for all of them on the market. But with the rising of technical level, sound leakage of excellent bone conduction headphones on the market have been greatly reduced currently.

Best bone conducton headphones in 2023

1. Wissonly Hi Runner bone conduction headphones

Recommended reason:

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

Recommended reason:

This Philips A6606 bone conduction headphones, with its comfortable silicone surface, is comfortable to wear. It is ergonomically designed, so that it will not fall when it is firmly worn. Its IP67-level depth waterproof standard makes you easy while sweat during daily exercise. This model is equipped with a night run lamp device, and while running at night, it can make cyclists or vehicles notice you. This is a very thoughtful design. It is equipped with Bluetooth 5.2 technology, which has faster transmission distance and lower power consumption than 5.0, but this one can't be used in swimming.

3.AfterShokz OPENRUN PRO bone conduction headphones

Recommended reason:

OPENRUN PRO is very light, and its surface material is soft and skin-friendly, so it is comfortable to wear. Its slim body and unique color scheme make it look flattering as well. Its sound quality is also quite good, and it performs very well in terms of anti-sound-leakage, even in outdoor use, you don't have to worry about privacy leakage at all. It is very powerful, very user-friendly. In addition to being slightly expensive, it is also a recommended headphones overall.

4.earsopen PEACE TW-1 bone conduction headphones

Recommended reason:

The earsopen PEACE TW-1 headphones can be charged magnetically through the charging case, which is small and convenient to carry around. The headphone shape adopts separate design that is achieved for the first time in the bone conduction industry. The headphone body is a T-shaped design, that adopts the clip-on wearing method. At the same time, it also supports IPX7 waterproof performance. When traveling on rainy days or running to burn fat, there is no need to fear sweat and rain erosion, it can be used with peace of mind.

The T-shaped structure design of earsopen PEACE TW-1 adopts the form of wearing behind the ear with curved support frame. It is more comfortable when worn. But because of the wearing method, the pinna will be a little uncomfortable after wearing for a long time. The sound quality is average, and there is a little sound leakage. But as an innovative style in the bone conduction category, it is also worth considering.

5. Moing DG08 bone conduction headphones

Recommended reason:

The DG08 bone conduction headphones come with 8GB of memory, which can independently store about 2,000 songs. The battery life reaches 10 hours, and you don't have to worry about battery problems for a full day of outdoor sports. Their non-in-ear design makes them more comfortable for the ears. They support life-grade waterproofing and are not afraid of sweat. It's just that there are still some problems in sound quality and sound leakage, and if the budget is not sufficient, you can consider this one.

Among the several headphones recommended above, my favorite ones are Wissonly and Aftershokz. These two brands have the strongest technical strength, and their sound quality and sound leakage reduction performance are excellent.Wissonly has better product parameters and higher cost performance. If you have a low budget and have requirements for product performance, it is the best choice.