I’ve been using bone conducting headphones for years now. I really like them.
They really do conduct through bones. As evidence of this, I can tell you that the best way to use them is to put in earplugs. If you block the sounds going into your ear, it makes it that much easier to hear the sound coming from the headset. That’s proof that it’s not just regular sound you’re hearing like standard earphones.
Of course, you don’t have to use earplugs, I just find it is helpful, especially if I’m in a noisy environment.
One of my IT consulting tasks at work is to find accommodations for people, and some people can’t have anything on or in their ears for medical reasons. Bone conducting headsets work for them pretty well.
One of my headsets is Shokz, as others have brought up. The other headset is some cheaper generic brand that admittedly works just as well. I think they’re pretty great.
Bone conduction has also been used in some types of hearing aids for a very long time. A very, very crude version of such was used by Beethoven as his hearing deteriorated. Modern versions are more sophisticated. Typically used for people whose cochlears are functioning but whose outer and middle ear structures are not working.
Anyone remember Sound Bites? It was a lollipop mounted on a plastic base, which featured a few buttons with audio snippets. Press a button, bite the candy, and music played in your head! According to the commercial, anyway. Looks like there are some modern candy-incorporating music players that use the same concept.
A friend of mine also works from home. He is on the phone a lot more than I. He uses a ‘bone’ phone.
I’m very hard of hearing, I thought this might be a solution for me. Didn’t work at all though. My wife bought me some Mark Levinson headphones. Very nice. Too hot to wear outside on a warm day, but great for work meetings.
The Mark Levinson headphones will be great for blowing snow though. Nice and warm, and cuts off all other sound.
Interestingly enough, that’s the ONLY way they work for me. I’m hearing impaired, and bone-conducting headphones were a good way to listen to music or media without having to remove my hearing aids. Sometimes, I like to take the aids out to give my ears a break, and that’s when I discovered I can’t hear anything at all via the bone-conducting headphones if there’s nothing in my ears. If I put in earplugs or stick my fingers in my ears, voila—they work again.
I had Shockz a while back. They were fine for running but in other usages I didn’t want to hear other sounds. Plus they had more … spillage? Others hearing what I was listening to on the airplane for example.
My husband is similarly half deaf, and they do not work for him. His deafness is hereditary, but we don’t know what causes it, so not sure why they don’t work.
Huh? I can’t hear anything from my Shockz unless they are on my head. If anything, it’s a Bluetooth issue since that’s how they ‘connect’ to your playing device, whether phone, tablet or laptop.
Definitely it wasn’t Bluetooth. It was coming from the headphones. My wife would complain.
Looking it up it’s a known thing. Newer ones apparently design to reduce it but the whole case would vibrate and sound would travel out.
Sound Leakage in Quiet Environments - Bone conduction headphones are known for their distinct open-ear design, resting just outside the ear, unlike traditional headphones that use sealed ear cups or earbuds. However, this is not the reason for sound leakage. Instead, it’s because the earphone core vibrates, causing the surrounding air to vibrate and form sound waves that leak. In quiet environments, the leakage can be especially noticeable.
Yeah, depending on the model, you often can hear sound coming from a bone conduction headset, though they have to be pretty close to hear it. They do produce faint sound.
Usually there is very little “leakage” unless they are turned up to max volume. At higher volumes, the vibration is enough to vibrate the air as well as bone, and vibrating air is (of course) just normal sound.
With a normal volume, people more than a few feet away shouldn’t be able to hear anything at all with most conduction headsets, especially if you are wearing them and the vibrations are being absorbed by your skull.
This thread has me interested in trying some of these; I don’t like traditional earbuds, because my left ear canal doesn’t seem to play nice with them. I wonder if these would help…
Oh it was in context of on an airplane. Not multiple feet away.
Yes also sound quality in my experience was only good if I used earplugs. And I found that I can hear traffic well enough for running with in ear ones. Don’t listen to music on a bike.
Really running and airplanes are my main use cases. I do like ones that hook over the ear and are connected together for when they fall out during a run.
I’ll chime in. I use a set for podcast listening. I think I’m OK with the sound quality because I wouldn’t use them for audiophile music appreciation.
There’s a broad spectrum of quality in the cheap Chinese ones. I’ve had 3 sub-$20 headsets, and one seemed to be just right. But I haven’t found the Goldilocks set again. The others, like the ones I use now, do have audible sound others might hear if my volume was up. Another thing that isn’t great is some of these don’t fit all heads the same. My current set wraps around my occiput, but clearly would do better on a smaller melon. If I move them wrong (easy when I’m wearing glasses at the same time), one or both pads can lift off my cheek and I lose most of the sound on that side.
But I’m not interested in spending a bunch of money on better ones. They’re good enough for spoken word recordings, and I don’t feel very bad when I lose or destroy them.