Bone conduction headphones

[Nail Soup]

I'm getting quite a few feeds for bone conducting headphones - not sure if it's a real splurge or maybe just because I clicked on the first one.

So what do you think - are there benefits or what?

One of the  ads suggest using them for cycling as then your ears are still open.

[benh]

Can't imagine them being comfy for a long time - for bone conduction to work it has to be pretty tight. I perform hearing tests on a daily basis with a BC headset and often have patients complain about it, despite only wearing in for about 5 mins! Would be happy to be proven wrong though.

[furym]

My son has a pair of the Aftershokz. He likes them and will wear them all day.  Probably not “true” bone conducting but they sit on the boney part of your head just in front of your ears. If he turns them up loud I can still hear a little bleed sitting next to him. I tried them and it is a strange sensation, they are definitely loud enough and you can still hear things around you. Audio quality is decent enough, pretty cool for a novelty, but I am sticking with my AirPods. He loves them though (15 years old).

[Hellzero]

Ask Beethoven.

[Bolo]

It's interesting stuff! As benh said they have to fit pretty snug to give the full benefit. Indeed they leave the ears open. 

Word of caution, as you can't be exactly sure of the calibrated  volume level, it's difficult to determine how loud is damaging to the cochlea.

 

A novel idea is the clip-on headphones by auricle which have just run their Kickstarter campaign.

https://auricle.io