What is the difference between bone conduction headphones and common headphones and Do They Have Health Risk?
In the last 2 years, bone conduction headphones are becoming more and more popular. Whether you go out for running, cycling, or going to the gym, you can see someone wearing them. As a star technology product, they are very different from common headphones. Undoubtedly they are not another headphones, but another kind of headphones.
What is the difference between bone conduction headphones and common headphones
Their biggest difference is the way to transmit sound. Bone conduction headphones use bones to transmit sound, while common headphones are air conduction headphones that use air to transmit sound. To understand this difference, I did a test. First put on bone conduction headphones, and then plugged my ears with my fingers, at this time I found that the sound became louder rather, which is amazing! But when I wear the common headphones, when I do the same action, I find the sound becomes smaller.This is the secret of bone conduction transmitting sound!
The difference in sound transmission mode makes that you do not need to stuff the bone conduction headphones into the ear and only need to attach the vibrating unit to the temple to allow the ear to hear the sound. This feature also gives more design space for the headphones, and designers design them as hanging-ear type or clip-on-ear type so that they are more comfortable to wear. And because bone conduction headphones do not need to transmit sound through the air, their body do not need to leave holes for sound waves to enter and exit, which also allows them to have a better waterproof level.
How does bone conduction headphones work?
Bone conduction headphones are a new application of proven technology, but bone conduction has a long history, with its first applications dating back to the 18th century.
It is rumored that Beethoven, who was deaf, rubbed one end of a long rod into the piano. He put the other end in his mouth and kept it as close to the ear as possible. When playing, the long rod transmitted the sound to the jawbone and the cochlea of the inner ear, so that Beethoven could hear the sound of the piano. This was so important for Beethoven cause he regained his sense of hearing again and he can continue his music composition. This may be the earliest documented application of bone conduction technology.
When the bone conduction headphone works, it converts the sound signal into mechanical vibration by the sound unit and drives the skull to vibrate at the same frequency, allowing the sound to reach the cochlea of the middle ear and inner ear. Finally, we can hear the sound. In the process of sound transmission, they directly bypass the ear canal and eardrum to reach the inner ear, taking a shortcut. Just because it takes a shortcut, it reduces the damage to the ear canal and eardrum, making it the healthiest headphone.
Most of us have been exposed to bone conduction in our daily life. Put your ears close to the ground, and you can hear the footsteps of “tap, tap, tap” through vibration; cover your ears, and you can still hear yourself mumbling, which is a natural phenomenon of bone conduction.
Do bone conduction headphones have health risk?
Some people may worry that bone conduction headphones are harmful to health. This concern is unnecessary, and there is no evidence that this kind of headphones have health risk. We can analyze this problem from several perspectives on the effects of them on the ears, nervous system, bones, and skin.
1. The effect of bone conduction headphones on the ear
They do not need to be tucked into the ear canal when worn, which avoids damage to the ear canal caused by headphone plugging in and out. They also do not need to transmit sound through the ear canal and eardrum, which makes them have no harm to the eardrum. The oscillation of bone conduction headphones is relatively gentle and stable, and will not cause damage to the cochlea.
2. The effect of bone conduction headphones on the nervous system
Any electronic product has electromagnetic waves, and strong electromagnetic waves can damage the auditory nerve and brain nerves. The electromagnetic waves of them are very weak, and the intensity is close to that of the electromagnetic waves present in nature, so they do not harm the auditory nerve and brain nerve.
3. The effect of bone conduction headphones on bones
The sound unit of them vibrates and drives the bone vibrate to achieve sound transmission. Excessive vibration may theoretically lead to bone damage, but this theoretical vibration rarely happens. There are currently no records of bone conduction headphones causing bone damage.
4. The effect of bone conduction headphones on the skin
They are worn against the temple, do not over-squeeze the skin, and therefore does not cause damage to the skin. And many bone conduction headphones are made of skin-friendly materials, and are also more friendly to skin.
Therefore, bone conduction headphones are not harmful to health, but one kind of healthiest headphones. They are safer and more hygienic when used, and are a kind of excellent headphones.
A large number of earphone manufacturers have joined the field of bone conduction headphones. Which one is the best? I will give you some recommendations
1. Wissonly Hi Runner bone conduction headphones
Recommended reason:
Wissonly bone conduction brand insists on technological innovation, its bone vibration technology is relatively leading. The team has 10 years of technical accumulation in the field of bone conduction. So they have mastered the core technology of the field, which is very important for the quality of the product.
Wissonly has exclusive sound leakage reduction technology and bone vibration technology, which are all applied to Wissonly Hi Runner bone conduction headphones. They can effectively reduce the problem of sound leakage by 90%. The latest bone vibration technology improves the overall sound quality performance of the headphones to make sound more spatious sense, and the sound quality characteristics are more prominent.
The overall body of Hi Runner is made of memory titanium that can self-adjust the contact area. So the headphones give people a good wearing experience and more users are taken into account.
As the core component of the product, the headphones chip plays a key role in the experience of the product. Wissonly Hi Runner are equipped with a Bluetooth 5.0 chip for a more stable connection. They also have 32G of built-in memory which is very important to me. I use the headphones completely as an MP3. They can store 5000 songs, which is crazy!
2. Philips A6606 bone conduction headphones
Recommended reason:
Philips A6606 adopts the rear hanging design of titanium alloy frame, which can be stable no matter jumping or running. Its surface is made of soft and skin-friendly silicone material, which makes it comfortable to wear, and the body of it is relatively light, so there is no sense of weight to wear. The biggest feature of A6606 is that its headphones are equipped with LED night lights, which is a thoughtful design for people who like fun runs, and can remind pedestrians, cyclists and drivers behind them to avoid it at night. Very suitable for night running.
3 AfterShokz OPENRUN PRO bone conduction headphones
Recommended reason:
Openrun Pro are ear mounted style headphones. But thanks to the lightweight materials such as titanium alloy used in the basic frame of the headphones, the overall weight of the headphones is only 26g, and there is no feeling of weight when worn. It is worth mentioning that the headphones have an IP67 waterproof and dustproof grade, and that they can be washed and rinsed with water. In addition to benefiting from the plating process on its surface, of course, also because of the overall body design, Openrun Pro have better waterproof characteristics. In addition, they also uses dual silicon microphones. In the right side of the headphones, you can see the microphone cut-out reserved for the microphone. With CVC’s noise reduction algorithm, they can effectively eliminate the impact to calls in complex environments.
4.earsopen SS900 bone conduction headphones
Recommended reason:
This bone conduction headphone adopts the ear-clipping mode, and the novel wearing mode also makes it need to be worn with both hands. Moreover, there will be obvious discomfort of ear-clipping when worn for a long time. In the headphones’ body, the pressure control area is adopted, and the headphones can be controlled by clicking and double-clicking, etc. The single ear part weight of 8g basically has no weight sense during wearing. With the bone conduction vibrator technology newly developed by BoCo Company, it has a good performance in the low frequency range, but it has obvious sound leakage in the middle and high frequencies.
5 Nank Runner CC3 bone conduction headphones
Recommended reason:
Runner CC3 are equipped with the latest Bluetooth 5.3 chip. They can achieve stable connection during exercise, and even when you are running in the mountains with poor signal, there will be no disconnection with them.
They are also equipped with MP3 mode with 4G built-in memory, which helps you to enjoy music when the phone is not with you. The Runner CC3 weight 28g, and is compact and very comfortable to wear.
Now, let’s make an order for the above five bone conduction earphones: Wissonly Hi Runner>Aftershokz OPENRUN PRO>Philips A6606>Earsopen PEACE>Nank Runner CC3 .The performance and product parameters of Wissonly are the best, and it is also the most cost-effective.