How Do Bone Conduction Headphones Work?

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What would make your love for jogging better would definitely be music, right?

I can’t lie, there’s nothing better than running in the morning while the cool breeze brushes against your face softly. On top of it, listen to your favorite soundtracks.

However, there’s something that concerns you. Your headphones do a great job isolating the noise outside, and that might put you in some potential accidents.

Fortunately, thanks to modern technology, audio producers have “gifted” us a pair of headphones that are known as Bone Conduction headphones.

How Do Bone Conduction Headphones Work?

Bone Conduction headphones are basically headphones; they transmit music and tones.

What’s the fuss about them if they are just headphones?

They are not your average pair of headphones, they work in a different manner.

A pair of traditional headphones can be placed in, on, or over your ears; they use air to transmit the sound to your eardrum.

Meanwhile, bone conduction headphones are placed at the top side of your cheekbone in order to avoid the eardrum and pass vibrations through your bone directly to the cochlea.

Here’s the heart of the matter, they don’t use air, but your bones instead to transmit the sounds to your ear. Simply put bone conduction headphones bypass your inner ear and the sound waves go directly to the cochlea.

Below you will find a picture that makes it easier to understand.

The Benefits Of Bone Conduction Headphones

Let’s start with the obvious benefit, nothing is being dispatched directly to your eardrum.

I bet, most of us are well aware of how fragile the human eardrum is.

Not only does it saves the ear from being damaged, but they play a huge role in making athletes aware of their surroundings.

With bone conduction headphones, you will be able to accompany your morning run with some nice background music while being conscious of the bizarre traffic that might surround you.

Something worth mentioning is that bone conduction headphones are pro-hygiene. Why is that?

With traditional headphones or specifically with earbuds we gather the bacteria that is found around us and put them directly into our ears. Well, that’s not the case with bone conduction headphones! Since they sit on your jawline there’s no way for the bacteria to get attracted. 

Despite how much I love them, I can’t sugar-coat their sound quality; meaning if you are an Audiophile those are not the headphones that will satisfy you.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that they sound awful, but due to sound going through bone it loses some quality.

There are also some other things that might hold bone conduction from being the ultimate headphones, but I’d avoid listing them all.

Instead, I will direct you to my article, on the disadvantages of bone conduction headphones.

Can Bone Conduction Headphones Be Used as Hearing Aids?

They still remain headphones, but yeah, I would consider them hearing aids for people who suffer from hearing loss.

As I indicated earlier, bone conduction headphones work in a way that doesn’t transmit the sound directly to your inner ear.

So, with that said, we can pretty much understand that our ear canals will be safe from loud volumes, which will help even more with hearing loss, or at the very least reduce it.

Yeah, don’t expect audiophile tier sound quality, but at least you get to hear music without hurting your middle ear, which later results in hearing damage.

If you have hearing problems, make sure to avoid anything that transmits sound directly to your inner ear or ear canal.

Final Touch

Something interesting regarding bone conduction technology would be their inventor, which was the famous composer, Ludwig van Beethoven.

No, he didn’t wear bone conduction headphones, instead, he used a different method.

After he went deaf, he had to find a way to listen to his piano, which was none other than the bone conduction method.

He attached a rod to his piano and clenched it with his teeth, so the rod can forward the sound to his bones and afterward to the ear cochlea.

This is it, hopefully, you got a good idea of how this type of headphones works. If you want to buy a pair of them, there aren’t many offering on the market sadly, but there is one manufacturer that offers one of the best bone conduction headphones, and that’s none other than the Shokz.

So yeah, don’t miss the opportunity to get a pair of bone conducting headphones.

Further Reading

If you guys liked what you read this far, you know that I wouldn’t like to conclude my article like that besides mentioning something else. 

I will move the topic completely somewhere else, as I will mention microphones! Check out the best gooseneck microphones or Fifine microphones if you need the greatest ones. Or, if you are a fan of Shure, you can find Shure SM7B microphones compared to HyperX QuadCast, Elgato Wave 3, and also Audio Technica AT4040

Whether you’re looking for information on audio equipment, looking to learn more about how things work in the music field, or looking for reviews of products, we got you covered!

 
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