Bone Conduction Headphones

Bone Conduction Headphones

Bone conduction headphones send sound through the cheekbones rather than through the ear canal, so the ears stay completely open. That single difference is the whole reason to buy a pair. Running on a road, cycling in traffic or walking a dog on a country lane, you hear the car behind you, the bell, the dog and the conversation, while still hearing music or a podcast clearly. Sealed earbuds cannot do that, and noise cancelling ones actively work against it. It is a safety decision as much as a listening one, and it is also why these suit an office or a house where you need to hear someone call you.

The band sits around the back of the head rather than over the top, which keeps it clear of a cap, a helmet or a hood, and the weight is low enough to forget. Look for an IP rating if the pair will be sweated in or caught in rain, since that is what separates a gym model from a running one. Battery life runs longer than true wireless earbuds because the whole unit shares one battery rather than splitting it between two buds and a case.

Models with built in storage are worth knowing about separately: they hold music files on the headphones themselves and play without a phone, in MP3 mode, which suits swimming, a gym session or a run where you would rather leave the phone behind. Sound is different from a sealed earbud by nature, with less deep bass, and turning the volume up in a quiet room produces a faint tickle on the cheekbones that most people stop noticing within a week.

Shokz supplies the range, covering the OpenRun, OpenRun Pro, OpenRun Sport and OpenMove in a choice of colours. For sealed in-ear models see earbuds, and for the full audio range see headphones and earphones.

These carry premium prices and are bought as gifts for runners and cyclists, so the reductions concentrate in the run up to Christmas and again in the spring when the outdoor training season starts. Black Friday and Cyber Monday bring the deepest audio cuts of the Irish year. Prices are live all year, so see what is reduced now on headphones and earphones on sale, or the Black Friday headphone deals when the November weekend comes round.