(Sorry if it’s a miss, this community looked the most fitting)
After mentioning them somewhere in comments, I actually bought Shokz after years of sitting curious. There are a few brands that do them, so it doesn’t matter what’s the brand is. I bought what I’ve heard of and the cheapest model I could find at that.
So, what’s the trick? As I’m cycling, walking and running a lot, I needed a headphone solution to be aware of my surroundings. They don’t cover ears and don’t actually emmit sound - they vibrate and make your bones serve as a membrane.
The obvious minus is that in a bus or other loud setting you can’t hear shit. That’s by design. And, logically but somehow absurdly, by shutting your ear with a finger, you can make yourself hear it okay. I did a full circle here, returning to the old headphones isolation problem, heh.
But what impressed me more, they do feel like some kind of a cyberpunk prosthetic. You can wear them all day and even the cheapest one that promises 6hr of activity lasts days on the idle. But as you call someone or watch a vid – here they are, with a little to no latency. Honestly, I feel like if there’d be implants, that’s one of the basic ones we can try first. It’s hands-free device with a bonus of being more stealthy and not isolating you from the world.
As a cheapskate audiophile who stayed with cords for a long time, I can say that the sound is okay. Keeping in mind that producers can’t control the skull of a wearer, they can’t nail the ideal sound, but I’m impressed with how nice IDM and metal plays on them - something akin to budget Senh, AKG and Audiotechnica. And unlike cheap Sony, they don’t put up low freqs, that’s a plus. BUT when I shared it with others, people in body reported less effectiveness due to thickness of skin and under-dermal stuff, so it’s better to test it if you aren’t skinny as a skeleton.
After being so open about plus sides, I’m to talk minuses. Since the software is proprietary, it doesn’t have many controls and is very weird sometimes. As I bought a model that was for internal chinese market originally, it talked to me in Chinese, and it can only be switched to another language before any pairing, so only after unpairing I could’ve chosen English – and the same combination of button presses when paired was reserved to calling the last called number, so I fucked up a lazy weekend morning for a friend of mine calling them 4-5 times, damn it. Ah, and it supports dual pairing with a PC and a smartphone, but as I tested it this function worked weird and I sometimes manually disconnected them. Walking&working distance from a source device is around the second or third room, that fits most office and home listening cases. I could’ve probably wished for it to have an option to pick lesser distance since I don’t usually have even a meter between my smartphones and them.
Ah, and going back to the bus problem - the obvious downside that you want to turn them to 100% volume that you don’t feel, but your ears do. After the first day when I needed to move a lot in loud contexts and thus put them on max, I had a headache, because although I didn’t register the volume, my head had a first row concert experience. So if you use these, keep that in mind too.
Have you tried them, is there a topic I haven’t covered? As you can tell, I’m happy with them, so I would be biased. It’s just with VR stuff, even from Apple, I feel like we underlook existing tech that already serves us as expander of our life experiences and powers.
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Been using these for a while for cycling. I would say that the sound quality is not exactly great and that the pitch will change depending on where exactly they’re sitting. Personally I mostly use them to listen to podcasts so that doesn’t matter much to me. The Shokz design looping around the back of your head can also be awkward if you’re trying to wear them with a winter hat. Overall I recommend them for people who need a open ear solution. They’re also good just for daily life in a city where you want to listen to something while walking around, but want to maintain some level of awareness so you don’t get run over or something. Another good use case could be in an office where you want some awareness if someone walks up and tries to talk to you (I often listen to white noise when I’m trying to focus).
On the other hand if you want something for music or you want something isolating, these aren’t the right product IMO.
For me they only work in relatively quiet environments, or with earplugs. As soon as a car drives by it completely drowns out the sound. With music that might not be an issue, but with podcasts or calls it’s very annoying. I’ve bought earplugs especially for this, as my other earbuds have issues with wind while running, but it does feel like it’s defeating the purpose a bit. I guess turning them all the way up would also work, but that doesn’t feel healthy. Other than that I like them and the mic quality is also good according to people I’ve spoken with over the phone.
Yeah I usually bike in pretty quiet areas, but when I’m next to a road it very much drowns out the sound and I often end up pausing what I’m listening to. I’d say that’s a feature though. I like these a lot for what they are…but I also own good earbuds. I’ve also had people say the mic quality was good (which frankly surprised me).
I like the Bose open ear buds, which is similar insofar as you can still hear everything around you, but it’s not bone conduction. They basically cling to your ear and are just a small driver near your ear canal.
I like the sound and fit better than any bone conduction headphones I’ve tried, but I don’t use these styles for swimming, which is the main advantage of bone conduction. For running, cycling, and just generally walking around in the world the Bose work great. For sitting and sound isolation, I use corded cans.
I also fall asleep with one or both on periodically because they’re so innocuous. I roll like a log in water when I sleep, so they unclip at some point in the night, but they’ve never caused me and discomfort. I forget I’m wearing them most of the time.
Heard a colleague be very positive about his Shokz so I thought I’d get some bone conducting headphones too, got the Phillips ones and I just can’t imagine they are the same quality because I’m not impressed. UX is super bad; buttons are hard to press and cause the contact points to move (which need to be pretty precise for me to be able to hear decently) so ok I just use the Bluetooth volume change. Also the volume of the voice announcer that says “low battery” every 15 seconds when you go below 20% battery is not relative to the devices current volume, so it just absolutely SCREAMS at you while you’re just chilling…. Would not recommend anyone with heart problems.
About the announcements’ volume - Shokz do that too, and it’s frustrating. It’s weird that it’s a thing that needs a small patch, but it’s still a problem for years and even with other brands.
Buttons on Shokz feel nice tho. Weirdly placed on the bottom of the headphone instead of the side of it, but I had no troubles using them.
I use these at work where I have to use ear plugs. I hate in-ear headphones and these work perfect for my niche. Also get 2 workdays worth of battery life from these.
What I find a great bonus is that the mic on them does not pick any of the 80dB+ noise around me when I’m making calls. Also comfortable to the point that I sometimes forget I even wear them.
Also a physical button for pause/play so I don’t have to take off my gloves.
I find the default EQ quite bad with earplugs so I just use the parametric Wavelet EQ SW on my Android phone with quick preset for my other Sony WH1000XM3… Which sounds great on these as well especially for voices/vocals as I tend to listen to audio books.
I’ve tried everything and in the end i always go back to the trucker Bluetooth headset. on one ear, the other ear is open. battery lasts forever. sound is good and the other side hears you good too. doesn’t fall out of your ear. looks weird i guess but i think everyone wearing buds and stuff looks weird too.
I’m partial deaf… These let me hear music in a way I never could. I remember being in a quiet place and listened to an audio sample… Hearing an instrument on my bad side was like listening to it for the first time. Hearing in stereo is just wild when you have only heard in mono your whole life
Microtia? If yes then here is a tiny fistbump.
Yeah. Hearing Piano was really new for me.
Beethoven had the same condition. He had a special bracket mounted to his piano he could bite on, in order to make his skull resonate, hence him being able to hear the music again.
For real? Never heard of that. Super interesting if they did shit like that back then
That’s awesome! I wish I could’ve used this information with my dad, who was partially deaf, to try if it could’ve helped him. Unfortunately he passed away some years ago so we’ll never know. I’ll keep this in mind though, so I can suggest it to others.
It can work when the nerves are intact but the bone in the ear (or another external mechanical part of the ear) is damaged. Won’t work for somebody with deafness due to nerve damage
Haven’t thought about that, wow. I’m happy for you.
but I’m impressed with how nice IDM and metal plays on them
Industrial Doom Metal?
Ire-inducing Depeche Mode?
Irish Derpy Music?
Instructional Defense Material?
Intelligent Dance Music. You know, the tag that got stuck with Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher and others, although they collectively hate it. I love their weird experiments.
Like this one: https://youtu.be/GlhV-OKHecI?si=LM7dA3P0cVrO-k9x But be aware, there’s a lot of bright flashes and both sound and video can cause a headache.
Guess I can’t go wrong with Rory in the early 20s, Igorrr, Shackleton, Moon Wiring Club, Moi, Spresso & Mika Levi and others, using bone conducting headphones…
Thanks for the heads up, i need to buy new headphones soon
O yeah, Igorrr is amazing!
Thanks for reco-s. From your list I only listened to Igorrr. Seems like I’m in for a ride (:
You’re very welcome.
I forgot to add the stuff from the subsist label at bandcamp. All bands really, but Heretic, Morion , Dead Memories, .3hdsafxri and Erias stood out to me. Electronics in all shapes and forms.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/GlhV-OKHecI?si=LM7dA3P0cVrO-k9x
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I tried a cheap pair and my takeaway is that this technology needs a specific amount of contact pressure, and with no mechanism to assure this (do the “name brand” ones have something?) a poor fit means it doesn’t work at all and then if you fiddle with the position you can get something that basically turns your ear canal into a speaker (at least it doesn’t seem like it’s actually going direct, at least for most of the sound).
Also using a headphone amplifier, loudness normalization is an issue especially as certain content clips while some doesn’t. This one probably directly relates to cost.
Recently made a thread asking about these, lots of good info in the comments if anyone’s interested:
Sometimes my office can get loud especially when people have “spirited” conversations. It doesn’t help when I need to be in meetings while others are loud. But, at times, I would need to listen into their chats in case it involves me. This is when I use the Loop earplugs along with the Shokz and it works quite well. I can concentrate on my call or my work but still be able to pay attention to other’s conversations if I need to.
Also how I’m using them on my motorbike under the helmet. Works a treat, can still hear my bike but a lot of the wind noise is goooone.
I listened to them in the store. The sound is far from okay, bad bass, bad treble. It’s like one of those airplane earbuds they give out for free.
I had a Chinese knockoff that I tried as well, it made my ears hurt because when you turn up the sound to where you can hear it, it’s actually too loud and you will be hurting your inner ear
I just got a nice in-ear noise cancelling TWS with noise cancellation and I go to the gym. I listen to nothing when I need to be aware of the surroundings because hearing the outside noise actually reduces how well you can hear your music
I would never use it for music except with no other option, but I find my OpenComm headset seems to be tuned incredibly well for voice. That’s my only use case: online meetings. It’s excellent for that, but I use other sets for anything I intend to enjoy.
That’s not for everyone, and I’m happy you’ve found your way. Thanks for writing that, so people can consider your POV too.
I use these for cycling abs gifted my father in law a pair as he suffers from tinnitus and a few issues hearing
I got them so I could listen to audio books without actually ignoring my kid, who was 3 at the time. Couldn’t not hear her world if she decided to get up to something. 10/10 for that.
I also loved them being hidden under my hair. Its rude to have headphones in a conversation, but this isn’t rude, with them silent I can hear as well as without headphones.
Aa for dual-pairing, I had your same issue with shokz, but I found out it was Windows with the issue. Shokz switches based on who it hears playing audio and Windows likes to keep “playing” audio at 0 volume instead of properly not sending audio. It’s an issue that’s pretty irrelevant for most things, but it means Shokz never feels that there’s only one audio source at a time, after its connected to a windows computer once. They worked fine when I paired them to my android phone and an iPad to test things.
Mileage may vary, but they tickle my ears when playing on high volumes. The sound quality also isn’t great compared to similarly priced in-ears, let alone over-ears.
That said, they’re great to use as a headset for work and videoconferencing and for other situations when you need to be able to hear.
Yeah, they suck compared to mid-range headphones from Senchs and alike, especially if you listen to quality recordings and rips. But for lower quality speach, streaming and youtube they are decent. And, excluding moments of me being at home and enjoying the new recording, they cover most of my daytime.
Yeah, they are a good thing to have around as a secondary for a bunch of situations where you’re multitasking and need awareness but still want to hear an audio feed.
Which if you’re an audiophile with a budget for audio stuff is fine, I like mine, no regrets. But if you’re budget-conscious and just need one set of headphones that will do the job all around this tech is probably not your first choice.
This thread is wild to me as a shokz devotee. I use them for everything, no secondary set of headphones, music sounds good. I don’t care about bass at all, though.
Like I said, I like them, but “I don’t care about bass” is like saying “I like this monitor, I don’t care about the color red, though”.
Yeah, it’s fine and if that’s you I get it… but it’s not a universally accepted take.
But hey, I used them as my main set for calls and podcasts and stuff for a while. They’re fine. I just would get a good all-rounder first.
Plus there’s the literal bone-tickling at high volumes. It’s hard to get lost in the music with no bass AND the constant feeling that somebody is lightly dusting inside your cochlea.
