Are Bone Conduction Headphones Harmful to Health and Why They Are safe and health?

When some people who love sports are running or cycling outside, you may see that they wear headphones on their ears but not tuck into the ear. In fact, the headphones are probably bone conduction headphones.

Bone conduction headphones are headphones made based on bone conduction technology. The more complete statement of bone conduction technology should be bone conduction sound transmission technology. It directly uses human bones as a sound transmission medium, So sound waves do not need to pass through the external auditory canal and tympanic membrane,But pass directly to the inner ear.

Although bone conduction headphones are becoming more and more popular, some people are still worried that such headphones will harm health.So, what is the fact?

Are bone conduction headphones harmful to health

This concern is unnecessary, and there is no evidence that this kind of headphones are harmful for health. 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.

Why are bone conduction headphones so safe and healthy?This is determined by their working principle.

How do bone conduction headphones work?

To understand how bone conduction headphones work, you need to understand how the ear works.

The ear is divided into the outer ear, middle ear, inner ear, and auditory nerve from front to back. The outer ear is what we call the part of the ear that is visible from the outside. When sound enters the outer ear, it travels directly to the eardrum, and the sound that hits the eardrum vibrates the air in the middle ear like a drum, causing the air to vibrate and travel to the cochlea of the inner ear. Shaped like a snail, the cochlea contains lymph fluid and sound-sensing cells called hair cells. The vibration of the eardrum causes the lymph fluid and hair cells in the cochlea to vibrate. Hair cells convert this vibration into an electrical signal and transmit it to the auditory nerve. The auditory nerve carries the electrical signals received from the hair cells to the brain. The center of the brain processes the electrical signals it receives, resulting in the sounds we hear. This way of transmitting sound is the way of air conduction. Common headphones use air-conduction sound transmission, but the working principle of bone conduction headphones is completely different. It uses bone conduction sound.

We can compare the difference between these two sound transmission methods:

The sound transmission path of air conduction headphones: outer ear → eardrum→ middle ear → inner ear (cochlea) → auditory nerve → brain

The sound transmission path of bone conduction headphones: temporal bone (skull) → inner ear (cochlea) → auditory nerve → brain

Compared with air conduction headphones, the sound transmission path of bone conduction headphones does not have several steps of “outer ear→eardrum→middle ear”. When using them, the sound conduction process is that the sound source vibrates and directly transmits the sound to the inner ear (cochlea) through the skull. This working principle also makes the headphones do not need to be inserted into the ear, which better protects the ear canal and eardrum,and make the headphones safety and healthy.

Such healthy and practical earphones are worth buying. They won’t waste your money. Next, I will recommend several excellent bone conduction headphones.

1. Wissonly Hi Runner bone conduction headphones

Reason for recommendation:

The Wissonly team has always attached great importance to the opinions of customers. It is said that their Hi runner model invited thousands of users to participate in the test, and that they constantly adjusted the design based on customer feedback. It is said that because of this, the product launch time was delayed by 3 months compared to the original plan time. I was so moved by this story that I bought their products.

Wissonly Hi Runner attaches great importance to sound quality. Their sound source adopts a large-sized vibrator, and through the clever structural design, the vibration area is increased by 35%. So the sound range is wider and the sound is more powerful. They have also made a lot of efforts in the treatment of sound leakage. The headphones’ body is sealed and integrated to minimize sound leakage.

Hi Runner are also equipped with a new Bluetooth 5.0 chip. They have stronger anti-interference ability, and can easily cope with various complex outdoor scenes without disconnection. They support IPX8 waterproof grade higher than the industry standard, are equipped with 32G body memory. They have stable connection and low latency performance. In listening to songs, chasing dramas, or playing games, they can meet all daily needs for headphones.

The Wissonly Hi runner weigh less than 30g, have no weight bearing when worn, are very comfortable, and are very suitable for long-term use during sports.

2.Philips A8606 bone conduction headphones

Reason for recommendation:

The most peculiar point of Philips is that it is equipped with LED night running lights at the rear end of the fuselage, and the A8606 is also the same. The back of both sides of the headphones has rain-shaped lights flashing, wearing it at night can make people around you alert to your location. And turning on them during exercise can improve the safety factor, and night travel can also achieve the effect of not being collided. The Bluetooth version of 5.0 can maintain the smoothness of listening to songs at a short distance, and the 13.3mm vibrator makes it have a good performance in sound quality.

3.AfterShokz OPENmove bone conduction headphones

Reason for recommendation:

The surface of the AfterShokz OPENmove bone conduction headphones is made of warm and skin-friendly silicone material, and with open ears wearing style, it is very comfortable. With the help of CVC noise reduction algorithm, its voice is relatively clear in calling, and it is basically not affected by the external ambient sound. It also adopts Bluetooth version 5.0, which has high stability of Bluetooth connection and brings lower power consumption. Openmove specializes in “sports use”, and music quality is not its core, which may be slightly worse.

4.Earsopen peace tw-1 bone conduction headphones

Reason for recommendation:

PEACE TW-1 bone conduction headphones have a small and exquisite appearance. The surface is made of high-grade soft silicone material, and the weight is only 9g. You only need to hang them on the ear like earrings, they are more comfortable to wear and will not cause allergies. At the same time, they also have IP67 waterproof grade, and direct rinsing after exercise is not a problem, but they are not suitable for swimming. The sound quality and anti-sound-leakage performance are not bad, and the daily sports use can be satisfied.

The disadvantage is the clip-on wearing method, and wearing it for a long time may cause discomfort.

5.Nank Runner CC3 bone conduction headphones

Reason for recommendation:

Runner CC2 is an entry-level bone conduction headset, but its overall performance is very good. The headphone body is made of aviation grade material, which has good flexibility and is not easy to be damaged. The weight of the body is only 28g, combined with skin-friendly food-grade silica gel as the surface material, which brings a skin-friendly and comfortable wearing experience. Its waterproof grade reaches IPX6 level, which can meet the basic life-class waterproof.

There are three key points to pay special attention to when choosing bone conduction headphones: sound quality, noise reduction and comfort. At the same time, we should choose brands with good technology accumulation, such as wissonly and Aftershokz. As for how to choose these two brands, we can choose according to our own budget. I chose Wissonly because it is more cost-effective.