Many users find wearing earbuds uncomfortable: their ears hurt or they can’t stand the empty feeling produced by models with ear cushions. If this is your case, you should know that there are alternatives so that you can listen to music personally and without disturbing anyone while you walk down the street, work or travel on public transport.
They are models like the Ultra Open Earbuds, which the audio firm Bose has just presented, and which have what is already known as an open design: they take the headphones out of the ear, placing them like a bracelet around the ear. Bridging distances, as if they were earrings. This has an additional benefit, and that is that while you use them at all times you are aware of what is happening around you, you can have conversations… You don’t even have to worry about raising or lowering the volume depending on the noises, because the headphones adjust it. automatically.
Only you listen to them
The reality is that this type of headphones are still not abundant on the market and most of those that exist are models from unknown brands and with questionable quality and guarantee that are sold in the most popular stores for much lower prices. But the truth is that they are extremely comfortable, to the point of completely forgetting that you are wearing them. In the case of the Bose ones, in addition, the audio quality is spectacular; It would only improve how the interlocutors hear the voice during calls, since they perceive it as somewhat canned. Furthermore, and despite what it may seem at first glance, the sound of music, calls or podcasts goes directly to the ears and the people around you hear absolutely nothing; even if they are centimeters away.
To do this, they use technology very similar to that of their connected glasses, the Bose Frames; a now discontinued product of which both viewing and sun versions were marketed and which directed the sound to the ears from the temples. Currently there are other alternatives to this type of wearablesthe main one being the Smart Glasses from Meta and Ray-Ban which, as a differentiating element, incorporate a 12 megapixel camera and 5 microphones with which to capture photographs, record videos and even broadcast live on Facebook and Instagram.
Returning to open design headphones, the other example that would stand out would be the Huawei FreeClip, with a very peculiar feature: they do not distinguish between left or right ear, so they are completely interchangeable. Once placed, the system detects which earbud is on each side and adapts the sound accordingly.
Through the cheekbone
One more alternative: headphones that use bone conduction technology to carry sound to our ears. Or not exactly. Because, in this case, they are placed on the cheekbones instead of on the ears and generate small vibrations that spread through the skull without passing through the eardrums. At first the sensation of using headphones with this technology like those proposed by Shokz or Suunto is strange, precisely because we are aware that the sound does not goes into through the ears and, although the audio quality is normally lower than open design systems, they are quite comfortable for sports; They are their main application, since most models are resistant to sweat, dust and water, and their design with a band that is placed behind the head makes them quite stable with sudden movements.