I’ve heard of these for a while and general question for you and anyone else who’s looked. What are the red flags? Nothing comes without risks and years of research has shown the hearing damage from traditional headphones. There has to be a rub with these. What are the negative rumblings of using these style of headphones. They have to be there. We just don’t have the decades of research yet.
If I now say that your premise is wrong (headphones don’t cause hearing loss, loud noises do, independent of the source), does that automatically answer your question? 😛
Now to dig a bit deeper into that, there is a lot of research into MIHL from using PLDs, and the key thing is always people turning up the volume higher than they normally would, usually due to the context of where they are. That is, we use our little headphones in noisy environments, and to drown out the noise we turn them up too much and start damaging our ears over time.
In that regard, bone conduction headsets are worse. They are intentionally fully open, and don’t in the slightest bit try to reduce ambient noise. That is, if anything you’d be tempted to crank them up even higher.
I will however say that the models I’ve used all came with an interesting “safety” in this regard that stems from the way they work: At a certain and not that loud noise level, they start vibrating physicially off the skin during playback, in turn plateauing the achievable volume. I suspect however that this level is already beyond healthy.
So, in other words:
If you’re concerned about hearing loss, keep the volume in sane reaches. If you also need to ignore outside noise while listening, this means getting enclosing and/or noise-cancelling headphones, not open ones like bone conducting. However, if keeping the volume low, say during listening at home, bone conduction is no different from other forms of receiving audio, both still stimulate the hearing canal hairs.
Before I got my noise cancelling headphones, I was very aware of the volume that I have set when trying to watch a movie in a plane. After I got the noise cancelling headphones, I no longer have to set it that loud anymore.
That said, some airlines need to relook their volumes of their PA system. Some of them are shockingly louder than necessary. Lol
Yeah, I love my ANC earbuds. In pass-through mode, I can hear ambient sounds almost better than I can without them, especially on a bike where I can tune them to blank wind noise but allow voices and bells. And you’re right about not needing high volume to hear music well. They have great sound quality, and the ANC is indispensible on airplanes.
The downside is cost; GP’s bone-conducting headset is $90, and the other pair they mention is $60. A good pair of ANC earbuds starts around $200, and some of the better pairs are upwards of $300.
Worth the money, IMO, but if $60 is all you can afford, GP’s might be the better bet than super sketchy-quality cheap ANC earbuds.
I’ve heard of these for a while and general question for you and anyone else who’s looked. What are the red flags? Nothing comes without risks and years of research has shown the hearing damage from traditional headphones. There has to be a rub with these. What are the negative rumblings of using these style of headphones. They have to be there. We just don’t have the decades of research yet.
If I now say that your premise is wrong (headphones don’t cause hearing loss, loud noises do, independent of the source), does that automatically answer your question? 😛
Now to dig a bit deeper into that, there is a lot of research into MIHL from using PLDs, and the key thing is always people turning up the volume higher than they normally would, usually due to the context of where they are. That is, we use our little headphones in noisy environments, and to drown out the noise we turn them up too much and start damaging our ears over time.
In that regard, bone conduction headsets are worse. They are intentionally fully open, and don’t in the slightest bit try to reduce ambient noise. That is, if anything you’d be tempted to crank them up even higher.
I will however say that the models I’ve used all came with an interesting “safety” in this regard that stems from the way they work: At a certain and not that loud noise level, they start vibrating physicially off the skin during playback, in turn plateauing the achievable volume. I suspect however that this level is already beyond healthy.
So, in other words:
If you’re concerned about hearing loss, keep the volume in sane reaches. If you also need to ignore outside noise while listening, this means getting enclosing and/or noise-cancelling headphones, not open ones like bone conducting. However, if keeping the volume low, say during listening at home, bone conduction is no different from other forms of receiving audio, both still stimulate the hearing canal hairs.
Agreed 100%.
Before I got my noise cancelling headphones, I was very aware of the volume that I have set when trying to watch a movie in a plane. After I got the noise cancelling headphones, I no longer have to set it that loud anymore.
That said, some airlines need to relook their volumes of their PA system. Some of them are shockingly louder than necessary. Lol
Yeah, I love my ANC earbuds. In pass-through mode, I can hear ambient sounds almost better than I can without them, especially on a bike where I can tune them to blank wind noise but allow voices and bells. And you’re right about not needing high volume to hear music well. They have great sound quality, and the ANC is indispensible on airplanes.
The downside is cost; GP’s bone-conducting headset is $90, and the other pair they mention is $60. A good pair of ANC earbuds starts around $200, and some of the better pairs are upwards of $300.
Worth the money, IMO, but if $60 is all you can afford, GP’s might be the better bet than super sketchy-quality cheap ANC earbuds.