How Bone Conduction Headphones Work

If you’ve ever seen a pair of AfterShokz, then you know we’re a little bit different. 

Since 2011, we’ve been changing the way you experience audio. Our headphones don’t sit inside your ears. They don’t sit over your ears. They don’t even play music the same way your other headphones do. AfterShokz headphones use bone conduction technology, leaving your eardrums open to your environment. You might say our headphones are in a league of their own.

What Is Bone Conduction, Anyway?

Traditional headphones send sound through your eardrums. Bone conduction headphones send sound through the bones of your skull. Instead of speakers, AfterShokz headphones have transducers that send vibrations through your cheekbones to your cochleas, so your eardrums are free to take in your surroundings.

Hearing Through Bones? Seems Pretty Weird…

It does seem pretty weird, but it’s something we do all the time. When we hear ourselves talking, laughing, or coughing, we’re hearing through a combination of air conduction (through our eardrums) and bone conduction (through our bones). This is why our voices sound so strange to us when we hear them on a recording. We don’t typically hear our voices solely through air conduction.

What Does Hearing Through Bone Conduction Feel Like?

We’re going to give it to you straight.

The first time you hear through bone conduction headphones, it’s going to blow your mind, and it’s going to freak you out. How can you be listening to Lorde’s latest album and the crunch of wet gravel beneath your feet? How can you be enjoying your favorite podcast while still hearing city traffic whizz on by?

Our customers have described this feeling as everything from having a superpower, to feeling like a movie character with their own theme music. Having music playing in your inner ears while leaving your eardrums open to your surroundings is a sensation we do our best to describe, but is one you really have to experience for yourself to truly “get.”

The vibrations? Sure, you might feel a little tickle at higher volumes, but it’s something that tends to go unnoticed by the second or third wear.

Why Go With Bone Conduction?

There are plenty of reasons why you might want to ditch your buds for a pair of bone conduction headphones. Maybe your earbuds are uncomfortable. Maybe you’re sick of them falling out the moment you step on the treadmill or work up a good sweat.

At AfterShokz, we believe a good workout is a safe workout. With bone conduction, you’re free to enjoy your music while keeping your ears open to anything, from the pleasant sounds of nature to potential dangers and risks.

Come On….Are Your Headphones Really Bone Conduction?

Bit of a skeptic, huh? It’s cool. We get it. It seems that every week someone suggests our headphones are nothing more than little speakers. That’s when we pull out our favorite party trick. Try listening to our headphones with your ears plugged. The strength and clarity of the sound you experience will eliminate any doubts.

Not into party tricks? Then take the word of countless hearing-impaired customers who are able to listen to their music in stereo for the first time in decades. Take the word of our customers who were born with microtia and are now able to enjoy music fully and comfortably.